The BBC has decided to pull the rug from under its South Asia web portal, even as the 17th SAARC Summit got underway in Addu Atoll in the Maldives. The Corporation seems to have felt that a regional outlook was no longer a paying proposition – and well might it have thought so, given that its managers do not live here and do not have to think about building a Southasian future. But for those of us who do, Southasia is an increasingly real proposition, and done to be nurtured and developed to match the evolving times and accompanying economic, cultural and geopolitical possibilities.
Himal has always proposed that Southasia be understood as something more than the SAARC formula of seven (and eight, since Afghanistan joined) nation states. It is a matter of definition, and our proposition has been that this vibrant, diverse, vast Subcontinent should not be restricted to a single classification. The moment one goes beyond a single characterisation – and seek to reflect the historical, perhaps, or the geographical, demographic and economic realities – Southasia begins to become a real, exciting place.
Speaking of diverse definitions, let us start by reaching out to the Southasian penumbra: Chinese-ruled Tibet, which is indeed also part of East Asia while being Southasian, and the newly democratising Burma, which can simultaneously remain a member of ASEAN while being one of us. Let us challenge the unwieldy centralised nation states of India and Pakistan, and demand that the states and provinces of these countries be given more federal powers, to be free to make and learn from their own mistakes.
There is no reason why a bilateral, trilateral or quadrilateral collaboration should not fall under the rubric of a full 'Southasian' activity. Meanwhile, the smaller countries must not feel demeaned in developing links with the neighbouring states of India – sovereignty can remain sacrosanct even as Nepal develops links with Bihar or the various parts of Uttar Pradesh, for example. The most important consideration for Southasian regionalism, after all, is that it would deliver a more efficient economy, and lead to prosperity, particularly where the land borders meet: Nepal-Bihar-Purvanchal, Bangladesh-Indian Northeast, Rajasthan-Punjab/Punjab-Sindh and so on.