Exploring South Asia’s Varied Nuances

[(BOOK REVIEW)]

Co-operative Development, Peace and Security in South Asia by Neetu Gaur and Vijay Laxmi (ed.); Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development, (CRRID), Chandigarh; pages 144; price: Rs 360.

South Asia is distinct in the Asian continent and is known for its diverse civilisations, sharing borders, facing more or less the same problems (among them the fear-prognosis of India by the other neighbours due to its distinct colossal size), population, resources, territory. In this context, India finds its trajectory to move on vis-à-vis its neighbours in South Asia with reference to trade, security, and politics. Diversity is good for democratic ethos but in the South Asian subcontinent, this has at times been the harbinger of problems.

Here comes this book which is the product of deliberation of the three-day international conference on co-operative development, peace and security in South Asia, organised by the CRRID. Bringing together eminent scholars, entrepreneurs, diplomats, and administrators from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, it is a source of different perspectives on different issues concerning South Asia.

Regionalism in the European continent with the European Union is not that rapid in South Asia. SAARC still faces problems of barriers in free trade—India not being given the most favoured nation status by Pakistan primarily because of the trust deficit. Foreign investment is an incentive in the neo-classical global era yet the intra-trade capital flow amongst SAARC nations is dismal. Talking about the benefits of spillover effects, competitiveness, growth and development are issues that have been discussed by Kamal Monnoo in his paper “Trade and Investment: A Global and SAARC-specific Outlook”. Vijaya Katti takes this debate a step further in the paper “SAARC: Intra Regional Versus Extra-Regional Trade”, focusing as to how trade levels go up and down in the case of Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan using quantitative data; this is an effort to highlight why economic integration has not flourished in the South Asian region. Fear of Indian dominance, the LTTE problem in Sri Lanka, Kashmir and Indus Water Treaty, transit links in Nepal and Bhutan are the causes for the same. In the same line, Ranjit Singh Ghuman and Davinder Kumar Madaan, in their paper “Trade and Investment in SAARC Countries: SAFTA and Beyond”, point out that SAPTA is still unoperational, and efforts are needed like simplify banking procedures, transport, harmonise trade policies to synergise regional trade.

An inclusive tone comes up in the paper “Women as Agents of Change in South Asia”, where Syeda Hameed points to stories of Lily Thapa in Nepal, Irom Shramila in Manipur, Lambada girls in Andhra Pradesh who have stood up against violence—at the domestic and national levels—and using their inherent nature of peace lovers, to propagate peace, democracy. However, the issue of representation of women in parliament, reservation of seats for them to bargain for peace using the political apparatus could have been addressed for a much clearer picture.

Neetu Gaur and Vijay Laxmi point towards the same historical lineage yet marked by the fear-factor due to partition, religion, border; this led to untapped trade potentials. Aftaab Ahmad adds to this theme by underscoring the need for agricultural co-operation, trade in garments, bulk drugs, information exchange, removing visa restrictions. The need for increasing people-to-people contacts is a common issue that underlies both papers. However, they fail to address the fact that having different political apparatus has marred trade potentials.

Apt attention is paid to the North-East region in India and to relate it to the dynamics of co-operative development, peace and security in South Asia. This region comprises eight States where distinct language, culture, ethnicity make it a tough terrain. Prof Jayanta Kumar Ray, pointing towards several insurgencies that mark the region, notes the inappropriate federal co-ordination at Union and State levels in India. He refers to the ‘look East’ policy, which could have been discussed at length by Gunjan Veda deliberating upon connectivity and incentives to strengthen the North-Eastern region.

A good collection of papers, where the participants did their best to explore nuances of South Asia. But it needs to be pointed out that the issues of global epidemics, terrorism, narcotics have not been addressed although these are of prime importance today.

The reviewer is doing her Ph.D at the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi. She can be contacted at: amnamirza2002@gmail.com