Srini asks- what explains this high degree of political turmoil in South Asia?
Linked by kuffir. Join Blogbharti facebook group.While preparing myself to answer, it struck me that today’s South Asia is in a state of utter turmoil. In Sri Lanka, the ethnic conflict had reached a point of no return, with both the antagonists — the government and the insurgent LTTE – upping the ante to a full scale civil war. In Nepal, a much-awaited path to genuine elections has been derailed, raising dangerous omens of a return to strife that had engulfed the nation not long ago. In Pakistan, emergency has been declared even as extremist violence has reared its head. In Myanmar, the military junta has reacted ruthlessly to peaceful demonstrations by monks demanding the overthrow of autocracy. In Bangladesh, the premier political parties’ leaders are in prison as the democratic process has been suspended. The embers of violence in Afghanistan are still burning and there seems no end to internecine conflict. In India, there have been incidents of turmoil that are a dime-a-dozen in areas where the state has failed in its constitutional duties.
We in India seem to be the only ones in the region where democracy is still working. Is it? Even the Prime Minister had recently raised serious questions about the success of the multi-party model of democracy that has been almost wholly copied from a tiny island, England, where it evolved over centuries to meet the specific requirements of governing a tiny, almost homogeneous nation.
Many of India’s states are larger than England and our myriad complexities and cultures quite different. This model has, therefore, not comfortably slid into the stable two party avatar that our founding fathers had seen in England. As a result, the country has become a functioning anarchy, and governance has become almost impossible with every party and group having an MP and a half demanding its pound of flesh. Morality is not even in the frame!
As I have written in detail repeatedly, what happens in future will depend upon whether the Indian genius can rig up a ‘jugaad’ to set things right. If not, we may well have a revolution on our hand, the danger of which is that its result may well be quite different from that intended.
Dear Mr Sharma,
On the BBC world service tomorrow we are doing a special discussion program asking ‘is democracy for every country inevitable’? We’d love to talk to you on the show, not so much an interview as a conversation with other people from all over the world. If you send your phone number to lin.liu@bbc.co.uk we can discuss it further.
regards, Tom
All this thing about Indian being the largest democracy in the world and how we should be proud of it is crap. Let us not forget that HITLER WAS ELECTED IN A DEMOCRATIC SETUP.
Who are we as a people? We are Human.
I mean more specifically, Racially? South Asian, Deshi, Sarracian, Indian.
What are the major subgroups? Bengali in the East, Hindi in the West and Central, Tamil in the South, Urdu in the North.
What are the major cutoffs? The Hindu Kush to the Northwest, The Himalayas to the Northeast, The Chini Hills to the East, The Indian Ocean to the Southwest, The bay of Bengal to the Southeast.
How many are there on the planet? We estimate about 1.5 Billion Deshis.
How many are there in North America? We estimate about 5 Million people.
What do you find is our key goal in North America? We should build a megacity for nearly 1 Million South Asian people.
How will we do that? The Millions will build it for their benefit. Others can help them at a cost.
Why are we here in North America? Larger forces in nature have placed us here.
What is the goal of man? To evovle.
How many National level politicians in South Asia? About 8,000 Ministers, Senators, Representatives and Governors.
How many State level politicians in South Asia? About 100,000 Governors, State Representatives, State Senators and Ministers.
What is the price of the wheat? I don’t know.