|
|
|
|
CIAO DATE: 08/06
Message from the Editor-in-Chief
South and Centrial Aisia - A New Awakening
All through history, many largely violent methods and techniques were employed to build and sustain empires. And invariably, in the course of time, due to inner contradictions or over-extension, they collapsed. But in this process, they brought untold misery, death and destruction to many nations and peoples. But those memories got eclipsed and forgotten because of the insatiable lust for power and greed and also due to the stunted evolution of the brain and finer human instincts in such aggressive societies.
In the twentieth century colonialism retreated, but the colonial panoply for big game hunting still exists and has been taken over by a larger and more powerful unipolar system, which is instigating diverse conflicts through policies of divide and rule. South Asia has been a victim of ever-lasting conflicts in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. Many of these conflicts and much of the violence could be attributed to unipolar policies of world domination.
Similarly, "big game" operations in Central Asia followed a familiar pattern including fragmentation, colourful revolutions, broken promises of free market utopias and the creation of military bases in strategic areas. Many of these nations have now begun to realise that Imperial promises and support systems have no validity or credibility. They cannot ignore the geopolitical economic balances and realities. They know that the target is their energy resources and not their welfare.
In South Asia, the people, more than its leaderships are getting weary of these manipulated conflicts. They want peace and harmony without external interventions. The dominant unipolar system has begun to drift away from the psyche of the people of the region. Its uncalled-for interventions are increasingly being regarded more as a diplomatic nuisance and with less fear of its weaponry or of its covert and overt acts. But there are many hidden weapons of mass destruction (including political) in its arsenal. Any attempt at using these will further erode the empire’s credibility and unravel its dreams of universal domination.
The economy of South Asia is increasingly moving out of the shadow of the superpower. The emergence of China in the East and India in South Asia as the key economies, will transform the continent and may lead to an Asian Common market. It will bring about a new synthesis for peace and prosperity of all Asian peoples and will have more than a ripple effect in the developing world at large.
All the victims of Imperial policies in Asia may together bring about a new harmony between South and Central Asia, and provide a large reservoir of energy and other resources for the twenty first century. The emergence of the Shanghai Six Organisation (SCO) and its potential for enlargement will more than balance and contain the Imperial reach of the unipolar system which both militarily and economically stands over-extended and exposed.
The recent earthquake in Pakistan and India and the massive damage that it has caused to both the Pakistan-occupied and the Indian state of Kashmir, with thousands dead and millions left homeless, many in remote snow-bound mountain ranges, will bring the people of two countries further together. Though terrorism instigated by certain fundamentalist forces is still active; its promoters are increasingly marginalised in the minds of the masses. Free movement of people and friendly relations often make old conflicts irrelevant. The continuing dialogue for peace between India and Pakistan will receive a new fillip through cooperation in distress.
The nations of the regions have to start their journey together towards a new, just, ethical and moral order away from the violent process of economic globaliaation; which is mostly about transferring wealth to the centres of finance and armed power within the unipolar system. The developing world is awakening to these realities.
South and Central Asia together have complementary potentials to pool their resources, needs and capabilities to create welfare states for their people. But the proclaimed divine right of the unipolar system to control and exploit the world’s energy resources and markets for the interest of its oligarchies is proving a great hurdle. This process, which has been in place for well over a century, is increasingly insecure and violent. There is a need for organised resistance against it.
A belief that the world is a family can only come true with the recognition of bio and theo-diversity, taking a homocentric (humanistic) approach as the basis of all development and relationships.
- J C KAPUR
New Delhi
Autumn 2005