…fleshes out ‘near abroad’ concept for ‘big’ countries like India
GANGTOK, 02 July: Sikkim University celebrated its 7th Foundation Day today, starting with official and academic exercises and ending the evening with a rock performance. The occasion had the HRD Minister RB Subba as chief guest and featured veteran journalist, Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, author of “Smash & Grab in Sikkim”, delivering the Foundation Day lecture.
Mr. Datta-Ray spoke on “The ‘Near Abroad’ concept for big countries line the US, Russia, China and India”, pointing out that every large country is surrounded by small, and perhaps, sovereign states, whose governments must accommodate the security needs of the central power, forbidding any foreign power to intervene in regional affairs.
He said that in looking at the geo-political region of India and its ‘Near Abroad’ reveals several flash points of potential conflict, challenges to economic growth, rampant human rights violations and democracy under construction.
“Geopolitically speaking, undivided India is India’s “near abroad.” That includes not only Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, but also Sri Lanka, probably Myanmar and possibly, parts of Tibet. I would have included Sikkim if India had not in this one respect self-defeatingly followed the Chinese example of annexing a fragment of the ‘near abroad’. The main question revolves around Pakistan, which is yoked with India in the American consciousness, like unreconciled Siamese twins. India and the US in the New Millennium, sometimes the hyphenation is symbolic,” Mr. Datta-Ray underlined.
“Parity was extended to create the myth that if India’s neighbours were not its equal in every way, this invested India with a special responsibility to shrink to their level in all regional transactions. Indians did not repudiate this theory, perhaps seeing in it a tribute to their own pre-eminence,” he added.
Highlighting the issues confronting “big countries” like China, Russia and USA, he said China has tried to solve the problem by swallowing up parts of its “near abroad”, but is still embroiled in controversies over the Paracel and Spratly Islands, arguments with Vietnam and the Philippines, territorial disputes with Japan, Bhutan and India, and claims regarding the South China Sea. Although annexed, Tibet and Xinjiang have not been pacified. Many of the “core interests” that Beijing speaks of refer to the “near abroad.”
“Countries need a glacis – an open field of fire for defensive purposes – such as surrounds Calcutta’s Fort William,” he contended.
The lecture was well-received by the audience made up primarily of University students and teachers.
GANGTOK, 02 July: Sikkim University celebrated its 7th Foundation Day today, starting with official and academic exercises and ending the evening with a rock performance. The occasion had the HRD Minister RB Subba as chief guest and featured veteran journalist, Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, author of “Smash & Grab in Sikkim”, delivering the Foundation Day lecture.
Mr. Datta-Ray spoke on “The ‘Near Abroad’ concept for big countries line the US, Russia, China and India”, pointing out that every large country is surrounded by small, and perhaps, sovereign states, whose governments must accommodate the security needs of the central power, forbidding any foreign power to intervene in regional affairs.
He said that in looking at the geo-political region of India and its ‘Near Abroad’ reveals several flash points of potential conflict, challenges to economic growth, rampant human rights violations and democracy under construction.
“Geopolitically speaking, undivided India is India’s “near abroad.” That includes not only Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, but also Sri Lanka, probably Myanmar and possibly, parts of Tibet. I would have included Sikkim if India had not in this one respect self-defeatingly followed the Chinese example of annexing a fragment of the ‘near abroad’. The main question revolves around Pakistan, which is yoked with India in the American consciousness, like unreconciled Siamese twins. India and the US in the New Millennium, sometimes the hyphenation is symbolic,” Mr. Datta-Ray underlined.
“Parity was extended to create the myth that if India’s neighbours were not its equal in every way, this invested India with a special responsibility to shrink to their level in all regional transactions. Indians did not repudiate this theory, perhaps seeing in it a tribute to their own pre-eminence,” he added.
Highlighting the issues confronting “big countries” like China, Russia and USA, he said China has tried to solve the problem by swallowing up parts of its “near abroad”, but is still embroiled in controversies over the Paracel and Spratly Islands, arguments with Vietnam and the Philippines, territorial disputes with Japan, Bhutan and India, and claims regarding the South China Sea. Although annexed, Tibet and Xinjiang have not been pacified. Many of the “core interests” that Beijing speaks of refer to the “near abroad.”
“Countries need a glacis – an open field of fire for defensive purposes – such as surrounds Calcutta’s Fort William,” he contended.
The lecture was well-received by the audience made up primarily of University students and teachers.
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