Ashis Nandy, psychologist, author and social commentator, who is with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, spoke to Rita Manchanda.
• Is there a validity in narrowing it down to a South Asian region?
Culturally we are close to each other. It is a land mass of hundreds of interlocking communities, they are not less than 600. In the past, these communities kept a check upon each other and at the same time provided a certain vivacity and dynamism to the larger region. Today, we've lost that. I do not care how many nation states are drawn up behind rigid boundaries; the nation-state is a borrowed concept from 19th-century Europe.
• Is it possible to consciously forge a South Asian community?