home > by publication type > daily analysis > Democracy in South Asia
Email
| Author: |
|---|
A woman casts her vote in the former Maoist stronghold of Rolpa, Nepal, April 10, 2008. (AP/Saurabh Das)
Recent elections in Bhutan, Pakistan, and Nepal signal a move toward greater democracy in South Asia. But the region continues to be torn by conflict and remains vulnerable to military interventions in politics, corruption in government, and terrorism.
Security remains a prominent issue in most countries in the region. Pakistan has often been called the world's most dangerous place (Economist), with numerous homegrown and foreign militant groups ensconced in its tribal areas along the Afghan border. Although February elections were hailed as a triumph of democracy after eight years of military rule, the parties returning to power earned venal reputations during previous stints in power. And since then, serious political differences have divided the main parties in the coalition. Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation believes the political maneuvering in Islamabad is distracting the Pakistani government from dealing with growing militancy in the tribal areas.
India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh each have long histories of multiparty electoral democracy; however, a few families have dominated political life in all of them. Boston Globe columnist H. D. S. Greenway writes that political parties in the region "often come to be seen as reflecting the will of one powerful personality whose successors view the party as their personal property."
U.S. policy ensures a focus on Pakistan, but its neighbors share many of its ills. India, as the recent spate of bombings in its major cities have shown, remains prone to terrorist attacks. The Sri Lankan state has been fighting a war with the separatist guerilla group known as the Tamil Tigers for over two decades, resulting in high incidence of civilian casualties and numerous human rights violations. Nepal, too, was engaged in a decade-long civil war with Maoist separatists until peace was reached in 2006. After a historic election in April, the country abolished its monarchy, but Kathmandu remains mired in political infighting. The uncertain fate of the 23,000 guerilla fighters of its People's Liberation Army adds to the fragility of the peace process.
Relations between South Asia's democracies also remain strained. India, the largest country in the region and its longest functioning democracy, has ethnic populations that overlap with most of its neighbors. This has led to disputes over borders, frustrations over illegal immigration, and allegations of fueling terrorism in each other's countries. While India charges the Pakistani army and Islamabad's intelligence services have harbored militants to fuel insurgency in Kashmir, Sri Lanka has suffered from India's support to the Tamil Tigers in the past. More recently, India has also blamed Bangladesh-based terrorists for bomb attacks and continues to fear that Nepal's Maoists are strengthening its own homegrown Naxalites.
Such instability has provided rationalization for the countries in the region to keep large armies, which, in turn, have undermined democracy. Elected governments in both Pakistan and Bangladesh have frequently been usurped by military coups. Widespread political corruption and increased instability often lend legitimacy to military rule as a better alternative in these nations. In Sri Lanka, the government employs the security forces to use strong-arm tactics against separatists. Human Rights Watch says the government security forces are implicated in extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, restriction of media freedoms, and widespread impunity for serious human rights violations. The Indian government has also been targeted by human rights groups for arming militias (BBC), including children, to fight Naxalites in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. The South Asia Human Rights Index 2008, published by the Asian Center for Human Rights, lists Sri Lanka as the worst violator but underlines that "all countries in the region have very poor records."
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
In The Closing of the American Border, Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the Bush administration’s struggle to balance security and openness in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report lays out a thoughtful agenda for U.S. policy toward the Democratic Republic of Congo, arguing that what happens there should matter to the United States--for humanitarian reasons as well as economic and strategic ones.
In this report, CFR Senior Fellow Michael A. Levi analyzes the potential use of deterrence in preventing terrorist groups from acquiring nuclear weapons and recommends a new approach to U.S. declaratory policy, as well as ways to improve U.S. capabilities to determine the sources of terrorist attacks.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR.
Foreign Affairs has compiled a collection of articles that offer policy prescriptions to some of the world's most pressing problems.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1-212-434-9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
To request permission to reuse Council materials, please email publications@cfr.org or fax +1.212.434.9859.
Please include the complete information of the requested work—author, title, sections/pages to be copied or reprinted, and number of copies to be made—along with a brief description of where and how you would like to reuse the work.
You may also request permission for Council material through Copyright Clearance Center. For more information, please click on the link below.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
Global Economy 