The Geopolitics of South Asia: From Early Empires to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

by Graham Chapman

Overview

This title was first published in 2000: This volume explores one of the world's greatest cultural heartlands - the Indian sub-continent. It shows how geological movements moulded the land and how they still impact upon it; how the culture of early setters evolved to form Hinduism; how its wealth and power attracted the attention of Islamic invaders who founded the Sultanate of Delhi and then the great Mogul Empire; and how they were later usurped by the British Raj. The story continues with the trauma of Partition and Independence in 1947, as India's unique form of Islam shook free from Nehru's secular India with the founding of Pakistan. At different points in the story, discussions are woven in on subjects such as caste or the management of water resources. Much of the book is written in terms of the three major forces of integration.These are "identitive" forces - bonds of language, ethnicity, religion or ideology; "utilitarian" forces - bonds of common material interests; and "coercion" - the institutional use or threat of physical violence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138736900
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/16/2019
Series:	Routledge Revivals
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 8.62(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

List of Figures ix

List of Tables xi

Foreword xii

Acknowledgements xx

Part I Introduction

1 Brahma and Manu: Of Mountains and Rivers, Gods and Men

1.1 The Land 3

1.2 The People 9

1.3 Society Crystallises 12

1.4 The Epic Ages 15

1.5 The New Religions 16

1.6 The First Empire 18

1.7 The Hindu Empires 23

1.8 Concluding Remarks 25

2 Hinduism: The Manifold of Man and God

2.1 An Unrevealed Truth 27

2.2 Cosmologies East and West 28

2.3 The Three Paths to God 30

2.4 Lineage and Caste 32

2.5 The Thousands of Separate Castes in India 33

2.6 Pollution and the Hierarchy of Caste 37

2.7 Maya 39

2.8 Caste and Hinduism in the Contemporary Era 40

2.9 Concluding Remarks 41

3 Islam: Submission to the One True God

3.1 The Prophet 42

3.2 The Word of Allah 43

3.3 Muslim Law: The Sharia 45

3.4 The Spreading Fire 46

3.5 The Submission of India 47

3.6 Persecution and Resistance 49

3.7 Vijayanagar 52

3.8 Second Foundation: The Mogul Empire 53

3.9 Imperial Government under Akbar 54

3.10 The Empire in Extremis and Decline 58

3.11 The Legacy of Islam 63

3.12 Hindu-Muslim Relations 65

Part II The British Raj

4 The Usurpers: The Life and Death of John Company

4.1 Preface: Changing Britain 69

4.2 European Expansion 72

4.3 The East India Company 74

4.4 The Pattern of Trade and its Growth 76

4.5 Rivalry with the French 77

4.6 The Acquisition of Bengal 78

4.7 The Struggle to Assert Control 82

4.8 Trusteeship and Reform 86

4.9 The Mutiny and Divorce 87

5 A New Geography: A New Economy

5.1 The Railroading of Empire 96

5.2 Irrigation 106

5.3 The Land of the Five Rivers 113

5.4 International Trade in the 19th Century and the Balance of Payments 117

5.5 The New Geography 119

5.6 The Language of Empire 121

5.7 A Necessary Understatement 122

5.8 Concluding Remarks 124

6 The New Nationalisms and the Politics of Reaction

6.1 Contesting Dynamics 127

6.2 The Structure of Government in British India and the Problem of an Evolutionary Transfer of Power 130

6.3 The Process of Constitutional Concession 133

6.4 Gandhi and the Nationalist Response 140

6.5 The Two Nations 148

Part III The Successor States

7 Divide and Quit

7.1 Pride and Prejudice: The Search for Unity in Western Europe 157

7.2 Pride and Prejudice: Recrimination and Divorce in South Asia 159

7.3 Territorial Options 163

7.4 The Decree Nisi 169

7.5 Concluding Remarks 173

8 New Lines on the Map

8.1 Introduction 174

8.2 Radcliffe's New Map 174

8.3 The Second Partition of Bengal 180

8.4 The Princely States 182

8.4.1 Junagadh 184

8.4.2 Hyderabad 186

8.4.3 Jammu and Kashmir 187

8.5 The Human Flotsam 191

8.6 The Divided Inheritance 193

8.7 Concluding Remarks 194

9 From Two to Three: The Birth of Bangladesh

9.1 Introduction 195

9.2 Unequal Development in Pakistan 196

9.3 Language and Representation 202

9.4 The Military Cost of Pakistan 203

9.5 The South Asian Roots of Bangladesh 205

9.6 Concluding Remarks 206

10 Raj and Swaraj: Regionalism and Integration in the Successor States

10.1 Introduction 207

10.2 The Integration of the Princely States 208

10.2.1 India 208

10.2.2 Pakistan 210

10.3 Territorial Redefinition in India and the Emergence of Linguistic States 212

10.4 The Centre-Province Balance and Pakistan's Search for a Constitution 223

10.5 Regionalism post 1972 in the Residual Pakistan 227

10.6 Concluding Remarks 229

11 The Power Upstream

11.1 Introduction 232

11.2 Hydro-politics in the Indus Basin 234

11.3 Sharing the Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin 242

11.3.1 Farakka Barrage 242

11.3.2 Floods in Bangladesh 248

11.4 Concluding Remarks 252

12 The Greater Game

12.1 Geopolitics 254

12.2 Antagonists and Protagonists since 1947: The Actors 260

12.2.1 The Soviet Union/Russia 260

12.2.2 The USA 262

12.2.3 China, Tibet and the Himalayan War 263

12.2.4 Pakistan and the Afghan War 265

12.2.5 Kashmir 267

12.2.6 Bangladesh 267

12.2.7 India 268

12.2.8 SAARC (The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) 271

12.3 The Politics of Triangles 274

12.4 Concluding Remarks 281

Part IV Conclusions

13 States and Region in South Asia

13.1 Introduction: Nature Proposes 287

13.2 Humankind Disposes 292

13.3 States of Development 299

13.4 Nature, Culture and Civilisation 301

13.5 The Politics of Reaction 304

References and Bibliography 307

Appendix 317

Index 327