In border claims, reimagining South

Context: In the backdrop of troublesome territorial assertions, South Asian regions needs to be rethought as region of regions, ensuring tolerance and inclusivity among the nation states based on shared affinities.

Major problems of South Asian politics:

• State-centric paradigm hampering the arbitration of territorial disputes:

•  State-centrism  has given the state structure the propriety to be the sole arbiter of disputes, which represents national interest in negotiations with other states.
• Patriotism looms large when inter-state relationships are viewed through statist lens.

• Contested idea of Region: 

• No respect for regional identity or regional politics among the South Asian region.
• Powerful countries might take over control  in South Asia by using the token of regional cooperation as an issue of realpolitik.

• Boundaries are valued more than lives and livelihoods: 

• People living on the edge of boundaries do not actually belong to any of the two nations.
• State centric boundary resolution denies sense of plurality and inclusivity along the people fluidly moving across the borders.

• Endangering  the future: Unless both India and Nepal agree to see the reality beyond the gaze of the statist paradigm, they may endanger the future of regional experiments.

For E.g.:

• The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) 

• The Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) sub-regional initiative.

Way Forward:

• Region of regions: South Asia needs to be rethought as a region of regions for better regional cooperation. 

• This requires the  states to go beyond the debates of border encroachment. 

• De-essentialise statist paradigm: Need to acknowledge the porous borders and shared cultural and civilisation backgrounds and treating borders as lived spaces.
• Regional cooperation: should be garnered through  self-approval and self-promotion among South Asian countries.