Let us begin at the beginning – not with India as the 'core' but rather with the periphery, which will decide the outcome of the Southasian dream. Unless this is done, the dream could well list towards turning into the nightmare of akhand bharat. The idea of Southasia is most palpable not at the manmade political borders, but at the fuzzy natural frontiers. Reach the Khyber Pass, cross the Brahmaputra or ride the waves in a catamaran off the eastern coast of Sri Lanka, and you will never again question that what lies beyond is a different universe, where dwell people very different from 'us'. Southasians are obviously not Chinese, Arabs or Malays, nor are they Uzbeks, Persians or Kazakhs. A 'Londonstani' in Brickfields is reduced to being a 'Paki' or a 'Bangladeshi'. What does it matter to the white skinheads that the poor bugger may be a 'multiple-gods-fearing Hindoo'?
If the world without recognises us as a different species, do we have a choice to live and die otherwise? For heaven's sake, and for those who inhabit Southasia, we need to stop chasing the mirage of 'regional economic cooperation' mirage, and stop being content with what we have – the 'shared heritage, warts and all'. We need to never forget that the much-touted cultural inheritance is actually a very mixed bag, one that not all Southasians share or are even enthusiastic about. Let us honestly admit that Southasians suffer from a kind of multiple-personality disorder. The head is split, and heart forever aching – curse those fragmented memories and fractured perceptions of national interest. No, globalisation has not changed a thing.
However politically incorrect such a statement may be, race and ethnicity do matter, as do religion and social class. Political correctness is not breached when sufiyana qalam from across the border is celebrated in Imperial Delhi (doesn't the Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya belong to India, along with the Hazarat Garib Nawaz at Ajmer?). The problem begins when illegal Bangladeshi immigrants flock around the visiting baul singer on the India Gate lawns, whirling like Sufi dervishes entranced by visions of 'that lovely boy from Brindaban' during a trendy, folksy cultural jamboree. Suspicions and complaints may not be mouthed, but they do continue to lurk long afterwards. Aren't these the same folk who have sneaked in to act as dangerous ISI pawns to destabilise Mother India and serve as foot soldiers for organised crime?
Why haven't they been shifted out of the Lutyen's zone as yet? What business does this indigent foreign fakir have to take the name of our Krishna on his lips? Nazrul geet and rabindra sangeet have not percolated to grassroots baul, and bhatiyali will never recognise border fences or imposed religious divide. The same applies to Nepal. Forgive Indian foolhardiness when we insist that, for a generation or more, Shaivism and Buddhism will prove stronger than imported ideologies – revolutionary or reactionary. It will be a while before Indians begin to recognise the revolutionary (not Maoist) transformation in the 'landlocked' country where monarchy has been swept away, yielding to a federal democratic republic. The resumption of the Gorkhaland agitation in West Bengal is bound to raise further uncertainties and apprehensions in Delhi. Much to the regret of 'sensible' people, retired generals and diplomats who refuse to fade away, continue to perpetuate dangerous myths, such that, The majority of Nepali immigrants are khukuri-happy kanchas and bahadurs [hapless domestics] who can turn into psychopathic killers in a blink.