A South Asian "EU" - supranationalism in the subcontinent

[apophenia]

This idea if ever materialized required another 100 years because we aren’t politically and culturally matured enough to bank on any such radical idea. The legacy of mistrust between India and Pakistan is the prime impediment to peace and cooperation in South Asia and any form of intra union requires stability and it’s pretty hard to achieve if both of the nations continue to play on opposite poles.


SAARC is a big failure. With the massive size of india , other smaller nations looks support from nations outside the regions thus handicapping regional and economical cooperation. rather then excluding India from SAARC , other partner nations should work towards attracting for Indian businesses to venture into dynamic form economic integration.

 

[EjazR]

Well EU came into being after Europeans fought two World Wars among themselves killing millions of people.

Such a situation has not yet arisen on the subcontinent.

Apart from that SAARC is an appropriate forum to build an economic union. The only issue being India-Pakistan relations being a stumbling block. There have been attempts to devolve SAARC with India working towards integrating more with Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and leaving the Pakistan linkages at a backburner for now

Devolution of powers to state and district levels should happen only within countries already in existence.

And ofcourse people-to-people contact, not just between India and Pakistan but India and Afghanistan will be crucial to bringing about a moderating influence in that region among Muslims. After all the two major school of thoughts in the south Asia region, Barelvis and Deobandis have their HQs in India.

Eventually, the establishment of genuine democracy in Pakistan and Afghanistan and strengthening of the parliament to make decisions on national security and foreign policy will allow SAARC to become sucessful

 

[KS]

cross-posting:

I don't really see Delhi or Islamabad agreeing to devolve authority to constituent States, beyond what exists now, and in essence 'ending India' (and Pakistan) in favor of ethnic identities tied in through a larger 'South Asian' identity, instead of Indian or Pakistani nationalities.

An economic union of sorts would be a good first step in the direction of the proposed concept, but given that South Asia is yet to see a functional economic partnership, and national identities are strengthening (over ethnic ones), regressing towards ethnic identities, potentially several years down the road when and if a South Asian economic partnership framework is agreed upon and implemented, will be almost impossible to do.

Quite frankly I find any economic union consisting of behemoths such as China and India unfeasible, especially when the other nations in the Union lag behind significantly. A SAARC excluding India would in fact be far more feasible and could potentially progress towards a political union of the sort proposed with greater ease.

Adding to that,another reason which we dont see or dont 'want' to see is that unlike EU which has an absolute majority of Christians, South Asia is too diverse in religious disparity.
Given the bad blood accumulated over various incident spanning centuries, comparing our situation with EU -atleast in the immediate future -is wishful fancy at its optimistic best.

As AM I think India should move out of SAARC on its own and let the other countries grow without the fear of India. Maybe a thing like SAARC + 1 can be formed for further co-operation.

 

[Bang Galore]

Adding to that,another reason which we dont see or dont 'want' to see is that unlike EU which has an absolute majority of Christians, South Asia is too diverse in religious disparity.
Given the bad blood accumulated over various incident spanning centuries, comparing our situation with EU -atleast in the immediate future -is wishful fancy at its optimistic best.

As AM I think India should move out of SAARC on its own and let the other countries grow without the fear of India. Maybe a thing like SAARC + 1 can be formed for further co-operation.

Adding to that, the EU has atleast a few countries of roughly equal size & economies. India's size alone makes it impossible for other countries to be comfortable with such disparity of power. A SAARC without India would face one big problem in that they are not directly connected to each other for the most part & mostly connected to India. A free trade agreement is the best that can be hoped for.

 

[Black Widow]

Nice article... But what i feel is the best solution is status quo... instead of status quo ante....

Its spider web, the more we will try to simplify it the more it will be complicated....

Remember new solution comes with new problem.. The good solution is "improvement of existing problem than radical change....

 

[lonelyone]

Not a single Bangladeshi would ever agree to this "union". There are massive street protests every time the government tries to sign a transit agreement. What makes you think we would agree to actually join India? Indians may be thinking that one election won by the Awami League (whose every poster contains Allahu Akbar, and who made an agreement with one Islamic party a few years ago to introduce Sharia law) has made Bangladeshis become a "secular" nation, but they are mistaken. The majority of Bangladeshis will dismiss the idea without a second thought. And they would be absolutely right, because in such a union, we would probably be forced to prove that we are not a terrorist in order to use a public bathroom.

Don't imagine that the people of East Bengal fought so hard and sacrificed so much to get away from India, for nothing.

 

[akinkhoo]

it will not work because India has no interest in being in a union that may find itself in contest with the East Asian Union. if possible, India will rather join China, Japan and ASEAN in the East Asian Union then to end up sideline in the lesser union in asia.

 

[ajtr]

EU type union in south asia wont happen untill when india is dismantled.coz out of 7 SAARC state only india is one which has conflict with majority of its neighbours.India being artificial state can be dissolve into as many countries based on ethnicities.then the south asian union can happen untill then no chance.

 

[Burger Boy]

I'm wondering whether Pakistanis would rather support EU type Union with India/Bangladesh/Sri Lanka or with Turkey/Iran