‘Our civilizations stem from the Indus Valley, evolving through Mughal, Islamic, Indian, and British influences,’ said Ranil Wickremesinghe.
New Delhi: Former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday said that India has reached its takeoff point, predicting that the country will emerge as one of the three global superpowers by 2050, alongside the United States and China. Speaking at the NXT 2025 Conclave in New Delhi, Wickremesinghe reflected on his six-decade relationship with India and urged the region to shed externally imposed identities and define its own future.
“I have been coming to India since 1963. It’s now that you have to see it. India has reached the take-off point to become an economic superpower,” Wickremesinghe said, calling India’s rise the engine that could pull all of South Asia into a new era of shared prosperity.
He stated that India’s GDP, currently around $3.5 trillion, would rise to $30 trillion by 2050—a nine-fold increase. This extraordinary growth, he said, would reshape the entire regional economy, creating new opportunities for Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and beyond through the development of supply chains, manufacturing clusters, and integrated economic corridors.
However, for South Asia to benefit from India’s rise, Wickremesinghe emphasized that the region must first rethink its own identity—starting with the very term “South Asia.”
“The terminology is not ours. It comes from the West. You do not come across this term in any of the South Asian languages, nor in any Indian language. It was in 1949 that the U.S. Security and Defense Establishment, through one of its subcommittees, decided to call our area South Asia. We simply adopted it,” he said.
“Unlike ASEAN, which built its own successful integration and became part of the Asia-Pacific, South Asia has made very slow progress. Our heads of government haven’t met since 2014. Yet, we are bound by strong commonalities—languages, culture, and civilizational ties,” he added.
Wickremesinghe painted a vision for a Greater South Asia, extending far beyond the current SAARC boundaries. This expanded region, he said, must include not just the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Indian Peninsula but also the Himalayas, Afghanistan, and the Indian Ocean islands, connecting eastward to Southeast Asia and westward into the Arabian Sea and the Mediterranean.
“Our civilizations emanate from the Indus Valley and the Gangetic Plains, evolving through the Mughal period and influenced by Islamic, Indian, and British legal and political traditions,” he said.
Pointing to ancient trade and cultural networks, Wickremesinghe reminded the audience that long before formal free trade agreements existed, the region was connected by merchant routes, religious exchanges, and shared customs. “In medieval times, Indian and Sri Lankan merchants established regional trading systems, particularly in rice. Some of these old trading houses still exist today,” he said.
Cultural integration, he argued, is already deeper than most realize. “The Theravada Buddhism of Sri Lanka spread to Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. When the Buddhist priesthood in Sri Lanka died out, monks from Siam came to restore it. Even today, the Sangha in these countries regularly interact,” Wickremesinghe said.
He offered striking examples: Thai language draws heavily from Sanskrit, Thailand’s ploughing ceremony resembles Indian traditions, and Brahmins conduct water ceremonies during important rituals. “The Ramayana is part of Indonesian culture. The national anthems of both India and Bangladesh are penned by Rabindranath Tagore. These layers of shared culture—from religion to art to language—bind us far more deeply than any treaty ever could,” he said.
Wickremesinghe also highlighted the economic opportunity presented by India’s rise, predicting that South India alone would become a $6 trillion economy by 2050. This growth, he said, would naturally create corridors linking Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Southeast Asia into an Indian-centric supply chain, even as ASEAN countries balance their economic dependence between India and China.
He noted that China’s trade with ASEAN would triple, but India’s trade could grow nine-fold—potentially bringing ASEAN closer to India than China over time. At the same time, he urged a regional shift away from protectionism, warning that “the vestiges of Nehruvian socialism” still linger across South Asia’s trade policies.
Ultimately, Wickremesinghe said, the region must decide whether to let others define it or write its own future. “By 2050, there will be only three global powers: the United States, China, and India. This is the reality. We must shape our regional constructs using our own criteria, not others’. It’s time to think anew,” he concluded.