Article: Encircle the Tiger

To begin with - The title of this post is a spin-off from the article of Joshua Meah - 'Encircle the Dragon', which by chance was also my last blog post.

Interestingly, the last few days, I have seen a flood of articles on the internet regarding India - China relations, few of them being insanely funny yet scary, where the authors have taken few assumptions to make us beleive that China shall sooner than later attack India. Today, one more such article, originally written in Chinese, and translated into English by a lot of bloggers online in the last few days, finally found space on The Times of India (online version atleast).

Without commenting much on the assumptions of these various authors and their terrifying conclusions in the articles, I would rather throw some light on a harsh realitywhich is also depicted and exploited well by the author who belongs to our northern neighbor. A lot of people have already discussed this reality at various forums, shall continue to do so, and while I finish writing my post, few others might have done already on the same topic as well.

Now, to put things in perspective, I would divide this post into two idea's:

• The Idea of India ; and
• The Idea of being Indian

The Idea of India - As the Preamble to the Constitution of India states that India is a 'Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic' governed by the principles of 'Justice, Liberty, Equality & Fraternity', truly the country was born with the correct idea's and principles needed for growth, freedom & prosperity. While there is no confusion regarding the idea of India to us & to the entire world, but many of us Indians have a deep subliminal confusion when it comes to the Idea of being Indian.

The Idea of being Indian - If you understood the idea of India well, describing & defining the principles and idea's by which an Indian is governed should not be a tough call. Atleast would not be a tough call literally. But alas, we need to be practical here. The moment you get practical and come closer to reality, you would know the principles which we Indians in general follow our nowhere close to 'Justice,Liberty,Equality & Fraternity'.

Right from the super rich & politicians to the beggar on the street & the non empowered comman man of India, all of us some way or the other, end up always defining ourselves as either Punjabi's, Marwari's, Gujarati's, Marathi's, etc or to the even worse definition according to the caste system. According to me, all of us are equally responsible for this as much as our system of reservations etc, is in creating this drift between all.

The system, which might have been useful in the 1940's & 1950's to empower the socially backward classes does not necessarily mean shall be useful in today's scenario. The education level, health level, awareness level, everything has gone up, and by still continuing this reservation system, we our only splitting ourselves.

Individually as well, rather than consolidating our Indian identity, we choose to be known more as a Hindu/Muslim/Christian... or a Punjabi/Bengali/Marwari/Tamil... and so on....

Before you start scratching your head thinking the relevance of what I have written above with India-China relations, let me now tell you what the Chinese have been talking about. It is exactly this weakness of our's which is now being exploited by China, where strategic experts are writing articles to urge the Chinese Government & its friendly countries like Pakistan, to attack India and split it into various parts, where the Bengali's shall live separate than the Punjabi's and the Tamil's shall stay separate than the Keralite's, etc.... It might sound funny and unimportant to few, but this is exactly the biggest weakness of our nation. I think, it is not at all difficult, with the Chinese & Pakistani's supporting various separatist groups all over India & poisoning the very idea of India.

Sadly, our Indianness & our identity as Indians only shows up when we our abroad or while playing cricket. Most of the times, we fall prey to the dirty politics and the so called rituals of our past, and forget the principles of equality & fraternity.

Before anything else, it is time to encircle ourselves in the idea of being truly Indian.

Comments Welcome.

----

Sidharth Mehta

Dubai, UAE

----

Key Tags: Sidharth Mehta, Encircle The Tiger, The Idea of India, Being Indian, Identity of India, India China Relations, Indo Sino Relations, China attacks India, India Hits Back on China, Articles on India & China Relationship, India China Nuclear Nations, Cheap Chinese Products & Strategies, India China War, War Strategies

Top Article: Encircle The Dragon

For all lovers of Strategic Warfare, Military Intellingence & International Affairs.

One of the best articles which I have read in the recent times about the strategies and focus of military mights of the world in creating a balance of power in South Asia, mainly to encircle the dragon. The author gives great insights into the permutations and combinations which the US is trying to have with Asian powers like - India & Japan, and how very shrewedly using Pakistan against China - Pakistan's only best friend.

The author is Joshua Meah, who is with the Centre for International Relations, Observer Research Foundation.

Sidharth Mehta

Dubai, UAE

-------

US engagement in South Asia since 9/11 is often understood through US security interests: defeating al-Qaeda, eliminating support for Islamic militancy in Pakistan and securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. But 9/11 was in 2001, almost eight years ago, and US security interests have changed drastically. The Iraq war cost the US upwards of $3 trillion in blood and treasure and enhanced Washington's perceived adversary Iran as the regional power. The financial crisis crippled the 'Washington consensus' endorsement for democracy and free markets while sending the US into a recession and assaulting the dollar's status as the global reserve currency.

The victor of US strategic failures is China, the 1.3 billion-strong nation with a near 40 per cent savings rate, $2 trillion in currency reserves, an unimpeded model of government-led development and a history of visible non-intervention in the internal affairs of nations that is welcomed by repressive, resource-rich regimes in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Central Asia and elsewhere.

At the dawn of the 'Asian century', the surge in US military activity in Afghanistan and the forthcoming $15 billion aid package to Pakistan may be an attempt to checkmate China as much as an effort to meet post-9/11 security objectives. By attaining military superiority in Central, South and East Asia, and ostensibly buying out Islamabad, the US would control China's most critical regional ally and energy-resource transport lanes and could potentially open China up to a bolstered secessionist movement in its Islamic and massive Xinjiang province.

With little in common culturally, Pakistan and China share an inimical view of India, Islamabad's eternal obsession and sole threat to Beijing's influence in South Asia. This is at the heart of their alliance. Pakistan's proximity to the Strait of Hormuz in Iran, through which 20 per cent of the world's oil passes, and ability to control radical Islamism make an alliance for China ideal as it seeks to secure energy resources and silence the Islamic Uighur outcry for secession in Xinjiang. To Pakistan, China means access to perhaps the world's foremost economic power with growing diplomatic strength in the UN Security Council and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Nuclear deals, joint military exercises and a free trade agreement signed in 2006 support the valued relationship.

Yet, with 98,000 troops split between South Korea and Afghanistan and joint US-India-Japanese naval operations being taken up, US military influence in China's immediate territory may offset China's aggressive military posturing along Arunachal Pradesh and decrease the value of Beijing's security blanket to Islamabad. Also, with Pakistani army activity, President Asif Ali Zardari's views and poll data on civilian opinion coinciding with US national security objectives, the US's $15 billion aid package to Pakistan may signal a rapprochement between Islamabad and Washington. As Beijing's influence on Islamabad dissipates, so may the ISI's watchful eye on Pakistani-based factions of China's Uighur secessionist movement, which is increasing in international profile with the violent Chinese crackdown on peaceful protests and each innocent Uighur released publicly from Guantanamo Bay.

US emphasis on the growth of Pakistan's civilian institutions threatens to wrestle away the military's control of relations with India, creating potential for healthier economic and political relations between the two countries and freeing up India's attention and resources to balance against Chinese regional influence. In the very long term, a prosperous Pakistan would reaffirm the Washington consensus that democracy and free markets are the way of the wealthy world, even in Islamic countries, placing pressure on the Chinese Communist Party to democratise.

In full congruence with the Af-Pak strategy, Barack Obama is attempting strategic rapprochement with Iran, the consequence of which would leave three of the most important energy powers (Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq) mostly within the US's purview and secure the US's closest allies in Asia (India and Japan) unfettered access to energy resources. The thawing of the Washington-Moscow relationship through a tentative agreement to reduce the size of nuclear arsenals and the actual consideration that Russia might join NATO only add to China's concerns about the threat of American-led encirclement.

Of course, the above may fail to actualise. US operations in Afghanistan could fail as have all previous efforts to control the Afghan people. Pakistan may continue a policy of selective counter-insurgency, leaving some groups affiliated to al-Qaeda and Kashmiri militancy untouched while focusing on those threatening the army's control of Pakistan, the result of which would be a net zero gain in positive Pakistani-Indian relations or US security. Given China's unique support for the Ayatollah's regime in Iran during the recent elections, Obama's hope for a special relationship with Iran may have already eluded him. The Russia 'reset' may be implausible as US missile defence policy in Poland remains a thorn in US-Russia relations. Nonetheless, these potential tactical failures do not deny an incredibly important strategic advance: through Af-Pak, the first checkmate of the Asian dragon has been attempted by the US.

The author is Joshua Meah, who is with the Centre for International Relations, Observer Research Foundation.