Review

Abstract

The IWGIA has drawn from a variety of sources, and most important of all, from personal accounts to bring out this volume on a very ill-served group among the indigenous peoples in the world—the Nagas living on the border of India and Burma. Writings of British political agents, missionaries, and anthropologists, documents brought out by the parallel national government, and human rights pamphlets and publications give a fairly in-depth understanding of the history of these peoples and their struggle against British colonial domination and postindependence India. Even by the end of the nineteenth century, the British had been able to control only a very small part of Naga areas. Currently, the Nagas live as minorities in several northeastern states of India because of the political and administrative division of this area beyond Bangladesh. The larger group of them live on the Burmese side of the McMahon Line. In the early 1960s the state of Nagaland was carved out in India, but it included only fourteen of the more than thirty Naga tribes living in a contiguous territory.     

Showing Character: Nehru,Reputation, and the Sino-Indian Dispute, 1957–1962

Abstract

In the approach to the Sino-Indian war of 1962, the Indian government made some surprising policy choices. Most significant was Nehru’s decision to contest what was viewed by him and his officials as unimportant territory in the western sector, rejecting in the process Chou en-Lai’s 1960 “package” offer. Instead, Delhi chose to initiate in 1961 the Forward Policy, in full awareness of the severely disadvantageous position of the Indian military in the disputed border areas. Using Indian primary documents, this article makes the case that reputational considerations—particularly Nehru’s fear that any concessions to China would be viewed as weakness and provoke further aggression—help explain the puzzling aspects of India’s intransigence on the Sino-Indian territorial dispute during this period.     

“A Cat’s Paw of Indian Reactionaries”? Strategic Rivalry and Domestic Politics at the India–China–Myanmar Tri-Junction

ABSTRACT

Ostensibly driven by concerns over a military standoff with China similar to Doklam, India increased military deployment at the Myanmar tri-junction. This article assesses the inevitability of systemic factors such as rivalry with China in determining India’s approach on border issues. It asks why India sought formalization of its boundary with Burma in 1967. Given its territorial disputes with China, resolving the Burma boundary should have been high priority. Still, it took India two decades after independence to broach the subject. Based on fresh archival and interview data, this article answers the question by examining the India–Burma Boundary Agreement. A three-party territorial dispute, the making of this agreement witnessed simultaneous interplay between states with visible power differentials, and various stakeholders within India’s polity and bureaucracy. The article argues that even when inter-state competition is apparent, domestic factors may be more important in triggering foreign policy change.     

Introduction to dalit poems

Abstract

The word dalit in Marathi, the language spoken by 50 million people in the state of Maharashtra in Western India, means “downtrodden,” “ground down,” or “depressed.” A caste-less word which ex-Untouchables have chosen for the new school of literature they have created, it includes all those who have suffered from the religio-social system. Short stories by ex-Untouchables began to appear in the 1950s, but the great swelling of creativity — poetry, novels, short stories, plays — appeared only in the late 1960s. The school is acknowledged by the Marathi literary establishment as a new and important development in the long history of Marathi literature. It represents a new voice, and its themes are protest, grievance, pride — and often revolution.     

Introduction to Paranjape

Abstract

The following article is part of a longer project by Suhas Paranjape, dealing with the historical development first of class relations and then of class struggle in Dhule district, which lies north of Bombay in the state of Maharashtra. The area involved is small, but it might be pointed out that this is true of other “vanguard” areas of class struggle in post-independence India, such as Naxalbari and Srikakulam which were also areas populated mainly by adivasis or tribals. Dhule differs from these in combining adivasi militancy with developed capitalist farming—and so perhaps is even more of a signal for the rising forms of class struggle in India.     

The international conference on democratic decentralization

Abstract

From 23 to 28 May 2000, 2,762 academics, officials, and activists participated in the International Conference on Democratic Decentralization, held in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. The conference was organized by the Kerala State Planning Board as part of an attempt to evaluate the experience of four years of the People's Campaign for the Ninth Plan, Kerala's extensive experiment in local democracy and decentralized planning as mechanisms for development. The large number and range of participants made the conference much more than a local evaluation, as India-wide and international comparisons were supplemented by extensive theoretical discussions, particularly in the academic portion of the conference. While most participants came from Kerala, several attended from other Indian states and more than thirty foreign participants came from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Haiti, Brazil, Sri Lanka, England, and Sweden. The Cuban and Vietnamese ambassadors to India attended the entire conference and made comments about their nations' decentralization policies at the final plenary session.     

The International Humanitarian Regime and its Discontents: India’s Challenge

Abstract

In recent years, concerns over whether the humanitarian regime as we know it will survive a many-pronged challenge have spurred humanitarian organisations to embark on processes of soul-searching and innovation. With a steadily increasing aid budget and its more active and vocal role in development and humanitarian politics—and in global politics more generally—India has acquired the label of ‘emerging’ humanitarian actor. This article, however, shows that in many ways India has been a humanitarian pioneer, and connects the norms and values of the international humanitarian regime with India’s own philosophical, religious and democratic traditions. It also discusses how Indian policy-makers have critiqued the current United Nations-led international humanitarian regime and investigates how the government of an increasingly powerful and influential Commonwealth country from the South interacts with an international regime created in Europe. For many Indian policy-makers, current humanitarian practices are tainted by what they see as North American and European interventionist and highly political agendas in the South. The article concludes that while there is still a lot to be said for a global, multilateral humanitarian regime led by the United Nations, it need not be Western-biased, either in theory or in practice.     

The South Asian revolutionary potential

Abstract

When India, Pakistan and Ceylon gained home rule more than two decades ago, their leaders set forth certain goals for their futures. Among them were control of their own political and economic destinies, increased productivity and improvements in livelihood, education and health, mixed private and state-planned economies, some cooperative institutions of production and distribution, and movement toward socio-economic equality. Land reform and industrial development were central to these goals. All three nations were to be western-style party democracies with progressively broadening franchise in elections at national, provincial and local levels.     

China's Strategy in the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands Dispute: Issue Linkage and Coercive Diplomacy

Abstract

For almost four decades, China has disputed Japan's sovereignty of several small rocky islands in the East China Sea. Despite a June 2008 joint gas development agreement, China continues to claim sovereignty and the dispute is nowhere close to being resolved. This study proposes that China benefits from the endurance of the dispute because it can use territorial dispute threats to compel Japan to change its behavior or policy on other disputed issues. The results show that China gained concessions on other issues by using the territorial dispute as bargaining leverage in most of the 26 threats made between 1978 and 2008.     

SHAIKH HASINA'S VISIT TO INDIA AND THE FUTURE OF INDO-BANGLADESH RELATIONS

Shaikh Hasina's crushing victory in the December 2008 Bangladesh elections opened a new chapter in her country's relations with Delhi. India had long wanted improvements in cooperation against terrorism and better access to the states of North East India, Bangladesh needed better cooperation over water resources and the trade imbalance. Shaikh Hasina's swift action against insurgent groups trying to operate against India from Bangladesh territory laid the foundations for her very successful visit to India in early 2010 which in turn set the framework for a better future relationship. But in the light of the hostility of many in Bangladesh to improved relations with India, the author examines the options for Indian policy makers. He concludes that the emphasis should be on achieving progress in areas outside security, where progress would be irreversible, while recognising that a real transformation of the relationship would be possible if Shaikh Hasina was able to win the next elections and secure a further term in office.     

Sino-Indian Security Predicaments for the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

This article considers various security predicaments affecting relations between India and China. These Sino-Indian security predicaments include their territorial dispute, their nuclear arms race, their encirclement and alignment scenarios, their trade and energy issues, and their future prospects. International relations (IR) theory is deployed around these varied security predicaments, with power and perception particularly evident in IR realism, geopolitics, constructivism, and security dilemma dynamics. Balance-of-power theory is complemented by balance-of-threat considerations. India's hedging strategy towards China and China's own strategy of transition point to each country looking to their own respective rise for the mid century.     

Tribal or Indigenous? The Indian Dilemma

Abstract

Current Maoist struggles, resulting from deprivation of livelihood in the Central Indian tribal belt and for autonomy in Northeast India, focus on the rights of tribes who claim to be indigenous In the Northeast the demand is to be considered the ‘original’ inhabitants of the region and, in the rest of India, it is the first inhabitants of India as a whole. Most conflicts today are around identity, central to which is indigenous status and tribal sustenance. Much resource has been alienated for ‘national development’ since independence in 1947. A national failure to recognise the importance of community-based sustenance facilitates its alienation. Intensified alienation, resulting from globalisation, causes more conflicts and greater state suppression. This article discusses the link between development and indigenous status, and implications for human rights.     

The Contribution of Commonwealth Armed Forces in UN Peacekeeping: The Case of Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is one of the top troop contributing countries to UN Peacekeeping Operations. This paper traces the antecedents and history of the Bangladesh Armed Forces and follows Bangladesh’s participation in various peacekeeping operations over the past 25 years including Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo.     

Weather modification and war

Abstract

Although the cost already borne by the people of Indochina in terms of human deaths and injuries is staggering, still more suffering awaits them as a consequence of the lingering effects of the new use of an old weapon — environmental warfare — on a scale never before seen. Throughout the war, the United States systematically attacked the ecosystem through intense application of herbicides, large-scale bulldozing, attempted creation of firestorms, and the incredibly concentrated bombing, which cratered vast areas and repeatedly damaged the dikes in North Vietnam. This has created irreversible damage to the environment. In addition to serving the announced purpose of denying cover to the insurgents, it has become clear that the environmental warfare has had a more sinister purpose: to destroy the social structure that supports the National Liberation Front by removing millions of people from their ancestral homes and packing them into more easily controlled areas, such as urban slums and refugee camps.     

Jhagrapur: Poor peasants and women in a Bangladesh Village

Abstract

In the opening pages of Jhagrapur: Poor Peasants and Women in a Bangladesh Village, Dutch authors Jenneke Arens and Jos van Beurden comment that it would take “academic acrobats” to understand Bangladesh village life from a distance. The same holds true for the international experts and government bureaucrats who design development strategies for the country. Too often their ideas, incubated far from the villages, gloss over such basic dynamics of village life as conflicts between classes, the struggle over land and the subjugation of women. But ignorance is bliss for those who seek technical solutions to social problems, so it was not surprising that the Catholic volunteer aid agency (Christian Organization for Relief and Rehabilitation) which commissioned Jhagrapur refused to publish it when they read the results. It was simply too controversial.     

Lunch break

Abstract

All at once the whirring sewing-machines stopped and the world became quiet. Warm sunlight filtered lazily through small windows set at odd angles, and particles of dust hung suspended in the air. One by one people began stretching, yawning, and looking around; tired, expressionless faces sagging and blurring as hints of half-smiles appeared at the corners of their eyes and mouths. It was time for their lunch break, time for a breather, time for a good laugh. Every day it arrived as regular as clockwork, the way April Fool's Day makes its appearance in the West every year.     

Fear Factor: Northeast Asian Responses to China's Rise

Abstract

In 2008, India and Japan made a joint security declaration while asserting that a strategic partnership between the two countries would become an essential pillar for the future architecture of the region. This article examines whether the security declaration is a step toward building an enduring security partnership. It will consider perceptions in Japan and India of the bilateral security relationship, proposals for how to give it substance, and key issues that may impede the deepening of the relationship. This article will conclude that although there is no clear consensus as to the substance of the relationship, the relationship between India and Japan is likely to grow in coming years.     

“孟不印尼”合作倡议及其发展趋势

"孟不印尼"(BBIN)合作倡议是由印度发起的一个南亚东北部次区域合作倡议。目的是绕开长期被印巴矛盾拖累的南盟,通过在印度东部、孟加拉国、尼泊尔和不丹之间建立一个涉及公路、铁路、内河运输、航空和电力网络的次区域联通体系,推动南亚东部次区域一体化进程。目前,"孟不印尼"倡议的里程碑"机动车协议"已经达成但尚未完全生效。铁路联通协议开始讨论并已有前期收获,其他领域尚未进入正式谈判阶段。"孟不印尼"合作倡议体现了相关国家和地区对互联互通的渴望与要求,符合该地区的长远利益。印度试图借此解决其东北部的交通瓶颈问题,巩固其南亚交通枢纽的地位,并试图在更大地理范围内扩大印度的地缘优势。但是,这一倡议受到印度国家能力的限制以及与其他成员国之间复杂关系的影响。一方面,印度东部地区经济发展水平低下,不足以成为吸引周边国家的经济发动机。另一方面,BBIN国家经济发展水平相近,经济结构高度相似,经济互补性有限。成员国从BBIN倡议中获得的潜在收益,可能会不如预期,将挫伤相关国家的积极性。再加上资金保障不力、管理机制对接困难,BBIN的推进将会比较困难。     

The Puzzle of India’s Relations with “Central Eurasia”

ABSTRACT

India’s relations with Afghanistan and the post-Soviet countries of Central Asia have contributed to the growing interest in the country’s rise. By treating them together as “Central Eurasia,” the discourses of Indian foreign policy invoke a contiguous geopolitical locale bound to India by a shared past. Yet, despite the strategic articulation of a manifest Central Eurasian region, the article uncovers a puzzle of bifurcation in India’s foreign policy reflecting distinct operationalizations of India’s cultural capital in its relations with Afghanistan and the Central Asia republics. The comparative analysis indicates that prior historical experience becomes a compelling strategic context for the continuous framing and reframing of the country’s foreign policy space, which reveals India’s shifting perceptions of international order, self-identity, and global roles. India’s interactions in Central Eurasia offer a good illustration of the crossroads that New Delhi’s foreign policy is facing – either keep on proliferating discourses that spin yarns of the international influence of its historical capital or develop proactive diplomatic strategies that deliver the international status that India desires.     

South Africa’s Inclusion in BRICS: Challenges and Prospects for Development in Africa

Abstract

The forming of alliances on the international scene has reflected a provisional arrangement in the world economy. Amongst such alliances was the formation of BRICS by the five world economies—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa into what is commonly known as BRICS. BRICS is considered a joint initiative, aimed at shifting conventional norms in international economic and political cooperation to create a new trans-continental platform for these actors. Each member country in BRICS has, in one way or another, reflected growth either through its economy foreign policy, and developmental pursuit. However, South Africa is portrayed by some researchers as lagging behind, when compared to the other member countries. Hence, this study sought to analyse the potential mediumand long-term implications of South Africa's inclusion in BRICS. The study also aimed to underscore the benefits and risks associated with South Africa's membership in the alliance in the area of development; specifically poverty reduction, foreign policy, trade, and global partnership. The researchers collected secondary data to analytically critique the inclusion of South Africa in the BRICS alliance, its benefits, and shortcomings for development in South Africa, and in Africa as a whole. We argue that as a global player under BRICS, South Africa has opened a new vista of opportunities, including transnational gateways to Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with the attendant inflow of infrastructural and developmental investments, enriching educational exchanges and technology transfers. The article concludes by stressing the need for South Africa and other African countries to formulate policies that will drive meaningful development in their respective countries. The authors recommend that African leaders should come up with innate policies that are Africa-centred, that would incite development internally.