Preface

It is hard for a resident of the subcontinent to overestimate the significance of the Bay of Bengal.
Throughout history it has been the cradle of civilisations and cultures that traded, travelled,
and exchanged goods, ideas, and people. These exchanges were so intimate that we see the
results even today. There is no land border in the littoral that does not have trans-border ethnicities
and communities, which is not porous, and which is not criss-crossed by traditional trading and
migration routes. The Bay itself, with its seasonal monsoon winds, provided a cheap and predictable
medium for transport, and enabled the development of deep-water sailing long before it came to
most other oceans.

Then why is this one of the least integrated sub-regions of the world today in terms of formal trade
and investment within itself and with the rest of the world?

Part of the answer lies in the modern attempt to create nation-states in the plural and open
geography of maritime southern Asia. Intrinsic to the modern nation-state has been the creation of
hard borders and unitary loyalties, with contested citizenship and imagined identities cutting across
the patterns of history and geography. It has taken technology and globalisation, and the growth
of trans-boundary value and supply chains to bring attention back to the benefits to our people of
connectivity and cooperation across the Bay of Bengal region.

The tension, however, remains between the economic and welfare logic of connectivity and the
contradictory pulls of political nationalism and identity politics, as is evident from the Rohingya
refugee crisis. Reading this volume suggests that one possible way to deal with the tension between
the demands of domestic politics in some littoral states and the economic logic presented here
might be to take discrete steps among those who are willing and able to provide public goods such
as maritime security, and in other aspects of managing and securing the commons. That is probably
a work for the future.

For the present we have here a volume that makes the argument, based on solid academic scholarship, for the feasibility of connectivity within the Bay of Bengal region and between the region and the rest of the world. The arguments marshalled here make clear the benefits and positive outcomes that could be expected from a push to renew and build connectivity in the Bay of Bengal region. The editors and authors are to be congratulated for this academically rigorous and timely reminder of the opportunities that exist for us to enhance the welfare of our peoples around the Bay of Bengal through connectivity and cooperation.