BOOK REVIEW Pakistan through Indian
eyes Pakistan in a Changing
Strategic Context, edited by Ajay Darshan
Behera and Mathew Joseph C
Reviewed
by Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - The terrorist
attacks on September 11, 2001, and the subsequent US "war
on terrorism" have dramatically transformed the global
strategic environment. Nowhere has its impact been more
visible than in Pakistan, where under pressure from
Washington, Pakistan was forced to do a U-turn almost
overnight on key elements of its foreign policy. This
has had significant impact on almost all aspects of
Pakistani society, polity and economy.
The
US-Pakistan proximity since September 11 is a matter of
serious concern to India, a concern that has only
deepened with Washington conferring on Pakistan the
status of a major non-North Atlantic Treaty Organization
ally. Can India dismiss the current bonhomie between the
US and Pakistan as just a temporary upswing? Or should
Delhi be wary of the deep bonding that is taking place
between the two?
Pakistan in a Changing
Strategic Context, a collection of essays by various
Indian writers from different backgrounds, edited by
Ajay Darshan Behera and Mathew Joseph C, seeks answers
to these questions. It captures some of the momentous
changes that Pakistan has experienced since September 11
and examines in some detail how the global strategic
environment is evolving since then, how Pakistan has
adapted to these changes, and the impact this has had on
its polity and on relations with India, especially with
regard to Kashmir.
President General
Pervez Musharraf's decision to join the US "war on
terrorism" was one fraught with risk. It entailed abandoning
the Taliban, a move that was hugely unpopular among
a powerful and vocal section of the Pakistani population -
the religious right as well as the Inter-Services
Intelligence. Yet, as Behera points out in his
introductory chapter, "On the Edge of a Metamorphosis",
it provided "openings for the resurrection of the
Pakistani state". He writes that Musharraf as an
individual ruler has been the greatest beneficiary of
the decision. Pakistan's fortunes, too, are looking up
thanks to US largesse that has bailed out its economy.
Pakistan, he points out, has compromised only on its
Afghan policy. "Its deterrent capability remains in
place. Its Kashmir policy is being reshaped and is not
under serious pressure (p 40)."
Since September
11, Pakistan's status has transformed from a "pariah
state" to a key ally of the US in the "war against
terrorism". However, this is not the first time that
Pakistan has experienced a sudden change in fortune. As
C Dasgupta, a retired diplomat, points out in his
historical overview of Pakistan and the changing global
strategic environment, from 1972-79 Pakistan-US
relations witnessed a downturn. However, the fall of the
Shah of Iran and the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan
in 1979 saw Pakistan propelled into a "new and
clandestine alliance with the US". "The sudden
transformation in its security environment involved both
risks and opportunities for Pakistan," argues Dasgupta.
"If the arrival of a superpower [the Soviets] to its
borders spelled risks for its security, it also offered
opportunities for extracting a high price for
cooperating with the rival superpower [the Americans] (p
69)."
Among other things, Pakistan was able to
secure massive military aid from the US and a tacit
understanding that Washington would ignore its nuclear
program. While Dasgupta provides details of the military
benefits that accrued to Pakistan, he ignores the
dividends that accrued to Pakistan on the Kashmir issue.
The current US-Pakistan proximity, too, has
brought Pakistan rich dividends. However, Dasgupta is
doubtful about the durability of the relationship. "In
the new international order, durable ties with the
American superpower and other major powers will depend
not on membership of alliances or pacts but on economic
interdependence, buttressed by close civil society
interlinks based on common political, social and
cultural values," he writes.
Jasjit
Singh, former director of the Institute for Defense Studies
and Analyses, disagrees. He writes that
Pakistan's importance to the US is likely to increase in the
coming years. Pakistan, he points out, offers almost
everything the US needs to implement its grand strategy -
geographic proximity to Persian Gulf and Central Asian energy
resources, a professional military that could deal with
contingencies outside, a fragile economy and political
system that would be dependent on the US.
The second section of the book examines domestic politics
in Pakistan. Keki N Daruwalla writes about the
conflicting crosscurrents in the body politic and the
national consciousness of Pakistan - an obscurantist version of
Islam versus modernism, the clash between a unitary
state and federating units, a monolithic Pakistani
ideology that conflicts with ethnic aspirations,
authoritarianism versus democracy. Unlike Behera who
perceives September 11 as having opened up opportunities
for Pakistan, Daruwalla sees it as "inconvenient" for
Musharraf.
Two essays on the army in Pakistan's power
structure are both pessimistic about the future. Sumita
Kumar writes that the army is far too entrenched in
almost all structures of governance. The prospects of democracy
returning to Pakistan are rather bleak, she concludes.
Sushant Sareen points out that discipline in the
army is under pressure, but any weakening of the army's
hold, he argues, will benefit not the liberal forces
or civil society but the extreme right wing.
In "Islamization: Ideology and Politics", Mathew
Joseph C goes beyond merely describing what happened in
Pakistan under Islamization to examining Islamization as
a legitimizing tool. "The inter-class appeal of
religion, ie Islam allowing the state to cover up its
naked exploitation of the people of Pakistan, is an
example of how religion is being used as a tool of
legitimization and exploitation/oppression in the
context of post-colonial societies (p 188)," he points
out. He writes that the Islamization of society has
enabled the country's ruling elites to keep civil
society under check and to achieve strategic objectives
in the region to some extent.
Kalim
Bahadur, a retired professor from Jawaharlal Nehru
University (JNU), explores the rise of the
Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) in the October 2002 elections, the reasons for
its good showing and the deep divisions in this
coalition. Bahadur provides an excellent account of the role
that religious parties played in the Pakistan movement.
He describes the confrontation between the MMA
and Musharraf but points out that this has an "air of
a charade in it". In contrast to his relentless efforts
to undermine the two liberal parties - the
Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League -
Musharraf has displayed "surprising weakness" in dealing
with the religious leaders, Bahadur writes.
The third section of the book examines Pakistan's
policy toward the Kashmir issue in the changed
strategic context. S D Muni, professor at JNU, provides
an interesting analysis of what the US "war on
terrorism" is all about. It is more about "restructuring
global strategic relations so as to consolidate and
reinforce its hegemonic position in the world order" rather
than about fighting terrorism as such, he argues. If it
were really about eliminating terrorism then Washington
would have targeted such countries as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
September 11, he writes, has expanded the US strategic
presence in South Asia and strengthened US-Pakistan
ties. The US factor has emerged in a big way as a
restraint on India's Kashmir policy. At the same time,
the "proactive" manner in which the US and Israel have
been tackling terrorism has encouraged India to consider
responding similarly to terrorism it confronts in
Kashmir. What is more, Pakistan's credibility and
reliability as a supporter of militancy has been eroded
in the eyes of the Kashmiri people.
Smruti
S Pattanaik is skeptical about Pakistan changing
its position on Kashmir. She examines why Kashmir is
so central to Pakistan's policy. In addition to
its importance as a validation of the two-nation
theory, which is Pakistan's founding principle, control
over Kashmir is perceived to be essential as the water
heads are located here. Pakistan has always feared that
India will use its control over the water heads by choking
off water supply to Pakistan - a fear Pattanaik dismisses as
absurd as it has not happened over the past 50 years.
The fourth section is perhaps
the book's weakest link. But for Balraj Puri's article,
the contributions lack depth. Puri, a noted analyst
and political activist of Jammu and Kashmir, draws
attention to several flaws in India's perception of and
interaction with Pakistan. India-Pakistan relations
swing between euphoria and deep hostility, he writes.
"The choice is not between total settlement and no
settlement, bhai-bhaism [brother-brotherhood] and
eternal enmity, full-scale war and perfect peace." He
chides the Indian prime minister for describing the
current peace initiative as his last shot to bring peace
and if it fails, he would accept defeat and retire. "If
we fail, we need not become enemies. The pursuit of
peace and friendship is a permanent process and not a
one-time gamble," Puri writes.
Several books
have been published on Pakistan post-September 11.
Pakistan in a Changing Strategic Context stands
apart as it examines the country and the challenges it
is confronted with not in isolation but in the context
of the global strategic environment. Its focus is more
on understanding processes and institutions rather than
describing incidents.
The contributors are
all Indian and to this extent the views articulated
might seem one-sided. Certainly, the book would have
been richer if analysts from Pakistan had contributed to
the discussion. But the book's editors have done a fine
job of drawing on the expertise of persons from
different backgrounds - political, diplomatic, academic, research,
etc. The opinions are therefore not too uniform.
The book is a valuable contribution to our
understanding of this country. Academicians,
policymakers and journalists would find it an engaging
and useful read.
Pakistan in a Changing
Strategic Context, edited by Ajay Darshan Behera and
Mathew Joseph C. New Delhi: Knowledge World, with Center
for Strategic and Regional Studies, University of Jammu,
Jammu, 2004. ISBN: 81-87966-25-4. Price US$33, 367 pages.)
Sudha Ramachandran is an independent
researcher/writer based in Bangalore, India. She has a
doctoral degree from the School of International
Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Her
areas of interest include terrorism, conflict zones and
gender and conflict. Formerly an assistant editor at
Deccan Herald (Bangalore) she now teaches at the Asian
College of Journalism, Chennai.
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2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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