Democratic Peace in South Asia

Abstract

First of all, it may be pointed out that most of the states of South Asia have some kind of democratic form of government, whether it is a constitutional monarchy, as in the case of Bhutan and Nepal, or a semi-independent regime, as in the case of Afghanistan. Hence we have to focus on Peace in South Asia and don’t have to dilate on dictatorship vis-à-vis democracy or something. Almost all states of South Asia have internal conflicts. Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India have all suffered from internal conflicts but the latest entrant in the group i.e. Afghanistan, has suffered the worst - a serious civil war like situation as well as foreign troops. The internal conflicts in these states may or may not have linkages with potential or actual conflicts amongst the states of the region. By and large, all states of the region still have more or less peaceful relations with other states of the region, though relationship between Sri Lanka and India, during the Tamil separatist movement in northern Sri Lanka, came under severe strain and water dispute as well as refugee issue have caused tension between India and Bangladesh. The only exception is India and Pakistan, the two largest countries in the region, which have actually gone to war with each other three times and hostility between the two of them largely prevents South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) from becoming effective. Hence when talking of establishing Peace in South Asia, we have to primarily deal with the hostility between these two countries.