The Indian School of Decolonisation: The subaltern in the Greater Mekong Subregion from 1992 to 2022

Abstract

This article examines how international cooperation among the riverine nation-states of the Mekong primarily benefits political elites while marginalising the voices of subaltern groups. The study focuses on China, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, where a colonial legacy of spatial and temporal interpretation—favoured by elites—remains predominant. Despite some states, such as People’s Republic of China and Thailand, claiming to have avoided formal colonisation, they nonetheless adopted Western forms of government. Using the theoretical framework of the Indian School of Decolonisation, which emerged during India’s struggle for independence and emphasises non-Western knowledge systems, this article highlights the importance of amplifying subaltern voices. Currently, scholarship and international politics in the Mekong Subregion are dominated by Western perspectives, leaving the local, non-elite peoples underrepresented. This study employs discourse analysis to examine fourteen international frameworks and regional initiatives established between 1992 and 2022 in the Mekong Subregion. The findings reveal that these initiatives and frameworks, shaped by elite and Western-centric interpretations of space, time, and peoples’ status, largely benefit the political elites, while the subaltern peoples remain marginalised and their concerns unaddressed. This article calls for greater recognition of the subalterns in the Mekong Subregion, advocating for their inclusion in international mechanisms and the promotion of their voices in regional initiatives.