Dr Raja Muhammad Khan
South Asia is separated from the rest of Asia by mountains and forms a distinct landmass. It is touched by three bodies of water – the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal. It has world’s tallest mountains and three major river systems; Brahmaputra, Indus, and Ganges, providing alluvial soil, drinking water, transportation, and hydroelectric power. Geographically, the region comprises seven states; India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives. However, owing to its membership of SAARC in 2005, Afghanistan is also forming part of South Asia. India is the only country, which has common land or maritime borders with other regional states, except Afghanistan. South Asia alone houses nearly 23% of the world’s population. Geographically the region shares its border with the Middle, Central Asia, East Asia (China) and Southeast Asia (ASEAN). On the political front, South Asia is the land of great ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic diversity. Political development of South Asian countries are a changing combination of authoritarian and democratic components of polity in transition after Independence. Their combination varies from country to country and changes in the course of socio-economic development that gradually leads to the reduction of authoritarian component and to the growth and entrenchment of the democratic one. In the post-colonial history, there has been a weakening of social and political cohesion and the societies are progressively moving towards a violent socio-political order. The relationship between the State and civil society is exemplified by violence, exhibiting a lack of faith in the normative mode of political bargaining. Increasingly, ethnic groups and social classes are negotiating with the State in the idiom of violence as a means of articulating their demands. The rise of these phenomena is largely an outcome of the socio-political and economic processes.The geo-strategic location of South Asia has always been of great significance for the world’s major powers. This factor was more pronounced during the period of Cold war, where despite its mantra of neutrality, India has acted as a strong partner of Communist Russia, but extracted military and economic benefits from East and West alike. Pakistan, however, was forced to take shelter under the umbrella of West for obvious reasons of its survival (security), which later on proved as a gorgeous trap. However, the end of the Cold War and incident of 9/11 has significantly changed many traditional concepts linked with the regional politics and global interests. Amongst them security has been the most debated one. In the context of security, former US President Mr. Bill Clinton has rightly described the region, as “the most dangerous place on earth”. In this respect, the regional actors of South Asia, urgently needs to overcome the bitter legacies of the past in order to create an enabling environment for peace and security, which is critical to unleash the synergies necessary for economic progress.The twin phenomena of strategic peril and economic promise pose a daunting challenge, which must be met for South Asia to be in harmony with the great global transformation of our times. There can be little doubt about the economic and trade benefits that would accrue to the global economy from a peaceful and stable South Asia, as indeed a promising peace dividend for the people of the region. Since the nuclear tests by India and then Pakistan in May1998, the focus on this region has been almost exclusively on the nuclear dimension of the confrontation between the two states. In reality, security in South Asia is challenged by interplay of several factors operating at three different levels: domestic, regional and global. There is, in fact, a symbiotic relationship between these factors and regional security.Domestically, even after 64 years of independence, the nations of South Asia remain mired in a vicious cycle of poverty, deprivation, and underdevelopment. South Asian countries are at the very bottom of the world league in social and human development indicators. Economic deprivation, illiteracy, and unemployment provide a fertile ground for intolerance and extremism, which in turn promotes conflict and violence within our societies. The region has been racked by intolerance of virtually every kind; ethnic, communal, religious, and sectarian. Consequently, tensions abound within and between the peoples and frequently reinforce tensions between countries. As a result, the inherited legacy of conflict persists, constraining each government’s ability to fulfil the social contract with its people. At the regional level, the pursuit of domination by one state (India) over its neighbours is the main cause of insecurity and instability of South Asia. Certainly, attempts of regional domination leads towards a highly dangerous situation. The pursuit of Indian domination underscores the second asymmetry in South Asia. Its nuclear explosions in May 1998 were primarily status-driven. An ambitious Indian nuclear programme, coupled with augmentation and an upgrade of its conventional capability, evokes concern and negative reactions throughout the region.For many years, India has been sponsoring LTTE in Sri Lanka and Nepali insurgency too. It has overshadowed the domestic policies of Nepal throughout in its history. Bhutan and Maldives are constantly dictated by Indian intelligence setup. India has been maltreating Bangladesh over border issues and has frequently stopped its share of Ganges water as an upper riparian country. Besides, since 1947, Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan is the major instability factor in South Asia. Repression in Indian Occupied Kashmir continues to provoke violence and retribution, but India is not willing to give Kashmiris their right of self-determination, as recognised in the UN resolutions. The legitimate Kashmiri struggle cannot be equated with terrorism. Over the years, India is manipulating the water of Pakistani rivers with the sole purpose of converting it into a desert. Although, in military terms, there has been no comparison between Pakistan and India, yet, the acquisition of nuclear capability by both countries has lessened the chances of an all out war in the region. From the beginning, Pakistan has sought to build up its military strength as the main basis for its survival and security against its larger neighbour. Being 1/8th the size of India, Pakistan has obviously been at a great disadvantage in its bid to keep up with India. Thus, Pakistan has been obliged to spend much more, on a per capita basis, to build its armed strength than would have been warranted by a purely defensive strategy. In its entire history, Pakistan’s political upheaval has been directly or indirectly affected by the conflict with India. At the global level, there has developed a nexus between India, Israel and United States. The nexus aims at global domination of United States, where India is acting as one of its partners. Indo-US nuclear deal and defence and strategic alliance over the last few years has created many implications for Pakistan and other regional countries. China, Russia and Iran are other sufferers of this unnatural relationship. Besides huge economic investment, US has decided to provide latest weapons and equipment, including supersonic aircraft, to Indian military apparently to contain the growing power of China, but, physically seriously threatening the security of Pakistan. The Indo-US nuclear deal has indeed, provided flexibility to India to divert a major portion of its nuclear capabilities for the production of nuclear weapons, thus further destabilizing the region. Otherwise, there is a sharp contrast in the conventional military strength of Pakistan and India. Its defence budget is among the top 10 countries of the world. Compared to $5.75 billion Pakistani defence budget, according to SIPRI, the military expenditures of India are $41.3 billion for the current fiscal year. India’s growing involvement in Afghanistan is yet another concern both at regional and global level. The US is acting as a guarantor for a detrimental role of India in the future set up of Afghanistan. In this regard, Indian role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan is projected more than its true volume. Indeed, US is preparing India as its successor state in Afghanistan, in case it lessens its presence by 2014, under the strong US public pressure. With each passing day, there is an increase in the Indian role in Afghanistan. For countries like Pakistan, this growing Indian influence in Afghanistan is enhancing its security concerns. Already Indian intelligence set up has created internal instability in FATA and Balochistan. The active Indian presence in Afghanistan is pushing Pakistan for a two front war, besides abound the asymmetrical threat perception. Indeed, the Indo-US nexus has seriously threatened the South Asian security and stability. Pakistan is the only regional country, which resist the Indian regional domination, thus facing threats to its security and domestic stability. For the strategic stability of the region, it is mandatory that, US should stop sponsoring India in South Asia. Owing to the Indo-US strategic alliance, today, South Asian countries are much more insecure than these were a few years before. There exists considerable mutual suspicion among South Asian countries, especially with respect to Indian military build-up and defence expenditures. Hence, it is felt that, US should adopt an evenhanded policy towards all regional countries, rather supporting the Indian cause. Traditionally, Pakistan is more vulnerable to the Indian aggression, being the only hurdle to Indian hegemonic designs in South Asia, thus has to spend more for its security, while compromising other sectors. In order to create stability and economic prosperity in South Asia, India must give up its hegemonic designs and cooperate with other regional countries. This step would lead towards a regional integration on the line of European Union and ASEAN, which would be a win-win situation for all. drmk_edu@yahoo.com
