Abstract | This chapter argues that the destinies of South Asian peoples are necessarily entwined such that a democratic and stable India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and Maldives is contingent on the emergence and consolidation of regional peace movements against war and militarisation within each South Asian state. The necessity of regional peace movements in South Asia is something more than conventional ‘internationalism’ or universal humanism or conscientious objections to war. The fused destinies of the peoples of South Asia arises from the specific historical experiences of British colonialism in which South Asia had a pivotal position. The entwined destinies of peoples arise because of the specific historical positionality of South Asia in the architecture of imperialism past and present, the geopolitical location of South Asia, the instrumental role of the region in the history of the British Empire, the trajectory of the formation of each state in the region, and the hiatus between ‘nations’ and ‘states’ in South Asia. Theoretically, the chapter argues that: (a) the state-centric framework for understanding internal militarisation is inadequate as problems of internal militarisation in each state are deeply entwined with external imperialist geopolitics; (b) the form and substance of colonialism must be distinguished and engaged with, as colonialism is much more that a temporal feature characteristic of nineteenth century empires; and lastly (c) critical scholars and activists must pay greater attention to the international legal order which is a structuring mechanism for reconstituting imperial/colonial relations. The chapter considers the continuities and changes in militarism in South Asia by juxtaposing key features of South Asia under the empire system led by the British empire and the UN system led by the American empire since the end of World War II. |
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