Indian diplomacy: What happens when regional cooperation devolves into 'subcontinental zamindari'?

Bangladesh is fresh from co-hosting a major regional conference related to the Indian Ocean region - in which India has for several years attempted to stress both etymology and policy. The originators of the conference, held over May 12 to 13 in Dhaka, is the India Foundation, a think-tank transparently close to that country's current establishment. This was the sixth iteration in the Foundation's Indian Ocean Conference series that has earlier travelled to Singapore, Colombo, Hanoi, Male, and Abu Dhabi. As with these earlier conferences, India's foreign ministry was the prime sponsor. Top officials at India Foundation have deep links…