SOUTH ASIAN

POLITICS
INTRODUCTION
This lecture will give an overview of the domestic context of India and its
neighbours. This will contextualise the role of the colonial experience and how these
countries managed to chart out ‘independent’ foreign policies during the Cold War
and after the end of the Cold War.
OUTLINE
Defining South Asia – geography, history, democratic culture?
India at the ‘centre’
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Maldives
Nepal
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
DEFINING SOUTH ASIA
Geography
History
Democratic Culture?
DEMOCRATIC CULTURE?
STATE OF DEMOCRACY IN
SOUTH ASIA - 2008
Aspiration for democracy India does not fit the trend of global democratic triumph; democracy
has neither been fully consolidated, nor have the economic conditions that are expected to give
solid foundations to democracy being achieved. Nevertheless, democracy has widespread support:
92% of the citizens of India consider that democracy is suitable for their country. The data also
indicates that India, along with Sri Lanka, show the strongest levels of support for democracy in
South Asia. However, there is a favourable view of strong personal leadership and rule by experts.
Meanings of Democracy The study found that there is no single South Asian meaning of
democracy. Each country, region and group shares a different conception of what democracy
means, determined by their own culture, their colonial and/or national histories and present day
politics. The survey also indicates that only 46% of the respondents in India are able to offer some
meaning of their own for the word “democracy”. The assessment team considers that this is due to
socio-economic factors and the individual levels of social articulation, and is directly related to the
degree of formal education and media exposure. Gender (in)equality reinforces such tendencies.
From Promise to Design In India, the constitution includes special provisions to
protect and safeguard religious minorities and ensures civilian control of the armed
forces. However, enforcement is not at all secured; “emergency” provisions based on
the ideas of order and consolidation of the state apparatus impairs the enforcement of
rights. In addition, despite its federal system, centralization has been the main
tendency in India. The national legislature in India enjoys wide powers, and
provincial autonomy is one of the most persistent demands. These demands have
been met with regionalization policies such as a uniform rural government system,
Panchayati Raj and an urban government system.
Institutions and People More people tend to have confidence in institutions than
those who distrust them. In general, however, non-elected institutions that do not
seek renewed mandates seem to be trusted more. In this sense, the armed forces
enjoy very high levels of trust in India; almost 90% of the surveyed population
expressed that they trusted the army while almost 60% articulated that they trust the
civil service. The lower number for the latter is attributed to its more frequent
interaction with the population. The researchers consider that one of the main
reasons for the low levels of trust in parties and parliaments could be that they are
not representative.
Dealing with Diversity While different religious communities and faiths have lived together
for a long time in the region, South Asia also has a history of contest and conflict for
political power between these communities. Despite India being a country with low levels of
majoritarianism that emphasizes “unity in diversity”, built-up pressure between these
communities has been handled in a framework of non-negotiable supremacy of the nation-
state and the country has experienced both regional and ethnic tensions. However, when it
comes to successful democratic accommodation of minority needs and demands, India
comes out as a champion in this respect thanks to linguistic policies, constitutional
provisions and affirmative action policies for castes, tribes and other socially and
educationally backward classes.
Party Political Competition Political parties are the principal force around which public
debate is organized. Parties initially took shape as movements and vehicles for mass
mobilization, articulating democratic aspirations of the people and shaping nationalist
consciousness. Afterwards, ethnic and regional pulls have resulted in the formation of new
parties. The trend, however, is that criminality and corruption amongst party leaders are
becoming more common and parties are becoming more identified with a single personality
and are unable to develop internal mechanisms for leadership renewal and the renewal of
senior office holders. Parties as autocratic and centralized organizations or powerful political
dynasties are able to develop both at the national and regional levels.
Beyond Parties and Elections The anti-colonial struggles during the early 20th
century drew groups and individuals towards political parties, crystallising
participation and mobilization this way from then onwards. In India, only 11% of the
respondents report being members of a trade union, 15% has participated in protests,
demonstrations and related activities, and only 6% of the respondents declare
participating in other non-party and non-political forums. The researchers also found
that party and non-party organizations actually overlap, for example, nearly 75% of
trade union activists in India identify themselves with a political party. In addition,
India has on several occasions experienced armed insurgency; an extreme
manifestation of popular mobilization that reflects the dead-end of democratic politics.
Freedom from Fear In India, 6% of respondents say that they, their family members
or acquaintances faced physical assault during the last year. The relative sense of
security was also gauged in the survey by asking how secure people felt in comparison
to previous years. The image remains positive in general, and 37% of South Asia's
population feels more secure than in the past, and 25% feels less secure. This trend is
followed by India, with 45% of the population feeling more secure. In general,
minority groups assign more relevance to communal violence, while people from
specific regions are more concerned about issues of war and terrorism: as is the case in
the Hindi heartlands in India
Freedom from Want In general in the region, the proportion of people who thought
their income did not cover their needs was higher than the official figure of people
living below the line of poverty. In India, 63% of the population considers that their
income does not meet their needs. Further, for the last couple of decades, the states of
the region have moved away from state-led development strategies, embracing
economic reforms and liberalization, privatisation and globalization. However, these
reforms were not preceded by democratic debates and consensus building: and 50% of
the population in the region rejects both privatisation and down-sizing of the
government. Privatisation is most opposed in India and Sri Lanka.
Political Outcomes There exists a widespread acceptance of democratic procedures in
the region, making democracy the only legitimate game that everyone aspires to. One
of the most significant transformations related to achieving a culture of democracy has
to do with people moving away from being subjects to becoming citizens. One such
aspect is that the right to vote is not only taken seriously, but also the effectiveness of
the vote itself. The survey shows that 67% of Indians consider that their vote makes a
difference, and the record of satisfaction with democracy is stronger in India and
Bangladesh than in the rest of the region, even though the former is more critical of its
performance, particularly regarding the lack of material amenities.
INDIA
India at the ‘centre’
Five Approaches to the Study of Indian Foreign Policy – Kanti Bajpai

India’s differences with Pakistan, China, and the United States have been understood
through the prism of five interpretive lenses: an original and unresolved quarrel
around sovereignty, alliance dynamics,  power asymmetry, political values, and
domestic politics.

Source: Kanti Bajpai, Five Approaches to the Study of Indian Foreign Policy. In
David M. Malone, C. Raja Mohan, and Srinath Raghavan. 2015. The Oxford
Handbook of Indian Foreign Policy. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
INDIA
“Where India–Pakistan conflict has been portrayed as arising from differences over the role of religion and of
the military in politics, India–China conflict has been ascribed to differences over pluralist democracy and
authoritarian one-party rule as the basis for statehood and development in Asia. For Indians, China’s success
with a one-party dirigiste state stands as a powerful challenge to the anarchic, pluralist democratic system that
India has chosen; and for the Chinese, India’s experiment with democracy raises uncomfortable questions
about why China cannot be more democratic. Both countries see themselves as beacons for Asia and regard
their political way of life as being a surer pathway to security and well-being. If this view is correct, then the
India–China conflict goes much deeper than a territorial dispute, and its resolution can only occur when one
side is converted to the other’s view or if one ideology or the other stands vindicated by the choices of other
Asians, that is, by history.”
“India resists international agreements and arrangements, including bilateral and regional ones, that require a
loosening of control over what happens within its boundaries. And it continues to take a conservative view of
humanitarian intervention and climate change obligations, amongst others.”
 
More on Indian FP in Lecture 2.
AFGHANISTAN
Victim of the great game
cold-war battleground,
post cold -war battleground;
regional powers intervention, including India, Pakistan and China
BANGLADESH
Bangladesh’s history can be assessed as consisting of three major periods - since its
independence in 1971; the period of military rule until 1990; and the subsequent
decades of multi-party democracy.
INDIA- BANGLADESH
Islamist Militancy and Counter-Terrorism Cooperation
Secure Borders
Land and Maritime Borders
River Waters
Transit
Hindu Minority
Illegal Migration
Defense Equipment
Other issues
Indian Domestic Public Opinion
State governments
Trade and Investment
PROTOCOL
ON INLAND
WATER
TRANSIT
AND
TRADE

FOR
TRANSIT
BHUTAN

peaceful buffer or new site of contest ?

DOKLAM STANDOFF 2017
For more on Doklam
Standoff here:
https://www.thehindu.
com/news/national/wh
at-is-the-doklam-issue-
all-about/article22536
937.ece
MALDIVES
Turbulent domestic politics inviting intervention by
India and now China
Aid and Investment as tools of engagement.
NEPAL
The only Hindu Nation
July 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship between India and Nepal underlining ‘the
everlasting peace and friendship’ between the two countries
Patronising attitude of India towards Nepal e.g. blockade 2015
Deteriorating relationship with India
NEPAL
Security angle
Hydro-power potential of 45,000 MW, only 600 MW developed
Economic dependency, especially oil
Between 1950–1 and 2005–6, Nepal has witnessed four major transformational political
uprisings: (a) 1950–1: the anti-Rana revolution; (b) 1960: the King’s coup against
representative democratic government; (c) 1989–90: the ‘Jan Andolan-I’ people’s
movement to change Nepal’s monarchical Panchayat system; (d) 2005–6: Nepal’s ‘Jan
Andolan-II’ against autocratic monarchy. In all four cases, India got actively involved and
played a decisive role on the side of the opponents of the Nepali state.
Indian insecurity
Multiple stakeholders
PAKISTAN
History,
Foreign Policy
Role of Army
Chance for Civilian Role,
Obsession with India
Intervention in Afghanistan
DEFINING FOREIGN POLICY
Foreign policy must be synchronized with the national security and economic
policies so as to form an integrated whole in the form of the national grand strategy.
Second, a sound foreign policy must reflect the relative importance or priorities of
the nation’s internal and external objectives that it is expected to support or achieve.
If the supreme national objective is economic development, the pursuit of other
national objectives must be subordinated to it.
Third, foreign policy must strike the right balance between the attainment of short-
term and long-term national objectives.
Source: Husain, Javed. 2016. Pakistan and a World in Disorder – A Grand Strategy
for the Twenty-First Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
PAKISTAN’S IDENTITY
safeguarding of the nation’s cultural identity
and values, especially because of the
ideological character of the state
Resistance to hegemony in the regional
context
RESISTANCE TO HEGEMONY
IN THE REGIONAL CONTEXT
Pakistan, therefore, had to face a serious threat to its security from a hostile India from
the very beginning of its existence. India’s hostility reflected itself in several ways
soon after the Partition: its reluctance to share cash balances and military stores with
Pakistan equitably and expeditiously, the stoppage of the flow of river waters into
Pakistan through its control on river headworks located in India, and the trade dispute
because of Pakistan’s refusal to follow India’s decision to devalue its currency. But
above all, this hostility reflected itself in the moves by India to prevent the accession
of Kashmir to Pakistan in violation of the recognized principle that princely states
would accede to India or Pakistan keeping in view the wishes of the majority of their
people. In the case of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the majority was not only
Muslim but also keen on acceding to Pakistan. Thus was laid the groundwork for the
Kashmir dispute that continues to bedevil Pakistan-India relations and has been the
cause of several wars and armed conflicts between them.
ASSESSMENT
The problem with such a perspective is that
Pakistan views its relationship with India a
zero-sum game, rather than as a win-win
scenario.
SRI LANKA
Geographic compulsions
Love-Hate relationship
The Tamil Question
The Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948 and the Indian and Pakistani Residents Act, 1949

Ethnic Conflict
Human Rights Violations
Reconciliation

Maritime questions
Fishing rights

Economic Cooperation