India - regional bully or friend?
BBC NEWS | South Asia | India - regional bully or friend?
To many in the rest of the world India is an emerging economic success story and a working secular democracy.
But ask people in its neighbouring countries for their views and you may well get a much more hostile response.
Culturally, India and its neighbours are more similar than dissimilar. It's hard to tell an Indian from a Pakistani, a Nepali, a Bangladeshi, or a Sri Lankan.
The food is similar, the music comes from the same scales, in films they have the same tastes. They even share holy places.
Many in Pakistan thought that Indian help during the October 2005 earthquake was a gesture of friendship. Others saw it as a ploy to gather intelligence over Kashmir.
To some India was capable of providing the solution to last year's political crisis in Nepal. Others say India was the problem, interfering where it was not wanted.
India played an active role in the birth of Bangladesh. Today Bangladesh refuses to sell gas to India.
Back in the 1980s, the Indian army became involved in peace-keeping efforts in Sri Lanka which went badly wrong.
Should India's neighbours still view it as a threat? Is Indian industry a big shark waiting to chew up the smaller fishes?
As part of the BBC's India Rising week, the BBC Hindi Service is hosting a regional debate Indian television's NDTV channel in both English and Hindi.
"India - Brother or Bully?" is the theme.
An audience comprising diplomats, politicians, artists, industrialists and students in Islamabad, Dhaka, Kathmandu and Colombo will join a panel in Delhi through satellite video-link.
The Indian panel will feature former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha and vice-chairman of telecom giant Bharti Enterprises Rakesh Mittal.
The radio broadcast will be on 11 February. It will be televised on 17 and 18 February. You can participate by sending in your questions or views for the panellists by 8 of February.
Use the form at the top right-hand side of this page. Below are a selection of comments sent so far.