One word that defines South Asia, for me, is ‘diversity’. The diversity in terms of language, religion, culture, geography, resources, economy, politics and much more. This is the land of extremities, from majestic Mt. Everest to the lush green plains, from the bounty of natural heritage to spectacles of the new age, from spectacular beauty to nose crinkling dirt, from the world’s richest to poor and from peace gurus like Gandhi to the terrorists like Bin Laden. Uniformity is almost absent in every aspect that can be thought of. A range of 22 languages 220 dialects are spoken here. South Asia is a pool of religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Jain, Zoroastrian, Christian and Sikh. It is a congregation of countries that together bear the essence of the beauty and the beast. Apart from its diversity South Asia has its own civilization and history. It is the realm of one of the oldest civilizations of the world where people from different religions and cultures have been coexisting since centuries. South Asia was more likely known as the Indian subcontinent during the western emperor regime. Geographers like Sir Dudley Stamp called it the Indian subcontinent because of its separation from the rest of the Asian landmass by a continuous barrier of mountains in the north.
Since the independence of Indian sub continent from colonial powers the region has always been indo centric. Even though all other seven member states have national sovereignty and equal independent presence in the region South Asia, India still seems to be in the spot light. There are various factors which make India a centre of South Asia and project India as a regional power. India’s geographical location, booming economy, military and arms capability, historical-religious-cultural importance and demographic potency are the major components that make India as a regional hegemony and projects South Asia as an indo centric region.
Geographical location and size matters immensely in International relations. Economy and development might not have direct relation with geography but when it comes in geo-strategic planning and power demonstration, the size of a country shall still have a presence in global politics. During the post cold war era small nations like Switzerland, Singapore and Japan proved that a country’s size does not really matter in issues of national development and economic prosperity. However in arms race, economic marketization, geostrategic arrangement, demographic potency and socio-cultural diversity the geography and physical size of a nation entitle it to supremacy. In South Asian regional politics India’s geographical location and its huge size makes it the regional dominant. India is the largest country in the region and seventh largest in the world. Located in the centre of South Asia, it is the only nation in the region which is geographically connected with all other member nations where as none of the other nations share borders with all of the rest. India’s geography has become a boon for its physical regional connectivity in South Asia. It occupies over seventy percent of the landmass of the region. In the region India shares land borders with five other nations; with Pakistan to the west, a stretch of 106 km with Afghanistan bordering Jammu and Kashmir, Bhutan and Nepal to the north-east and Bangladesh to the east. Similarly maritime border is shared with two states, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Moreover it is bounded by three major oceans in the region; Indian Ocean on the south, Arabian Sea on the south-west and Bay of Bengal on the south-east.
Significant economic reforms of India have already transformed it as a regional power and also has established into one of the fastest growing economies in the world. India renders huge economic assistance to most of its neighbours in the region and beyond. In the past few years India’s average economic growth rate has been about 7- 8 percent which is not just highest in the region but also third largest in Asia and tenth largest in the entire world by nominal GDP and the third largest by Purchasing Power parity (PPP). It is one of the G-20 major economies as well as 19th largest exporter and 10th largest importer in the world. Today India has been observed as the regional power and potential global superpower in near future because of its rapid economic growth. India is the biggest funder of the regional association SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation). If India’s economic assistances would be cut off from SAARC then it would become difficult for SAARC to survive financially merely from the contribution of other member nations. In realest international relations economy plays a predominant role to make a nation dominant. Considering existing global politics one cannot disagree with the fact that economically sound nations have direct or indirect influence on their financially supported nations and India is no exception to this.
In international relations neo-realism argues for struggle for survival. Strengthening military capability was not just relevant in pre cold war realist world but is important in 21st century as well. The only difference here is earlier arms and weapons used to threaten overtly whereas now it has been threatening silently. This is one of the reasons why countries even in neo realistic era will go for nuclear weapons, arms race and its proliferation despite knowing the fact that those weapons will probably never be used. India is globally sixth and regionally the first nation declaring itself as a nuclear power. It has the world’s third largest military force. India’s strong lobbying to get permanent membership in United Nations Security Council gives clear indication of its military strengths in the world. India’s aspiration to provide military assistance in the region, for instance, military interference in East Pakistan’s liberation movement from West Pakistan in 1971 on humanitarian ground, military intervention in Sri Lanka’s civil war from 1987 to 1990 in humanitarian ground, arms and weapons assistance to Afghanistan’s and Nepal’s civil war, as demand arms support to the Maldives, military trainings to Nepalese and Bhutanese armies and influential involvement in the Royal Bhutan Army in the name of military assistance make India a regional dominant in armaments and military.
Being historically, culturally and religiously rich signify the rooted significance of any nation. India’s historical and cultural values make India one of the rich nations from historical, cultural and religious perspective. It has its own history with common cultures and religions. Historically the South Asian region was popularly known as the Indian sub continent and most of the nations were directly colonised by the western colonial powers since centuries. India took successful initiation to revolt against colonial powers in the British India (present India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) era and later other nations in the region like the Maldives and Sri Lanka followed the anti colonial revolution and got emancipation from colonial powers. So India had credential roles in emancipating greater India as well as influencing the entire Indian sub continent. India is possibly the richest nation in South Asia in terms of socio-cultural and religious diversity. It is the land of global religion practices, having Hindu majority followed by Islam. Similarly in terms of culture, language and ethnicity it is one of the well prosperous nations in South Asia. It has hundreds of dialects and ethnic groups. India is a secular state with Hindu majority however it is the largest Islam populace nation in South Asia and is the second largest in the world. India’s most spoken language ‘Hindi’, it’s culture, spirituality, yoga, bollywood and TV industry have huge influence not just in the region but beyond, which has been exercised as a soft power or cultural capital by India.
India with more than 1.2 billion people is the largest populous nation in the region and second largest in the world after China. India accounts for more than seventy-five percent of the population of SAARC countries. Its large population had been seen as a big challenge particularly because of its few available resources to satiate the existing population. Nonetheless the economic reform of India after 1990 has transformed the same large population into a source of huge market and has strengthened the national economy. To a large extent the nation has proved that large population can also be transformed into demographic dividend through economic revolution. India’s large population makes it globally the largest democracy. Moreover well presence of Indian Diaspora all over the world has not just made India politically and economically strong but has also made it culturally admired all over the globe.
The entire South Asia is an indo centric and unipolar region which eventually makes India a regional power. There is no balance of power in South Asia. None of the other nation members in the region have been able to go parallel with India in terms of economic and military development, which ultimately makes a nation powerful in international politics. With the aim of bringing regional prosperity through cooperation, for the very first time a regional organization known as SAARC was established in South Asia in 1985. SAARC was somehow seen as a tool to balance the power in the region between India and other member nations. However this dimension of SAARC was unable to manifest itself into reality because of multiple reasons. SAARC should play an important decentralising role to bring balance of power in the region. To make South Asia equal to all member nations and to reduce India’s influence there should be mutual cooperation and relations between India and other members. India’s ‘big brother’ attitude towards its neighbouring nations is a sign of hegemony which in the long run has negative impacts. Indeed this is one of the key issues why India’s regional neighbours have a petite heart towards India. Similarly to win the trust of its neighbours and to achieve the goal of Gujral School of doctrine, India has to leave its interfering nature in the matters of its neighbouring nations. Correspondingly other member nations in the region also need to change their downbeat attitude towards India. Although at contemporary South Asian regional politics India is the most powerful and dominating state, shortly the region should be well balanced between all member nations in order to establish regional peace and cooperation.
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