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Reducing Violence In South Asia
Integrated Strategy Needed

By Khilendra Basnyat

TODAY, South Asia is afflicted by various kinds of violence. However, few are serious about the rising trend of violence in this region.

Difficult

In most of the South Asian countries, violence ranges from the most intimate such as rape, bodily mutilation and dismemberment to the most abstract such as forced and legal minorisation. The most difficult one is the violence against minorities of all kinds.

The roots of violence in South Asian countries are more often related to political, economic and social factors. They are also associated with the management of the changes as well as social structures.

The factors responsible for violence in the region are directly linked to the decline in the quality of governance. The instruments of governance are becoming partisan, corrupt and ineffective in this region.

Many South Asians have become helpless spectators of the unending violence in their countries. Instead of solving people’s problems, the politicians find it easy to divert public attention by indulging in indecisive rhetoric. They are shrewd enough to realise that there are no quick solutions to the problems of poverty, health and employment.

With little or no hope of achieving their goal of democratic means, aggrieved people have taken to violence in most of the countries as the dominant mode of political action. The available political space has become narrow to give them any hope for an improvement in their way of living. This has led to frustration and anger among a large number of people of this region.

Since the past few decades, in South Asian countries, the process of assertion of identity has got entangled with the struggle for economic and political rights. The struggle has become violent in these countries.

In an environment of insecurity, most of the people have taken shelter in narrow identity, which frequently gets into conflict not only with larger identity but also with other group identities.

In reality, widening income disparity and the failure of most of the governments of this region to convey a sense of justice to the poor have created bitterness and anger among the aggrieved people.

The rise in fundamentalism has posed a serious threat to peace in South Asia. Fundamentalism has spread even to those areas which are historically known for religious tolerance. Feudalism is another important factor, causing violence in this region because feudal lords have foiled all attempts to take away their land, and privileges.

In most South Asian countries, the dynamics of rapid changes has often disturbed the social and economic equilibrium because it is disruptive in nature. The processes of development have deprived many sections of political and economic power. What is more, the conflicts between traditional and modern elements have given rise to grievances that went on multiplying in this region.

South Asia is the home to the largest number of the world’s poor. An estimate based on a per capita income of US$ one per day put the number as high as fifty per cent of over six hundred million out of the total South Asian population of 1.3 billion in 1999. Whether the exact number of the poor is six hundred million or small, the most serious threat to governance in South Asia arises from widespread poverty.

It has been found out that the per capita income in most South Asian countries is below US$ five hundred per annum. Behind this low per capita income lies enormous income disparity which means that the actual per capita of the poor is perhaps half the region’s average.

Poverty and deprivation are the two main factors, which have the potential of destabilising peace and social stabilisation in South Asia. It is the most important political and economic problems of governance in this region.

The structure of the cities in South Asia has special significance for collective violence. Since the cities of this region are growing rapidly, essential needs such as food, shelter and health services are becoming inadequate every year. Consequently, violence occurs in this region now and then.

From the experiences of the past, it has been observed that high population growth has caused growing violence in South Asia. For example, the Mohajirs in Karachi and their increasing numbers have contributed to the rise in violence in Pakistan.

The population increase of the landless in some parts of Bihar or Andhra Pradesh and some other states in India have created an environment for violence against the landholders. Likewise, the Naxalite movement, the people’s war groups in some parts of central and north India are symptomatic of the rise in violence. In addition, violence still persists in Jammu and Kashmir.

In Nepal, the increase in Maoists activities has caused violence since the past six years or so. Several people have lost their lives and wealth during this period. Violence is still continuing in different parts of this country during this period on account of the failure of talks between the government and the Maoist leaders.

In Sri Lanka, the rise in violence is due to ethnic factors, especially the relationship between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamil population. For right or wrong, the minority Tamils have developed grievances, which have resulted in violence.

Such rise in violence is directly related to the failures of state institutions. Actually, in countries where political institutions are weak for maximum people’s participation, the problem become more difficult to tackle.

In South Asia, violence is likely to increase in future because alienated and aggrieved groups find it a cost effective means to confront powerful states. Some terrorist groups operating in this region have become as powerful as indigenous groups. Sooner or later these very groups meant to commit violent acts in the neighbouring countries will terrorise their own people.

Till now, the law and order situation in South Asia is far from satisfactory. The law and order problems in this region have been created by social factors especially by social change. The assertion of the lower strata of social hierarchy in terms of their new political and constitutional rights has brought them in direct conflict with traditional establishment. The conflict relates to minimum wages or land rights or access to drinking water or social relationship between the traditional ruling classes and the rest. Time and again, violent clashes have occurred in many cases among different groups of people, making the lives of the people, especially the poor, insecure.

Arbitrary functioning of the states has created an economic and social crisis. It is not an aberration but a malady. In this region, the economic cost of violence cannot be understimated. Apart from the huge expenditure on making security arrangements, violence destroys existing physical infrastructures and retards economic growth.

Coordination

In South Asian countries, military force has been used to control various sorts of violence. However, a military response alone will not solve the problems of violence in these countries. A well coordinated and integrated strategy is needed to reduce violence in this region.

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