The Never-Ending StoryFacta, Non VerbaMay 11, 20251 min readUpdated: Aug 11Perpetually Unfinished BusinessYou DON’T Know the Half of It (No Pun Intended)…& DON’T TALK ABOUT POLIO!Well, duh.https://video.wixstatic.com/video/d1a201_d25a3a6f2de3425b971335640d14495a/1080p/mp4/file.mp4https://video.wixstatic.com/video/d1a201_26ebd9f4e5364ee6a95e4cac0787fc56/1080p/mp4/file.mp4< https://www.facta-non-verba.info/post/arsean >https://video.wixstatic.com/video/d1a201_9dd615cbe60e430a808f8bf05d587945/480p/mp4/file.mp4https://video.wixstatic.com/video/d1a201_74916fe1f2bf441991ec24d5683d2d80/1080p/mp4/file.mp4注：「教育」和「搞砸」這兩詞。< https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/colonial-wound-how-english-language-systematically-raj-अभ-ष-क-र-ज--aj9ff >
![巴基斯坦的痴迷對抗印度對巴基斯坦造成的損失遠大於印度遏制巴基斯坦所付出的代價。
پاکستان بھارت کا مقابلہ کرنے کے اپنے جنون کی اس سے کہیں زیادہ قیمت ادا کر رہا ہے جتنی بھارت اس کی قیمت ادا کر رہا ہے، یعنی بھارت پاکستان کو روکنے کی قیمت چکا رہا ہے۔
南亞最大的問題是其不平衡性。
दक्षिण एशिया की सबसे बड़ी समस्या इसका एकतरफा पन है।
印度是該地區的主導力量；因此，南亞地區的國際關係通常都局限於印度與其鄰國之間反之亦然。
भारत इस क्षेत्र में एक प्रमुख शक्ति है, और इस प्रकार, दक्षिण एशिया के भीतर कोई भी अंतर्राष्ट्रीय संबंध आम तौर पर भारत और उसके पड़ोसिनों के बीच ही होते हैं, या इसके विपरीत।
畸形 片面 南亞 次大陸 印度 巴基斯坦 衝突 孟加拉 尼泊爾 不丹 斯里蘭卡 錫蘭 馬爾地夫 代 阿富汗
The End of South Asia — A Region in Name Only
Happymon Jacob, Monday, 22nd July 2024
For decades, policymakers and scholars have been trained in the West and elsewhere to think of the countries of the Indian subcontinent as part of a coherent region: South Asia. Home to around a quarter of the world’s population, the region consists of eight countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Its diverse peoples speak hundreds of different languages and follow numerous different religious traditions, but they have shared histories, including the experience of British colonialism, and shared cultural connections, including a love of the sport of cricket and Bollywood films, ethnic ties, and musical and culinary practices, for instance. In the late twentieth century, South Asian leaders sought to deepen links within the region, with the greater goal of integration in line with that pursued in nearby Southeast Asia under the auspices of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or in Europe under the European Union. South Asia, too, they imagined, could become a consequential regional bloc in global geopolitics.
But that never happened. In the last four decades, South Asia has managed to build little security, economic, or policy cohesion. Mistrust and enmity, notably that between India and Pakistan, have made integration a pipe dream. Worse, at the most fundamental level, the notion of belonging to South Asia has lost any of the traction it ever had. South Asians no longer look to one another for connection and solidarity but rather gaze farther afield, to the Middle East, Southeast Asia, or the West. Not many South Asians (outside those tens of millions living in diaspora around the world) would even think to consider themselves South Asians in the first place. The term today does not denote a coherent regional identity but is merely a mundane geographical demarcation used mostly by those outside the region. The dream of a united South Asia is over, with important implications for geopolitics on the subcontinent that policymakers and analysts of the region have yet to fully grasp.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
As a term, “South Asia” has its origins far from the subcontinent. Academic analysts and policymakers in the West began using the term in the late 1950s after the emergence of independent postcolonial states from British India in 1947. During the Cold War, when the United States maintained closer ties to Pakistan than it did to ostensibly nonaligned India, the term allowed Washington to speak about the region without underlining India’s local predominance. Universities in the West followed suit, with academics using South Asia as a neutral term to describe India and its neighbors. Over time, Indians themselves started using the term in certain rarefied circles, but few people in the region conceived of themselves as South Asian.
In the late 1970s, General Ziaur Rahman, who had come to power in Bangladesh through a military coup in 1975, started floating the idea of a regional organization. Although the smaller states immediately warmed to the idea, India and Pakistan were initially more skeptical but decided to entertain the Bangladeshi proposal. The proposal found formal expression in 1985 with the creation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, a group that included Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SAARC sought to create a “better climate of understanding” and foster cooperation among member states.
For around three decades, SAARC enjoyed considerable support in the region, albeit with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Indian leaders became more receptive toward SAARC beginning in the late 1990s, particularly Prime Ministers Inder Kumar Gujral (1997 to 1998), Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1998 to 2004), and Manmohan Singh (2004 to 2010). They pushed ahead even as many in New Delhi warned that India’s rivalry and disputes with Pakistan would severely curb SAARC’s ability to function, never mind its ability to integrate the region. For their part, Pakistani leaders have long been wary of SAARC, fearing it could become a vehicle for the exercise of India’s influence, but Islamabad still participated in the summits and other platforms associated with the group. Smaller states in the region, such as Bhutan, the Maldives, and Nepal, were the keenest advocates of SAARC, convinced that their membership in such a multilateral platform granted them greater geopolitical agency.
But after an initial period of activity, SAARC has crept perilously close to obsolescence. Of the 18 SAARC summits held so far, six were staged during the first six years of its existence. The group has held only six summits between 2005 and 2014 and none at all in the last decade. During the group’s heyday from the 1990s into the first decade of the twenty-first century, member countries set up and explored several ambitious ventures, including the South Asia Free Trade Area (a free-trade agreement signed in 2004), a customs union, a common regional market, and a common economic and monetary union. But over time, these grand ambitions have fallen by the wayside. The partial progress achieved in implementing the free-trade area has been stalled since 2014, when Pakistan blocked the signing of an agreement about motor vehicles. Other closer forms of regional integration remain pipe dreams.
The South Asian University, set up by the SAARC countries in New Delhi in 2010, is today a ghost of what it was originally meant to be. Visa restrictions and financial constraints have hampered its growth, and the institution has not helped foster a sense of regional identity through higher education as its founders imagined it would. Attempts by the region’s elites and civil society to encourage regionalism in South Asia through nongovernmental organizations, such as the South Asia Free Media Association and South Asians for Human Rights, or think tanks, such as the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, have not gained much traction either. SAARC and these organizations express an elite-level desire for greater connection within South Asia, but that desire has failed to produce meaningful integration in the region.
THE CENTER DOES NOT HOLD
Part of South Asia’s problem is its lopsidedness. India is the region’s biggest and most powerful country. Its dominance has had a paradoxical impact on the development of regional structures. At its core, South Asia consists of India and six countries that share a border with India but not with one another. (The exception is Afghanistan, which shares a border with Pakistan but not with India.) In that sense, South Asia is primarily the sum of interactions among India’s neighbors with India and India with its neighbors.
The fact of Indian centrality has meant that New Delhi does not always see the value of building regional structures, as such structures cannot add to the predominance India already enjoys in the region. Even though a number of Indian prime ministers saw merit in SAARC, the Indian bureaucracy and strategic establishment have never been convinced of its value. They have long feared that the creation of regional structures could potentially check India’s dominance in its own backyard. Since SAARC functions based on consensus, India’s vote on affairs on the subcontinent would count as much as that of Bhutan and the Maldives, the smallest countries in the region. As a result, it makes little sense for Indian decision-makers to support the creation of structures that could undermine their country’s influence in the region. That sentiment has a corollary among Indian strategists and foreign policy analysts; they, too, look beyond the region and think of South Asia’s inherent conflicts as a millstone around India’s neck.
That South Asia is increasingly becoming an arena of geopolitical competition not only makes further regional integration less likely; such competition also threatens to undo even the limited regional cohesion that exists today. In recent decades, China has built up its influence among India’s neighbors. Take Sri Lanka, for instance, whose largest bilateral creditor is China and to whom China has provided loans to build highways, an airport, and a port. In Bangladesh, China has been using loans and infrastructure development assistance to gain influence. And China is jostling there not just with India but with the United States. In 2021, the United States placed sanctions on an elite paramilitary unit in Bangladesh for its alleged human rights violations and extrajudicial killings. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin rebuked this policy when he reiterated in 2023 that the Chinese “firmly support Bangladesh in safeguarding its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, upholding independent domestic and foreign policies, and pursuing a development path that suits its national realities.” In sum, China’s growing profile in South Asia marks a clear change from Beijing’s initial decision, dating back to the inception of the People’s Republic of China, of leaving the region to India. Today, China no longer sees India as a peer, nor is it willing to accept India’s primacy in the subcontinent.
Intraregional trade in South Asia is meager: it contributes to only five percent of the region’s overall trade totals—by contrast, intraregional trade among the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations accounts for 25 percent of the region’s overall trade. Moreover, China’s fast-growing trade with South Asia is eclipsing India’s own trade with its neighbors.
The inhabitants of the region themselves are not clamoring for stronger ties. Indeed, a shared history and cultural heritage doesn’t necessarily produce strong connections, let alone thriving bonds. India’s growing, prosperous middle class has little interest in South Asia, nor does it feel that it has much in common with people in neighboring countries. In the minds of this aspirational class of around 430 million people, many of whom have connections to diasporic communities in the West, the Middle East, and elsewhere in Asia, India is meant for bigger things than its immediate neighborhood.
Cultural exchange within the region is also on the wane. In 2019, Pakistan banned Indian content on local television and FM radio channels. Turkish TV shows increasingly fill the vacuum in Pakistan left in the absence of content from India. In India, there are hardly any Pakistani artists in the Bollywood film industry, and Pakistani cricketers no longer play in India’s money-spinning Indian Premier League, the sport’s most lucrative league.
South Asians are not working or studying in one another’s countries as much as they used to. Since 1990, there has been a consistent decline in intraregional migration. For instance, India has long been a favored destination for Nepali workers, but they now are venturing to the Gulf countries and Malaysia, with India often serving just as a transit point. People across the region are going to places where they can secure higher wages than they can in South Asia, namely Australia, Malaysia, the Middle East, western Europe, and North America.
Few South Asians study in one another’s countries, except in India. South Asian students still make up half the total foreign student population in India, but these numbers have stagnated in the past decade. A 2020 Brookings India report showed that the annual growth rate of foreign South Asian students in India decreased from 30 percent in the 2011–12 academic year to just nine percent in 2018–19. India’s loss has been China’s gain. The number of students from India’s neighboring countries studying in China increased by 176 percent between 2011 and 2016, the Brookings report stated. In 2016, for example, there were three times as many Bangladeshis studying in China as in India.
South Asians face a very clear impediment to travel within the region: hard borders. Only the tourist-friendly Maldives offers visas on arrival for all SAARC member countries. Bhutan and Nepal have a visa-free travel agreement with India. But apart from these deals, regional travel is difficult. Given that India is the only geographical connection among many of the countries of the region, New Delhi’s decision to open or close borders determines the fate of intraregional connectivity in South Asia. The decrease in intra-South Asian connectivity in trade, tourism, and education is, unsurprisingly, being made up for by China: consider the growing amount of connectivity in trade, tourism, and education between China and Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The more India neglects South Asia, the more China embraces it. It’s not a zero-sum game; it’s a walkover for China. And it may well be too late for India to reassert itself as a regional hub.
A REGION UNBOUND
Thanks to the decision of many South Asian states to leverage China to balance India’s primacy, South Asia is no longer the India-centric region it used to be. Paradoxically, however, India’s loss of regional primacy also means that South Asia is losing its salience as a geopolitical entity, with smaller countries strengthening economic, political, diplomatic, and cultural ties with China and drifting away from India. In other words, the smaller South Asian states that once hoped to benefit from greater regional integration have made such integration more unlikely; by using China to balance India, they have undermined the coherence and potential unity of South Asia.
The end of South Asia as both a geopolitical entity and an epistemological category has implications that go beyond university departments or nongovernmental organizations that might have to reimagine how they frame their agendas. Despite India’s primacy in the region, Indian thinkers have come to believe that entanglement in South Asia limits the country’s ambitions. In the last decade, India has reoriented its strategic focus from Pakistan to China and from the continental theater to the maritime one. It has embarked on a wider economic journey by signing and negotiating several important free-trade agreements with countries farther afield, such as Switzerland. New Delhi seeks a larger geopolitical space for itself. In contemporary Indian strategic thinking, South Asia is at best a small place and at worst a limitation.
There is little value for India in pouring in resources to either regain exclusive primacy or balance China in a space in which it is geopolitically weaker and somewhat contained. Although New Delhi’s concerns about Beijing’s growing power are understandable, frantic attempts to win back South Asia or compete with China for regional dominance are unlikely to work. Another option available to India is to work with China in the region, as many of India’s neighbors would prefer, but it won’t be too long before an ambitious and aggressive China seeks to relegate India to the rank of a second-rate power in South Asia. Already, India has struggled to set and enforce redlines among its neighbors, for example, with Chinese spy ships docking in Sri Lanka in recent years.
A wiser option for New Delhi would be to think more broadly and see South Asia as only a part of its neighborhood rather than the entirety of it. This doesn’t mean that India should give China a free hand in South Asia. On the contrary, it should encourage countries and groupings outside South Asia to take a more active role in the region. It could, for instance, invite friendly and wealthy Gulf states to work with India in South Asia to help address climate change or provide disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. It could take a more active role in the security partnership known as the Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue), that brings together Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, encouraging forms of cooperation between the Quad and smaller South Asian island states, such as the Maldives and Sri Lanka, as well as landlocked ones, such as Bhutan and Nepal. India could proactively engage partners such as Japan, the United States, the EU, and other like-minded powers to help curb China’s growing influence in the region by countering Chinese economic and political narratives and providing alternative transparent development models. In so doing, India would widen its sense of its own backyard and check the Chinese quest for hegemony.
The end of South Asia is a key marker in the history of the region and offers geopolitical opportunities and choices for India and its partners. For India, finally relinquishing the region and not worrying about primacy there allows it to forge a dynamic geopolitical relationship between South Asia and regions and countries farther afield. It is not that India should stop engaging with its neighbors but that it should see them in a wider geopolitical context, not merely as denizens of the subcontinent they happen to share.
The same is true for the United States and its allies. Although they may have viewed smaller South Asian countries as irrelevant or at best marginal to their wider interests, they should understand that the likes of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are enmeshed in the broad geopolitical competition. Encouraging the participation of these smaller countries in larger frameworks and coalitions, such as the Quad, will help rein in Chinese influence and give these countries alternatives to the political and economic support offered by China. The countries of South Asia may not compose a coherent region, but they will play integral roles in shaping the wider Asian balance of power in the years to come. [Ends]
森普林 霍默 傑伊 阿森 家族 一族 憎恨 次大陸 南亞 航空 印度 巴基斯坦 斯里蘭卡 不丹 尼泊爾 阿富汗 馬爾地夫 代表 飛機場
Happymon Jacob writing for Foreign Affairs — the term “South Asia,” coined by Westerners during the Cold War, never resonated deeply with the region’s diverse inhabitants. Despite shared histories and cultural connections, the dream of a united South Asia has crumbled under the weight of mistrust, particularly between India and Pakistan. The once-promising South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has languished, its grand ambitions for economic integration and cultural exchange now distant memories. India’s dominance, while a source of regional stability, also hindered regionalism, as New Delhi saw little value in structures that might dilute its influence. Meanwhile, China’s growing footprint in the region, providing loans and infrastructure to India’s neighbours, has further fragmented South Asia, as smaller states leverage Beijing to counter New Delhi’s power. Ironically, this has eroded India’s regional primacy while also diminishing South Asia’s geopolitical coherence. The region’s inhabitants themselves, particularly India’s burgeoning middle class, are increasingly looking beyond their immediate neighbourhood for opportunities and connections.
My view: The demise of “South Asia” raises critical questions about India’s “Neighbourhood First” policy. Does it ring hollow in the face of India’s reluctance to integrate with its neighbours, both immediate and extended? It appears that the policy has unwittingly become a veil for Indian hegemony, serving the interests of the country’s elite babus and billionaires rather than the common man. This lack of regional integration deprives Indians of the tangible benefits of closer economic and cultural ties with their neighbours. While India’s pursuit of dominance may appease nationalist sentiments, it offers little practical value to its citizens, many of whom remain unaware of these issues due to socioeconomic challenges and limited education.
This zero-sum mentality within the Indian babudom and policymaking circles has blinded it to the shifting tectonic plates of global geopolitics. While India remains stuck in out-dated modes of thought, its neighbours are forging ahead, seeking economic openness and free trade with the rest of the world. Blaming Pakistan for SAARC’s failure only tells part of the story; India’s own actions have significantly contributed to the region’s fragmentation. As China’s influence in South Asia grows, eclipsing India’s trade with its neighbours, it becomes evident that India has the most to lose in this geopolitical game. The country’s inward-looking policies and resistance to regional integration have left it ill-equipped to adapt to the changing global landscape. While Indian elites may cling to the illusion of autarky, the reality is that such an approach is unsustainable in the long run.
As the sun sets on the idea of “South Asia,” one wonders if babus will finally awaken from their slumber of self-delusion as well as recognise the missed opportunities for regional cooperation and shared prosperity. & poliomyelitis](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d1a201_76acbffbb72543a19bce1d5d1f8cd5a7~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_522,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/d1a201_76acbffbb72543a19bce1d5d1f8cd5a7~mv2.jpg)
![南亞最大的問題是其不平衡性。
दक्षिण एशिया की सबसे बड़ी समस्या इसका एकतरफा पन है।
印度是該地區的主導力量；因此，南亞地區的國際關係通常都局限於印度與其鄰國之間反之亦然。
भारत इस क्षेत्र में एक प्रमुख शक्ति है, और इस प्रकार, दक्षिण एशिया के भीतर कोई भी अंतर्राष्ट्रीय संबंध आम तौर पर भारत और उसके पड़ोसिनों के बीच ही होते हैं, या इसके विपरीत।
巴基斯坦的痴迷對抗印度對巴基斯坦造成的損失遠大於印度遏制巴基斯坦所付出的代價。
پاکستان بھارت کا مقابلہ کرنے کے اپنے جنون کی اس سے کہیں زیادہ قیمت ادا کر رہا ہے جتنی بھارت اس کی قیمت ادا کر رہا ہے، یعنی بھارت پاکستان کو روکنے کی قیمت چکا رہا ہے۔
畸形 片面 南亞 次大陸 印度 巴基斯坦 衝突 孟加拉 尼泊爾 不丹 斯里蘭卡 錫蘭 馬爾地夫 代 阿富汗
The End of South Asia — A Region in Name Only
Happymon Jacob, Monday, 22nd July 2024
For decades, policymakers and scholars have been trained in the West and elsewhere to think of the countries of the Indian subcontinent as part of a coherent region: South Asia. Home to around a quarter of the world’s population, the region consists of eight countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Its diverse peoples speak hundreds of different languages and follow numerous different religious traditions, but they have shared histories, including the experience of British colonialism, and shared cultural connections, including a love of the sport of cricket and Bollywood films, ethnic ties, and musical and culinary practices, for instance. In the late twentieth century, South Asian leaders sought to deepen links within the region, with the greater goal of integration in line with that pursued in nearby Southeast Asia under the auspices of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or in Europe under the European Union. South Asia, too, they imagined, could become a consequential regional bloc in global geopolitics.
But that never happened. In the last four decades, South Asia has managed to build little security, economic, or policy cohesion. Mistrust and enmity, notably that between India and Pakistan, have made integration a pipe dream. Worse, at the most fundamental level, the notion of belonging to South Asia has lost any of the traction it ever had. South Asians no longer look to one another for connection and solidarity but rather gaze farther afield, to the Middle East, Southeast Asia, or the West. Not many South Asians (outside those tens of millions living in diaspora around the world) would even think to consider themselves South Asians in the first place. The term today does not denote a coherent regional identity but is merely a mundane geographical demarcation used mostly by those outside the region. The dream of a united South Asia is over, with important implications for geopolitics on the subcontinent that policymakers and analysts of the region have yet to fully grasp.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
As a term, “South Asia” has its origins far from the subcontinent. Academic analysts and policymakers in the West began using the term in the late 1950s after the emergence of independent postcolonial states from British India in 1947. During the Cold War, when the United States maintained closer ties to Pakistan than it did to ostensibly nonaligned India, the term allowed Washington to speak about the region without underlining India’s local predominance. Universities in the West followed suit, with academics using South Asia as a neutral term to describe India and its neighbors. Over time, Indians themselves started using the term in certain rarefied circles, but few people in the region conceived of themselves as South Asian.
In the late 1970s, General Ziaur Rahman, who had come to power in Bangladesh through a military coup in 1975, started floating the idea of a regional organization. Although the smaller states immediately warmed to the idea, India and Pakistan were initially more skeptical but decided to entertain the Bangladeshi proposal. The proposal found formal expression in 1985 with the creation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, a group that included Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SAARC sought to create a “better climate of understanding” and foster cooperation among member states.
For around three decades, SAARC enjoyed considerable support in the region, albeit with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Indian leaders became more receptive toward SAARC beginning in the late 1990s, particularly Prime Ministers Inder Kumar Gujral (1997 to 1998), Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1998 to 2004), and Manmohan Singh (2004 to 2010). They pushed ahead even as many in New Delhi warned that India’s rivalry and disputes with Pakistan would severely curb SAARC’s ability to function, never mind its ability to integrate the region. For their part, Pakistani leaders have long been wary of SAARC, fearing it could become a vehicle for the exercise of India’s influence, but Islamabad still participated in the summits and other platforms associated with the group. Smaller states in the region, such as Bhutan, the Maldives, and Nepal, were the keenest advocates of SAARC, convinced that their membership in such a multilateral platform granted them greater geopolitical agency.
But after an initial period of activity, SAARC has crept perilously close to obsolescence. Of the 18 SAARC summits held so far, six were staged during the first six years of its existence. The group has held only six summits between 2005 and 2014 and none at all in the last decade. During the group’s heyday from the 1990s into the first decade of the twenty-first century, member countries set up and explored several ambitious ventures, including the South Asia Free Trade Area (a free-trade agreement signed in 2004), a customs union, a common regional market, and a common economic and monetary union. But over time, these grand ambitions have fallen by the wayside. The partial progress achieved in implementing the free-trade area has been stalled since 2014, when Pakistan blocked the signing of an agreement about motor vehicles. Other closer forms of regional integration remain pipe dreams.
The South Asian University, set up by the SAARC countries in New Delhi in 2010, is today a ghost of what it was originally meant to be. Visa restrictions and financial constraints have hampered its growth, and the institution has not helped foster a sense of regional identity through higher education as its founders imagined it would. Attempts by the region’s elites and civil society to encourage regionalism in South Asia through nongovernmental organizations, such as the South Asia Free Media Association and South Asians for Human Rights, or think tanks, such as the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, have not gained much traction either. SAARC and these organizations express an elite-level desire for greater connection within South Asia, but that desire has failed to produce meaningful integration in the region.
THE CENTER DOES NOT HOLD
Part of South Asia’s problem is its lopsidedness. India is the region’s biggest and most powerful country. Its dominance has had a paradoxical impact on the development of regional structures. At its core, South Asia consists of India and six countries that share a border with India but not with one another. (The exception is Afghanistan, which shares a border with Pakistan but not with India.) In that sense, South Asia is primarily the sum of interactions among India’s neighbors with India and India with its neighbors.
The fact of Indian centrality has meant that New Delhi does not always see the value of building regional structures, as such structures cannot add to the predominance India already enjoys in the region. Even though a number of Indian prime ministers saw merit in SAARC, the Indian bureaucracy and strategic establishment have never been convinced of its value. They have long feared that the creation of regional structures could potentially check India’s dominance in its own backyard. Since SAARC functions based on consensus, India’s vote on affairs on the subcontinent would count as much as that of Bhutan and the Maldives, the smallest countries in the region. As a result, it makes little sense for Indian decision-makers to support the creation of structures that could undermine their country’s influence in the region. That sentiment has a corollary among Indian strategists and foreign policy analysts; they, too, look beyond the region and think of South Asia’s inherent conflicts as a millstone around India’s neck.
That South Asia is increasingly becoming an arena of geopolitical competition not only makes further regional integration less likely; such competition also threatens to undo even the limited regional cohesion that exists today. In recent decades, China has built up its influence among India’s neighbors. Take Sri Lanka, for instance, whose largest bilateral creditor is China and to whom China has provided loans to build highways, an airport, and a port. In Bangladesh, China has been using loans and infrastructure development assistance to gain influence. And China is jostling there not just with India but with the United States. In 2021, the United States placed sanctions on an elite paramilitary unit in Bangladesh for its alleged human rights violations and extrajudicial killings. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin rebuked this policy when he reiterated in 2023 that the Chinese “firmly support Bangladesh in safeguarding its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, upholding independent domestic and foreign policies, and pursuing a development path that suits its national realities.” In sum, China’s growing profile in South Asia marks a clear change from Beijing’s initial decision, dating back to the inception of the People’s Republic of China, of leaving the region to India. Today, China no longer sees India as a peer, nor is it willing to accept India’s primacy in the subcontinent.
Intraregional trade in South Asia is meager: it contributes to only five percent of the region’s overall trade totals—by contrast, intraregional trade among the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations accounts for 25 percent of the region’s overall trade. Moreover, China’s fast-growing trade with South Asia is eclipsing India’s own trade with its neighbors.
The inhabitants of the region themselves are not clamoring for stronger ties. Indeed, a shared history and cultural heritage doesn’t necessarily produce strong connections, let alone thriving bonds. India’s growing, prosperous middle class has little interest in South Asia, nor does it feel that it has much in common with people in neighboring countries. In the minds of this aspirational class of around 430 million people, many of whom have connections to diasporic communities in the West, the Middle East, and elsewhere in Asia, India is meant for bigger things than its immediate neighborhood.
Cultural exchange within the region is also on the wane. In 2019, Pakistan banned Indian content on local television and FM radio channels. Turkish TV shows increasingly fill the vacuum in Pakistan left in the absence of content from India. In India, there are hardly any Pakistani artists in the Bollywood film industry, and Pakistani cricketers no longer play in India’s money-spinning Indian Premier League, the sport’s most lucrative league.
South Asians are not working or studying in one another’s countries as much as they used to. Since 1990, there has been a consistent decline in intraregional migration. For instance, India has long been a favored destination for Nepali workers, but they now are venturing to the Gulf countries and Malaysia, with India often serving just as a transit point. People across the region are going to places where they can secure higher wages than they can in South Asia, namely Australia, Malaysia, the Middle East, western Europe, and North America.
Few South Asians study in one another’s countries, except in India. South Asian students still make up half the total foreign student population in India, but these numbers have stagnated in the past decade. A 2020 Brookings India report showed that the annual growth rate of foreign South Asian students in India decreased from 30 percent in the 2011–12 academic year to just nine percent in 2018–19. India’s loss has been China’s gain. The number of students from India’s neighboring countries studying in China increased by 176 percent between 2011 and 2016, the Brookings report stated. In 2016, for example, there were three times as many Bangladeshis studying in China as in India.
South Asians face a very clear impediment to travel within the region: hard borders. Only the tourist-friendly Maldives offers visas on arrival for all SAARC member countries. Bhutan and Nepal have a visa-free travel agreement with India. But apart from these deals, regional travel is difficult. Given that India is the only geographical connection among many of the countries of the region, New Delhi’s decision to open or close borders determines the fate of intraregional connectivity in South Asia. The decrease in intra-South Asian connectivity in trade, tourism, and education is, unsurprisingly, being made up for by China: consider the growing amount of connectivity in trade, tourism, and education between China and Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The more India neglects South Asia, the more China embraces it. It’s not a zero-sum game; it’s a walkover for China. And it may well be too late for India to reassert itself as a regional hub.
A REGION UNBOUND
Thanks to the decision of many South Asian states to leverage China to balance India’s primacy, South Asia is no longer the India-centric region it used to be. Paradoxically, however, India’s loss of regional primacy also means that South Asia is losing its salience as a geopolitical entity, with smaller countries strengthening economic, political, diplomatic, and cultural ties with China and drifting away from India. In other words, the smaller South Asian states that once hoped to benefit from greater regional integration have made such integration more unlikely; by using China to balance India, they have undermined the coherence and potential unity of South Asia.
The end of South Asia as both a geopolitical entity and an epistemological category has implications that go beyond university departments or nongovernmental organizations that might have to reimagine how they frame their agendas. Despite India’s primacy in the region, Indian thinkers have come to believe that entanglement in South Asia limits the country’s ambitions. In the last decade, India has reoriented its strategic focus from Pakistan to China and from the continental theater to the maritime one. It has embarked on a wider economic journey by signing and negotiating several important free-trade agreements with countries farther afield, such as Switzerland. New Delhi seeks a larger geopolitical space for itself. In contemporary Indian strategic thinking, South Asia is at best a small place and at worst a limitation.
There is little value for India in pouring in resources to either regain exclusive primacy or balance China in a space in which it is geopolitically weaker and somewhat contained. Although New Delhi’s concerns about Beijing’s growing power are understandable, frantic attempts to win back South Asia or compete with China for regional dominance are unlikely to work. Another option available to India is to work with China in the region, as many of India’s neighbors would prefer, but it won’t be too long before an ambitious and aggressive China seeks to relegate India to the rank of a second-rate power in South Asia. Already, India has struggled to set and enforce redlines among its neighbors, for example, with Chinese spy ships docking in Sri Lanka in recent years.
A wiser option for New Delhi would be to think more broadly and see South Asia as only a part of its neighborhood rather than the entirety of it. This doesn’t mean that India should give China a free hand in South Asia. On the contrary, it should encourage countries and groupings outside South Asia to take a more active role in the region. It could, for instance, invite friendly and wealthy Gulf states to work with India in South Asia to help address climate change or provide disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. It could take a more active role in the security partnership known as the Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue), that brings together Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, encouraging forms of cooperation between the Quad and smaller South Asian island states, such as the Maldives and Sri Lanka, as well as landlocked ones, such as Bhutan and Nepal. India could proactively engage partners such as Japan, the United States, the EU, and other like-minded powers to help curb China’s growing influence in the region by countering Chinese economic and political narratives and providing alternative transparent development models. In so doing, India would widen its sense of its own backyard and check the Chinese quest for hegemony.
The end of South Asia is a key marker in the history of the region and offers geopolitical opportunities and choices for India and its partners. For India, finally relinquishing the region and not worrying about primacy there allows it to forge a dynamic geopolitical relationship between South Asia and regions and countries farther afield. It is not that India should stop engaging with its neighbors but that it should see them in a wider geopolitical context, not merely as denizens of the subcontinent they happen to share.
The same is true for the United States and its allies. Although they may have viewed smaller South Asian countries as irrelevant or at best marginal to their wider interests, they should understand that the likes of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are enmeshed in the broad geopolitical competition. Encouraging the participation of these smaller countries in larger frameworks and coalitions, such as the Quad, will help rein in Chinese influence and give these countries alternatives to the political and economic support offered by China. The countries of South Asia may not compose a coherent region, but they will play integral roles in shaping the wider Asian balance of power in the years to come. [Ends]
森普林 霍默 傑伊 阿森 家族 一族 憎恨 次大陸 南亞 航空 印度 巴基斯坦 斯里蘭卡 不丹 尼泊爾 阿富汗 馬爾地夫 代表 飛機場
Happymon Jacob writing for Foreign Affairs — the term “South Asia,” coined by Westerners during the Cold War, never resonated deeply with the region’s diverse inhabitants. Despite shared histories and cultural connections, the dream of a united South Asia has crumbled under the weight of mistrust, particularly between India and Pakistan. The once-promising South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has languished, its grand ambitions for economic integration and cultural exchange now distant memories. India’s dominance, while a source of regional stability, also hindered regionalism, as New Delhi saw little value in structures that might dilute its influence. Meanwhile, China’s growing footprint in the region, providing loans and infrastructure to India’s neighbours, has further fragmented South Asia, as smaller states leverage Beijing to counter New Delhi’s power. Ironically, this has eroded India’s regional primacy while also diminishing South Asia’s geopolitical coherence. The region’s inhabitants themselves, particularly India’s burgeoning middle class, are increasingly looking beyond their immediate neighbourhood for opportunities and connections.
My view: The demise of “South Asia” raises critical questions about India’s “Neighbourhood First” policy. Does it ring hollow in the face of India’s reluctance to integrate with its neighbours, both immediate and extended? It appears that the policy has unwittingly become a veil for Indian hegemony, serving the interests of the country’s elite babus and billionaires rather than the common man. This lack of regional integration deprives Indians of the tangible benefits of closer economic and cultural ties with their neighbours. While India’s pursuit of dominance may appease nationalist sentiments, it offers little practical value to its citizens, many of whom remain unaware of these issues due to socioeconomic challenges and limited education.
This zero-sum mentality within the Indian babudom and policymaking circles has blinded it to the shifting tectonic plates of global geopolitics. While India remains stuck in out-dated modes of thought, its neighbours are forging ahead, seeking economic openness and free trade with the rest of the world. Blaming Pakistan for SAARC’s failure only tells part of the story; India’s own actions have significantly contributed to the region’s fragmentation. As China’s influence in South Asia grows, eclipsing India’s trade with its neighbours, it becomes evident that India has the most to lose in this geopolitical game. The country’s inward-looking policies and resistance to regional integration have left it ill-equipped to adapt to the changing global landscape. While Indian elites may cling to the illusion of autarky, the reality is that such an approach is unsustainable in the long run.
As the sun sets on the idea of “South Asia,” one wonders if babus will finally awaken from their slumber of self-delusion as well as recognise the missed opportunities for regional cooperation and shared prosperity. &](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d1a201_60f9825c213d488aa9419a2e76537f7b~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_436,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/d1a201_60f9825c213d488aa9419a2e76537f7b~mv2.png)
![नकली डिग्री के बाद, हमारे स्लट गुरु को अब नकली अवॉर्ड दिया गया है।
फर्जी डिग्री के बाद, अब फर्जी अवार्ड से नवाजे गए हमारे टट्टी गुरु।
धोखेबाज़ों से सावधान!
सिलीगुड़ी कॉरिडोर (‘चिकन नेक [गर्दन]’) में 7 हाईवे के लिए योजनाओं की घोषणा — चीन-बांग्लादेश परेशान!
पश्चिम बंगाल सरकार ने 121 एकड़ जमीन सौंपी
कॉरिडोर के नीचे से गुजरेगी 40 KM की सुरंग
पश्चिम बंगाल सरकार ने 121 एकड़ जमीन सौंपी
40 किलोमीटर लंबी रेल लाइन की योजना
सिलीगुड़ी कॉरिडोर — पड़ोसी साजिश Exposed
सुरक्षा भरपूर — बदल गया सिलीगुड़ी कॉरिडोर
Practical Value
Happymon Jacob writing for Foreign Affairs — the term “South Asia,” coined by Westerners during the Cold War, never resonated deeply with the region’s diverse inhabitants. Despite shared histories and cultural connections, the dream of a united South Asia has crumbled under the weight of mistrust, particularly between India and Pakistan. The once-promising South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has languished, its grand ambitions for economic integration and cultural exchange now distant memories. India’s dominance, while a source of regional stability, also hindered regionalism, as New Delhi saw little value in structures that might dilute its influence. Meanwhile, China’s growing footprint in the region, providing loans and infrastructure to India’s neighbours, has further fragmented South Asia, as smaller states leverage Beijing to counter New Delhi’s power. Ironically, this has eroded India’s regional primacy while also diminishing South Asia’s geopolitical coherence. The region’s inhabitants themselves, particularly India’s burgeoning middle class, are increasingly looking beyond their immediate neighbourhood for opportunities and connections.
My view: The demise of “South Asia” raises critical questions about India’s “Neighbourhood First” policy. Does it ring hollow in the face of India’s reluctance to integrate with its neighbours, both immediate and extended? It appears that the policy has unwittingly become a veil for Indian hegemony, serving the interests of the country’s elite babus and billionaires rather than the common man. This lack of regional integration deprives Indians of the tangible benefits of closer economic and cultural ties with their neighbours. While India’s pursuit of dominance may appease nationalist sentiments, it offers little practical value to its citizens, many of whom remain unaware of these issues due to socioeconomic challenges and limited education.
This zero-sum mentality within the Indian babudom and policymaking circles has blinded it to the shifting tectonic plates of global geopolitics. While India remains stuck in out-dated modes of thought, its neighbours are forging ahead, seeking economic openness and free trade with the rest of the world. Blaming Pakistan for SAARC’s failure only tells part of the story; India’s own actions have significantly contributed to the region’s fragmentation. As China’s influence in South Asia grows, eclipsing India’s trade with its neighbours, it becomes evident that India has the most to lose in this geopolitical game. The country’s inward-looking policies and resistance to regional integration have left it ill-equipped to adapt to the changing global landscape. While Indian elites may cling to the illusion of autarky, the reality is that such an approach is unsustainable in the long run.
As the sun sets on the idea of “South Asia,” one wonders if babus will finally awaken from their slumber of self-delusion as well as recognise the missed opportunities for regional cooperation and shared prosperity. &
Access the article via Archive.is https://archive.is/NJJIu
India & Seychelles sign nine (9) agreements during Modi’s visit Monday, 29th June 2026, 1730 Hours — the two countries signed pacts on extradition, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), space, agriculture & shipping, while India announced financing & defence support for the island nation.
India and Seychelles signed nine legal instruments and announced a wider development package during Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi’s state visit to the Indian Ocean nation, deepening cooperation across extradition, digital payments, health, agriculture, shipping, space, defence and development finance. Modi visited Seychelles from Saturday, 27th to Monday, 29th June at the invitation of President Patrick Herminie. The trip coincided with Seychelles’ 50th Independence Day and the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Modi and Herminie held talks at the State House in Victoria on Sunday, 28 June. The two sides reviewed cooperation in maritime security, health, education, capacity building, digital transformation, clean energy, sustainable development and people-to-people ties. The nine instruments included an extradition treaty, an agreement to introduce India’s Unified Payments Interface in Seychelles, an agreement on space cooperation, a pact on seafarer training and certification, an agriculture work plan for 2026 to 2031, and an umbrella line of credit worth ₹1,250 crore. India also announced a special economic development package worth $175 million. Seychelles State House said the package included $125 million in a rupee-denominated line of credit and $50 million in grant assistance for projects in social housing, e-mobility, vocational training, health, defence and maritime security. The two sides also agreed to cooperate on preliminary work for a new national hospital and on affordable medicines under India’s Janaushadhi scheme. India said it would train Seychellois medical personnel, support sports training and youth exchanges as well as promote Seychelles as a destination for creative industries and film-making. Modi proposed direct shipping links, greater use of local currencies in trade and stronger connectivity to support commerce and tourism. Seychelles sought India’s assistance in setting up artificial intelligence and cybersecurity centres. It also requested support for procuring an advanced light helicopter. Indian officials said New Delhi would consider the proposals positively. India handed over a Made-in-India fast patrol vessel, PS (Patrol Ship) Lespwar, to the Seychelles Coast Guard. It also gifted six ambulances and announced support in maritime surveillance, hydrography and defence capacity-building. Seychelles also acknowledged India’s role in the refit of the coast guard vessel PS Zoroaster. The leaders discussed illegal fishing, drug trafficking, piracy and cross-border crime in the Indian Ocean. Seychelles also announced that it would join the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, an India-backed grouping that supports climate and disaster-resilient infrastructure. Both leaders took part in the virtual ground-breaking of the India-assisted Professional and Technical Education Centre and inaugurated three solar water pumping systems under the International Solar Alliance. They also unveiled a commemorative logo marking a half-century of diplomatic ties. Modi addressed an extraordinary sitting of the National Assembly of Seychelles, becoming the first Indian prime minister to do so. He said the Indian Ocean was a shared home and its security a shared responsibility. Indian armed forces contingents took part in the national parade, including personnel from the Assam Rifles, the Indian Navy and an Indian Navy marching band. Indian naval ships Tarkash and Ikshak also docked at Port Victoria as part of the celebrations. Modi was also conferred Seychelles’ Guardian of the Blue Horizon distinction, becoming its first recipient. The Seychelles State House described it as the highest honour the country bestows on an international dignitary, while also saying it was “not a conventional national decoration” but a symbolic presidential recognition rooted in the island nation’s ocean identity. The honour later drew political criticism in India after Seychelles Cabinet records showed the distinction had been approved on 24 June, only days before Modi received it. Opposition leaders also mocked spelling errors in a citation image circulated online, including misspellings of “Republic” and “Seychelles.” Some social media users questioned whether the circulated image was AI-generated, though no official source had established that the physical citation presented at the ceremony was fake. The visit strengthens India’s maritime diplomacy in the western Indian Ocean, where Seychelles sits near important shipping lanes and plays a role in maritime surveillance, fisheries security and regional disaster resilience. After Israel, global leaders know how to kiss up (obsequiousness) to Narendra Damodardas Modi resulting in Indian taxpayers paying for his awards! Five decades is fifty years. Artificial Intelligence INR USD
பாகிஸ்தான் மற்றும் பங்களாதேஷ் ஆகிய நாடுகளில் உள்ள முஸ்லிம் அல்லாதவர்களின் சதவீதங்களைக் கவனிக்கவும். சதவீதங்களைக
செய்தி ஒளிபரப்பு
“இந்தியாவில் முஸ்லிம்கள் ஊடுருவல்...!” — உள்துறை அமைச்சர் அமித்ஷா — முஸ்லிம்கள் எண்ணிக்கை அதிகரிக்க, பல முஸ்லிம்கள் ஊடுருவியதே காரணம் (கந்த, Thanthi TV, Saturday, 11th October 2025)
முஸ்லிம்கள் எண்ணிக்கை அதிகரிக்க, பல முஸ்லிம்கள் ஊடுருவியது காரணம்
இந்தியாவில் ஊடுருவல் காரர்கள் மூலமாகத்தான் முஸ்லிம்களின் மக்கள் தொகை அதிகரித்துள்ளதாக உள்துறை அமைச்சர் அமித்ஷா தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.
டெல்லியில் நடைபெற்ற விருது வழங்கும் விழா ஒன்றில் சிறப்பு விருந்தினராக பங்கேற்ற அவர், சுதந்திரத்திற்குப் பிறகு, பாகிஸ்தானில் இந்துக்கள் 13% ஆகவும், மற்ற சிறுபான்மையினர் 1.2 சதவீதமாகவும் இருந்தனர் என்றும், தற்போது இந்துக்களும் பிற சிறுபான்மையினரும் சேர்ந்து 1.73 சதவீதமாகவும் மட்டுமே உள்ளனர் என்றும் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
இந்தியாவில் முஸ்லிம்களின் எண்ணிக்கை அதிகரிப்பதற்குக் காரணம், பல முஸ்லிம்கள் இங்கு ஊடுருவியதே என அவர் சுட்டிக்காட்டியுள்ளார். சுதந்திரத்திற்கு பின் அண்டை நாடுகளில் உள்ள சிறுபான்மையினருக்கு பின்னர் குடியுரிமை வழங்குவோம் என நேரு — லியாகத் ஒப்பந்தத்தில் குறிப்பிட்டு, பின்னர் காங்கிரஸ் யாருக்கும் குடியுரிமை வழங்க வில்லையென அமித்ஷா குற்றம்சாட்டியுள்ளார்.
முன்னாள் பிரதமர் நேரு அகதிகளுக்கு குடியுரிமை வழங்குவதாக கூறினாலும், அவர் வழங்கவில்லை என்றும் அமித்ஷா தன் உரையில் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
1951 இல் இந்தியாவில் நடத்தப்பட்ட மக்கள் தொகை கணக்கெடுப்பில், 84 சதவீதம் இந்துக்களும், 9.8 சதவீதம் முஸ்லீம்கள் இருந்ததாகவும், அதன் பிறகு 1971ல் நடத்தப்பட்ட கணக்கெடுப்பில் இந்துக்கள் 82 சதவீதமும், முஸ்லீம்கள் 11 சதவீதம் இருந்ததாகவும் அவர் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
மேலும், 1991ல் இந்ததுக்கள் 81 சதவீதமாகவும், முஸ்லிம்கள் 12.2 சதவீதம் இருந்ததாகவும், 2011ல் நடத்தப்பட்ட மக்கள் தொகை கணக்கெடுப்பில் இந்துக்கள் 79 சதவீதமாகவும், முஸ்லிம்கள் 14.2 சதவீதமாக இருந்ததாகவும் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.
உலகில் யார் இங்கே வர விரும்பினாலும் அவர்களை வர அனுமதித்தால், நம் நாடு தர்மசாலாவாக மாறும் என தெரிவித்துள்ள உள்துறை அமைச்சர் அமித்ஷா, பாகிஸ்தான் மற்றும் வங்கதேச இந்துக்களுக்கு, இந்திய மண்ணில் உரிமை உள்ளதாகவும் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார். மத ரீதியான துன்புறுத்தலை எதிர்கொள்ளாதவர்களும், பொருளாதார அல்லது பிற காரணங்களுக்காக சட்டவிரோதமாக இந்தியாவிற்குள் வர விரும்புபவர்களும் ஊடுருவல்காரர்களாகக் கருதப்படுவதாகவும் அமித்ஷா விளக்கம் அளித்துள்ளார்.
2011ம் ஆண்டு அசாமில் நடத்தப்பட்ட மக்கள் தொகை கணக்கெடுப்பின்படி, முஸ்லிம் மக்கள் தொகை 29.6 சதவீதமாக இருந்ததாக குறிப்பிட்ட அவர், ஊடுருவல் இல்லாமல் இது சாத்தியமில்லை என தெரிவித்துள்ளார். மேலும், மேற்கு வங்கத்தின் பல மாவட்டங்களில், இந்த வளர்ச்சி விகிதம் 40 சதவீதமாகவும், சில எல்லைப் பகுதிகளில், 70 சதவீதமாக உயர்ந்துள்ளதாகவும் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
தமிழ்நாடு காங்கிரஸ் கமிட்டி
“விசுவாசமாக இருப்பவர்களுக்கு காங்கிரஸ் கட்சியில் பதவி கிடைக்காது”
Tuesday, 27th May 2025
“கரூர் துயர சம்பவம் — உண்மைகளை வெளிக்கொண்டு வருவோம்”
ஈரோடு கவனிக்குமா முஸ்லீம்](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d1a201_a2ff6b92374f45e0bfb92add7d3846de~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_789,h_596,al_c,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/d1a201_a2ff6b92374f45e0bfb92add7d3846de~mv2.png)
![பாகிஸ்தான் மற்றும் பங்களாதேஷ் ஆகிய நாடுகளில் உள்ள முஸ்லிம் அல்லாதவர்களின் சதவீதங்களைக் கவனிக்கவும். சதவீதங்களைக
செய்தி ஒளிபரப்பு
“இந்தியாவில் முஸ்லிம்கள் ஊடுருவல்...!” — உள்துறை அமைச்சர் அமித்ஷா — முஸ்லிம்கள் எண்ணிக்கை அதிகரிக்க, பல முஸ்லிம்கள் ஊடுருவியதே காரணம் (கந்த, Thanthi TV, Saturday, 11th October 2025)
முஸ்லிம்கள் எண்ணிக்கை அதிகரிக்க, பல முஸ்லிம்கள் ஊடுருவியது காரணம்
இந்தியாவில் ஊடுருவல் காரர்கள் மூலமாகத்தான் முஸ்லிம்களின் மக்கள் தொகை அதிகரித்துள்ளதாக உள்துறை அமைச்சர் அமித்ஷா தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.
டெல்லியில் நடைபெற்ற விருது வழங்கும் விழா ஒன்றில் சிறப்பு விருந்தினராக பங்கேற்ற அவர், சுதந்திரத்திற்குப் பிறகு, பாகிஸ்தானில் இந்துக்கள் 13% ஆகவும், மற்ற சிறுபான்மையினர் 1.2 சதவீதமாகவும் இருந்தனர் என்றும், தற்போது இந்துக்களும் பிற சிறுபான்மையினரும் சேர்ந்து 1.73 சதவீதமாகவும் மட்டுமே உள்ளனர் என்றும் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
இந்தியாவில் முஸ்லிம்களின் எண்ணிக்கை அதிகரிப்பதற்குக் காரணம், பல முஸ்லிம்கள் இங்கு ஊடுருவியதே என அவர் சுட்டிக்காட்டியுள்ளார். சுதந்திரத்திற்கு பின் அண்டை நாடுகளில் உள்ள சிறுபான்மையினருக்கு பின்னர் குடியுரிமை வழங்குவோம் என நேரு — லியாகத் ஒப்பந்தத்தில் குறிப்பிட்டு, பின்னர் காங்கிரஸ் யாருக்கும் குடியுரிமை வழங்க வில்லையென அமித்ஷா குற்றம்சாட்டியுள்ளார்.
முன்னாள் பிரதமர் நேரு அகதிகளுக்கு குடியுரிமை வழங்குவதாக கூறினாலும், அவர் வழங்கவில்லை என்றும் அமித்ஷா தன் உரையில் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
1951 இல் இந்தியாவில் நடத்தப்பட்ட மக்கள் தொகை கணக்கெடுப்பில், 84 சதவீதம் இந்துக்களும், 9.8 சதவீதம் முஸ்லீம்கள் இருந்ததாகவும், அதன் பிறகு 1971ல் நடத்தப்பட்ட கணக்கெடுப்பில் இந்துக்கள் 82 சதவீதமும், முஸ்லீம்கள் 11 சதவீதம் இருந்ததாகவும் அவர் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
மேலும், 1991ல் இந்ததுக்கள் 81 சதவீதமாகவும், முஸ்லிம்கள் 12.2 சதவீதம் இருந்ததாகவும், 2011ல் நடத்தப்பட்ட மக்கள் தொகை கணக்கெடுப்பில் இந்துக்கள் 79 சதவீதமாகவும், முஸ்லிம்கள் 14.2 சதவீதமாக இருந்ததாகவும் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.
உலகில் யார் இங்கே வர விரும்பினாலும் அவர்களை வர அனுமதித்தால், நம் நாடு தர்மசாலாவாக மாறும் என தெரிவித்துள்ள உள்துறை அமைச்சர் அமித்ஷா, பாகிஸ்தான் மற்றும் வங்கதேச இந்துக்களுக்கு, இந்திய மண்ணில் உரிமை உள்ளதாகவும் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார். மத ரீதியான துன்புறுத்தலை எதிர்கொள்ளாதவர்களும், பொருளாதார அல்லது பிற காரணங்களுக்காக சட்டவிரோதமாக இந்தியாவிற்குள் வர விரும்புபவர்களும் ஊடுருவல்காரர்களாகக் கருதப்படுவதாகவும் அமித்ஷா விளக்கம் அளித்துள்ளார்.
2011ம் ஆண்டு அசாமில் நடத்தப்பட்ட மக்கள் தொகை கணக்கெடுப்பின்படி, முஸ்லிம் மக்கள் தொகை 29.6 சதவீதமாக இருந்ததாக குறிப்பிட்ட அவர், ஊடுருவல் இல்லாமல் இது சாத்தியமில்லை என தெரிவித்துள்ளார். மேலும், மேற்கு வங்கத்தின் பல மாவட்டங்களில், இந்த வளர்ச்சி விகிதம் 40 சதவீதமாகவும், சில எல்லைப் பகுதிகளில், 70 சதவீதமாக உயர்ந்துள்ளதாகவும் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
தமிழ்நாடு காங்கிரஸ் கமிட்டி
“விசுவாசமாக இருப்பவர்களுக்கு காங்கிரஸ் கட்சியில் பதவி கிடைக்காது”
Tuesday, 27th May 2025
“கரூர் துயர சம்பவம் — உண்மைகளை வெளிக்கொண்டு வருவோம்”
ஈரோடு கவனிக்குமா முஸ்லீம்
नकली डिग्री के बाद, हमारे स्लट गुरु को अब नकली अवॉर्ड दिया गया है।
फर्जी डिग्री के बाद, अब फर्जी अवार्ड से नवाजे गए हमारे टट्टी गुरु।
धोखेबाज़ों से सावधान!
सिलीगुड़ी कॉरिडोर (‘चिकन नेक [गर्दन]’) में 7 हाईवे के लिए योजनाओं की घोषणा — चीन-बांग्लादेश परेशान!
पश्चिम बंगाल सरकार ने 121 एकड़ जमीन सौंपी
कॉरिडोर के नीचे से गुजरेगी 40 KM की सुरंग
पश्चिम बंगाल सरकार ने 121 एकड़ जमीन सौंपी
40 किलोमीटर लंबी रेल लाइन की योजना
सिलीगुड़ी कॉरिडोर — पड़ोसी साजिश Exposed
सुरक्षा भरपूर — बदल गया सिलीगुड़ी कॉरिडोर
Practical Value
Happymon Jacob writing for Foreign Affairs — the term “South Asia,” coined by Westerners during the Cold War, never resonated deeply with the region’s diverse inhabitants. Despite shared histories and cultural connections, the dream of a united South Asia has crumbled under the weight of mistrust, particularly between India and Pakistan. The once-promising South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has languished, its grand ambitions for economic integration and cultural exchange now distant memories. India’s dominance, while a source of regional stability, also hindered regionalism, as New Delhi saw little value in structures that might dilute its influence. Meanwhile, China’s growing footprint in the region, providing loans and infrastructure to India’s neighbours, has further fragmented South Asia, as smaller states leverage Beijing to counter New Delhi’s power. Ironically, this has eroded India’s regional primacy while also diminishing South Asia’s geopolitical coherence. The region’s inhabitants themselves, particularly India’s burgeoning middle class, are increasingly looking beyond their immediate neighbourhood for opportunities and connections.
My view: The demise of “South Asia” raises critical questions about India’s “Neighbourhood First” policy. Does it ring hollow in the face of India’s reluctance to integrate with its neighbours, both immediate and extended? It appears that the policy has unwittingly become a veil for Indian hegemony, serving the interests of the country’s elite babus and billionaires rather than the common man. This lack of regional integration deprives Indians of the tangible benefits of closer economic and cultural ties with their neighbours. While India’s pursuit of dominance may appease nationalist sentiments, it offers little practical value to its citizens, many of whom remain unaware of these issues due to socioeconomic challenges and limited education.
This zero-sum mentality within the Indian babudom and policymaking circles has blinded it to the shifting tectonic plates of global geopolitics. While India remains stuck in out-dated modes of thought, its neighbours are forging ahead, seeking economic openness and free trade with the rest of the world. Blaming Pakistan for SAARC’s failure only tells part of the story; India’s own actions have significantly contributed to the region’s fragmentation. As China’s influence in South Asia grows, eclipsing India’s trade with its neighbours, it becomes evident that India has the most to lose in this geopolitical game. The country’s inward-looking policies and resistance to regional integration have left it ill-equipped to adapt to the changing global landscape. While Indian elites may cling to the illusion of autarky, the reality is that such an approach is unsustainable in the long run.
As the sun sets on the idea of “South Asia,” one wonders if babus will finally awaken from their slumber of self-delusion as well as recognise the missed opportunities for regional cooperation and shared prosperity. &
Access the article via Archive.is https://archive.is/NJJIu
India & Seychelles sign nine (9) agreements during Modi’s visit Monday, 29th June 2026, 1730 Hours — the two countries signed pacts on extradition, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), space, agriculture & shipping, while India announced financing & defence support for the island nation.
India and Seychelles signed nine legal instruments and announced a wider development package during Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi’s state visit to the Indian Ocean nation, deepening cooperation across extradition, digital payments, health, agriculture, shipping, space, defence and development finance. Modi visited Seychelles from Saturday, 27th to Monday, 29th June at the invitation of President Patrick Herminie. The trip coincided with Seychelles’ 50th Independence Day and the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Modi and Herminie held talks at the State House in Victoria on Sunday, 28 June. The two sides reviewed cooperation in maritime security, health, education, capacity building, digital transformation, clean energy, sustainable development and people-to-people ties. The nine instruments included an extradition treaty, an agreement to introduce India’s Unified Payments Interface in Seychelles, an agreement on space cooperation, a pact on seafarer training and certification, an agriculture work plan for 2026 to 2031, and an umbrella line of credit worth ₹1,250 crore. India also announced a special economic development package worth $175 million. Seychelles State House said the package included $125 million in a rupee-denominated line of credit and $50 million in grant assistance for projects in social housing, e-mobility, vocational training, health, defence and maritime security. The two sides also agreed to cooperate on preliminary work for a new national hospital and on affordable medicines under India’s Janaushadhi scheme. India said it would train Seychellois medical personnel, support sports training and youth exchanges as well as promote Seychelles as a destination for creative industries and film-making. Modi proposed direct shipping links, greater use of local currencies in trade and stronger connectivity to support commerce and tourism. Seychelles sought India’s assistance in setting up artificial intelligence and cybersecurity centres. It also requested support for procuring an advanced light helicopter. Indian officials said New Delhi would consider the proposals positively. India handed over a Made-in-India fast patrol vessel, PS (Patrol Ship) Lespwar, to the Seychelles Coast Guard. It also gifted six ambulances and announced support in maritime surveillance, hydrography and defence capacity-building. Seychelles also acknowledged India’s role in the refit of the coast guard vessel PS Zoroaster. The leaders discussed illegal fishing, drug trafficking, piracy and cross-border crime in the Indian Ocean. Seychelles also announced that it would join the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, an India-backed grouping that supports climate and disaster-resilient infrastructure. Both leaders took part in the virtual ground-breaking of the India-assisted Professional and Technical Education Centre and inaugurated three solar water pumping systems under the International Solar Alliance. They also unveiled a commemorative logo marking a half-century of diplomatic ties. Modi addressed an extraordinary sitting of the National Assembly of Seychelles, becoming the first Indian prime minister to do so. He said the Indian Ocean was a shared home and its security a shared responsibility. Indian armed forces contingents took part in the national parade, including personnel from the Assam Rifles, the Indian Navy and an Indian Navy marching band. Indian naval ships Tarkash and Ikshak also docked at Port Victoria as part of the celebrations. Modi was also conferred Seychelles’ Guardian of the Blue Horizon distinction, becoming its first recipient. The Seychelles State House described it as the highest honour the country bestows on an international dignitary, while also saying it was “not a conventional national decoration” but a symbolic presidential recognition rooted in the island nation’s ocean identity. The honour later drew political criticism in India after Seychelles Cabinet records showed the distinction had been approved on 24 June, only days before Modi received it. Opposition leaders also mocked spelling errors in a citation image circulated online, including misspellings of “Republic” and “Seychelles.” Some social media users questioned whether the circulated image was AI-generated, though no official source had established that the physical citation presented at the ceremony was fake. The visit strengthens India’s maritime diplomacy in the western Indian Ocean, where Seychelles sits near important shipping lanes and plays a role in maritime surveillance, fisheries security and regional disaster resilience. After Israel, global leaders know how to kiss up (obsequiousness) to Narendra Damodardas Modi resulting in Indian taxpayers paying for his awards! Five decades is fifty years. Artificial Intelligence INR USD](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d1a201_c8601585ab2447769518e196c2f770dd~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_357,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/d1a201_c8601585ab2447769518e196c2f770dd~mv2.jpg)
![नकली डिग्री के बाद, हमारे स्लट गुरु को अब नकली अवॉर्ड दिया गया है।
फर्जी डिग्री के बाद, अब फर्जी अवार्ड से नवाजे गए हमारे टट्टी गुरु।
धोखेबाज़ों से सावधान!
सिलीगुड़ी कॉरिडोर (‘चिकन नेक [गर्दन]’) में 7 हाईवे के लिए योजनाओं की घोषणा — चीन-बांग्लादेश परेशान!
पश्चिम बंगाल सरकार ने 121 एकड़ जमीन सौंपी
कॉरिडोर के नीचे से गुजरेगी 40 KM की सुरंग
पश्चिम बंगाल सरकार ने 121 एकड़ जमीन सौंपी
40 किलोमीटर लंबी रेल लाइन की योजना
सिलीगुड़ी कॉरिडोर — पड़ोसी साजिश Exposed
सुरक्षा भरपूर — बदल गया सिलीगुड़ी कॉरिडोर
India & Seychelles sign nine (9) agreements during Modi’s visit Monday, 29th June 2026, 1730 Hours — the two countries signed pacts on extradition, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), space, agriculture & shipping, while India announced financing & defence support for the island nation. India and Seychelles signed nine legal instruments and announced a wider development package during Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi’s state visit to the Indian Ocean nation, deepening cooperation across extradition, digital payments, health, agriculture, shipping, space, defence and development finance. Modi visited Seychelles from Saturday, 27th to Monday, 29th June at the invitation of President Patrick Herminie. The trip coincided with Seychelles’ 50th Independence Day and the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Modi and Herminie held talks at the State House in Victoria on Sunday, 28 June. The two sides reviewed cooperation in maritime security, health, education, capacity building, digital transformation, clean energy, sustainable development and people-to-people ties. The nine instruments included an extradition treaty, an agreement to introduce India’s Unified Payments Interface in Seychelles, an agreement on space cooperation, a pact on seafarer training and certification, an agriculture work plan for 2026 to 2031, and an umbrella line of credit worth ₹1,250 crore. India also announced a special economic development package worth $175 million. Seychelles State House said the package included $125 million in a rupee-denominated line of credit and $50 million in grant assistance for projects in social housing, e-mobility, vocational training, health, defence and maritime security. The two sides also agreed to cooperate on preliminary work for a new national hospital and on affordable medicines under India’s Janaushadhi scheme. India said it would train Seychellois medical personnel, support sports training and youth exchanges as well as promote Seychelles as a destination for creative industries and film-making. Modi proposed direct shipping links, greater use of local currencies in trade and stronger connectivity to support commerce and tourism. Seychelles sought India’s assistance in setting up artificial intelligence and cybersecurity centres. It also requested support for procuring an advanced light helicopter. Indian officials said New Delhi would consider the proposals positively. India handed over a Made-in-India fast patrol vessel, PS (Patrol Ship) Lespwar, to the Seychelles Coast Guard. It also gifted six ambulances and announced support in maritime surveillance, hydrography and defence capacity-building. Seychelles also acknowledged India’s role in the refit of the coast guard vessel PS Zoroaster. The leaders discussed illegal fishing, drug trafficking, piracy and cross-border crime in the Indian Ocean. Seychelles also announced that it would join the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, an India-backed grouping that supports climate and disaster-resilient infrastructure. Both leaders took part in the virtual ground-breaking of the India-assisted Professional and Technical Education Centre and inaugurated three solar water pumping systems under the International Solar Alliance. They also unveiled a commemorative logo marking a half-century of diplomatic ties. Modi addressed an extraordinary sitting of the National Assembly of Seychelles, becoming the first Indian prime minister to do so. He said the Indian Ocean was a shared home and its security a shared responsibility. Indian armed forces contingents took part in the national parade, including personnel from the Assam Rifles, the Indian Navy and an Indian Navy marching band. Indian naval ships Tarkash and Ikshak also docked at Port Victoria as part of the celebrations. Modi was also conferred Seychelles’ Guardian of the Blue Horizon distinction, becoming its first recipient. The Seychelles State House described it as the highest honour the country bestows on an international dignitary, while also saying it was “not a conventional national decoration” but a symbolic presidential recognition rooted in the island nation’s ocean identity. The honour later drew political criticism in India after Seychelles Cabinet records showed the distinction had been approved on 24 June, only days before Modi received it. Opposition leaders also mocked spelling errors in a citation image circulated online, including misspellings of “Republic” and “Seychelles.” Some social media users questioned whether the circulated image was AI-generated, though no official source had established that the physical citation presented at the ceremony was fake. The visit strengthens India’s maritime diplomacy in the western Indian Ocean, where Seychelles sits near important shipping lanes and plays a role in maritime surveillance, fisheries security and regional disaster resilience. After Israel, global leaders know how to kiss up (obsequiousness) to Narendra Damodardas Modi resulting in Indian taxpayers paying for his awards! Five decades is fifty years. Artificial Intelligence INR USD
பாகிஸ்தான் மற்றும் பங்களாதேஷ் ஆகிய நாடுகளில் உள்ள முஸ்லிம் அல்லாதவர்களின் சதவீதங்களைக் கவனிக்கவும். சதவீதங்களைக
செய்தி ஒளிபரப்பு
“இந்தியாவில் முஸ்லிம்கள் ஊடுருவல்...!” — உள்துறை அமைச்சர் அமித்ஷா — முஸ்லிம்கள் எண்ணிக்கை அதிகரிக்க, பல முஸ்லிம்கள் ஊடுருவியதே காரணம் (கந்த, Thanthi TV, Saturday, 11th October 2025)
முஸ்லிம்கள் எண்ணிக்கை அதிகரிக்க, பல முஸ்லிம்கள் ஊடுருவியது காரணம்
இந்தியாவில் ஊடுருவல் காரர்கள் மூலமாகத்தான் முஸ்லிம்களின் மக்கள் தொகை அதிகரித்துள்ளதாக உள்துறை அமைச்சர் அமித்ஷா தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.
டெல்லியில் நடைபெற்ற விருது வழங்கும் விழா ஒன்றில் சிறப்பு விருந்தினராக பங்கேற்ற அவர், சுதந்திரத்திற்குப் பிறகு, பாகிஸ்தானில் இந்துக்கள் 13% ஆகவும், மற்ற சிறுபான்மையினர் 1.2 சதவீதமாகவும் இருந்தனர் என்றும், தற்போது இந்துக்களும் பிற சிறுபான்மையினரும் சேர்ந்து 1.73 சதவீதமாகவும் மட்டுமே உள்ளனர் என்றும் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
இந்தியாவில் முஸ்லிம்களின் எண்ணிக்கை அதிகரிப்பதற்குக் காரணம், பல முஸ்லிம்கள் இங்கு ஊடுருவியதே என அவர் சுட்டிக்காட்டியுள்ளார். சுதந்திரத்திற்கு பின் அண்டை நாடுகளில் உள்ள சிறுபான்மையினருக்கு பின்னர் குடியுரிமை வழங்குவோம் என நேரு — லியாகத் ஒப்பந்தத்தில் குறிப்பிட்டு, பின்னர் காங்கிரஸ் யாருக்கும் குடியுரிமை வழங்க வில்லையென அமித்ஷா குற்றம்சாட்டியுள்ளார்.
முன்னாள் பிரதமர் நேரு அகதிகளுக்கு குடியுரிமை வழங்குவதாக கூறினாலும், அவர் வழங்கவில்லை என்றும் அமித்ஷா தன் உரையில் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
1951 இல் இந்தியாவில் நடத்தப்பட்ட மக்கள் தொகை கணக்கெடுப்பில், 84 சதவீதம் இந்துக்களும், 9.8 சதவீதம் முஸ்லீம்கள் இருந்ததாகவும், அதன் பிறகு 1971ல் நடத்தப்பட்ட கணக்கெடுப்பில் இந்துக்கள் 82 சதவீதமும், முஸ்லீம்கள் 11 சதவீதம் இருந்ததாகவும் அவர் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
மேலும், 1991ல் இந்ததுக்கள் 81 சதவீதமாகவும், முஸ்லிம்கள் 12.2 சதவீதம் இருந்ததாகவும், 2011ல் நடத்தப்பட்ட மக்கள் தொகை கணக்கெடுப்பில் இந்துக்கள் 79 சதவீதமாகவும், முஸ்லிம்கள் 14.2 சதவீதமாக இருந்ததாகவும் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.
உலகில் யார் இங்கே வர விரும்பினாலும் அவர்களை வர அனுமதித்தால், நம் நாடு தர்மசாலாவாக மாறும் என தெரிவித்துள்ள உள்துறை அமைச்சர் அமித்ஷா, பாகிஸ்தான் மற்றும் வங்கதேச இந்துக்களுக்கு, இந்திய மண்ணில் உரிமை உள்ளதாகவும் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார். மத ரீதியான துன்புறுத்தலை எதிர்கொள்ளாதவர்களும், பொருளாதார அல்லது பிற காரணங்களுக்காக சட்டவிரோதமாக இந்தியாவிற்குள் வர விரும்புபவர்களும் ஊடுருவல்காரர்களாகக் கருதப்படுவதாகவும் அமித்ஷா விளக்கம் அளித்துள்ளார்.
2011ம் ஆண்டு அசாமில் நடத்தப்பட்ட மக்கள் தொகை கணக்கெடுப்பின்படி, முஸ்லிம் மக்கள் தொகை 29.6 சதவீதமாக இருந்ததாக குறிப்பிட்ட அவர், ஊடுருவல் இல்லாமல் இது சாத்தியமில்லை என தெரிவித்துள்ளார். மேலும், மேற்கு வங்கத்தின் பல மாவட்டங்களில், இந்த வளர்ச்சி விகிதம் 40 சதவீதமாகவும், சில எல்லைப் பகுதிகளில், 70 சதவீதமாக உயர்ந்துள்ளதாகவும் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார்.
தமிழ்நாடு காங்கிரஸ் கமிட்டி
“விசுவாசமாக இருப்பவர்களுக்கு காங்கிரஸ் கட்சியில் பதவி கிடைக்காது”
Tuesday, 27th May 2025
“கரூர் துயர சம்பவம் — உண்மைகளை வெளிக்கொண்டு வருவோம்”
ஈரோடு கவனிக்குமா முஸ்லீம்](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d1a201_51126858206b44658f29ec465a18b24d~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_1443,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/d1a201_51126858206b44658f29ec465a18b24d~mv2.jpg)
![नकली डिग्री के बाद, हमारे स्लट गुरु को अब नकली अवॉर्ड दिया गया है। फर्जी डिग्री के बाद, अब फर्जी अवार्ड से नवाजे गए हमारे टट्टी गुरु। धोखेबाज़ों से सावधान!
सिलीगुड़ी कॉरिडोर (‘चिकन नेक [गर्दन]’) में 7 हाईवे के लिए योजनाओं की घोषणा — चीन-बांग्लादेश परेशान!
पश्चिम बंगाल सरकार ने 121 एकड़ जमीन सौंपी
कॉरिडोर के नीचे से गुजरेगी 40 KM की सुरंग
पश्चिम बंगाल सरकार ने 121 एकड़ जमीन सौंपी
40 किलोमीटर लंबी रेल लाइन की योजना
सिलीगुड़ी कॉरिडोर — पड़ोसी साजिश Exposed
सुरक्षा भरपूर — बदल गया सिलीगुड़ी कॉरिडोर
Practical Value Happymon Jacob writing for Foreign Affairs — the term “South Asia,” coined by Westerners during the Cold War, never resonated deeply with the region’s diverse inhabitants. Despite shared histories and cultural connections, the dream of a united South Asia has crumbled under the weight of mistrust, particularly between India and Pakistan. The once-promising South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has languished, its grand ambitions for economic integration and cultural exchange now distant memories. India’s dominance, while a source of regional stability, also hindered regionalism, as New Delhi saw little value in structures that might dilute its influence. Meanwhile, China’s growing footprint in the region, providing loans and infrastructure to India’s neighbours, has further fragmented South Asia, as smaller states leverage Beijing to counter New Delhi’s power. Ironically, this has eroded India’s regional primacy while also diminishing South Asia’s geopolitical coherence. The region’s inhabitants themselves, particularly India’s burgeoning middle class, are increasingly looking beyond their immediate neighbourhood for opportunities and connections.
My view: The demise of “South Asia” raises critical questions about India’s “Neighbourhood First” policy. Does it ring hollow in the face of India’s reluctance to integrate with its neighbours, both immediate and extended? It appears that the policy has unwittingly become a veil for Indian hegemony, serving the interests of the country’s elite babus and billionaires rather than the common man. This lack of regional integration deprives Indians of the tangible benefits of closer economic and cultural ties with their neighbours. While India’s pursuit of dominance may appease nationalist sentiments, it offers little practical value to its citizens, many of whom remain unaware of these issues due to socioeconomic challenges and limited education.
This zero-sum mentality within the Indian babudom and policymaking circles has blinded it to the shifting tectonic plates of global geopolitics. While India remains stuck in out-dated modes of thought, its neighbours are forging ahead, seeking economic openness and free trade with the rest of the world. Blaming Pakistan for SAARC’s failure only tells part of the story; India’s own actions have significantly contributed to the region’s fragmentation. As China’s influence in South Asia grows, eclipsing India’s trade with its neighbours, it becomes evident that India has the most to lose in this geopolitical game. The country’s inward-looking policies and resistance to regional integration have left it ill-equipped to adapt to the changing global landscape. While Indian elites may cling to the illusion of autarky, the reality is that such an approach is unsustainable in the long run.
As the sun sets on the idea of “South Asia,” one wonders if babus will finally awaken from their slumber of self-delusion as well as recognise the missed opportunities for regional cooperation and shared prosperity. &
Access the article via Archive.is: https://archive.is/NJJIu
नकली डिग्री के बाद, हमारे स्लट गुरु को अब नकली अवॉर्ड दिया गया है।
फर्जी डिग्री के बाद, अब फर्जी अवार्ड से नवाजे गए हमारे टट्टी गुरु।
धोखेबाज़ों से सावधान! India & Seychelles sign nine (9) agreements during Modi’s visit Monday, 29th June 2026, 1730 Hours — the two countries signed pacts on extradition, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), space, agriculture & shipping, while India announced financing & defence support for the island nation. India and Seychelles signed nine legal instruments and announced a wider development package during Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi’s state visit to the Indian Ocean nation, deepening cooperation across extradition, digital payments, health, agriculture, shipping, space, defence and development finance. Modi visited Seychelles from Saturday, 27th to Monday, 29th June at the invitation of President Patrick Herminie. The trip coincided with Seychelles’ 50th Independence Day and the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Modi and Herminie held talks at the State House in Victoria on Sunday, 28 June. The two sides reviewed cooperation in maritime security, health, education, capacity building, digital transformation, clean energy, sustainable development and people-to-people ties. The nine instruments included an extradition treaty, an agreement to introduce India’s Unified Payments Interface in Seychelles, an agreement on space cooperation, a pact on seafarer training and certification, an agriculture work plan for 2026 to 2031, and an umbrella line of credit worth ₹1,250 crore. India also announced a special economic development package worth $175 million. Seychelles State House said the package included $125 million in a rupee-denominated line of credit and $50 million in grant assistance for projects in social housing, e-mobility, vocational training, health, defence and maritime security. The two sides also agreed to cooperate on preliminary work for a new national hospital and on affordable medicines under India’s Janaushadhi scheme. India said it would train Seychellois medical personnel, support sports training and youth exchanges as well as promote Seychelles as a destination for creative industries and film-making. Modi proposed direct shipping links, greater use of local currencies in trade and stronger connectivity to support commerce and tourism. Seychelles sought India’s assistance in setting up artificial intelligence and cybersecurity centres. It also requested support for procuring an advanced light helicopter. Indian officials said New Delhi would consider the proposals positively. India handed over a Made-in-India fast patrol vessel, PS (Patrol Ship) Lespwar, to the Seychelles Coast Guard. It also gifted six ambulances and announced support in maritime surveillance, hydrography and defence capacity-building. Seychelles also acknowledged India’s role in the refit of the coast guard vessel PS Zoroaster. The leaders discussed illegal fishing, drug trafficking, piracy and cross-border crime in the Indian Ocean. Seychelles also announced that it would join the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, an India-backed grouping that supports climate and disaster-resilient infrastructure. Both leaders took part in the virtual ground-breaking of the India-assisted Professional and Technical Education Centre and inaugurated three solar water pumping systems under the International Solar Alliance. They also unveiled a commemorative logo marking a half-century of diplomatic ties. Modi addressed an extraordinary sitting of the National Assembly of Seychelles, becoming the first Indian prime minister to do so. He said the Indian Ocean was a shared home and its security a shared responsibility. Indian armed forces contingents took part in the national parade, including personnel from the Assam Rifles, the Indian Navy and an Indian Navy marching band. Indian naval ships Tarkash and Ikshak also docked at Port Victoria as part of the celebrations. Modi was also conferred Seychelles’ Guardian of the Blue Horizon distinction, becoming its first recipient. The Seychelles State House described it as the highest honour the country bestows on an international dignitary, while also saying it was “not a conventional national decoration” but a symbolic presidential recognition rooted in the island nation’s ocean identity. The honour later drew political criticism in India after Seychelles Cabinet records showed the distinction had been approved on 24 June, only days before Modi received it. Opposition leaders also mocked spelling errors in a citation image circulated online, including misspellings of “Republic” and “Seychelles.” Some social media users questioned whether the circulated image was AI-generated, though no official source had established that the physical citation presented at the ceremony was fake. The visit strengthens India’s maritime diplomacy in the western Indian Ocean, where Seychelles sits near important shipping lanes and plays a role in maritime surveillance, fisheries security and regional disaster resilience. After Israel, global leaders know how to kiss up (obsequiousness) to Narendra Damodardas Modi resulting in Indian taxpayers paying for his awards! Five decades is fifty years. Artificial Intelligence INR USD 7 News Nation Thursday, 2nd July 2026 0637 hours ...](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d1a201_682a826a66494ac8b7090e312ca28b0e~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_795,h_590,al_c,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/d1a201_682a826a66494ac8b7090e312ca28b0e~mv2.png)
![नकली डिग्री के बाद, हमारे स्लट गुरु को अब नकली अवॉर्ड दिया गया है।
फर्जी डिग्री के बाद, अब फर्जी अवार्ड से नवाजे गए हमारे टट्टी गुरु।
धोखेबाज़ों से सावधान!
The End of South Asia — A Region in Name Only
Happymon Jacob, Monday, 22nd July 2024
For decades, policymakers and scholars have been trained in the West and elsewhere to think of the countries of the Indian subcontinent as part of a coherent region: South Asia. Home to around a quarter of the world’s population, the region consists of eight countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Its diverse peoples speak hundreds of different languages and follow numerous different religious traditions, but they have shared histories, including the experience of British colonialism, and shared cultural connections, including a love of the sport of cricket and Bollywood films, ethnic ties, and musical and culinary practices, for instance. In the late twentieth century, South Asian leaders sought to deepen links within the region, with the greater goal of integration in line with that pursued in nearby Southeast Asia under the auspices of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or in Europe under the European Union. South Asia, too, they imagined, could become a consequential regional bloc in global geopolitics.
But that never happened. In the last four decades, South Asia has managed to build little security, economic, or policy cohesion. Mistrust and enmity, notably that between India and Pakistan, have made integration a pipe dream. Worse, at the most fundamental level, the notion of belonging to South Asia has lost any of the traction it ever had. South Asians no longer look to one another for connection and solidarity but rather gaze farther afield, to the Middle East, Southeast Asia, or the West. Not many South Asians (outside those tens of millions living in diaspora around the world) would even think to consider themselves South Asians in the first place. The term today does not denote a coherent regional identity but is merely a mundane geographical demarcation used mostly by those outside the region. The dream of a united South Asia is over, with important implications for geopolitics on the subcontinent that policymakers and analysts of the region have yet to fully grasp.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
As a term, “South Asia” has its origins far from the subcontinent. Academic analysts and policymakers in the West began using the term in the late 1950s after the emergence of independent postcolonial states from British India in 1947. During the Cold War, when the United States maintained closer ties to Pakistan than it did to ostensibly nonaligned India, the term allowed Washington to speak about the region without underlining India’s local predominance. Universities in the West followed suit, with academics using South Asia as a neutral term to describe India and its neighbors. Over time, Indians themselves started using the term in certain rarefied circles, but few people in the region conceived of themselves as South Asian.
In the late 1970s, General Ziaur Rahman, who had come to power in Bangladesh through a military coup in 1975, started floating the idea of a regional organization. Although the smaller states immediately warmed to the idea, India and Pakistan were initially more skeptical but decided to entertain the Bangladeshi proposal. The proposal found formal expression in 1985 with the creation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, a group that included Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SAARC sought to create a “better climate of understanding” and foster cooperation among member states.
For around three decades, SAARC enjoyed considerable support in the region, albeit with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Indian leaders became more receptive toward SAARC beginning in the late 1990s, particularly Prime Ministers Inder Kumar Gujral (1997 to 1998), Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1998 to 2004), and Manmohan Singh (2004 to 2010). They pushed ahead even as many in New Delhi warned that India’s rivalry and disputes with Pakistan would severely curb SAARC’s ability to function, never mind its ability to integrate the region. For their part, Pakistani leaders have long been wary of SAARC, fearing it could become a vehicle for the exercise of India’s influence, but Islamabad still participated in the summits and other platforms associated with the group. Smaller states in the region, such as Bhutan, the Maldives, and Nepal, were the keenest advocates of SAARC, convinced that their membership in such a multilateral platform granted them greater geopolitical agency.
But after an initial period of activity, SAARC has crept perilously close to obsolescence. Of the 18 SAARC summits held so far, six were staged during the first six years of its existence. The group has held only six summits between 2005 and 2014 and none at all in the last decade. During the group’s heyday from the 1990s into the first decade of the twenty-first century, member countries set up and explored several ambitious ventures, including the South Asia Free Trade Area (a free-trade agreement signed in 2004), a customs union, a common regional market, and a common economic and monetary union. But over time, these grand ambitions have fallen by the wayside. The partial progress achieved in implementing the free-trade area has been stalled since 2014, when Pakistan blocked the signing of an agreement about motor vehicles. Other closer forms of regional integration remain pipe dreams.
The South Asian University, set up by the SAARC countries in New Delhi in 2010, is today a ghost of what it was originally meant to be. Visa restrictions and financial constraints have hampered its growth, and the institution has not helped foster a sense of regional identity through higher education as its founders imagined it would. Attempts by the region’s elites and civil society to encourage regionalism in South Asia through nongovernmental organizations, such as the South Asia Free Media Association and South Asians for Human Rights, or think tanks, such as the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, have not gained much traction either. SAARC and these organizations express an elite-level desire for greater connection within South Asia, but that desire has failed to produce meaningful integration in the region.
THE CENTER DOES NOT HOLD
Part of South Asia’s problem is its lopsidedness. India is the region’s biggest and most powerful country. Its dominance has had a paradoxical impact on the development of regional structures. At its core, South Asia consists of India and six countries that share a border with India but not with one another. (The exception is Afghanistan, which shares a border with Pakistan but not with India.) In that sense, South Asia is primarily the sum of interactions among India’s neighbors with India and India with its neighbors.
The fact of Indian centrality has meant that New Delhi does not always see the value of building regional structures, as such structures cannot add to the predominance India already enjoys in the region. Even though a number of Indian prime ministers saw merit in SAARC, the Indian bureaucracy and strategic establishment have never been convinced of its value. They have long feared that the creation of regional structures could potentially check India’s dominance in its own backyard. Since SAARC functions based on consensus, India’s vote on affairs on the subcontinent would count as much as that of Bhutan and the Maldives, the smallest countries in the region. As a result, it makes little sense for Indian decision-makers to support the creation of structures that could undermine their country’s influence in the region. That sentiment has a corollary among Indian strategists and foreign policy analysts; they, too, look beyond the region and think of South Asia’s inherent conflicts as a millstone around India’s neck.
That South Asia is increasingly becoming an arena of geopolitical competition not only makes further regional integration less likely; such competition also threatens to undo even the limited regional cohesion that exists today. In recent decades, China has built up its influence among India’s neighbors. Take Sri Lanka, for instance, whose largest bilateral creditor is China and to whom China has provided loans to build highways, an airport, and a port. In Bangladesh, China has been using loans and infrastructure development assistance to gain influence. And China is jostling there not just with India but with the United States. In 2021, the United States placed sanctions on an elite paramilitary unit in Bangladesh for its alleged human rights violations and extrajudicial killings. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin rebuked this policy when he reiterated in 2023 that the Chinese “firmly support Bangladesh in safeguarding its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, upholding independent domestic and foreign policies, and pursuing a development path that suits its national realities.” In sum, China’s growing profile in South Asia marks a clear change from Beijing’s initial decision, dating back to the inception of the People’s Republic of China, of leaving the region to India. Today, China no longer sees India as a peer, nor is it willing to accept India’s primacy in the subcontinent.
Intraregional trade in South Asia is meager: it contributes to only five percent of the region’s overall trade totals—by contrast, intraregional trade among the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations accounts for 25 percent of the region’s overall trade. Moreover, China’s fast-growing trade with South Asia is eclipsing India’s own trade with its neighbors.
The inhabitants of the region themselves are not clamoring for stronger ties. Indeed, a shared history and cultural heritage doesn’t necessarily produce strong connections, let alone thriving bonds. India’s growing, prosperous middle class has little interest in South Asia, nor does it feel that it has much in common with people in neighboring countries. In the minds of this aspirational class of around 430 million people, many of whom have connections to diasporic communities in the West, the Middle East, and elsewhere in Asia, India is meant for bigger things than its immediate neighborhood.
Cultural exchange within the region is also on the wane. In 2019, Pakistan banned Indian content on local television and FM radio channels. Turkish TV shows increasingly fill the vacuum in Pakistan left in the absence of content from India. In India, there are hardly any Pakistani artists in the Bollywood film industry, and Pakistani cricketers no longer play in India’s money-spinning Indian Premier League, the sport’s most lucrative league.
South Asians are not working or studying in one another’s countries as much as they used to. Since 1990, there has been a consistent decline in intraregional migration. For instance, India has long been a favored destination for Nepali workers, but they now are venturing to the Gulf countries and Malaysia, with India often serving just as a transit point. People across the region are going to places where they can secure higher wages than they can in South Asia, namely Australia, Malaysia, the Middle East, western Europe, and North America.
Few South Asians study in one another’s countries, except in India. South Asian students still make up half the total foreign student population in India, but these numbers have stagnated in the past decade. A 2020 Brookings India report showed that the annual growth rate of foreign South Asian students in India decreased from 30 percent in the 2011–12 academic year to just nine percent in 2018–19. India’s loss has been China’s gain. The number of students from India’s neighboring countries studying in China increased by 176 percent between 2011 and 2016, the Brookings report stated. In 2016, for example, there were three times as many Bangladeshis studying in China as in India.
South Asians face a very clear impediment to travel within the region: hard borders. Only the tourist-friendly Maldives offers visas on arrival for all SAARC member countries. Bhutan and Nepal have a visa-free travel agreement with India. But apart from these deals, regional travel is difficult. Given that India is the only geographical connection among many of the countries of the region, New Delhi’s decision to open or close borders determines the fate of intraregional connectivity in South Asia. The decrease in intra-South Asian connectivity in trade, tourism, and education is, unsurprisingly, being made up for by China: consider the growing amount of connectivity in trade, tourism, and education between China and Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The more India neglects South Asia, the more China embraces it. It’s not a zero-sum game; it’s a walkover for China. And it may well be too late for India to reassert itself as a regional hub.
A REGION UNBOUND
Thanks to the decision of many South Asian states to leverage China to balance India’s primacy, South Asia is no longer the India-centric region it used to be. Paradoxically, however, India’s loss of regional primacy also means that South Asia is losing its salience as a geopolitical entity, with smaller countries strengthening economic, political, diplomatic, and cultural ties with China and drifting away from India. In other words, the smaller South Asian states that once hoped to benefit from greater regional integration have made such integration more unlikely; by using China to balance India, they have undermined the coherence and potential unity of South Asia.
The end of South Asia as both a geopolitical entity and an epistemological category has implications that go beyond university departments or nongovernmental organizations that might have to reimagine how they frame their agendas. Despite India’s primacy in the region, Indian thinkers have come to believe that entanglement in South Asia limits the country’s ambitions. In the last decade, India has reoriented its strategic focus from Pakistan to China and from the continental theater to the maritime one. It has embarked on a wider economic journey by signing and negotiating several important free-trade agreements with countries farther afield, such as Switzerland. New Delhi seeks a larger geopolitical space for itself. In contemporary Indian strategic thinking, South Asia is at best a small place and at worst a limitation.
There is little value for India in pouring in resources to either regain exclusive primacy or balance China in a space in which it is geopolitically weaker and somewhat contained. Although New Delhi’s concerns about Beijing’s growing power are understandable, frantic attempts to win back South Asia or compete with China for regional dominance are unlikely to work. Another option available to India is to work with China in the region, as many of India’s neighbors would prefer, but it won’t be too long before an ambitious and aggressive China seeks to relegate India to the rank of a second-rate power in South Asia. Already, India has struggled to set and enforce redlines among its neighbors, for example, with Chinese spy ships docking in Sri Lanka in recent years.
A wiser option for New Delhi would be to think more broadly and see South Asia as only a part of its neighborhood rather than the entirety of it. This doesn’t mean that India should give China a free hand in South Asia. On the contrary, it should encourage countries and groupings outside South Asia to take a more active role in the region. It could, for instance, invite friendly and wealthy Gulf states to work with India in South Asia to help address climate change or provide disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. It could take a more active role in the security partnership known as the Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue), that brings together Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, encouraging forms of cooperation between the Quad and smaller South Asian island states, such as the Maldives and Sri Lanka, as well as landlocked ones, such as Bhutan and Nepal. India could proactively engage partners such as Japan, the United States, the EU, and other like-minded powers to help curb China’s growing influence in the region by countering Chinese economic and political narratives and providing alternative transparent development models. In so doing, India would widen its sense of its own backyard and check the Chinese quest for hegemony.
The end of South Asia is a key marker in the history of the region and offers geopolitical opportunities and choices for India and its partners. For India, finally relinquishing the region and not worrying about primacy there allows it to forge a dynamic geopolitical relationship between South Asia and regions and countries farther afield. It is not that India should stop engaging with its neighbors but that it should see them in a wider geopolitical context, not merely as denizens of the subcontinent they happen to share.
The same is true for the United States and its allies. Although they may have viewed smaller South Asian countries as irrelevant or at best marginal to their wider interests, they should understand that the likes of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are enmeshed in the broad geopolitical competition. Encouraging the participation of these smaller countries in larger frameworks and coalitions, such as the Quad, will help rein in Chinese influence and give these countries alternatives to the political and economic support offered by China. The countries of South Asia may not compose a coherent region, but they will play integral roles in shaping the wider Asian balance of power in the years to come. [Ends]
森普林 霍默 傑伊 阿森 家族 一族 憎恨 次大陸 南亞 航空 印度 巴基斯坦 斯里蘭卡 不丹 尼泊爾 阿富汗 馬爾地夫 代表 飛機場
Happymon Jacob writing for Foreign Affairs — the term “South Asia,” coined by Westerners during the Cold War, never resonated deeply with the region’s diverse inhabitants. Despite shared histories and cultural connections, the dream of a united South Asia has crumbled under the weight of mistrust, particularly between India and Pakistan. The once-promising South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has languished, its grand ambitions for economic integration and cultural exchange now distant memories. India’s dominance, while a source of regional stability, also hindered regionalism, as New Delhi saw little value in structures that might dilute its influence. Meanwhile, China’s growing footprint in the region, providing loans and infrastructure to India’s neighbours, has further fragmented South Asia, as smaller states leverage Beijing to counter New Delhi’s power. Ironically, this has eroded India’s regional primacy while also diminishing South Asia’s geopolitical coherence. The region’s inhabitants themselves, particularly India’s burgeoning middle class, are increasingly looking beyond their immediate neighbourhood for opportunities and connections.
My view: The demise of “South Asia” raises critical questions about India’s “Neighbourhood First” policy. Does it ring hollow in the face of India’s reluctance to integrate with its neighbours, both immediate and extended? It appears that the policy has unwittingly become a veil for Indian hegemony, serving the interests of the country’s elite babus and billionaires rather than the common man. This lack of regional integration deprives Indians of the tangible benefits of closer economic and cultural ties with their neighbours. While India’s pursuit of dominance may appease nationalist sentiments, it offers little practical value to its citizens, many of whom remain unaware of these issues due to socioeconomic challenges and limited education.
This zero-sum mentality within the Indian babudom and policymaking circles has blinded it to the shifting tectonic plates of global geopolitics. While India remains stuck in out-dated modes of thought, its neighbours are forging ahead, seeking economic openness and free trade with the rest of the world. Blaming Pakistan for SAARC’s failure only tells part of the story; India’s own actions have significantly contributed to the region’s fragmentation. As China’s influence in South Asia grows, eclipsing India’s trade with its neighbours, it becomes evident that India has the most to lose in this geopolitical game. The country’s inward-looking policies and resistance to regional integration have left it ill-equipped to adapt to the changing global landscape. While Indian elites may cling to the illusion of autarky, the reality is that such an approach is unsustainable in the long run.
As the sun sets on the idea of “South Asia,” one wonders if babus will finally awaken from their slumber of self-delusion as well as recognise the missed opportunities for regional cooperation and shared prosperity. &](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d1a201_b513b29500a145a7821a867a23f8f80b~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_826,h_606,al_c,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/d1a201_b513b29500a145a7821a867a23f8f80b~mv2.png)
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