The second is in Indias Northeast, the site of numerous revolts since the 1950s. Indias government battled ongoing insurgencies in Kashmir, the Naxalite belt in interior India, and the Northeast. The resulting squeeze on real income is severe, particularly for the regions poor who spend a large share of their income on food. intergenerational conflict or the stress of adapting into western society, fulfilling career leads to better life satisfaction, Click here to listen to Dont Call Me Resilient, Lecturer in Environmental Art - School of Art and Design. Children of South Asian immigrants may face challenges associated with the pressure of straddling two different worlds. Rather, it is exposing in a single word the reason why overcoming systemic violence based on gender is so difficult. Chinese support for insurgents in the Northeast, meanwhile, dropped off dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s. Two prominent causes of family conflict arise when South Asian adolescents and young adults wish to start dating or pursue a career that is discerned to be unacceptable by the parents. As in the mountainous peripheries where the state waged counterinsurgency against the TTP, due process and rule of law have been troubled in the Karachi operations. SOJOURN is published twice a year, in April and October. u2mnTThzRH'C9z RQ\O. It is also important that South Asian youth and families have discussions about their mental health struggles and learn ways to improve them. There has been less political accommodation than in Indias Northeast, and human rights abuses are pervasive, fusing counterinsurgency with the broader political objectives of the military in managing Pakistans political sphere. Crucially, however, this resurgence of state coercive power remains contested: while a new era of powerful states untroubled by internal competitors may have begun, there are reasons to be cautious. Afghanistan is not producing national accounts statistics since August 2021, so they are excluded from the table. What are the main social problems in South Asia? The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum. Yet violence appears to have declined, with the caveat that security force operations are opaque. More recently, Nepals lawmakers elected the countrys first woman presidentand the countrys second presidentBidhya Devi Bhandari, in 2015. 0000001544 00000 n In Sri Lanka, the period of victory over the LTTE and its aftermath saw autocratization under the rule of the Rajapaksa family, a trend that changed when a new government came to power in 2015. Kazakhstan used the inaugural games to showcase its national heritage and historic connection to the land just one week after Russian President Vladimir Putin insinuated that the former Soviet Republic should never have become an independent country. New forms of state and non-state coercion have become more politically prominent, especially localized mob and vigilante violence, which are often linked to, rather than aimed at, the state and ruling parties. WebHowever, current and recent conflicts, inequality and social exclusion (due to age, gender, race and ethnicity) are threatening the value of this diversity and limiting freedom of expression. xb```lw@ (q.67g!gF..g\Q8gr=e`N:fd,qH'aT!#-WB9N Social movements in southern Asia have been shaped by the social relations dominated by the elites of the south Asian societies who share some common features in terms of culture and ideology. Asians have a lower homeownership rate than the U.S. public overall (59% vs. 64%). Pursuing goals that diverge from the expectations of the family and community is perceived to be selfish. The forces pursued a grim counterinsurgency policy: extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and a heavy security footprint coupled with surveillance and monitoring. Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees. The World Banks development updates for Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka were also released today. WebSouth Asia as the most dangerous place on Earth because of the rivalry between the two nuclear powers India and Pakistan over a number of issues. While there is a heavy security force presence in the region, there has also been space for long-running ceasefires and negotiations that reduce violence even when they do not fully resolve contested political issues. But all three have arrived in rapid succession over the past two years and are testing South Asias economies, said Martin Raiser, World Bank Vice President for South Asia. Politics in South Asia. This blend of repression and collusion has reduced direct anti-state violence. And these challenges will likely become more severe as the regions population continues to balloon. Tamil militancy had been a fact of life in Sri Lanka since the 1970s, with the LTTE coming to dominate the insurgency. Religion in South Asia: Diverse But Source of Tension. Karachis politics and political economy involved substantial lethal violence, as well as intimidation and threats. 0000000896 00000 n Suppressing violence is not necessarily the same as resolving conflict. State police forces have been built up in conflict areas, fueled in part by infusions of resources from the central government. -- Volume 32, Number 2, July 2017, Editorial Board A participant at the 2018 World Nomad Games at Kyrchyn Gorge, Kyrgyzstan. %%EOF Like European countries, Indias states are drawn along ethnic and linguistic lines and have distinct cultures. To counter this, South Asian families need to be more deeply educated on risk factors that can lead to mental health conditions. This paper contributes to the debate on the Sustainable Development Goals progress by evaluating the MDGs achievements in South Asia and the policy and institutional challenges deriving from such experience. Figure 3 shows the sanctioned strengths of Indias two largest central police forces, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF), from 1988 to 2018.3 The BSF has a major role in J&K, and the CRPF is heavily deployed across Indias areas of insurgency; both have expanded dramatically. )Ug}wz/vn_/7E|?|^P_PAy_ }D` ,Ut In 2019, a group of South Asian Americans petitioned the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to cancel a planned award for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The people of lower social standing suffer great job insecurity, experience gender inequality, and generally struggle against class discrimination. This campaign did not follow classical counterinsurgency best practices; instead, the Pakistani militarys suppression of the TTP saw high levels of state violence, refugee displacement, disappearances, and expansive surveillance. This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. 0000042665 00000 n 0 The three big issues facing East Asia | World Economic Forum The figures show that in J&K and the Northeast, the late 1990s and early 2000s saw intense conflict. This leads to heightened levels of psychological stress and interference with the identity formation process, especially when a person feels a stronger connection to the dominant western culture. India and Pakistan continue to heavily garrison areas of insurgency, regardless of violence levels. -- Volume 33, Number 2, July 2018, Editorial Board In the face of these shocks, countries need to build stronger fiscal and monetary buffers, and reorient scarce resources towards strengthening resilience to protect their people.. endstream endobj 78 0 obj <>stream This systematic review and meta-analysis report the pooled prevalence of CMDs among the South Asian countries. In another film, PK, an alien wanders around India confused by the countrys variousand seemingly incompatiblereligions. Both separatist and revolutionary insurgencies presented serious challenges in India; Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, rose with frightening speed to challenge a long-complacent Pakistani security establishment; Maoist insurgents mobilized against the Nepali government; the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; Tamil Tigers) carved out a de facto state in northern Sri Lanka; and some predicted a rising violent Islamist tide in Bangladesh. Nevertheless, the landscape of political violence in much of the region is strikingly different in 2020 than in years like 2004 or 2010. For more details, review our .chakra .wef-12jlgmc{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;font-weight:700;}.chakra .wef-12jlgmc:hover,.chakra .wef-12jlgmc[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-12jlgmc:focus,.chakra .wef-12jlgmc[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);}privacy policy. Survey data from the report suggests that in late 2021 and early 2022, migration flows are associated with movement from areas hit hard by the pandemic to those that were not, thus helping equilibrate demand and supply of labor in the aftermath of the COVID-19 shock. Government policies have also gone a long way toward improving health in the region. The main reason is the general scarcity of two critical resources essential to the development and implementation of such policies: capital and technology. ,MFYir`hJS(;e+\ /e*A:nXsv)GG`P`.AH &# #10 bE2?``8 cN#CA.&MeZ$i {``P,34@ 0} Another Muslim-majority country, Bangladesh, has had two womenSheikh Hasina, daughter of the countrys first president, and her political opponent Khaleda Zia, wife of another presidentalternate in the prime ministership for most of the last three decades. Annika and Nehal from the That Desi Spark podcast formerly known as The Woke Desi say they began their Being a homeland of number of caste and ethnic groups, the ways and process of how the social movements interact with contentious politics (and vice-versa) have been still less theorized empirically in the Asian societies. As the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia have drifted from Russia, they have looked to their own past to forge, or reassert, post-Soviet national identities. The Communist Party of NepalMaoist (CPN-M) launched a revolutionary insurgency in 1996, seeking to overthrow the government and create a communist state in Nepal. The movements have become contested power games around the issues of class, caste/ethnicity, gender, region and development. ?\xx~,~P$ 0elqglOAAp0E` > dmslu%eg0$GM[M'LF jM It is in Kashmir where the Modi government has most dramatically shifted policy by revoking the autonomy of and bifurcating the state of Jammu and Kashmir, accompanied by a massive crackdown on movement, communication, and political activity. Such non-state violence is often not waged against the state or political system, but instead is used as a bloody tool of social control and political maneuvering. India's child malnutrition levels nearly double those of sub-Saharan Africa; one in ten Pakistani WebSocial and political issues LGBT communities. The peak of this conflicts violence, in 2010, was reached much later than in J&K and the Northeast but has since seen a drop to a consistent but lower level in recent years. Three states have populations of over one hundred million people. Immigrants today account for 13.7% of the U.S. population, nearly triple the share (4.8%) in 1970. -- Volume 27, Number 1, April 2012, Editorial Board 0000005234 00000 n Top Left: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike (1960), Top Right: Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (1988), Bottom Left: Nepalese President Bidhya Devi Bhandari (2016), Bottom Right: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (1971), Source: (Clockwise starting from top left) Keystone/Getty Images, Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images, AFP/GettyImages, Eric Piper/Getty Images. It is seen that modernization, democratization, political ideologies and emergence of mass societies threatened the personal and collective identities and the advancement in information systems have sustained peoples struggles against the dominant world view of the State and elites. The movements, thus, have become contested power games around the issues of class, caste/ethnicity, gender, region and development. Finally, domestic political instability can provide both opportunity and motivation for insurgency. With all this linguistic, ethnic, and political diversity, how has India stuck together as a single country for so long? -- Volume 34, Number 2, July 2019, Editorial Board WebSouth Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions globally to a number of direct and indirect effects of climate change, including sea level rise, cyclonic activity, and changes in ambient temperature and precipitation patterns. 0000002992 00000 n -- Volume 29, Number 3, November 2014, Editorial Board WebThis paper attempts to explain the social and political issues confronting South Asia today. To the north, Central Asia is far less populous but has its own challenges and opportunities. Following critical discourse analysis, the paper concludes that the social movements has been shaped by the social relations dominated by the elites of the south Asian societies who share some common features in terms of culture and ideology. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves. -- Volume 28, Number 2, July 2013, Editorial Board The TAF2020 exercise highlighted six important ways in which Asia is changing, and where we need to apply all of our resources, analytical skills, partnership Consequently, many young South Asians keep their relationships hidden due to internalized shame and a fear of being rejected by their families. In Bangladesh, regime repression of dissent and of opposition movements have been commonplace. Yet, in some countries, ideas about gender are evolving. This has not been a seamless process, and there have been various forms of political violence and conflict since the end of the civil war, but the war has nevertheless decisively ended. The Indian Army also has an important presence in J&K and the Northeast, contributing to a vast security footprint that can suppress insurgent violence. Second, interstate politics are shifting in South Asia, opening the possibility of new dynamics of cross-border spillover, proxy warfare, and state sponsorship of armed groups. There is a strong need for culturally sound therapy. -- Volume 29, Number 1, March 2014, Editorial Board Washington, DC 20036-2103. According to a 2021 survey, just 10% of Indian Americans identified as "South Asian American", with "Indian" and "Indian American" making up the lion's share at 67%. Previously, when all five Central Asian countriesKazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistanbelonged to the former Soviet Union, Moscow ensured that Russian language and literature were taught in schools and that Russian dominated all forms of media, despite these former Soviet republics each having their own native language. The legal system grants substantial latitude to internal security forces, which limits checks on state power, and informal practices add to this autonomy. This unpredictability makes it at least conceivable that there could be renewed efforts by states to support rebellions in strategic areas. When young South Asian adults pursue a career that their family approves of instead of one that they find personally fulfilling, they might feel proud for maintaining family expectations. These changes are neither universal nor irreversible: important conflicts persist and continue to exact a severe human cost. Finally, Bangladesh has become a de facto competitive authoritarian regime in which the ruling Awami League established a dominant position. South Asian countries report the highest prevalence of common mental disorders (CMDs) globally. Without the support from Moscow that had kept their economies afloat for decades, these countries soon lost as much as 50 percent of their GDPs. In India, protests against a brutal gang rape in Delhi in 2012 rocked the country and launched a movement centered on womens rights, resulting in new laws to prosecute perpetrators of sexual violence. -- Volume 31, Number 3, November 2016, Editorial Board From 2006 to 2009, government forces and the LTTE waged an extremely intense, mostly conventional conflict with extensive human rights abuses. Bangladesh is especially dense, with over 160 million people living in an area the size of Iowa. In general, state coercive capacity across the region has increased, with escalating security force budgets and manpower facilitated by both formal laws and informal practices that give substantial leeway to the state. Third, forms of violenceespecially mobs and vigilantismare on the rise that are dangerous in their own right and that can prove difficult to control even by colluding state and political party forces. Bringing South Asians Into a Very White Space. As an admittedly crude proxy, however, overall conflict-related fatalities data leaves little doubt about broad trends. These approaches to therapy are difficult to translate across language and cultures without appropriate modification. -- Volume 32, Number 3, November 2017, Editorial Board These changes across South Asia may be permanent, heralding the dominance of the state after a long period of persistent insurgent challenges. -- Volume 22, Number 1, April 2007, Editorial Board In the nearly three decades since their independence, the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia have drifted from Russian influence. India is home to one billion Hindus, as well as most of the worlds Sikhs, Jains, Zoroastrians, and Bahais. WebThe problems of the South Asian region are different from those in the developed world. High Population Density Makes Region Vulnerable to Climate, Health Challenges, Projected Populations for India and China. In the Northeast, the 1990s saw a resurgence of violence by Naga insurgent factions in Nagaland and neighboring states, the expansion of multiple insurgencies in the state of Assam, and ongoing or new violence in the states of Manipur, Meghalaya, and Tripura. In this context, the paper analyses the contestations of social movements in the South Asia from a view point of contentious politics in the region. In a complex, changing, and increasingly contested world, the Carnegie Endowment generates strategic ideas and independent analysis, supports diplomacy, and trains the next generation of international scholar-practitioners to help countries and institutions take on the most difficult global problems and safeguard peace. And religious minorities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh often face severe persecution and receive almost no government protections. All rights reserved. 2023 Project MUSE. AoDCkso:DQ2 " This could lead to more awareness of the diversity of mental health conditions and knowledge on how to seek help and resources within their communities. Here are some of the problems, and some things you personally can do These trajectories matter because political exclusion and partial democracies marked by factionalism can contribute to revolt, especially when combined with a potentially more volatile international environment. The LTTE was finally defeated, at a huge civilian cost, in 2009. Pakistans Benazir Bhutto became the first woman to lead a Muslim-majority democratic country, serving as prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. There has been a dramatic transformation of Pakistans security environment since the height of the TTPs power. endstream endobj 74 0 obj <> endobj 75 0 obj <> endobj 76 0 obj <>stream Paul Staniland is a nonresident scholar in the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Since 2000, India has faced insurgencies in three geographic areas. Despite having a long historical background, critics suggest that the social movements are increasingly contested with identity politics and agrarian issues. Its constitution recognizes twenty-two languages, and its population is bigger than Africas. 0000007388 00000 n Indira Gandhi, the daughter of Indias first prime minister, served as prime minister for almost sixteen nonconsecutive years and was a powerful force in Indian politics for decades. 1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW India eradicated polio in 2014 after a campaign that vaccinated millions of children. 06 July 2021 South Asia countries are among the most vulnerable globally to the impacts of climate change. -- Volume 33, Number 3, November 2018, Editorial Board A map showing the major religion in each country of South Asia. While the Pakistani military is currently riding high politically, its track record over time has included miscalculation and counterproductive policies (for instance, repressing unarmed political movements while tolerating Islamist armed groups that later grew out of control). Finally, Nepal has meaningfully improved its democratic practice since the end of its civil war. Asians are less likely than Americans overall to live in poverty (10% vs. 13% as of 2019). These simmering conflicts can always increase in intensity if underlying political conflicts endure. Source: World Nomad Games 2018 / R.Iliasov. Poverty rates among U.S.-born and foreign-born Asians were 9% and 11%, respectively, that year. With this knowledge, they can identify some of the early signs of mental health issues. To estimate regional aggregates in the calendar year, fiscal year data is converted to calendar year data by taking the average of two consecutive fiscal years for Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan at 2015 constant US$, for which quarterly GDP data are not available. Following critical discourse analysis, the paper concludes that the social movements has been shaped by the social relations dominated by the elites of the south Asian societies who share some common features in terms of culture and ideology. Data and research help us understand these challenges and set priorities, share knowledge of what works, and measure progress. During this time, the regions economies have also developed rapidly, lifting hundreds of millions of South Asians out of poverty and making it possible for them to live longer and healthier lives. There have been sustained and credible allegations of human rights violations by Indian security forces and various insurgent groups, major disruptions to civilian life, The World Bank Group works in every major area of development. Happily, however, the Sino-Indian relations are on an Deaths from Diarrheal Diseases. Existing violence data is not adequate to make fine-grained claims: it is likely that official records undercount civilian deaths, and both media and government reports can be highly unreliable in their distinctions between civilians and militants. .chakra .wef-facbof{display:inline;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-facbof{display:block;}}You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. Finally, the paper anticipates a call for the collective colloquium of south Asian social movements. 0000006311 00000 n trailer Yet as Sri Lankas experience in the 1950s and 1980s vividly suggests, mob violence can harden political cleavages and trigger escalation beyond the control of its political patrons. A silent mental health crisis exists among South Asian communities. Between 2000 and 2011, South Asian cities swelled in size, as 130 million people flocked to urban areas often in search of better, higher-paying jobs. Fears of Pakistans collapse and rise of a revolutionary Islamist project drove international efforts to bolster state counterinsurgency capacity. Growing poverty, high illiteracy, a crisis in governance and threats to human security are issues of growing concern in South Asia. Familiar landmarks created by the cold war have not Regions of the World. Many studies have shown that South Asian immigrants in Canada, the United States and the Another major source of political violence in Pakistan was militarized electoral competition in Karachi, where the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)an armed political party with a strong base among ethnic Muhajirshad been a crucial presence in the city since the 1980s. Coping with Shocks: Migration and the Road to Resilience, Inflation in South Asia, caused by elevated global food and energy prices and trade restrictions that worsened food insecurity in the region, is expected to rise to 9.2 percent this year, Office of the Chief Economist, South Asia. Moreover, migration of mostly young men has led to rising divorce rates in Central Asian countries, where its not uncommon for one parent to be abroad for most of the year. -- Volume 22, Number 2, October 2007, Editorial Board This conflict, which experienced a resurgence in 2005, has not gone away and continues to be politically important. Geopolitical stability and regional relationships The return of tourism is helping to drive growth in Maldives, and to a lesser extent in Nepalboth of which have dynamic services sectors. This in turn affects social cohesion and gender equality in the region. Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan have three of the worlds four largest Muslim populations. Interestingly, while the Peoples Movements in the respective countries were structural and political in nature, subsequent movements have been fuelled with the voices of identity and rights of socially disadvantaged ethnic groups. In the regions largest states, rather than reductions in violence opening space for revitalized democracy, there has been democratic decay or stagnation. <<74F53B64ECF66F4D8721F1E5DB6020AC>]>> Cloudflare Ray ID: 7c066082ba9642ea Figure 4 draws on three datasets on political violence in Pakistan over time.4 While they examine somewhat different definitions of violence, and all of the crucial caveats about data quality outlined above for India hold for Pakistan as well, the basic trend of sharply decreasing fatalities in political violence over the last decade is consistent across them. 2023 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The Assam Rifles (AR), a specialized force in the Northeast, has grown much more modestly but still expanded.