The Hindu : Tamil Nadu and Indian foreign policy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 25, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Tamil Nadu and Indian foreign policy

By V. Suryanarayan

If Tamil Nadu had a group of well-informed scholars on Sri Lankan affairs, some of the distortions in the country's Sri Lanka policy during recent years... could have been avoided.

INAUGURATING THE Chennai chapter of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) recently, the former Foreign Secretary, M. K. Rasgotra, pleaded for an immediate reorientation in Indian foreign policy and highlighted the necessity for strengthening links with the country's immediate neighbours in South and Southeast Asia and with the littoral states in the Indian Ocean region. Given its geographical contiguity and intellectual traditions, Mr. Rasgotra said Chennai was well placed to develop expertise in the region, which could, in turn, make benign inputs into the making of India's foreign policy. The organisers of the ORF said the Chennai chapter would, on a priority basis, develop a database on Sri Lanka and the Indian Ocean, undertake in-depth studies on the impact of the changing international environment, organise lectures and seminars and bring out worthwhile publications on relevant themes. In sum, the Chennai chapter would provide a forum for rigorous research, debate and a synergy for divergent but informed opinions.

The imperative need for such a non-governmental organisation needs hardly any emphasis. Teaching and research in international relations and area studies began in India in a systematic way in October 1955 when the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) started the Indian School of International Studies (ISIS). The ISIS, now part of Jawaharlal Nehru University, is a testimony to the academic vision and pioneering zeal of Hridayanath Kunzru, A. Appadorai and M. S. Rajan. To quote Rabindranath Tagore's picturesque phrase, like the "banyan tree", the alumni of the ISIS branched out to different universities and initiated teaching and research in international relations and area studies. Facilities for academic training and research in specified areas are today available in 20 universities. Despite limited resources and inadequate funding from the University Grants Commission (UGC), a few Centres are doing fairly good work; some others are languishing for want of proper leadership and dearth of qualified staff. It is a sad commentary that, as far as Southeast Asian Studies are concerned, even 55 years after Independence we do not have a research institution comparable to the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore; Cornell University in the United States and Monash University in Australia. As Prof. Rajan pointed out a few years ago, for a country of one billion people the fact that there are hardly one or two specialists on Sri Lanka or Maldives or Myanmar "is a sad reflection on the Indian academic community and on the universities and research institutions".

The U.S. was the first to realise that knowledge is power. It was also the first to recognise the salience between scholarship and foreign policy. The Area Studies programmes conceived, planned and implemented during the Cold War years and financed by the "State/Intelligence/Foundation nexus", mobilised talent from different parts of the world. American universities set the intellectual agenda for the whole world. Unfortunately, the U.S. agenda was blindly accepted by many Universities in the developing world. Take, for example, the concepts of "South Asia and "Southeast Asia".

South Asia includes India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives and Southeast Asia encompasses Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Timor and the Philippines. By blindly accepting the terminology of South and Southeast Asia, we, in India, have distanced ourselves from countries, which are our immediate neighbours. Despite our maritime heritage, very few people are conscious of the fact that the island of Pu Breush, located northwest of Sumatra, is only 92 nautical miles away from Indira Point, which is less than the distance between Chennai and Tirupati. Similarly, Phuket in Thailand is only 273 nautical miles away from Indira Point, which is less than the distance between Chennai and Madurai.

We, in India, should redefine the concept of area taking into consideration our historical and geographical realities. I have been, in recent years, advocating the concept of a "Bay of Bengal Community". The Bay of Bengal, the Andaman Sea and the Malacca Straits were highways that linked India with the people, cultures and economies of Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, the experience of colonialism and the preoccupation with extra regional powers during the Cold War years prevented any meaningful cooperation. Fortunately, today India's "Look East Policy" has a parallel in the "Look West policy" of some Southeast Asian countries.

The first step in the direction of oceanic cooperation was the establishment of BIMSTEC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation) in June 1998. But the BIMSTEC has yet to reach the takeoff stage. New Delhi should take stock of the situation and start a dialogue with Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia to form a wider "Bay of Bengal Community". By forming such an organisation, the "extended neighbourhood" as the Ministry of External Affairs refers to these countries, will become part of our "immediate neighbourhood". The exploitation of living and non-living resources, ship-building and ship repair, weather forecasting, prevention of pollution and combating maritime terrorism — tasks, which today are the exclusive responsibilities of individual countries, can best be achieved by regional cooperation. Such an organisation should be welcome for another reason. Pakistan is not an integral part of the Bay of Bengal region and India-Pakistan relations, which had been a constant complicating factor in South Asian regional cooperation, will not cast their long shadow over the Bay of Bengal Community. I am glad to note that the Chennai chapter of the ORF has identified the "Prospects of Bay of Bengal Community" as a priority area for in-depth study.

In a vast country such as India, decisions regarding neighbouring countries will have their immediate impact on contiguous Indian States. For example, India's relations with Pakistan will have consequences for Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat; policies towards Nepal will have their fallout on Uttar Pradesh and Bihar; India-Bangladesh relations will have their consequences on West Bengal, Meghalaya and Assam; and the same holds true to India-Sri Lanka relations and Tamil Nadu.

If Tamil Nadu had a group of well informed scholars on Sri Lankan affairs, some of the distortions in India's Sri Lanka policy during recent years — the Sirimavo-Shastri Pact of 1964, which converted the people of Indian origin into a merchandise to be divided between the two countries in the name of good neighbourly relations; the ceding of Kachchativu in 1974, which adversely affected the livelihood of thousands of Indian fishermen; the inordinate delay in the implementation of the Sethu Samudram project which would have given a boost to the economic transformation of southern Tamil Nadu; and, above all, the pursuance of mutually contradictory policies of mediation in the ethnic conflict and support to the Tamil militants on the other — could have been avoided. The federal units in India, especially Tamil Nadu, can and should make benign inputs into the making of India's foreign policy. This presupposes an active role for vibrant non-governmental organisations such as the Chennai chapter of the ORF.

(The writer is a former Director, Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Madras.)

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

Stories in this Section

Planning ritual

An Iraqi counter-offer

Overestimating the saffron wave

Tamil Nadu and Indian foreign policy

It is an antithesis of Hinduism

The rising wave of extremism