अखंड भारत revisited

After reflecting on the previous article and the अखंड भारत concept, I had to revisit the idea and make changes to it. First of all, I realized how difficult and impracticle the solution was. Secondly it is impossible to undo what has happened to the map of South Asia, the only thing that can erase the lines is a war and that is definitely something that we want to avoid through this proposed integartion. Each of the countries concerned has their own problems to tackle. As it is, it's a huge task to manage themselves and working for eachother is probably the last item in the list.

However I couldn't stop thinking about a solution to uniting the peoples of South Asia... and SAARC seemed to be the right starting point. With 1/10 th of the world population united towards constructive goals, in one of the most resource rich regions in the world, economic, social and cultural developments will know no bounds! I searched through media and the SAARC website to find that although the Association is alive the activities and meetings look like they are just satisfying formality. If we expect the organization to do something, we need to give it some authority. Responsibility without authority is meaningless. SAARC should have a political and miltary influence in the region. India should probably contribute more towards such military alliances than sending troops in United Nations Security Force. Uncontrolled terrorism accross borders can be tackled with greater ease through the SAARC Security Force! Trade and economic rules and regulations should go through the organization to give it political powers. The nations will then have obligations towards SAARC objectives.

Just one note, I couldn't help but notice how US and Europen countries immediately requested "Observer" status in the organization; Iran, China, Korea followed. I am sure the EU wouldn't have tolerated any such "Observers" in their affairs.

अखंड भारत - a dream larger than life!

अखंड भारत - a dream, that was a reality 60 years back... a dream that is reduced to just whispers now... and I have to call it - larger than life!

It's not that the recent horrors of series of bomb blasts and attacks across India make me think about it but the "अखंड भारत" philosophy some how appeals to me as the solution to all these problems for years now.

This may be the influence of RSS in my childhood, but even now the solution seems absolutely practical. As long as Hindustan and Pakistan exist as separate nations the divide and rule policy of the British is working. Terrorists based outside India keep finding safe havens. Infiltration from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan is difficult to control given the length of the border.

The solution is an integrated Secular Indian Sub-continent. It will hurt the egos of all the nations; it is unfair to not look at them as sovereign nations, no matter big or small. But it's time to form something like the UN for the Indian Sub-continent.

We (me and my friends) though of calling it the United States of Bharat but the term "united states" implies that we are dividing them before uniting! But the beauty of the term is that we do recognize each state as a sovereign body... anyways we scrapped the idea and decided to call it "Bharat", just "Bharat". A country of the size of what it was during the reign of king Ashoka.

Pros:

1. The stupid boundaries and flags dividing the people of the same race and culture will no longer be there.
2. No worries of infiltration, as all land is of one entity. The boundaries are mostly naturally drawn, Himalayas and the Hindukush!
3. Easy to crack down the terrorist breeding grounds. Some thing the Pakistani Govt. has been unable to do and something the Indian Govt. cannot do from India.
4. The region will flourish overall in the fields of trade, art, literature, sports, education and economic prosperity. We can divert our resources and focus on constructive things!
5. We will be more prepared against other external threats (China is gonna crack down on us sooner or later, also we could not help Tibet and Bhutan due to our own internal problems)
6. Individual countries concerned are democratic and share a similar constitutional and social structure which can help in the integration.
7. All nations share a common goal of removing terrorism and prosperity for their people.

Cons:

1. Initial resistance of the individual countries out of the fear of losing their sovereignty and control over the policies in their land. The "joint-venture" needs to be carefully designed respecting the individuality of each nation else this can become a never ending headache for the "Integrated Bharat" government.
2. Individual states should have flexibility to decide their own rules and regulations but the lines if not drawn carefully will lead to separatist movements later. These separatist movements may get support from our enemies/opponents to worsen the situation.