A long view of the South Asian Drama

Why in News?

• South Asian nations are going through an unprecedented crisis. Every country is facing a unique challenge and undergoing some sort of uncertainty. Primarily, these problems are political and economic, and owing to this there are also security threats.

 

What is transpiring in the South Asian region?

• Except for India, every country in the region is facing hardships either due to bad policies or shoddy politics. 
• Pakistan is standing on the verge of implosion economically and internal conflicts between political rivals.
• There have been back-to-back elections, and floor tests in Nepal, and as a result, there have been frequently hung Parliaments.
•  In Bangladesh, the opposition is planning country-wide agitation, and in Maldives, one election has the potential to take the country into authoritarianism.
•  Sri Lanka is slowly coming out of an unprecedented economic meltdown with the help of India and the IMF bailout package.

 

Where does India stand amidst these uncertainties?

• India is also preparing to go into General Elections in 2024 and it will be watched keenly by the world. But at the moment India stands firm in the face of this turbulence.
•  India has the advantage of stable politics on central and as well as state levels. Moreover, India doesn't face any serious threats on the economic front.
•  In 1987, "India's Relations with her neighbours", a paper authored by Mr. K. Subrahmanyam, a stalwart of India's strategic affairs community, highlighted India's strategic position in this region and raised very important questions as to whether a long view can offer any lessons.
•  The paper was presented at a seminar and published by Strategic Analysis, the flagship journal of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA).

The components of paper

The paper highlighted three points:

1. Unique Indic Values
2. India as a unity
3. Keys to co-existence

 

Unique Indic Values

• Although the South Asian region is divided into many countries, there are common religions, languages, and traditions.
•  In today's context, three countries constitute a major part of South Asia; India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Yet the values that are prevalent in Pakistan and Bangladesh are in total contrast to that of India.
•  The essential values that were documented in the form of our constitution have always been an integral part of the Indic culture. Secularism, democracy, and equality to name a few.
•  Whereas democratic principles emerged only in the 19th century in Western countries.
•  Among some key developments, some are local government, free press, and the secular outlook of the nation.
•  Also, the stability of political discourse that leads to economic prosperity is underpinned by the apolitical nature of the Indian armed forces.

 

India as a unity

• The notion that the British brought the whole country under a single administrative structure questioned India's integrity and unity. And it was supported and aided by some of our neighbours and Western scholarship.
• On the contrary, outside of India there's always been widespread recognition of India and Hindustan as in terms of culture, civilisation and administrative structure.
•  The entity "Aah Sethu Himachalam"(Kanyakumari to Himachal) or the concept in people's minds "Serva Bhauma"(Lord of the earth) who performed Ashwamedha, the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata also are grand living assertions of India's existence which certainly predates the thought process of western scholarship.
•  Other than that, Ashoka's edicts, the walk of Adi Sankara from Kerala to Kashmir, and his mutts tell the tale of several millennia-old India.
• This is the fundamental difference between India and the other two states Pakistan and Bangladesh. They have gone astray from their culture of the land and have adopted something which was always alien to the Indian subcontinent.

Keys to co-existence

• The paper is old but relevant. And it highlights that India should focus on growing its economy and technology.
• India should develop its military power in order to shield itself from the turbulence around it and be ready to respond to the pressures of this age of coercive diplomacy.
• Also, India should place less emphasis on its South Asian neighbours and focus more on its relations with China, the U.S.S.R (now Russia), the United States, the industrialised world, South East Asia, West Asia and Africa.
• India’s neighbours, especially Pakistan, want it to play a very low-key role in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). India should do exactly that and exercise extreme patience till such time as its neighbours realise how much it can help them in their nation-building and development.

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Q1) When was SAARC established?

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established with the signing of the SAARC Charter in Dhaka on 8 December 1985. SAARC comprises eight Member States: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Secretariat of the Association was set up in Kathmandu on 17 January 1987.

 

Q2) What is the mission of MP-IDSA?

The Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), is a non-partisan, autonomous body dedicated to objective research and policy relevant studies on all aspects of defence, security and international relations.

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Source: The Hindu