As the time for the SAARC summit approaches there is renewed
belligerence in the posturing by the bureaucracies of both India and Pakistan.
It must be clear by now to both sides that war between two nuclear armed neighbours
cannot be a rational means of dispute resolution. Yet both sides are locked into
a mind set that is as afraid of peace as it is of war. Consequently a no war,
no peace situation persists which continues to undermine the prospects of building
a better future for their respective citizens. It may be time now to change the
mind set within which the governments of India and Pakistan conduct their inter-state
relations. In this article we will briefly indicate an alternative perspective
through which the drift towards war can be replaced by the pursuit of peace. South
Asia is at a conjunctural moment in its history. There is growing awareness today
of the tremendous human and natural resource potential that can be harnessed for
overcoming poverty. There is a recognition of the possibility of articulating
through regional cooperation the richness of its civilizational content as well
as of its resources to become an influential voice in the new world that is taking
shape. Yet, at the same time, there is growing evidence of the undermining of
this potential through continued danger of inter-state war on the one hand and
unsustainable development strategies on the other. Can we
grasp this moment and together devise a new path which will enable South Asia
to enter the 21st century in peace, prosperity and with a new flowering of the
rich civilizations that it encompasses? The time has come for moving out of the
narrow confines of a mind set that takes military muscle rather than well being
of its people as the emblem of state power; and which regards an adversarial relationship
with the neighbour rather than regional cooperation as an expression of national
commitment. There is also an urgent need to move out
of the narrow confines of a conceptual approach that takes GNP growth within centralized
state structures as the emblem of development, the credit worthiness for new loans
as a measure of economic health, and which regards people as passive recipients
of the drops that are supposed to trickle down from such a process. As we glance
back at the last four decades of South Asian development experience, generations
of poor, mutilated by malnutrition, come into sharp focus. At the same time, the
image of once verdant slopes of our northern mountains, and the fertile fields
that nestled at their feet, begins to fade. A childhood image that is lost within
a single generation at the onset of deforestation, salinization and desertification
- processes unleashed by a growth mechanism that is guided by the hidden hand
of the market, rather than the aspiration of our peoples to sustain life across
generations. Yet even as the human and natural resource base is getting undermined,
governments in South Asian countries are groaning under intolerable debt burdens
arising mainly from the rising expenditures of centralized state apparatuses,
and ill conceived policies imposed by international financial institutions. The
irony of increasingly sophisticated military apparatuses in South Asia together
with continued poverty of the majority of the people and a huge debt burden has
been given a devastating dimension in the case of India and Pakistan: This is
the danger of war arising out of the long standing Kashmir dispute. The prospect
of war of course has added horror in view of the fact that each country now has
nuclear weapons capability. It can be argued that continued
increases in military expenditure are unsustainable both in terms of the added
burden on the poor, as well as in terms of escalating tensions leading to a nuclear
holocaust. As the largest country in the region it may be worth its while for
India to adopt a long term perspective towards the Kashmir issue. If India were
to take the initiative in resolving the Kashmir issue according to the wishes
of the people of Kashmir it would constitute the best investment in the long term
security of India and of the region. Such a gesture by India would change the
perceptions of its smaller neighbours that it seeks hegemony in the region. It
would thereby establish a lasting basis of durable peace defined by the equality
of sovereign states seeking cooperation rather than conflict in the fulfillment
of their national aspirations. Equally important would be the peace dividend that
India and Pakistan could reap following a resolution of the Kashmir issue in terms
of redirecting a large proportion of their existing military expenditure for the
prosperity of their people. Rising military expenditure induced largely by tensions
emanating from the Kashmir issue, does not increase in net terms the security
of the respective states. This is simply because an increase in military expenditure
by one country leads to a similar response by the other. While national security
may not necessarily be enhanced by an arms race it is clearly endangered by the
intensification of domestic poverty that results from it and increased social
polarization associated with the perpetuation of poverty. To-day, as the armies
of the two countries though disengaged, are still ready to pounce on each other,
it is clear that war will have no victors. It may be time therefore to think of
the imperatives of durable peace and sustainable development. As
we now look towards the future, an urgent need is felt today, for a new approach
to development. A perspective within which people in their diverse locations can
live in peace and acquire control over the decisions that affect their immediate
existence; in which the autonomy of communities and states can be sought from
the tentacles of an international financial system that is serving as a conduit
for transferring real resources of the fragile resource base of the poor; a perspective
within which production and economic growth is conducted to sustain life rather
than serving to undermine it. In short, the question is, can we achieve a sustainable
relationship between man, nature and growth? The
pursuit of such questions requires the people and governments of India and Pakistan
respectively to re-experience the well springs of their own humanity. The challenge
is to start a peace process that is predicated not on a myopic perception of state
power but the vision of actualizing the tremendous human potential of the citizens
of the two countries. |