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6 International politics of South Asia
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10 Vernon Hewitt
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19 Since the Partition and Independence of the ideational factors on policy or process.3 The
20 British Indian Empire in 1947, and the sub- view that South Asian elites have of the
21 sequent Independence of Ceylon in 1948, international system itself is deemed irrelevant
22 academic literature on the international politics since all states are the same, and the deter-
23 of South Asia has proliferated, especially since mining factor is international anarchy and the
24 the 1998 nuclear tests. Issues such as nuclear way this determines state behavior.4 Even
25 weaponisation, religious and ethnic violence, within neoliberal and behavioral approaches,
26 revolutionary movements, Islamic “terror- “states have fixed identities and interests . . .
27 ists,” and “failing states” have informed—or they are rational egoists that seek to maximize
28 distorted—debates on what constitutes South their long-term utility gains and . . . this can
29 Asia, prospects for peace and stability in the best be achieved when states harness them-
30 states of the region,and how and to what extent selves to cooperative norms”5 through inter-
31 events and policies can be effectively influenced national organizations and conventions.
32 by outside sources—primarily the west, and This chapter will argue that the “natural-
33 specifically, US administrations.1 ization”of the state is,for South Asia,singularly
34 Although characterized by a series of unhelpful in dealing with a part of the world
35 diverging theoretical positions, this literature where state formation has been derivative, and
36 has been predominantly realist or neorealist in where formal sovereignty was granted (or
37 orientation. This has had a peculiar and won) at a unique moment in the international
38 unfortunate effect on the significance of South system, namely, the end of European primacy,
39 Asia in and of itself, reducing it to a systemic the rapid retreat from empire, and the rise of
40 understanding of the international system as bipolarity.6 Scholarship in the 1990s has,
41 seen primarily from somewhere else.2 This reassuringly, moved to problematize the links
42 predominantly static and ahistorical approach among the states, territoriality, sovereignty,
43 precludes any interesting or relevant discussion nationalism, and community in ways that take
44 between, say, the nature of state formation in history seriously and open the way for a more
45 South Asia, the links between the state and sociologically informed debate as to how
46 domestic politics, how domestic politics is “state–society complexes are agents that
47 influenced directly by international non-state both constitute and are in turn constituted
48 actors (and vice versa),or the role of cultural or by, sociodomestic and international global

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structures,”7 This dialectic interest in agency– Gould recently noted: “[T]he state in recent 1
structure–agency must also consider non- anthropological interest is less an efficacious 2
materialist sources of power, such as culture regulatory force, than a quasi mythical entity 3
and religion, if it is to have any real utility. with which competing actors attempt to 4
Influenced by post-structural and post- associate and thus legitimate their claims to 5
modern trends within international relations, public authority.”13 Such recent turns within 6
recent scholarship has sought to “recover the the field of international relations have done 7
roots of social constructs and categories of much to end the static ahistoricism and crude 8
action by tracing the knowledgeable activities positivism of the Waltzian “real world” 9
of culturally inscribed but strategic actors and approach to studying international politics, 10
the sometimes accidental turns that underline although one may still puzzle why it took quite 11
and define historical processes.”8 This is vital so long. 12
for an area of the world where “the artificial 13
vivisection of British India created two states, 14
India and Pakistan, with several nations and State formation and the end of 15
parts thereof,as well as multiple ethnies within empire 16
them.”9 The “constructivist”turn in nationalist 17
literature shows how nationalist elites inherited The impact of British colonialism on South 18
states that were, in effect, created by the Asia was contradictory and profoundly uneven. 19
colonial powers, and gave priority to the From 1857 onwards, part of the modernizing 20
challenges of state and nation building posed project was to reform society along lines already 21
for societies that were extremely pluralistic. It experienced in the west,including the creation 22
also reveals the social and cultural impact of of elected, institutionalized forms of govern- 23
colonial modernity that synchronized the ment, representative of the subcontinent’s 24
emergence of local, regional, and “national” religious, ethnic, and social diversity as initially 25
imaginations of the community at around the conceived by the British, while protective of 26
same historical moment.10 As such, the British material interest.14 Another part was a 27
dynamics that drive the international politics of desire to shield aspects of so-called “traditional” 28
South Asia are not primarily derived from the society from the impact of modernity and 29
international system but almost equally “rooted the “inappropriateness” of capitalism and 30
in contending national and ethnic claims and majoritarian forms of democratic practice. 31
the failure of the state to capture the loyalty of Informed partly by preconceived notions of 32
its citizens.”11 Orientalism, the importance of religion, and 33
The state is a constructed and contested the distinctiveness of a Hindu majority from 34
concept. The degree and nature of this minority Muslim practices, and partly by what 35
contestation critically affects the foreign policy was evidently important to social elites and 36
of the states of South Asia, which must be communities collaborating with the British 37
concerned as much with securing the state state, the path of colonial reform by the early 38
from its own populations as from other states, twentieth century thus faced in two quite 39
and from competing subnationalist claims and contradictory directions.15 40
ethnic separatism.12 In deconstructing the The British created a powerful state with a 41
state, the study of international relations has commitment to democracy and individual 42
begun to accommodate the rich ethnographic rights, but rights that were also subordinated 43
and subaltern approaches that stress the to collective or communal identities. These 44
significance of domestic politics and identity were defined through separate electorates, 45
formation, how the state is “experienced and nomination to legislative bodies, and the 46
perceived” by local elites competing for scarce preservation of so-called traditional rulers.The 47
cultural and material resources. As Jeremy British created a state that was administratively 48
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1 centralized,but in other ways federal,in which The carving out of East and West Pakistan,
2 individual provinces or states were guaranteed between June and August 1947, as a separate
3 rights in a written constitution interpreted by state for the Muslims of South Asia,seems now
4 a supreme court.Yet they also created a state less the product of Jinnah’s articulation of the
5 that contained, until the final moments of two-nation theory, premised on Muslim
6 Independence, pre-Westphalian sovereign minority fears of Hindu domination, than a
7 entities known collectively as Princely India, bungled attempt by the Muslim League to
8 the most significant one being the Princely assure a weakly federal India with significant
9 State of Jammu & Kashmir. Two-fifths of power vested in the provinces.20 It was not
10 the British Indian Empire consisted of desired in principle by the British or, in its
11 feudal entities embedded within the Raj. In actual form—the creation of two widely
12 the cases of Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim, the separated new states comprising in both wings
13 British sought solely to protect traditional much less territory than claimed—by the
14 societies rather than modernize and trans- Muslim leadership.The territorial configura-
15 form them. tion of Pakistan did not even map onto areas
16 The consequences that followed from of electoral support for the League, or to areas
17 these conflicting ideologies of the Raj16 led, that shared any cultural or linguistic similarities
18 at Independence, to the formation of a other than that they were majority Muslim
19 regionalized state system,and not,as the British areas defined crudely by the two boundary
20 had hoped,a single sovereign state cemented to commissions coordinated and entirely domi-
21 Britain through an active, militarily-defined nated by Sir Cyril Radcliffe.
22 commonwealth that would ensure Britain’s In some areas, such as the North-West
23 continuing role as a great power.17 The Frontier Province (NWFP), the League was a
24 Partition of India was a product of elite relatively marginal political actor with little
25 negotiation among leaders, the status of some legitimacy. Even if it is accepted that Jinnah
26 of whom had been defined in relation to com- wanted a separate state, he was ambiguous
27 munal categories recognized by the British; about what the Muslim “nation” would be:
28 disagreements between Muslim minority and religious or secular, pluralist or homogenous.
29 majority provinces; and intra-elite disputes Where societal pressures existed to mobilize
30 over the spoils of central office. It created two support for Muslim separatism, it did so inde-
31 states that were to have quite differing pendently of the League’s central leadership.21
32 capacities to govern themselves, and two quite The process of state formation left a significant
33 different personalities within the international minority of Muslims behind in India, even
34 system. The driving process behind colonial after approximately nine million mohajirs
35 disengagement was the speedy collapse of (refugees), Urdu speakers, migrated to a
36 British authority and will to govern as much “homeland” that was largely unknown. As
37 as it was the mass resistance to British colonial such, Pakistan was founded by an émigré
38 authority.18 This collapse was in part a pro- nationalist movement, and facilitated by the
39 duct of the Second World War, and increased end of empire that created an impasse between
40 US pressure on British colonial reformers regional and national identities as well as
41 from the late 1930s, but it was structured disputes over federal and confederal ideas of
42 by a massive victory in Britain for a socialist sovereignty.22 The formation of India and
43 Labor government committed to granting Pakistan thus prefigured the difficulties of
44 India full sovereign independence as quickly as ethnic irredentism that would characterize
45 possible. Independence was facilitated by the Africa from the late 1950s,where cartographic
46 change in the international system from one lines crossed cultural and linguistic com-
47 dominated by a European empire to one munities, and where notional territorial
48 shaped by the emerging Cold War.19 sovereignty did not match the much weaker
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coercive,extractive,and institutional attributes impartiality and weakness failed to resolve their 1

of the Weberian state.23 disagreements, and their disagreements further 2
“Fixing” the boundary was bewildering. marginalized the relevance of the common- 3
Disputes followed between Pakistan and wealth in South Asia.26 4
Afghanistan, with particular reference to the 5
Pathan-speaking areas in the NWFP, with Iran 6
Kashmir, Pakistan, and India
over Baloch nationalist identities, and with 7
India over several areas in Gujarat, the Thar 8
Kashmir
desert, and in the northeast with reference to 9
Assam and the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The Kashmir conflict of 1947–49 illustrated 10
India and China disputed significant areas of the tensions inherent in seeking to fix state 11
India’s northeast (tucked in behind East boundaries free of any pre-existing local or 12
Pakistan), the status of Tibet, and the role regional consensus, and where loyalties to the 13
of both states with reference to Nepal. prince were overlapping, feudal in origin, and 14
Preliminary drafts of the boundary com- in the case of the Poonch district, in active 15
mission gave Chittagong and Lahore to India, rebellion.27 Social and political movements 16
while the final award, published the day after acting to their own agenda, even with covert 17
Independence, left numerous ethnic enclaves support from a neighbor, reveal the dynamics 18
such as Gurdaspur and Sylhet arguably in the of state and non-state agency that were to 19
“wrong” state. Even on the island of Ceylon, bedevil the region through to the 1999 Kargil 20
the close proximity of the Tamils of southern conflict, and beyond. Kashmir remains central 21
India, from the Jaffna peninsula through the to understanding the emergent relationship 22
Palk straits, troubled Sinhalese Buddhists between India and Pakistan, and how the lines 23
concerning Tamil nationalism as much as it of foreign alliances radiated out from the 24
concerned Nehru over Dravidian separatism centrality of this conflict to the international 25
in the South. But the critical divide was system. 26
Partition itself. The process of resolving princely India was 27
India and Pakistan were born amid botched by the British, who, having shored up 28
animosity, recrimination over the partition of the princes as a bulwark against nationalist 29
the Raj’s financial and military resources, and sentiment, swiftly abandoned them in 1946. 30
with an actual armed conflict taking place in Having been reassured that, once their treaty 31
the JhelumValley.The regional state system was obligations to the British were laid aside, they 32
heavily dominated by India, which inherited would revert to sovereign entities, the British 33
over 70 percent of the territory of the British political department proceeded to bully the 34
Indian Empire, and over 77 percent of its princes into deciding which one of the two 35
industrial and institutional capacity.Whatever proto-dominions they wanted to join. The 36
the contradictions and tensions within the decision appeared to be one of princely 37
Indian National Congress over issues of fiat, but even this degree of agency was 38
secularism, the role of language, and the exact compromised by the overriding demand for 39
constitutional balance within an inherited geopolitical contiguity for the new states that 40
federal structure, it was a more homogenous was demanded by both the Congress and the 41
entity than the League24 and it had greater League.28 Where the princes were of a differing 42
legitimacy and a more coherent (albeit religious persuasion from their subjects, these 43
improvised) idea of what it wanted its nation to two principles clashed.The Nawab of Deccan 44
look and feel like.25 Both states were relatively Hyderabad was a Muslim presiding over an 45
poor,but the physical imbalance between them overwhelming by Hindu population. He was 46
was telling even in 1949.Each remained linked also situated in the middle of Indian territory. 47
to the British Commonwealth, but British To Nehru’s outrage, he initially opted for 48
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1 Pakistan, made a dash for independence, and overt “interdominion” conflict, initially—and
2 then was finally incorporated into the Indian bizarrely—involving British commanding
3 Union.This drama was played out in a number officers on both sides. In an attempt to display
4 of locations in the panic and drama of international leadership, partly in the naive
5 Independence.29 In Kashmir, the situation was conviction that India’s position was above
6 reversed, with the Dogra Rajput Hindus reproach, Nehru referred the crisis to the UN
7 residing in an overwhelmingly Muslim Vale, Security Council, after which, in 1949, a
8 and with diverse communities of Muslims and ceasefire was declared that effectively parti-
9 Buddhists throughout the kingdom.Moreover, tioned the state. India was left in control of
10 Jammu & Kashmir was the only significant roughly two-thirds of Jammu & Kashmir,
11 princely state that was so located as to be including the Vale, with its nearly 90 percent
12 contiguous to both new states and thus be able, Muslim population.India resented subsequent
13 in principle, to join either India or Pakistan.30 UN involvement, suspecting US and British
14 The Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir first support for Pakistan.
15 sought independence as a sovereign state, but Much has been made of the fact that the
16 then, faced with ongoing unrest in Poonch, inclusion of a Muslim-majority province in
17 and tribal incursions from the NWFP India provided an essential litmus test of
18 (i.e., from Pakistan) ostensibly to aid fellow secularism, while the exclusion of such a
19 Muslims, he opted for India with the promise province made a mockery of Pakistan as the
20 of imminent military aid. There followed state for the Muslims of South Asia. Other
21 significant confusion over the exact sequence arguments, strategic and geopolitical, were
22 of events, and over the exact meaning of the advanced that supported either the Indian or
23 Indian offer to hold a plebiscite to settle the Pakistani position, while gradually a “third
24 dispute once the violence in the valley had way,” namely the idea of a Kashmir separate
25 abated and Pakistani forces withdrawn.31 The from both Pakistan and India,reemerged in the
26 allegation that “Pakistan” instigated a covert 1980s and 1990s. In 1965 Pakistan launched a
27 tribal invasion is undermined by the weakness series of covert infiltrations across the ceasefire
28 and incoherence of Pakistan at the time.The line on the eve of Operation Gibraltar—the
29 support by the National Conference Party—a code name for the Pakistani attack on Indian-
30 popular movement in the Valley itself—for administered Kashmir—but a second armed
31 Nehru and the Congress,which is well attested conflict failed to resolve the issue. In 1971, in
32 in Indian historiography, meanwhile under- response to Indian support for the Bangla
33 plays the desire for independence as a sovereign rebels,Pakistan attacked parts of western India.
34 socialist state, and an “idea of Kashmir” that The resulting conflict did not significantly
35 places Sheikh Abdullah, a sunni Muslim with change ground realities.The Shimla Accord of
36 a secularist outlook, closer to the Hindu 1972 converted the ceasefire line into a Line of
37 Maharaja and to Jinnah than to Nehru. The Control,an attempted “soft border”that sought
38 portrayal of Muslim interests as being pro- to compromise the requirements of statehood
39 Pakistan likewise downplays the desires of with shared cultural and social communities
40 many leading politicians, later presidents on either side, and remove the issue from the
41 within Azad (Pakistan-administered) Kashmir, clutches of the UN. Nonetheless, both
42 to create an independent state as well. This India and Pakistan set about furthering the
43 apparent consensus in favor of independence, integration of their respective parts of
44 however, was compromised by the fact that Kashmir into their state structures and
45 differing actors imagined different forms of nationalist narratives. Pakistan continued to
46 national sovereignty.32 seek international support for sustaining the
47 With the arrival of Pakistani troops dispute, and to counterbalance India’s per-
48 into Baltistan, the Kashmir war became an ceived hegemonic strategy, making Kashmir a
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VE R NON H EWITT

precondition for any discussion with India over socialist rhetoric, Pakistan’s strategic position 1
improving bilateral relations. lent itself to CENTO and SEATO member- 2
Thus the Kashmir conflict provided the ship and soft loans and grants from a variety of 3
prism through which these two states and their US administrations. By 1972, the Sino–US 4
elites perceived each other, and the crisis that rapprochement seemed to cement Pakistan’s 5
structured Pakistan’s foreign policy both within ties with two key allies.Yet both these alliances 6
the region and towards the wider international were rather tenuous. 7
community. Jinnah’s conviction that Nehru Initiated by the 1954 mutual security pact, 8
was determined to “strangle” the Muslim state the US commitment to Pakistan unraveled in 9
at birth remains to many Pakistanis a demon- the early 1970s, despite its rhetorical support 10
strable fact. And in Indian eyes, Pakistan for Pakistan in the Bangladesh war and the 11
remains a state that will stop at next to nothing delay in granting diplomatic recognition to 12
to revise the territorial settlement of 1972, Bangladesh.To many in Pakistan, the US has 13
including masterminding covert militant been found wanting in failing to act more 14
strikes deep inside Indian-occupied Kashmir decisively to defend Pakistan’s territorial 15
in 1999, allegedly funding terrorist strikes integrity. The US commitment unraveled 16
against the Srinagar and New Delhi parliament further with increasing US mistrust concern- 17
buildings between 2001 and 2003. ing Pakistan’s nuclear weapons intentions,until 18
the hapless Soviet intervention in Afghanistan 19
in 1979–80 transformed a tenuous military 20
Pakistan
government (under General Zia) back into a 21
Pakistan’s concern over provincial instability frontline state. China’s support did not involve 22
and international vulnerability emphasized the active military engagement in 1971 against 23
role of the military and an alliance with the India, and China has been equivocal in its 24
mohajirs around the central bureaucracy and the attitude towards Pakistan’s nuclear tests in 25
non-elective aspects of state power from the 1998. 26
beginning. Military expenditure dominated During the 1980s, a new domestic political 27
Pakistan as a need to underpin domestic order settlement led to a search for more useful allies. 28
and police an almost impossible territorial This involved General Zia’s espousal of an 29
configuration that placed East Pakistan over “Islamic” Pakistan, that would unite frag- 30
1,000 miles across an assumed hostile India. mentary ethnic identities into a single reli- 31
The state of martial rule had foreign and gious community under a unitary presidential 32
international policy implications as well as system, and cooperation with the Arab states, 33
ramifications for a proclivity towards authori- especially Saudi Arabia, and until 1979, with 34
tarian forms of governance in which political Iran as well. It also led to an active member- 35
parties were fragmented and personalized.33 ship within the Organization of the Islamic 36
From the moment of Independence, Pakistan Conference. Stressing the religious links 37
sought International allies willing to secure between the Middle East and Pakistan made 38
prohibitive defense requirements against India, some economic sense,but it also facilitated and 39
and against Bengali, and later Sindhi and encouraged the growth of domestic Islamic 40
Baluchi separatism. These requirements were movements, which the state failed to control 41
funded primarily by the US, and involved the effectively; nor did they provide a basis for a 42
apparent support by Pakistan for Soviet con- lasting new consensus on a “mainstream,” i.e., 43
tainment,but it also—more problematically— moderate Muslim identity. Often it placed 44
involved support from China. Defined as an Pakistan in the middle in disputes between 45
ally in US containment policy towards the moderate and extremist Muslim states. 46
Soviet Union,and encouraged by Washington’s Seemingly as ignorant of intra-Muslim identi- 47
mistrust of India’s emergent non-aligned, ties within Pakistan as the British were of those 48
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1 within British India, Zia’s policies generated intelligence and surveillance, and its domi-
2 sectarian violence as well as the proliferation of nance over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
3 religiously and ethnically defined non-state the office of the prime minister, indicate the
4 actors active in the region, primarily in weakness of democratic accountability or even
5 Afghanistan, and then, from 1989 onwards, in the existence of established norms for foreign
6 Indian-administered Kashmir. policy formulation. In 1999, prior to his
7 Until the horrors of 9/11, Zia’s policies removal in a bloodless coup, Prime Minister
8 dovetailed neatly with US support for the Sharif was significantly under-informed about
9 Islamic resistance to the Soviet regime,and the the role of Pakistan’s military involvement in
10 strategic use of Saudi resources. However, Kargil (an area within Indian-administered
11 the end of the Cold War, and of the Soviet territory), and confused about the role of
12 adventure in Afghanistan,facilitated a return to mujahideen irregulars in the fighting.34 When
13 democracy within Pakistan in the wake of Zia’s pressured by the Clinton administration to
14 likely assassination in a plane crash in 1988.Yet disengage from the conflict, Sharif appeared
15 the domestic creation of the militant, anti- concerned about possible political revenge
16 western Taliban within Pakistan Punjab, its from the military, and especially from
17 involvement in executing the Pakistan Army’s Musharraf who had headed up the Kargil
18 foreign policy in Afghanistan, and then, in operation. Earlier, in 1998, Sharif had struck a
19 fomenting the rise of religious violence in senior US negotiator as being entirely
20 Karachi and Islamabad,meant that the restora- uninformed on Pakistan’s emergent nuclear
21 tion of democracy was problematic. Between posture, excluded from foreign policy matters,
22 Zia’s death in 1988, and the declaration of and more concerned about the army threat to
23 martial rule by General Musharraf in 1999, it his power base.35
24 was Pakistan’s misfortune that an emergent Musharaf ’s coup in 1999 was domestically
25 post-Cold War order emphasized conceptions popular,although internationally condemned.
26 of good governance,democratization,and civi- Despite having demonstrable links with
27 lian leadership, three areas in which Pakistan Islamic militants and ISI policy in Kashmir at
28 was particularly vulnerable. US concerns over the time of Kargil, Musharraf urged the
29 Pakistan’s “Islamic”bomb also resurfaced in US Pakistani army to offer complete assistance to
30 policy circles. During 11 years of political in- the US Bush administration in their planned
31 stability and constitutional decline,the Pakistan attacks on Afghanistan in 2001–02. It was
32 state—never a unitary actor—fragmented into argued that significant economic and military
33 a series of parallel and disconnected areas of resources would be forthcoming, while active
34 political and legal authority: president against resistance would lead the US to throw their
35 prime minister, secular against religious support behind India, if not to “bomb[ing]
36 authority, the judiciary against the executive, Pakistan back to the stone age.”36 Such
37 the executive against the legislature. In 1993, pragmatism overturned earlier army support
38 1997, and again in 2007–08, such rivalries and diplomatic recognition of the Taliban
39 paralyzed the government and threatened the government, and was pressed home in the face
40 state with endemic instability. The impact of of open hostility toward the US by domestic
41 such duplication and rivalry on policy and its religious groups and communities, especially
42 implementation remains serious.The security in the frontier and tribal areas of Pakistan.37
43 threats to Pakistan’s elites were diverse and The paradox of a Pakistani state supporting
44 diverging and they frequently collapsed distinc- Islamic militants, while drawing on the US as
45 tions between internal and external enemies. a principle ally in the US “war on terror,” was
46 The rise to prominence of the Inter- not lost on India,and provided the backdrop to
47 Services Intelligence unit within the executive, a sustained crisis in Indo–Pakistan relations
48 its combination of foreign and domestic from 1998 through to 2002–04. By 2004–05,
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VE R NON H EWITT

US State Department officials were increasing India can be,and the extent to which the cliché 1
pressure on the Pakistani leader to demonstrate of the world’s “largest democracy” should not 2
he was being tough on Islamic organizations be taken at face value. Insurrections in the 3
operating within Pakistan, and active against northeast, as well as Kashmir, and Punjabi 4
unlicensed madrasah schools alleged to be violence throughout the 1980s do compel 5
training militants drawn from the wider comparison with Pakistan. However, to draw 6
Muslim diaspora.38 too many parallels with Pakistan significantly 7
By 2006–07, US pressure was also aimed at misrepresents the extent to which India’s 8
improving Musharraf ’s democratic credentials, political elite has managed to connect an 9
by coercing him into a dialogue with Pakistani inherited state structure to emergent, and 10
politicians, especially Benazir Bhutto, in the indeed diverging, sections of civil society, and 11
run-up to scheduled elections in early 2008. given the state ideological and national 12
That US foreign policy was pushing Pakistan cohesion. Important differences between the 13
in two differing directions seemed lost on the Muslim League and the Indian National 14
US State Department. Even the British Congress as national movements, and the 15
Foreign Office continuously downplayed the differences in their leadership (or crudely put, 16
generic weaknesses of the Pakistan People’s between Jinnah and Nehru) translated into 17
Party (PPP) as a democratic social movement, very different international “personalities”and 18
ignoring the basically feudal,over-personalized very different foreign policy aspirations. 19
elite that surrounded Ms Bhutto. The More geographically cohesive, less trau- 20
Washington–London axis thus compelled matized by Partition, and less hamstrung by its 21
Musharraf into a political accord with Benazir own internal security concerns,India’s political 22
Bhutto that alienated sections of his own army, leaders were able to initially articulate a foreign 23
and angered Muslim hardliners, especially in policy premised less on survival than on an 24
the NWFP and areas affected by the influx of ideological commitment to internationalism, 25
Pathan refugees.39 The assassination of Ms nonalignment, and an active solidarity with 26
Bhutto in December 2007 fragmented opposi- colonial peoples. From the outset, India’s 27
tion to the regime, and further underlined the political and intellectual elite set their 28
systemic fragility within Pakistan and the ambitions apart from Pakistan,indeed arguably 29
extent to which the domestic compulsions of from South Asia itself.41 Individuals such as 30
its foreign policy are ill conceived and little Nehru, Krishna Menon, and K. M. Panikkar 31
understood.40 came from a westernized intelligentsia that 32
inherited from the British a conception of 33
“great power” status, and the belief that India, 34
India
by virtue of its size and ancient civilization 35
Ayesha Jalal has argued that the tendency to would quickly assume a position of global 36
compare democratic–civilian India with an responsibility.Such apparent continuities in the 37
authoritarian–military Pakistan, ignores the view of Indian greatness led Nehru to refer the 38
shared political and institutional legacy nascent Kashmir issue to the United Nations as 39
between them. At crucial moments, each a sign of India’s commitment to inter- 40
country has demonstrated very similar forms of nationalism, and to engage with China in 41
political dynamism, such as authoritarian lengthy debates over the status of Tibet and 42
populism during the 1970s, the institutional India’s northeastern and northwestern borders, 43
decline of party structures, and high levels of despite the fact that such idealism yielded few 44
social violence. Gujarat in 2002–03, and the results.Yet nonalignment was certainly not a 45
widespread communal violence associated pacifist stance, and the rhetoric of third world 46
with the rise of the BJP to power in the early solidarity was to give India a high profile 47
to mid-1990s clearly indicate how volatile within the British Commonwealth on matters 48
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1 of African and Asian decolonization, and as an committed by the Pakistan army in their
2 active member of the UN General Assembly attempt to suppress the movement of Bengali
3 important enough to influence the voting speakers in the eastern wing of the country,
4 behavior of many member states.42 and interpreted India’s military incursion into
5 Yet the sophistication of the Nehruvian East Pakistan as a Soviet-sponsored enterprise.
6 view of India’s place in the world was lost on In fact,the Soviets were as anxious to constrain
7 various US administrations, irritated by the India as the US, and were evidently relieved
8 equation between oppressive neocolonialism when India declared a unilateral ceasefire in
9 and US foreign policy and, by the late 1960s, the west following the surrender of Pakistan at
10 the growing collusion between India and the Dhaka.43
11 Soviet Union. India’s position on the Nuclear India’s peaceful nuclear explosion (PNE) in
12 Non-Proliferation Treaty further irritated 1974 deepened tensions with Pakistan.
13 Washington. Nehru’s socialism and his sus- Moreover,India continued to challenge the US
14 picions of capitalism contrasted sharply with over whether the Non-Proliferation Treaty
15 that of Pakistan, as did his condemnation of (NPT) was an arms control or arms elimi-
16 apartheid and Israel. As the formalized nation agreement. India’s objections to the
17 nonaligned movement continued to merge NPT were both principled and pragmatic.
18 with Soviet allies such as Cuba,Iraq,and Libya, They were principled in that they argued that
19 US concerns about India’s tilt towards Moscow the NPT was discriminatory in preventing
20 were expressed more stridently, and were non-nuclear weapon states from acquiring a
21 reflected as well in diminishing economic legitimate means to defend themselves, while
22 support.Although military humiliation at the not compelling existing nuclear weapon states
23 hands of China in 1962—and another draw in to eliminate their nuclear weapons.Indeed,the
24 the second Indo-Pakistan war of 1965— vertical proliferation of nuclear weapons
25 undermined much of Nehru’s naive illusions throughout the 1980s confirmed to India that
26 about the effectiveness of diplomacy,the search the treaty was worthless. Delhi’s objections
27 for military aid did not soften India’s criticism were also pragmatic in that China’s status as a
28 of the US. Neither did India allow the US to nuclear weapons state created a security
29 broker any deals over Kashmir, or provide any dilemma that was of regional significance to
30 support for US global aims and objectives in India, especially in the context of a Pakistan–
31 East Asia, as during the Vietnam War, or over China alliance. India’s allegations of US
32 disputes concerning UN recognition of support for (or at least indifference to) a covert
33 Cambodia.Subsequent difficulties over Indian Pakistan bomb program, as well as criticisms
34 socioeconomic planning, the forced devalua- over the Pakistan–China security relationship,
35 tion of the rupee,and the conditional US food blighted any attempts to improve US relations
36 imports created resentment and concerns over while the Cold War lasted.
37 Indian self-reliance. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in
38 The nadir of New Delhi’s relationship 1979–80 heightened tensions with the US,
39 with Washington came in 1970–72, especially while seriously compromising India’s under-
40 when Indira Gandhi signed a 25-year friend- standing with Moscow. Again misinterpreted
41 ship treaty with the Soviet Union in 1971, and by the US, India was not so much complicit in
42 was able to utilize this effectively in the wake the Soviet move as angered by the attack
43 of the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War to checkmate against a fellow member of the nonaligned
44 US–Chinese support for Pakistan. Misread by movement, and at a time when Mrs Gandhi
45 US analysts as a mutual defense pact, and was the chairperson of the organization. India
46 distorted by US global strategy aimed at using realized that Pakistan’s subsequent realignment
47 Pakistan to facilitate an opening with China, with the US would have significant financial
48 the State Department ignored the excesses and military implications for the South Asia
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region,and increase the chances for Pakistan to publicly attacked for allegedly leading to “50 1
acquire nuclear weapons covertly.44 wasted years.”46 The rise of the BJP to power 2
The subsequent implosion of Afghanistan, in the central government coincided with a 3
and the support by the US and Pakistan for more overtly strident use of great power 4
Islamic mujahideen fighters was to have regional language. In 1998, the new BJP-led National 5
and domestic consequences for India as well.In Democratic Alliance (NDA) government 6
1989–90, the situation in Kashmir took a authorized a series of nuclear tests. Unlike 7
dangerous turn when longstanding grievances the PNE of 1974, and in part provoked by 8
against New Delhi’s disregard for the region’s Washington’s move towards a comprehensive 9
autonomy, and its willful intervention into the test ban treaty that threatened to delegitimize 10
political processes of the state’s ruling party, any future Indian move to go nuclear,the 1998 11
coincided with the rise of insurgency from tests were aimed at overt weaponization, and 12
Pakistan’s NWFP in protest over the Line of were justified by reference to China, and later 13
Control. Such insurgency marked in part a Pakistan. The significance of China’s support 14
conscious Pakistan design to use covert forces in for the Pakistan missile program was not lost on 15
an asymmetrical campaign against India, Indian intelligence, and the greater challenge 16
especially in the wake of the Paris Peace Accords that China posed to Indian ambitions was 17
that ended the Afghan conflict.Yet it also marked not lost on western analysts either. 18
the rise of non-state actors with their own A series of statements made it clear that 19
socio-religious and political agendas acting both India now claimed the de facto status of a 20
on Pakistan and within both Azad Kashmir and nuclear weapons state (NWS). The move 21
the Indian State of Jammu & Kashmir. required an immediate reciprocal move by 22
Although India supported the restoration Pakistan, despite concerted efforts by the 23
of party politics in Pakistan after 1988, Clinton administration to prevent it.47 In the 24
and Pakistan’s subsequent return to the face of international condemnation and sanc- 25
Commonwealth, the irony remained that tions imposed by the US and other members 26
Indo–Pakistan relations tended to deteriorate of the OECD, India and Pakistan had suc- 27
during such democratic interludes.The rise of ceeded in undermining the NPT and the 28
coalition governments often compromised ability of the US to prevent the horizontal 29
mainstream politicians such as Benazir Bhutto proliferation of nuclear weapons. Both India 30
and Nawaz Sharif, who found themselves and Pakistan had sufficient expertise in the 31
dependent on the support of Islamic parties development and refinement of delivery 32
with extreme agendas concerning Kashmir. systems to make deployment a reality, with 33
From 1989 onwards,with the exception of the India having a notable edge in domestic 34
Rao congress government, coalition politics ballistic technologies, including guidance 35
weakened India as well, but less extensively on systems and software and satellite capabilities. 36
issues of foreign policy than on matters of Although the unilateral declaration by India 37
regionalism and local autonomy. of its status as an NWS appeared at one level 38
The prolonged crisis in Kashmir during to indicate a significant ideological and policy 39
the years 1989 to 1996 especially, and India’s break from previous governments, there was 40
deteriorating relationship with Pakistan much continuity behind India’s policy on 41
throughout the 1990s45 coincided with a nuclear capability broadly defined, in which 42
profound political change within the Indian possession of nuclear weapons was less a matter 43
political system. Socioeconomic and political of practical value than a symbolic emblem of 44
violence in the name of religion, associated great power status. Indian attempts to assert its 45
with the rise of Hindu nationalism,challenged moral superiority by claiming that New Delhi 46
the basis of Nehru’s secularist state. Also for would renounce nuclear weapons once global 47
the first time, Nehruvian foreign policy was nuclear disarmament was restored to the heart 48
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1 of the NPT regime, was a rhetorical gesture, far the most successful visit by a US president),
2 a figleaf hardly able to hide India’s realist the nuclear gamble of 1998 appeared, para-
3 intentions.48 Yet, as always, the allegations of doxically, to have transformed the US–Indian
4 western and US moral duplicity struck their relationship (or as one analyst stated, to have
5 targets.The BJP leadership was candid, if not finally “lanced the boil”of the NPT issue once
6 slightly crude, in recognizing that, armed with and for all).51 By contrast, the sight of a US
7 nuclear weapons, India would by definition president lecturing the Pakistanis on
8 become overnight an influential power whose democracy boosted the BJP realist view as both
9 views would be difficult to ignore or patronize. appropriate and necessary for Indian success.
10 Opinion polls revealed that over 70 percent of By 2003–04, a more complex analysis of the
11 the population supported the move by the security dilemma post-1998 implied that
12 Indian government to the status of a NWS. nuclear weapons might have prevented the
13 This support was not affected by the growing Kargil incident from escalating into a full
14 realization that Pakistan too had visibly international conflict. While there remained
15 increased its international profile, and by the concerns that India and Pakistan might use the
16 growing risk of a nuclear arms race not only in threat of nuclear war to encourage low-
17 South Asia but in the entire East Asian region.49 intensity conflict, there was some room for
18 The complexity of the tradeoffs between optimism that it would proscribe the overall
19 status and security became apparent in 1999, use of force in pursuit of political and strategic
20 when India and Pakistan engaged in open aims.However,the role and influence of armed
21 conflict over Kargil.As Kundu has noted,“the non-state actors, and their proliferation and
22 Kargil conflict, the first armed confrontation association with international militant groups
23 between . . . states equipped with nuclear linked to global terrorism against the west,
24 weapons, [was] fought without either side would soon become of increased concern.
25 having established a formal tactical or strategic The election of George W. Bush, and the
26 doctrine for their use.”50 Subsequent alle- new international era that emerged in the wake
27 gations that “unauthorized” movements of of 9/11, hampered the Indian momentum
28 Pakistan’s nuclear weapons took place during towards rapprochement with the US because
29 the conflict heightened tensions by revealing of Pakistan “outbidding,” but it did not stop it.
30 the very real lack of transparency or even While it restored Pakistan to US favor, it did
31 defined procedure within the Pakistan chain not undo the gains that New Delhi had made
32 of command. Many western observers were from 1998 or blight the emergent symmetry
33 struck by the distressing level of “nuclear between western concerns over Islamic terror-
34 threats” uttered by statesmen on both sides in ism and Indian concerns over “Pakistani”-
35 1999,and in the subsequent crisis that followed backed terrorism. While retaining links with
36 Islamic terrorist attacks on the Kashmir parlia- the Russians, and pursuing independent
37 ment and then the Indian national parliament. initiatives aimed at Iraq prior to the invasion by
38 However, by 2003–04, both India and the coalition,India strengthened its new found
39 Pakistan had moved to clarify their nuclear understanding with Washington by forging an
40 doctrines, and had to some extent created or alliance with Israel. A series of intelligence and
41 revised institutional arrangements to house, arms deals with this country opened the way
42 oversee, and ultimately authorize the use of for the modernization of some of India’s
43 nuclear weapons. In the meantime, ongoing aging Soviet-era military hardware,while neo-
44 negotiations with the Clinton administration conservative rhetoric from within the Bush
45 aimed at putting the genie back in the bottle administration complemented Indian con-
46 moved towards condoning some sort of cerns over China’s continuing economic and
47 “limited”Indian nuclear deterrent.In the wake military growth. Indo–US relations have
48 of Clinton’s successful visit to India in 2000 (by continued to develop, despite India’s refusal to
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participate in the Iraq involvement without a mines Indian claims to greatness.It also follows 1
UN mandate. that India needs a stable and workable “idea of 2
The successful transformation of the Pakistan” and not a failing Pakistani state that 3
US–Indian relationship cannot be under- would destabilize the entire Central and South 4
estimated. It has paved the way for the recent Asian region. 5
and,to some,surprising recognition of India as 6
a great power by a British prime minister and 7
open support for an Indian seat on a revised Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, 8
UN security council. Yet such views reflect and the international system 9
not so much the success of the BJP’s “outing” 10
of Pakistan’s nuclear capability, but more India dominates the South Asian subcontinent, 11
significantly,the economic transformation that and presides over a regional state system that 12
has been gathering pace since the early 1990s. shares numerous ethnic,religious,and linguistic 13
India’s economic “takeoff ” and its ability to identities. These states are constantly mediat- 14
combine a nationalist strategy with the neo- ing, resisting or encouraging specific forms of 15
liberal compulsions of globalization are social identity.It has been argued in this chapter 16
complex and open to dispute,52 but they have that such dynamics blur the anodyne dis- 17
been transformative, both on the nature of the tinctions made in IR literature among 18
Indian federal system itself, and the role that domestic, regional, and international politics. I 19
India is playing in international entities such as wish to conclude this chapter by a brief over- 20
the World Trade Organization (WTO), the view of the regional dynamics of cooperation 21
World Bank, and the International Monetary and resistance, and their consequences for the 22
Fund (IMF).Taken as a whole, it is the degree smaller states of South Asia. 23
of Indian economic prosperity that has The state elites of South Asia use resources 24
commanded US and western attention as gleaned from the international community— 25
much if not more than its status as an NWS. both material and ideological—to forward 26
During the late 1990s, India–US trade grew domestic ideas of the nation, and to shape the 27
by a staggering 264 percent, with the US regional state system to their own liking and 28
providing a market for one-fifth of Indian for their own security.The search for security 29
exports. Moreover, India is the second largest is often as much a domestic one as it is inter- 30
source of immigrants to the US after Mexico national.As we have seen, shared sociocultural 31
and has begun to generate a societal presence and religious identities facilitate such strategies, 32
in the US,and a powerful lobby that is creating as well as encourage the risk of blowback.Both 33
a domestic constituency that may influence US India and Pakistan have intervened in the 34
policy towards India in the future. More internal conflicts within the other state, 35
significantly still,the need to sustain economic covertly or overtly. India has intervened in 36
growth and to deepen economic cooperation Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. It has 37
in the region as a whole, has improved also sought almost continuously to influence 38
the position of the troubled South Asian and control the domestic and foreign policy of 39
Association of Regional Cooperation, and led Nepal. India’s bilateral relations with the 40
to significant moves towards enhancing India’s smaller states of South Asia have often been in 41
role in the Association of South East Asian competition with Pakistan, but also with 42
Nations (ASEAN) as well.53 China, especially in the sensitive areas of 43
India’s recent willingness to talk “trade” northeast India. Bhutan and—until its inte- 44
with Pakistan without pre-conditional postur- gration into India—the state of Sikkim, 45
ing over Kashmir, overcoming the deadlock of occupied curious positions as quasi-sovereign 46
the Agra summit in 2001, seems to imply a states under implicit forms of “trusteeship” 47
recognition that regional instability under- that have had more in common with ideas of 48
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1 British paramountcy than with notions of preferred option over another, India a secular
2 Westphalian statehood. All have felt the version of Bangladesh derived from its own
3 attempted assertion of India’s primacy, and all experiences, and Pakistan a more Islamic
4 have sought to challenge it. version. And behind them emerged their
5 international allies in turn.57 Intense party
6 competition and social mobilization compli-
Bangladesh
7 cated and compromised these options further,
8 In 1971–72, Pakistan became the first post- especially following the restoration of party
9 Second World War state to disintegrate.54 East politics in 1990.
10 Pakistan, containing a bare majority of its Indian support for the Awami League and
11 population, emerged from almost 25 years of Bangladesh’s first secular and socialist con-
12 economic and social discrimination against its stitution of 1973 backfired. It was alleged that
13 Bengali-speaking community, to stake a claim India was bullying Bangladesh on matters of
14 to statehood.Delivered by Indian intervention, economic assistance and trade, even implying
15 and conscious of a shared language and that Bangladesh was a satellite of India. The
16 community that united it with West Bengal, murder of Mujibur Rehman brought to power
17 Bangladesh has curiously mirrored Pakistan’s an army that turned Bangladesh back towards
18 own political and social instability in trying to Pakistan, and a strategic alliance with the US,
19 establish a national community congruent Saudi Arabia,and the Gulf states,and away from
20 with the territorial state. This has involved a India and the Soviet Union. This occurred
21 shift from a secular, socialist democracy to an despite the fact that the US was initially hostile
22 Islamic republic, premised on sharia law that to the Awami League and was pro-Pakistan
23 implies an important role for the mullahs.It too throughout the civil war. This foreign policy
24 has veered from prime ministerial to shift,brought about by General Ziaur Rehman
25 presidential systems of government, and from (in power 1976–81), went along with a move
26 civilian to military dictatorship.These struggles to construct a conservative Muslim—but not
27 have been driven in the main by different necessarily Islamist—nationalism led by the
28 images of the nation held by competing elites, newly formed BNP, and through the
29 who have used domestic, regional, and rehabilitation of former so-called Pakistani
30 international resources to seize state power.55 collaborators. Gulf remittances into the
31 A short but brutal civil war generated a Bangladesh economy made a significant con-
32 radicalized, pro-Maoist liberation movement, tribution to state revenue, but also furthered
33 a more orthodox Bengali secularist movement external Islamic influences that competing
34 premised around the Awami League,and a pro- elites charged were alien to Bengali Islamic
35 Pakistan movement linked to religious parties traditions.
36 associated with ex-patriot officers and soldiers In the mid-1980s, during the presidency of
37 returned to Bangladesh after the war.56 The last Ershad, Bangladesh played a critical role
38 group, exemplified by General Ershad, who in setting up the South Asian Regional
39 held power between 1982 and 1990, had been Cooperation Council (SAARC) in the hope
40 influenced by Pakistani army views on Islam, of getting away from India’s domination
41 and been removed from the profoundly through collaboration with other smaller states
42 galvanizing experiences of the civil war itself. anxious over Indian designs.At the same time,
43 Political parties quickly formed around each difficulties within Bangladesh, especially with
44 potential national signifier—Islamic and reference to the ongoing insurgency within
45 secular linguistic—despite the dominance of the Chittagong Hill Tracts,and the dispute over
46 the Awami League,and although the Jamaat-i- the sharing of water resources from the Ganges
47 Islami (JI) was proscribed in Bangladesh until (especially in the wake of India’s completion of
48 1976. Neighboring states supported one the Farakka Barrage in 1974), compelled
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cooperation with India,regardless of emerging and 2006, Bangladesh has received approxi- 1
ideological differences.Throughout the 1980s, mately $45 billion in grants, and $44 billion in 2
Indo–Bangladeshi relations were bitter and soft loans. These grants and loans have 3
confrontational. However, despite issues of constituted between 12 and 25 percent of all 4
illegal migration from Bangladesh into India’s government expenditure.Yet, some argue that 5
northeastern states, and India’s attempt to up to 75 percent of this glut of external 6
construct a border fence, bilateral relations funding has failed to reach its targeted project 7
improved under I. K. Gujral’s brief policy of or constituency.59 By 2005 pledges of further 8
close cooperation between India and its aid had declined considerably. 9
immediate neighbors. Relations were also 10
improved through SAARC, and in part by a 11
Nepal
more sophisticated appreciation by India of the 12
internal constraints of its neighbor. Given the role of Maoist parties in the 13
The termination of military rule in formation of Bangladesh, and the location 14
Bangladesh was facilitated by the end of the of the new state close to regions and terri- 15
Cold War and by democratic restoration in tories contested between India and China, 16
Nepal, which momentarily demonstrated the Bangladesh has proved relatively immune to 17
power of mass protest. Still, although the Sino-Indian rivalry. Nepal, in contrast, has 18
restoration of elected government from 1990 often found itself in the position of a “yam 19
fits to some extent within the so-called “third between two boulders.” Nepal shares the 20
wave”of democratization,the results have been complex social and cultural pluralism of the 21
more complex and more disappointing than rest of South Asia,as well as the preservation of 22
the democratization literature would have us feudal-like political structures within a modern 23
suppose.58 Intense competition between the territorially defined state.60 Its traditional elites 24
Awami League and the BNP has led to a are drawn from Hindu migrants who left India 25
degree of Islamic outbidding, similar to the from the fourteenth century onwards, estab- 26
experience of Pakistan between 1988 and lishing themselves in and around Kathmandu. 27
1999.The refusal of political elites to abide by These elites supported a particularly orthodox 28
electoral verdicts within Bangladesh has led to Hinduism not found throughout the rest of 29
outside attempts at mediation from such Nepal or,for that matter,in modern India.The 30
diverse actors and organizations as the British Bahun families dominated courtly politics, 31
Commonwealth, British labor politicians and retaining hereditary offices such as head priest 32
US ambassadors.The extent of instability has and prime minister,and managing non-Bahun 33
led to Indian concerns over the role of Islamic clans through a form of amoral familism,61 in 34
groups, and also has raised concerns within the form of strategic patron–client linkages 35
the international community over issues of known as the chakari system.Superimposed on, 36
good governance and corruption, especially and refracted through such alliances, was an 37
following the intense electoral instability older division between the hills and the plains 38
since 2006. or the tarai, dominated by Hindus who 39
Bangladesh’s extraordinary dependence on migrated from the nineteenth century on- 40
international aid,at a time of reluctance on the wards, and influenced by social and cultural 41
part of aid givers to commit to future grants, reforms stimulated in India during British 42
as well as increased conditionality on proposed colonial rule. 43
loans, threatens to alienate domestic opinion Nepal emerged after the British withdrawal 44
concerned over compromising national as an independent state, but with India 45
sovereignty. Such concerns also have the concerned over the former’s proximity to 46
potential to strengthen Islamicist parties that Tibet and, later, with Chinese collusion 47
denounce western intervention.Between 1972 with Pakistan. Indian influence in Nepal was 48
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1 facilitated by shared sociocultural and devel- without China’s backing.The struggle among
2 opment goals and, between 1948–61, close king, parliament, and rebels led to a bewilder-
3 cooperation between the Indian National ing set of competing alliances (after 2005,
4 Congress and the Nepali Congress. However, increasingly between a fragmented parliament
5 in 1961,the monarchy banned political parties aligned with the rebels, against the absolutism
6 and imposed a Panchayat Raj scheme of local of King Gyanendra), with the king seeking to
7 governance, which provoked tensions with reestablish local institutions of government in
8 India. As Sino–Pakistan relations solidified in an attempt to undermine parliament’s claims
9 the wake of the first and second Indo-Pak wars, to represent the will of the people.Such a move
10 Nepal’s fragmented elite came to resent India’s aimed at retaining the power of the monarchy
11 talk of nonalignment as a cover to support pro- incurred the risk of alienating support from
12 democracy movements within the kingdom, both the US and India, both of whom favored
13 and isolate Nepal from Pakistan.Chinese offers party-based governance as a requirement
14 of developmental aid were also accepted as a for socioeconomic reform. Although China
15 counterbalance, but the construction of the strangely remained more sympathetic to the
16 strategically vital Karakorum Road linking king, its refusal to support the Maoists
17 China to Pakistan,especially following a border indicated a significant degree of conversion
18 agreement between Pakistan and China over among the US, India, and China on regional
19 territory claimed by India, led to direct Indian politics in general and Nepal in particular.
20 pressure on Nepal. Bilateral relations deteri-
21 orated dramatically in the late 1980s, when
Sri Lanka
22 various transit deals on commodities were held
23 up by New Delhi,with immediate and serious Finally, the regional dynamics of state
24 consequences for the Nepal economy.SAARC formation over and above shared senses of
25 provided a much needed opportunity for community and belonging can be dramatically
26 Nepal to negotiate with Bangladesh and illustrated with reference to the crisis and
27 Pakistan to try and reduce transit costs as tensions within Ceylon (Sri Lanka after 1972)
28 alternatives to India’s control of the border and their consequences for regional and
29 through airlifting supplies from its two international politics. Despite a very different
30 neighbors. Following the restoration of party colonial heritage from that of India and
31 politics in 1990,India has continued to support Pakistan, and despite a very different route to
32 the Nepal Congress and assist in a series of independence, Sri Lanka has been beset by
33 bilateral aid and trade deals, while China internal conflict over the nature of national
34 tended to support the main Marxist opposi- identity, what kind of state it supports, and
35 tion, but resisted supporting the Maoist what foreign policies such a state should
36 insurrection.The fragmentation of the Nepali pursue. Separate Tamil kingdoms, centered on
37 Left in the wake of the Cold War, and China’s the Jaffna peninsula, linked the island to India’s
38 own reform and moderation from the 1990s Dravidian south, while its long exposure to
39 onwards, led to a lessening of overt Chinese maritime trade brought diverse influence
40 antagonisms against India,and limited Chinese from Southeast Asia and ultimately Europe.
41 intervention within Nepalese domestic politics Although administered separately from India,
42 during the recent insurgency. In 1996, the the transportation throughout the nineteenth
43 decision by the Maoist Communist Party of century of indentured Tamil laborers to work
44 Nepal to quit the institutions of parliamentary the tea plantations added another connection
45 government and head a people’s rebellion that threatened Sri Lanka’s Sinhala Buddhist
46 paralyzed the constitutional monarchy. At majority with the fear of Indian dominance.
47 one stage, the Maoists controlled over 70 per- Unitary in origin, and initially elitist and
48 cent of the territory of Nepal, but it did so solidly pro-western, pro-Commonwealth and
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pro-US in foreign policy, the formation of bilateral relationship by providing intelligence 1

exclusively Sinhalese political parties (the and support for “counterterrorist” operations. 2
United National Party, and later the Sri Lanka Sri Lanka remains the most consistently pro- 3
Freedom Party) led to ethnic mobilization western, pro-US ally in the region.The recent 4
based on xenophobic Sinhala-Buddhist stress on the need for economic growth, and 5
majoritarianism that resulted in a civil war that the “Look East” (i.e., to East Asia) policies of 6
for long dominated an otherwise wealthy and recent governments in New Delhi, have also 7
successful polity. Sinhala-dominated govern- complemented Sri Lanka’s East Asian connec- 8
ments sought to accommodate Tamil political tions, especially with reference to Japan, 9
parties while abjuring federalism or even Thailand and the newly emerging economies 10
acknowledging the cultural diversity of the of Vietnam and Cambodia.The breakdown in 11
northern and eastern parts of the country in the ceasefire, and the intense warfare that 12
particular.The consequence was to create the therefore developed,imperils had the potential 13
very Tamil separatist movement they most wealth of the island, and the role that SAARC 14
feared and compelled the very Indian inter- and global wealth can play in providing 15
vention they most desired to avoid. resources to buy off separatist national claims. 16
During Rajiv Gandhi’s term in office, They can only play such a role, in any case, if 17
India sought forcibly to impose a settlement domestic political institutions are redesigned 18
on the island, moved as much by electoral to substantially devolve economic, social, and 19
fallout for Congress in southern India, cultural power. 20
especially in Tamil Nadu where pro-Tamil 21
sympathies were high. The ill-fated Indo–Sri 22
Lankan Accord that led to Indian intervention Conclusions 23
between 1987 and 1990 seriously undermined 24
India’s attempts to broker a deal, revealing that This chapter set out to show that an under- 25
it could not act to disarm the Tigers, influence standing of the international politics of the 26
the Sri Lankan government to negotiate states of South Asia requires an awareness of 27
seriously, or prevent Tamil support in India for the contingent nature of state formation, 28
an independent Eelam. India lost more troops and the role played by elite competition in 29
during its intervention in Sri Lanka during the forming national communities that are con- 30
peace accord than it did during its interven- gruent with state boundaries. Only a histori- 31
tion in East Pakistan in 1971. The incident cally grounded, constructivist approach to 32
reinforced Sri Lankan mistrust of India as a South Asia can reveal the dynamics working 33
regional hegemon and resulted directly in the themselves out among the states of India, 34
assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. Such Pakistan, and Nepal. International forces have 35
adventurism proved costly to Indian claims to constrained the foreign policy of state elites, 36
be an emergent great power with global but less so than might at first be imagined.The 37
responsibilities,instead underlining its inability search for security has often as not entailed 38
to influence events in its own backyard. realigning domestic forces and institutions as 39
Active in SAARC, supportive of ties with much as changing foreign allies. And it has 40
China and with ASEAN, Sri Lanka has most often required the pragmatic use of 41
continued to view Indian ambition with external ideological quarrels, especially those 42
concern,and has in particular remained a critic of the US during the Cold War, and even the 43
of the nuclearization of the subcontinent since Bush administration’s ill-named “War on 44
1998. Nonetheless, changes in the US–India Terror,” for domestic and regional purposes. 45
relationship,as well as between India and Israel, The roots of conflict are,often as not,domestic, 46
have complemented India and Sri Lanka’s but changes within the international system 47
search for a more nuanced and intimate have enabled them either to have sustained 48
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1 themselves or threatened them with a scarcity domestic or regional conflict. State formation
2 of resources. entails violence, but it also entails a search for
3 What of the future? Globalization, and the order and stability. If states, nations and
4 convergence of elites around the search for communities are creative acts of political
5 economic wealth through market-based imagination, if they exemplify agency and not
6 solutions open up some scope for regional ahistoric, fixed and essentialized entities, then
7 accommodation and cooperation even as they however difficult and demanding,solutions are
8 reveal new arenas of competition and risk. At possible because they lie firmly in the hands of
9 the heart of the crisis of state formation in elites and subalterns themselves.
10 South Asia lies the strategic standoff between
11 India and Pakistan over Kashmir, with both
12 India and Pakistan preoccupied with identity Postscript
13 and stability. India’s search for global power is
14 still an irritant to China and a stark challenge The political formation of the Zardari
15 to the status and prospects of Pakistan and the coalition in Pakistan throughout 2008,and the
16 smaller states of South Asia. However, the on going proliferation of Taliban forces within
17 prospects of economic growth and shared the areas of Gilgit and Hunza continue to
18 markets may well erode the crude assertions of create tensions within the Pakistan state, and
19 power as a form of mercantilist, zero-sum between Pakistan and India. The terrorist
20 assertion of “hard” power. Economic wealth attacks on Mumbai in late 2008 reiterate much
21 not only complements hard power, it actually of the dynamics of state-nation-international
22 pays for it, and in the long term may actually system discussed in this chapter.The events in
23 be more sustainable. Mumbai exposed the extent to which non-
24 In his work on the states of the Middle East, state and state actors are either complicit in acts
25 Michael Barnett analyzes how, despite shared of social and political violence, ot powerless to
26 religious and linguistic identities that chal- prevent them. Despite immediate denials,
27 lenged the premise of the modern Westphalian subsequent US pressure from the newly
28 state, elites nonetheless managed to institu- elected Obama administration led to Pakistan’s
29 tionalize their states in such a way that re- acceptance of Indian findings that a majority of
30 imagined Arab nationalism as complementary the operatives in the attack—members of
31 to a stable system of Arab states.62 Can any Lashkar-e-Toiba—prepared for the attack
32 insights be taken from the Middle East and within Pakistan, and drew on a wide range of
33 added to that of South Asia? Given the con- resources from international Islamist groups
34 tingent nature of state formation, nationalist as far away as Spain and the US itself.
35 elites need to structure interaction around While Pakistan denied actively deploying the
36 processes that share cultural and economic terrorists as a covert state-sponsored act of
37 activity in ways that increase cooperation. Can terrorism, India remains skeptical of the claim
38 political structures be created that facilitate and of the ability of the Pakistani state to bring
39 sharing resources among states, such as soft the sole surviving terrorist to justice, ques-
40 borders, social and cultural movements, free tioning the control the state has over non-
41 trade zones in place of foreign donor condi- state actors working within its jurisdiction.
42 tionality? It is ironic that the western powers Furthermore, President Zardari’s decision to
43 have paid more attention to an India with a compromise with Islamic extremists in Swat
44 sustained and impressive growth rate, than an by allowing the application of Shari’a law and
45 India with nuclear weapons. ending military activity against the extremists
46 It remains the dominant challenge within undermines Pakistan’s internal sovereignty
47 South Asia whether the ideas of sovereignty and the ability of the state to prevent the
48 can be made to work without generating forcible and violent implementation of a form
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of medievalism that is neither Islamic nor Thomas J. Biersteker and Cynthia Weber, State 1
popular. These two facets of the crisis of Sovereignty: A Social Construct (Cambridge: 2
Pakistan: internal and external, domestic and University Press, 1996), p. 148. 3
foreign, are part of the on going struggle over 12 See Christopher Clapham’s innovative Africa 4
and the International System:The Politics of State
what sort of social order the state wants to 5
Survival (Cambridge: University Press, 1996);
construct,and how successful the resulting state also Paul R. Brass “National Power and Local 6
shall be in achieving regional peace. Politics in India: A Twenty Year Perspective,” 7
Modern Asian Studies,Vol. 18, No. 1 (February 8
1984), pp. 89–119; and his Ethnicity and 9
Notes Nationalism:Theory and Comparison (New Delhi: 10
Sage,1991);and Subrata K.Mitra and R.Alison 11
1 See Stephen Cohen, The Idea of Pakistan Lewis (eds),Subnational Movements in South Asia 12
(Washington, DC: Brookings, 2004). (Boulder, CO:Westview, 1995). 13
2 SeeVernon Hewitt,The New International Politics 13 Jeremy Gould,“Anthropology,”in Peter Burnell
14
of South Asia (Manchester: University Press, (ed.), Democratization through the Looking-Glass
15
1997). (Manchester:University Press,2003),pp.24–40.
3 See R. B. J.Walker, Inside/Outside: International For a further discussion of this, see Vernon 16
Relations as Political Theory (Cambridge: Hewitt, Political Mobilisation and Democracy in 17
University Press, 1992). India: States of Emergency (Oxford: Routledge, 18
4 See introduction to S. Hobden and John M. 2008), esp. the introduction and chapter 2. 19
Hobson, Historical Sociology of International 14 Thomas. R. Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj (New 20
Relations (Cambridge: University Press, 2002). York: Cambridge University Press, 1994). 21
Exceptions to this exclusion of elites came, 15 C. A. Bayly, Empire and Information: Intelligence 22
until recently, in “crisis” situations where the Gathering and Social Communication in India, 23
psychological or personal prejudices of leaders 1780–1870 (Cambridge:University Press,2000).
24
might be important, but even then these were 16 Metcalf.
not seen as requiring a societal perspective; see 17 R. J. Moore, Churchill, Cripps, and India, 25
Richard Little and Steve Smith, Belief Systems 1939–1945 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979). 26
and International Relations (Oxford: Blackwell, 18 Maulana Azad, India Wins Freedom (London: 27
1988), pp.10–12. Sangam, 1988). 28
5 Hobden and Hobson, p. 11. 19 A. W. Brian Simpson, Human Rights and the 29
6 Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and its Fragments: End of Empire: Britain and the Genesis of the 30
Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton, European Convention (Oxford: University Press, 31
NJ: University Press, 1993). 2001). 32
7 Hobden and Hobson, p. 21 20 Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the
33
8 Michael Barnett, “Historical Sociology and Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan
Constructivism,” in Hobden and Hobson, (Cambridge: University Press, 1994). See also
34
p. 101.The sociological turn within IR has led the very useful edited work by Mushirul Hasan 35
to an intriguing debate between constructivists (ed.), India’s Partition: Process, Strategy and 36
and postmodernists;see Alexander Wendt,Social Mobilisation (New Delhi: Oxford University 37
Theory of International Politics (New York: Press, 1993). 38
Cambridge University Press, 1999). 21 See David Gilmartin, Islam and Empire: Punjab 39
9 T. K. Oommen, “New Nationalisms and and the Making of Pakistan (Berkeley, CA: 40
Collective Rights:The Case of South Asia,” in University of California Press, 1995). 41
Stephen May et al. (eds), Ethnicity, Nationalism 22 Gilmartin. 42
and Minority Rights (Cambridge: University 23 See the final chapter of Clapham.
Press, 2004), p. 128.
43
24 See Ayesha Jalal, Authoritarianism and Democracy
10 Ayesha Jalal, Democracy and Authoritarianism in in South Asia: A Comparative and Historical
44
South Asia: A Comparative and Historical Perspective (Cambridge:University Press,1995). 45
Perspective (Cambridge:University Press,1995). Jalal seeks, perhaps too emphatically, to correct 46
11 Michael Barnett “Sovereignty,Nationalism and the view that India is a “success” and Pakistan a 47
Regional Order in the Arab State System,” in “failure.” 48
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1 25 See Sunil Khilnani, The Idea of India (London: Jeyaratnam Wilson, The Post-Colonial States of
2 Hamish Hamilton, 1997). South Asia: Democracy, Development and Identity
3 26 See R.J.Moore,Making the New Commonwealth (New York: Palgrave, 2001), pp. 41–68; see also
4 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987). Ian Talbot, Pakistan:A Modern History (London:
27 For one particular take on the Poonch Hurst, 1998), part iv.
5
rebellion,see Alistair Lamb,Kashmir:A Disputed 40 See Katharine Adeney, “What Comes After
6 Legacy:1846–1990 (Hertingfordbury:Roxford, Musharraf?,” Brown Journal of World Affairs,
7 1991). Vol. 16, No. 1 (Fall/Winter 2007), pp. 41–49.
8 28 For a discussion of the Standstill Agreements 41 In this sense, whatever their differences,
9 and the Treaty of Accession,see Vernon Hewitt, Nehru would have agreed with Jaswant Singh’s
10 Reclaiming the Past? The Search for Political and rebuke to Strobe Talbott in 1997 condemning
11 Cultural Unity in Jammu and Kashmir (London: the US habit of always hyphenating India with
12 Portland Books, 1995). Pakistan;Talbott, p. 85.
13 29 See Vernon Hewitt, “Ethnic Construction, 42 See Vernon Hewitt, New International Politics,
Provincial Identity and Nationalism in Pakistan: ch. ii.
14
The Case of Baluchistan,” in Mitra and Lewis, 43 Nixon’s “that bitch” statement is now pretty
15 pp. 43–67. legendary. See Walter Isaacson, Kissinger:
16 30 See S.R.Ashton,British Policy Towards the Indian A Biography (London: Faber & Faber, 1992);
17 States, 1905–1939 (London: Curzon Press, also Katherine Frank, Indira:The Life of Indira
18 1982). Nehru Gandhi (London: HarperCollins, 2001),
19 31 Obviously the entire narrative of the Kashmir pp. 339–40.
20 crisis from 1947–49 is contested. For a dis- 44 The argument here was along the lines of covert
21 cussion on the holding of all the plebiscites at “selective” proliferation (such as in the case of
22 the ending of the British Indian Empire, see Israel), by the US, in defiance of the logic of
23 Michael Brecher,India and World Politics:Krishna the NPT.
Menon (Oxford: University Press, 1959). 45 Vernon Hewitt,“Creating a Common Home?
24
32 See Vernon Hewitt, “Never Ending Stories: Indo–Pakistan Relations and the Search for
25 Recent Trends in the Historiography of Jammu Security in South Asia,” in Shastri and Wilson.
26 and Kashmir,” History Compass, Vol. 5, No. 2 46 Jaswant Singh, Defending India (Basingstoke:
27 (2007), pp. 288–301. Macmillan, 1999).
28 33 Ayesha Jalal, The State of Martial Rule: The 47 William Walker, “International Nuclear
29 Origins of Pakistan’s Political Economy of Defence Relations after the Indian and the Pakistani Test
30 (Cambridge: University Press, 1990). Explosions,” International Affairs,Vol. 74, No. 3
31 34 Strobe Talbott, Engaging India: Diplomacy, (July 1998),pp.505–28;see alsoVernon Hewitt,
32 Democracy and the Bomb:A Memoir (Washington, “Containing Shiva: India, Non-Proliferation,
DC: Brookings, 2004). and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty,”
33
35 Talbot, pp. 108–9. Contemporary South Asia, 9 (2000), pp. 25–39.
34 36 Owen Bennett-Jones, Pakistan: Eye of the Storm 48 Confirmed by recent Indian discussions over
35 (New Delhi: Viking, 2002), ch. i. Iranian nuclear ambitions and India’s support
36 37 Bennett-Jones, pp. 27–9. for US sanctions.
37 38 This was a particular concern for the British, in 49 See Apurba Kundu, “The NDA and National
38 the wake of terrorist attacks in London in 2005, Security,” in Katharine Adeney and Lawrence
39 which linked British Muslims with religious Sáez (eds), Coalition Politics and Hindu
40 seminaries and “camps” in Pakistan. See also Nationalism (London: Routledge, 2005), ch. iv.
41 Waheguru Pal Singh Sadu et al., Kashmir: New 50 Kundu, p. 219.
42 Voices, New Approaches (Boulder, CO: Lynne 51 See C. Mohan, Crossing the Rubicon:The Shaping
Rienner, 2006). of India’s New Foreign Policy (New Delhi:
43
39 Care needs to be taken when trying to analyze Viking Press, 2003); also Dennis Kux, Estranged
44 the exact reasoning for this animosity to elected Democracies:India and the United States 1941–1991
45 politicians and parties; some has genuinely to (New Delhi: Sage, 1993).
46 do with corruption and incompetence. 52 See Rob Jenkins, Democratic Politics and Economic
47 See Samina Ahmed, “The Fragile Base of Reform in India (Cambridge: University Press,
48 Democracy in Pakistan,”in Amita Shastri and A. 1999).

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53 See Rob Jenkins,“The NDA and the Politics of 58 Much of this literature derived from Latin 1
Economic Reform,” in Adeney and Sáez, America and Eastern Europe.For representative 2
pp. 173–92. application to South Asia, see John M. 3
54 Cohen, p. 2. Richardson, Jr. and S.W. R de A. Samarasinghe 4
55 See Tazeen M. Murshid, “State, Nation and (eds),Democratisation in South Asia:The First Fifty
5
Identity: The Quest for Legitimacy in Years (Kandy: International Center for Ethnic
6
Bangladesh,”in Shastri and Wilson,pp.158–82. Studies, 1998).
56 Richard Sisson and Leo Rose,War and Secession: 59 World Development Report, Development and 7
India, Pakistan and the Creation of Bangladesh the Next Generation (Washington, DC: World 8
(Princeton,NJ:University Press,1989).There is Bank, 2007). 9
some evidence that Indian intervention was in 60 See Leo E. Rose, “The National Political 10
part determined by radical Left movements Culture and Institutions in Nepal,” in Shastri 11
within the civil war making common cause and Wilson, pp. 114–38; also Rishikesh Shaha, 12
with the Left in West Bengal; see Tariq Ali, Can An Introduction to Nepal (Kathmandu: RPB, 13
Pakistan Survive? (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976). 14
1983). 61 See Edward C. Banfield, The Moral Basis of a 15
57 See D. Hugh Evans, “Bangladesh: South Asia’s Backward Society (New York: Free Press, 1958).
16
Unknown Quantity,” Asian Affairs, 75 (1988), 62 Michael Barnett,“Sovereignty,Nationalism and
17
pp. 306–16; and D. Hugh Evans, “Bangladesh: the Regional Order in the Arab State System,”
An Unsteady Democracy,” in Shastri and in Biersteker and Weber, pp. 148–89. 18
Wilson, pp. 69–87. 19
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2
3
4
5
6 Glossary
7
8
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12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19 Adivasi Literally “original dweller,” it is taken as equivalent to the English “indigenous”;
20 some use it loosely as equivalent to Scheduled Tribe and in some places both “ST” and
21 “Adivasi” designate the same people, but in fact usage is very varied across India: some
22 STs either reject or are ignorant of the Adivasi label and, v.v., some who claim to be
23 Adivasis do not have ST status.
24 Article 356 An emergency provision of India’s constitution under which the central
25 government can remove a state government and institute President’s rule for a period up
26 to six months on a finding by the Governor that the government of the state cannot be
27 carried on in accordance with the provisions of the constitution. Until the mid-1990s it
28 was often used for political purposes.
29 bakshish gift; gratuity
30 Bangla Bhai Brother of Bengal (name of an Islamic militant in Bangladesh)
31 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Hindu nationalist party which led the National Democratic
32 Alliance (NDA) coalition that governed India from 1999 to 2004.
33 bhasha formal language
34 bhasha ondolan Bengali language movement
35 boli colloquial speech
36 Cabinet Mission Plan An effort by the postwar Labour Government of British Prime
37 Minister Clement Atlee to resolve the conflict between the Indian National Congress
38 and the Muslim League and other long-standing constitutional problems that stood in
39 the way of realizing the Labour Government’s commitment to Indian independence. Its
40 proposal of a multi-layered federal state with a weak center and strong provinces was
41 rejected by Nehru and the Congress leadership, who wanted a strong activist state.
42 Center/Centre The term used throughout South Asia to refer to the central government.
43 Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) Central government transfer of funds to the states to
44 realize national objectives in areas allocated to the states. The funds must be utilized
45 according to the priorities established by the central government. CSS schemes are an
46 expanding form of central intervention that can dictate state choices with respect to
47 subjects that are constitutionally allocated to the states.
48
419