– India’s Taliban Challenge

Context: The rise of the Taliban makes the danger of Islamic radicalism in South Asia more potent. Islamophobia will only feed it. Democracy and inclusive growth alone can counter it.

Reasons for underlying tragedy in Afghanistan

• American exit: The Americans had secured their goal in Afghanistan, of dismantling al-Qaeda camps, wanted to leave, negotiated a deal with the Taliban and left.
  • Taliban did not rout the Americans and expel them from their country.
  • The manner in which they left has turned out to be an unseemly mess, let down all those who had collaborated with the Americans and its Nato allies
• Failure of Afghan state: 
  • Failed in the face of the country’s social complexity, and the Afghan President relapsed to the stereotype of the leader of a kleptocratic state that commands little loyalty from the people.
  • The soldiers of the state gave up without a fight; no armed uprising of ordinary people swore to defend their state against a medieval threat.

Could America had done better?

• America could be faulted for many things
  • Not ensuring enough safety measures: For those who associated with them, by evacuating them out of Afghanistan or striking a deal with the Taliban.
  • Not restricting Taliban: Allowing the Taliban to ply a profitable trade in opium and its derivatives, and even run a mining business.
  • Letting Pakistan off the hook for aiding and abetting the Taliban, even after capturing Osama bin Laden from Abbottabad, Pakistan.
  • Imposing the worst iteration of Islam: Aborting the growth of democracy in Iran and Iraq, for fear of losing them to the Soviet Union in the post-World War 2 decades, led to Islamic radicalism.
• Yet Americans cannot be blamed for all the mess in Afghanistan:
  • Women/Gender perspective: The rights that individuals and groups enjoy in a society are a function of its internal politics, and beyond a point, outsiders cannot mould them.
    • For E.g. William Bentick did succeed in banning sati in India. But Hindu widows continue to be shunted off to Vrindavan or otherwise discriminated against.
    • Indian Constitution proudly proclaims equality for all and non-discrimination, but Dalits continue to bear the brunt of extreme social oppression.
    • Social reform is part and parcel of democratising society. And, women of Afghanistan will have to fight for them and secure them as part of democratising Afghan life.
  • Democracy perspective: Without conducive social atmosphere, Americans cannot be faulted for not creating democracy in Afghanistan.
    • Post World War II, democracy worked in Japan because Japan was an industrialised society; Afghanistan still has a long way to go before dreaming of democracy.

Conclusion: On the wake of heightened risks in South Asia, the biggest reinforcement for the national security of India is to strengthen democracy within and enhance societal and national cohesion.