❇️️️ South Asia :-
🔹South Asia is an important region of the world. The term South Asia is used for the seven countries involved – India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Maldives .
🔹Now Afghanistan and Myanmar are also included in this. In the countries of South Asia, there is a period of cooperation and conflicts among themselves.
Note: - China is not considered a country of South Asia.
❇️️ Geographical location of South Asia :-
🔹The vast Himalayan mountain range in the north, the Indian Ocean in the south, the Arabian Sea in the west and the Bay of Bengal in the east makes this area visible as a distinct natural area.
🔹This geographical feature is responsible for the linguistic, social and cultural uniqueness of this sub-continental region. Sometimes Afghanistan and Myanmar are also included in the discussion of this area.
❇️️️ Politics and Governance of South Asia :-
🔹There is no uniform political system in different countries of South Asia.
🔹Despite many problems and limitations, after independence from Britain in India and Sri Lanka, the democratic system has been successfully maintained.
🔹India and Sri Lanka as a nation have always been democratic.
🔹Pakistan and Bangladesh have been ruled by both democratic and military leaders.
🔹 There is a monarchy in Bhutan.
🔹Nepal had a constitutional monarchy till 2006 and democracy was restored later.
🔹 Maldives used to be a sultanate till 1968. Now here is democracy.
❇️️️ Experience of Democracy in South Asia :-
🔹 Democracy has wide public support in five countries of South Asia.
🔹 In these countries, common citizens of every class and religion consider democracy to be good and support the institutions of representative democracy.
🔹 These countries have broken the myth that democracy can flourish only in rich countries. Therefore, the experiences of democracy in South Asia have expanded the scope of the global imagination of democracy from democracy.
❇️️️ Problems of the countries involved in South Asia :-
- 1) Conflict zone.
- 2) Boundary dispute.
- 3) River water dispute.
- 4) Rebellion struggle.
- 5) Caste conflict.
- 6) Sensitive area.
Countries of South Asia ️
❇️️️ Pakistan (Army and Democracy) :-
🔹 The army is very influential in the political system of Pakistan. This is the reason why military rule has been crushing democracy here time and again. The same has happened in Bangladesh as well.
🔹First of all, General Ayub Khan took the reins of the country, then General Yahiya Khan , then General Zia-ul-Haq and in 1999 , General Pervez Musharraf established military rule by removing the government elected by the people.
🔹 For some time, the democratic government was functioning in Pakistan under the leadership of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif .
🔹In June 2013, a democratic government was established in Pakistan under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif, but in 2017 he was convicted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in a financial corruption case and ordered to be removed from office and sentenced to ten years.
🔹In the general elections held in Pakistan in July 2018, a democratic government was formed under the leadership of Imran Khan .
❇️️ Reasons why democratization is not permanent in Pakistan :-
🔹There have been repeated coups by military rulers in Pakistan. Due to which democracy has never been able to function permanently in Pakistan. Following are the difficulties of democratization in Pakistan:
🔹 Here there is social clout of the army, religious leaders and land-owning elites . Due to this, military rule has been established by toppling elected governments many times.
🔹 Pakistan has always had a conflict with India. Taking advantage of this, the military rulers or religious leaders show flaws in the democratic government and tell the people here that the security of Pakistan is in danger. And the nagging takes hold.
🔹 Military rule is justified by most of the organizations in Pakistan.
🔹There is no special international support for democratic rule in Pakistan. Because of this also the army has been encouraged to establish its dominance.
🔹America and other western countries have promoted military rule in Pakistan in the time passed by their own interests.
❇️️️ Bangladesh Crisis (India and Pakistan War) :-
🔹Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan. It was called East Pakistan. It was carved out of parts of Bengal and Assam. Pakistan was dominating here and was destroying the culture here by forcibly imposing Urdu language here.
🔹The people here opposed it. A mass struggle broke out under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman against West Pakistan . Sheikh Mujib's party Awami League won all the seats there in 1970 Sheikh Mujib was arrested Pak army tried to crush the movement of Bengali people during Yahiya Khan's era.
🔹Seeing this problem, thousands of people died and millions of refugees came to India, India supported East Pakistan and after the Indo-Pak (1971) war , Bangladesh emerged as an independent country.
❇️️️ Democracy in Nepal :-
🔹In Nepal, there has been a struggle between the king and the supporters of democracy for a long time. Now Maoists have also become very effective in that politics.
🔹The result of a long triangular struggle between the King's army, pro-democracy and Maoists in Nepal was that Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli is the new Prime Minister of Nepal from October 2015 under the presently adopted constitution of Nepal.
Note: - Now there is democracy in Nepal.
❇️️️ Sri Lanka :-
🔹Sri Lanka got independence in 1948 . Sri Lanka has been a victim of ethnic conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities despite a successful democracy and its good social, economic and social status .
🔹 Sinhalese were the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka.
🔹Tamils who migrated from India and settled in Sri Lanka.
❇️️ Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka :-
Note: - The old name of Sri Lanka was Ceylon.
🔹This struggle was mainly for the demand of a separate nation in Sri Lanka by the Tamils and rights over the resources, while on the other hand this demand was constantly opposed by the Sinhalese community.
🔹The years-long civil war in Sri Lanka came to an end after the killing of LTTE chief Prabhakaran by the Sri Lankan army in May 2009.
🔹The relations between India and Pakistan, the two big countries of South Asia, are tense from the beginning, there have been military conflicts between them in 1947-48, 1965, 1971 and 1999.
🔹India is the only country in South Asian countries that shares borders with all other countries.
🔹Due to this, India has differences with these countries on some issues and also cooperation in many areas.
❇️️️ Economic condition of Sri Lanka :-
🔹Despite the civil war, Sri Lanka developed very fast.
🔹Sri Lanka was the most successful in terms of population control.
🔹Of all the countries in South Asia, Sri Lanka was the first to liberalize its economy.
🔹Sri Lanka's per capita GDP is also the highest in South Asia.
❇️️️ Maldives :-
🔹Maldives was under the British Government till 1965.
🔹Maldives got independence from British rule in 1965 and it became a sultanate under King Muhammad Farid Didi.
🔹In 1968, this monarchy was also abolished, the republic was established, which remains till today.
❇️️️ Bhutan :-
🔹Bhutan implemented its constitution in 2008, since then Bhutan currently has a system of constitutional monarchy.
️ Relations between India and the countries of South Asia ️
❇️️️ Conflict between India and Pakistan :-
(i) Kashmir problem: -
🔹Immediately after the partition, a fight started between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Since Kashmir was an independent state at the time of partition and it was officially merged with India. Whereas Pakistan makes its claim illegitimately on it.
🔹Due to this problem, there has been war between India and Pakistan in 1947-48 and 1965 . As a result of the 1948 war, Kashmir was divided into two parts. One part was called Pakistan Occupied Kashmir while the other part became the Jammu and Kashmir province of India. The Kashmir problem remains as it is today. Terrorism is a huge problem in this region today.
(ii) Bangladesh problem: -
🔹In 1971, Bangladesh's internal problems came, due to which the leaders of Bangladesh sought intervention and support from India. India provided military aid and supported Bangladeshis. This led to conflict between India and Pakistan.
❇️️️ Agreements between India and Pakistan :-
🔹Indus River Water Treaty 1960
🔹Tashkent Accord 1966
🔹Shimla Agreement 1972
🔹Lahore Bus Tour 1999 etc.
❇️️ Relations between India and Bangladesh: -
🔹Positive (Agree) :-
- Over the past 10 years the relationship has strengthened more.
- Bangladesh is part of India's Walk East policy.
- The two countries are cooperating on the issue of disaster management and environment.
- Business is growing.
🔹 Negative (Controversy):-
- Differences over sharing of waters of Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers.
- Illegal immigration into India which Bangladesh denies.
- Spread of anti-India fundamentalism terrorism from Bangladesh soil.
- Do not give way to the army to move to the Northeast.
- Not allowing Myanmar to export India's natural gas through Bangladesh territory.
❇️️️ East Chalo Policy :-
🔹Purab Chalo Policy is the policy of the Government of India by which it wants to improve its relations and economic relations with South-East Asian countries. Under this policy, there is talk of contacting Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia . Efforts are also being made to broaden the scope of cooperation by recognizing common threats and being more sensitive to each other's needs.
❇️️️ India and Nepal Relations :-
🔹India and Nepal have cordial relations and a treaty has been signed between the two countries. Under this treaty, citizens of both countries can come and work in each other's country without passport and visa . Despite the special relationship, trade disputes have arisen between the two countries in the past.
🔹The Indian government has often expressed its displeasure over Nepal's friendship with China . Government of Nepal does not take steps against anti-India elements. Even India is unhappy with this.
🔹However, India-Nepal relations are very strong and peaceful. Despite differences, the two countries stand together on trade, scientific cooperation, common natural resources, electricity generation and water management grids. The restoration of democracy in Nepal has raised hopes of further strengthening of relations between the two countries.
❇️️️ India and Bhutan Relations :-
🔹India also has very good relations with Bhutan and there is no major conflict with Bhutanese government. The extremists and guerrillas of Northeast India, who were conducting their operations from Bhutan, were driven out by Bhutan from its territory. This step of Bhutan has helped India a lot. India is participating in major hydroelectric projects in Bhutan. The highest grant for the development works of this Himalayan country comes from India.
❇️️️ SAARC :-
| SAARC | South Asian Association for Regional Corporation |
| SAARC | South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation |
| Establishment | 1985 |
| the headquarters | Kathmandu, Nepal) |
| Member | India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives Afghanistan (inducted in 2007) |
🔹The South Asian countries established SAARC (SAARC - South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) in 1985 for mutual cooperation .
🔹In 2005, at the 13th SAARC Summit Dhaka , it was agreed to include Afghanistan in SAARC.
🔹Afghanistan joined the SAARC summit for the first time at the 14th summit (New Delhi) in 2007 .
🔹In the SAARC conferences held in the era of globalization, many agreements have been signed regarding climate change, disaster management and eradication of terrorism and to promote trade and development in this region.
🔹The 18th summit of SAARC was held on 26-27 November 2014 in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, with the theme of solidarity committed to peace and prosperity.
🔹The 19th Summit of SAARC was held in Islamabad (Pakistan) in 2016. But India boycotted this conference due to terrorist attack in Uri. Later Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives also boycotted this conference.
❇️️️ Objectives of SAARC :-
🔹To raise the standard of living of the people of South Asia.
🔹Economic development, social progress and cultural progress in South Asia.
🔹To increase collective confidence and self-reliance in South Asia.
🔹Peaceful solution of mutual problems.
✳️ SAFTA: -
| SAFTA | South Asian Free Trade Area |
| SAFTA | South Asian Free Trade Area |
| Applied | in 2006 |
🔹In the 12th summit held in January 2004, SAARC countries signed the historic South Asian Free Trade Deal (SAFTA) agreement, which came into effect from 1 January 2006 .
🔹There are two main objectives of this agreement .
- Removal of trade barriers involving the South Asian region.
- Establish a more liberal regime, striving to eliminate all forms of trade and tariff restrictions.
🔹India's relations with its neighboring countries in which Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are prominent, except for Pakistan, India's relations with the rest of the countries remain more or less cordial.
❇️️️ Achievements of SAARC :-
🔹Despite the strained relations between India and Pakistan, it is still a useful organization for small countries to promote understanding and cooperation at the bilateral level.
🔹By making SAFTA and SAFTA, an important step has been taken in the direction of business.
🔹There has been talk of cooperation in the fields of environment, economic development and energy etc. BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Intiative for multi sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Bay of Bengal Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation Enterprise Its member countries are Bangladesh, India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.
🔹Currently India is giving more emphasis on BIMSTEC, the 17th meeting of its senior officials was held in Kath Mandu (Nepal) in February 2017.
🔹Trade and investment, energy technology, fisheries, climate change, culture, people-to-people contacts and other areas were discussed in this meeting.
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History – Themes
in Indian History |
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Pol
Science – Contemporary World Politics |
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– Politics
in India since Independence |
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Geography – Indian
People and Economy |
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– Fundamental of Human Geography |
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Chapter 1: - Population: Distribution, Density, Growth
and Composition |
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Chapter 12: - Geographical Perspective on Selected
Issues and Problems |
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