3. India [+Pakistan + Bangladesh] and the Mahatma

As can be seen from the connections of the global hierarchies with India, it is a country which has been associated with optimal historical realities in the ancient and medieval ages. Its relation with the modern age is expected to be no different.

India’s transition from optimal pre-modern associations to optimal modern association required a profound transformation, involving a revolutionary overthrow of the pre-modern creeds and systems of religion-rule and race-raid, so as to establish the modern creed and system of reason-revelation.

Such an armed revolution was to coincide with India’s movement for independence from British rule in the first half of the 20th century.

The mainstream movement for India’s independence was led by Gandhi. Gandhi, however, represented a culture rooted in religion. Historical progress in the medieval age, involving religion, happened through reformation. Gandhi adapted non-violent reformation as the political ideology of the Independence Movement.

The historical consequence of such an approach was the persistence of the religio-political nature of the relations between India’s majority Hindus and minority Muslims. The prospect of Hindu majority rule in post-independence India was increasingly deemed unacceptable by many Muslims. The outcome was the Partition of India at Independence in 1947, and the creation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

The failure to make a clean break from the pre-modern creed of religion-rule to the modern creed of reason-revelation, continues to determine the modern history and polity of the subcontinent, and is reflected in the basic quality of life.

Since independence there have been three major wars between Islamic Pakistan and Hindu majority India. Subsequently there have been proxy war through insurgency, particularly in the Indian border state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Domestically, in democratical India, for about four decades there was the three-generation long dynastic rule of the Nehru-Gandhi Family through the Indian National Congress party. This was followed by a transitional period of unstable coalitions. Subsequently an alliance led by the religious Bharatiya Janata Party became the first non-Congress government to complete a full term in office. The last general election was won by the Congress Party, led by the widow of a former prime minister from the Family, though, because of a nationally divisive controversy over her foreign origin, a former finance minister, who had earlier managed India’s recovery from economic __ruptcy toward economic liberalization, was nominated for the prime ministership.

In Pakistan, presently with a restrictedly elected Parliament, there is overall military rule.

Another pre-modern reality of race-raid is also significant in the subcontinent in the form of caste and cultural conflicts. A permanent historical consequence of ethnic division and oppression was the creation of Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) from Pakistan in 1971, through a war between India and Pakistan.

For sometime now India and Pakistan are engaged in a peace process, over the region of Kashmir, a bone of contention from Partition. Establishing a comprehensive connection between the divided Kashmir on either side of the border seems to be the crux of the challenge.

With Bangladesh, economic integration is vital to tackle issues like illegal immigration and insurgent activities.

Domestically, in India the emergence of coalition governments imply greater democratization and federalism. While economic liberalization has encouraged globally competitive enterprises.

There has been some movement toward addressing the problem of alienation and insurgency in North-East India. Arriving at a role for the Northeast frontier in the Indian nationstate is crucial. There has been a realization that in the backdrop of globalization and India’s look-east policy, the Northeast is naturally positioned to be the gateway to South-East Asia, and to southern China.

All rights reserved by the author including the right to translate or reproduce or part thereof except with acknowledgement of the author.

Free Web Hosting