INDIAN NAVAL BUILD UP: JUSTIFICATIONS, MISSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

This article provides a detailed analysis of the significant naval build-up undertaken by India in the 1980s and early 1990s. It examines the official justifications for this expansion, which centered on the need to protect India's long coastline, offshore assets, and sea lines of communication. The study then goes beyond these declared rationales to analyze the broader strategic missions of the expanding Indian Navy, including its development of a blue-water capability and its ambition to play a dominant role in the Indian Ocean. The research assesses the implications of this naval build-up for the regional security environment. It explores the concerns raised by India's smaller neighbors and by other powers with interests in the Indian Ocean about the potential for Indian hegemony. The paper concludes that the naval expansion was a key component of India's emergence as a major regional power, but one that also created new security dilemmas and challenges for regional stability.

The rapid modernization and expansion of the Indian Navy during the 1980s and early 1990s was a development of major strategic significance for the entire Indian Ocean region. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of this naval build-up. The study begins by outlining the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the expansion, detailing the acquisition of major new platforms such as aircraft carriers, nuclear-powered submarines, and modern destroyers and frigates. The core of the paper is an examination of the motivations and missions behind this expansion. It analyzes the official justifications, such as the need to defend India's vast Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). However, the paper argues that the build-up was driven by a more ambitious strategic vision: to establish India as the pre-eminent naval power in the Indian Ocean and to develop the capability to project power far beyond its shores. The final section of the paper is dedicated to assessing the regional implications of this new naval power. It explores the security perceptions of Pakistan, which saw the build-up as a direct threat that further skewed the conventional military balance. It also examines the more nuanced concerns of other littoral states, who were wary of India's potential to establish a regional hegemony. The findings suggest that while the naval build-up was a logical manifestation of India's growing economic and political stature, it also presented a significant challenge for regional diplomacy, requiring India to balance its power projection with reassurance to its neighbors.