India, being a major country in South Asia wants to play a dominant role in the region by negating fair play and justice and adopting the theory of realism, that is to seek power and exert that power to influence smaller countries of the region to comply. This strategy of India is counter to peace making in the region by resolving the contentious issues through dialogue and focusing on the economic development through economic integration, to address poverty in the region. India has issues with all South Asian countries, but instead of resolving those disputes it relegates those by exerting direct and indirect diplomatic, economic and military influence/pressure. For instance, India keeps Nepal under political and economic pressure to constrain it from expanding its relations with China. Whenever Nepal tries to get closer to China, India places trade embargoes on that country being a landlocked state as Nepal’s feasible trade route passes through India. Hence, through economic coercion India disturbs Nepal’s sovereignty, such as India placed trade embargoes on Nepal in 1969, 1989 and 2015 for various reasons and in different ways. While Bhutan’s foreign policy is controlled by India, it is lingering on to resolve the Teesta River Water Sharing dispute with Bangladesh. India also keeps Sri Lanka under diplomatic pressure to constrain it from developing closer relations with any of the major world powers, especially China. Same is the case with the Maldives, as India keeps its foreign relations under watch to not allow it to build closer relations with China or other major powers. With Pakistan, India has a number of issues, but the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is the major one. Whereas Pakistan wants to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute through a dialogue based on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions of 1948/49, India has rejected these resolutions by declaring Jammu and Kashmir as its integral part. In this context, India is also suppressing the freedom struggle of the people of Jammu and Kashmir by the use of force by deploying more than 700,000 security troops with impunity, which is committing rampant atrocities on the people of Jammu and Kashmir, as also endorsed by a recent report (2018) released by the UN Secretary General. The fact remains that the people of Jammu and Kashmir have launched a legitimate peaceful struggle to ask for their right of self determination through a plebiscite as allowed to them vide the earlier mentioned UNSC resolutions. Hence, because of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, Pakistan-India relations remain tense and they have fought three wars over the disputed territory since 1947. The issue is lingering on because of India’s denial of the UNSC resolutions. This is being done by a country which claims to be the biggest democracy in the world and is aspiring to become a permanent member of the UNSC. In fact, a country that does not obey UNSC resolutions does not deserve to become a permanent member of the UNSC. Whereas Pakistan wants to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute through a dialogue based on the UNSC resolutions of 1948/49, India has rejected these resolutions by declaring Jammu and Kashmir as its integral part Since Pakistan is a party to the dispute and extends political, diplomatic and moral support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for their freedom struggle, India tries to negatively impact Pakistan’s image by blaming it for supporting the freedom struggle of the people of Jammu and Kashmir by terming it as terrorism. In this context, while India threatens Pakistan of taking military action, it also exerts economic pressure on Pakistan through trade restrictions and by not providing transit facilities to Nepal, and Bangladesh to trade with Pakistan. India is also opposing the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and discouraging other South Asian states from joining it. India has problem free relations only with Afghanistan because it does not have common borders with it where as all other South Asian countries have either common borders or maritime boundary with India. But, India is using its good economic and political relations with the Afghan Government to sponsor terrorism in Pakistan by using Afghan soil. Moreover, whereas all major powers and regional countries are in favour of the ongoing US-Taliban peace talks with the Taliban being facilitated by Pakistan, India is tacitly trying to derail the talks by misleading the Afghan Government and also by creating military tensions with Pakistan. In view of the above discussion, it is easier to understand and conclude that being a major country in South Asia with its claims of being a major democracy, instead of resolving disputes with other South Asian countries through dialogue to make peace and facilitate all South Asian neighbours to concentrate on their economic development, India is behaving as a hegemonic state to grab everything through power politics, thus disturbing the South Asian peace and impeding the economic development of the region by denying mutual economic integration. The writer is an ex-Army Colonel, a former Research Fellow of Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), Islamabad and Senior Research Fellow, Strategic Vision Institute, Islamabad Published in Daily Times, March 25th 2019.