Browsing by Subject "South Asia"

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Open Access
Limited War in India-Pakistan: Revisiting the 24 years of Kargil War
(University of North Bengal, 2023-09) Mukherjee, Dhritiman; Arshed, Tanwir
In May 1998, the two most important South Asian states overtly conducted their nuclear tests and thus marked the beginning of an era of nuclearisation in the sub-continent. This overt nuclearisation within the region led to a sense of optimism among scholars and policymakers which almost completely ruled out the possibility of an all-out war between India and Pakistan. However, exactly after a year the Kargil War erupts between India and Pakistan- a war that was fought between two ‘nuclear power states’ and since then has completely changed the equation and definition of ‘warfare’ between the two most important and strategically volatile states of South Asia. The year 2023 marks the 24th anniversary of the Kargil War, and the present paper makes an attempt to apprise the lesson that both India and Pakistan have learnt in the post Kargil War era, with specific reference to the techniques and modus operandi of warfare. Questioning the very definition of ‘war’ as developed during the Cold War era, this paper will try to look into pertinent issues how warfare between India and Pakistan has undergone a qualitative change in the post-nuclearisation phase. A closer scrutiny of the nature of war that took place in Kargil points to the fact that there exists a space below the nuclear threshold of both India and Pakistan that can be exploited for conducting a ‘Limited War’- a theoretical prism that refutes the claim made by nuclear pessimists that any war between new nuclear nations will escalate to a nuclear level. Using qualitative methodology as its framework, based on the secondary literature and insights of interviews of policy analyst and experts the paper wishes to contribute a new debate within the discourse of India-Pakistan Relations.
Open Access
Postcolonial Aporia in South Asia: A Case Study of Civil-Military Relations in Contemporary India
(University of North Bengal, 2020-03) Dutta, Manas
In recent time, we have been witnessing that the postcolonial south Asian states have a problem with civilian control over their military while India, as one of the distinct countries in south Asia, proved to be initially successful in maintaining such control since its independence in 1947. The strong democratic institutions, free press, responsible political parties, and the professional military kept India out of the fear of a military coup in the contemporary times. Yet, India has strikingly witnessed an absent dialogue among its stakeholders in matter of civil-military relations that gives birth to several misleading situations recently. Besides, the structure and the nature of civil-military relations have had an adverse impact on the effectiveness of the Indian military. Several crucial features characterized the developing relationship between civilians and the military in postindependent India that remain at the heart of understanding civil-military relations even in contemporary period. Parenthetically India, after having series of external wars within the south Asian regions and internal unrest and resistance, sought to provide a tight bureaucratic control over the military. India’s inherent hierarchical mechanism in the military like Higher Defence Management (HDM), Defence Planning Committee (DPC), the Chief of Staff Committee (CSC) and most recently the Chief of Defence Staff in 2019 (CDS) further obfuscated the need for clear goals of policy implementation, frequently producing discord and tension in civil-military relations in India. Therefore, this essay tries to present thematic overview of Indian civil-military relations over more than seven decades by examining the key characteristics and describe how these characteristics in turn affect, the military’s effectiveness in India and subsequently civilian intervention in this field.
Open Access
Role of Central Armed Forces in Combating Cross Border Crimes: A study of Indian legal Framework
(University of North Bengal, 2019-09) Choudhury, Joyjit
“For to be free is not merely to cast one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects & enhances the freedom of others”. - Nelson Mandela Human trafficking is a criminal offence or a crime against humanity. It is a problem not only in SAARC countries rather it is a global issue. Human trafficking has become a multinational trade, making billions of dollars at the expense of millions and millions of victim, many of them includes young girls and children, who are deprived of their dignity and freedom. The porous border between India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh and lack of proper law for the implementation to combat human trafficking for sexual exploitation has led to the rise in the rate of trafficking. It has been decades since the SAARC has been formed but till today no such laws has been implemented to combat human trafficking in any form. Nepal , Bhutan and Bangladesh being the closest neighbors of India having similar demographic features, cultural heritage, economic stability, similarity of customs and traditions etc, have accounted to the human trafficking in the border areas and cross border areas which has become very difficult to control.
Open Access
Shades of South Asian Women in Rasheed Jahan’s Writings: Navigating Patriarchies, Spaces, Regime Control, and Colonialism
(University of North Bengal, 2022-12) Chakraborty, Anup Shekhar; Biswas, Praggnaparamita
Women in South Asia had a different colonial experience compared to that of men. Colonialism liberated indigenous women from traditionally restrictive practices, expanding their mobility opportunities. It also introduced indigenous women to newer forms of colonial patriarchy and sometimes resurrected older forms of masculine privilege. Women attempted to overcome obstacles to education and healthcare, forced marriages, and restrictions on their freedom of movement. A group of women actively participated in the nationalist movement and advocated for women’s rights. Writing allowed colonised women in South Asia to convey their thoughts and experiences and to challenge the oppressive structures that confined them, ultimately leading to women’s liberation. By drawing attention to the intersectionality of gender, religion, and culture, women writers in South Asia, particularly the Islamic women writers have contributed significantly to the feminist movement. These writings have given Muslim women in the region a voice and have challenged patriarchal norms and stereotypes. The writings of Rasheed Jahan, Ismat Chughtai, and Qurratulain Hyder continue to serve as a source of inspiration and motivation for future generations of women. The present study delves into the literary works of Rasheed Jahan, with a focus on the portrayal of South Asian women and their experiences in overcoming various forms of patriarchal oppression, their navigation through regimes and their mechanisms of control, their struggle for establishment of identities in diverse social settings, resisting authoritarian regimes, and recovering from the aftermath of colonialism while carving out spaces for their survival.
Open Access
South- Asian Economic Constitutionalism and the (Re) Building of Constitutional Order in South Asia
(University of North Bengal, 2023-03) Ukey, Dilip; Variath, Adithya Anil
The appellation ‘South Asia’ represents a vibrant set of post-colonial geographies that are witnessing transformative constitutional churning in their socio economic and political structures. Constitutional law studies about South Asian societies have generated interest in South Asian constitutionalism and how the region is tackling unstable democratic patterns. In this context, South Asian States have changed, amended and replaced their existing constitutional structures and forms of governance. In the recent past, the deeply divided region has witnessed two important crises, the 2021 Taliban offensive in Afghanistan and the 2022 Sri Lankan political crisis. Both crises despite their structural dissimilarities trace some parallelism in the factors that incited the democratic and non-democratic responses, i.e., lack of political consensus on economic governance and economic mismanagement by democratically elected governments. Besides its economic impact, the lack of constitutional order in managing the economy has also trickled down political repercussions. The crisis reflects the role that an accountable government should play in the market. Despite constitutional structures for economic governance and the establishment of government institutions, South Asian states are witnessing the withering of institutional mechanisms and delegitimization of rule of law. The paper argues for a need for the South Asian States to develop formative practices that focus on accountable constitutional governance of the economy and strengthening financial institutions. While South Asian constitutions have kept economic actions by the states outside the purview of judicial and public scrutiny, the lack of accountability and cynical manipulation of independence of economic institutions by the authoritarian leaders raises questions on the constitutional limits of the unbridled power and domination by the elected leaders. In this context, the paper explores how strengthening the pillars of Economic Constitutionalism can lead to the creation of a stable constitutional order in South Asia.