Militarization in South Asia

Yuba Nath Lamsal

Militarization has been a part of strategic culture in South Asia and war its end result. All South Asian states were created by the use of brutal force. South Asian countries fought both internal and external wars on various occasions. Before British arrived in South Asia and controlled most part of the region, there were numerous states and principalities that fought one another to have their dominant position. Lured by abundance of natural resources and material wealth, outsiders invaded South Asia. Greeks, Alexander the Great, Mugals and British colonial rulers were some of external invaders that attacked and controlled South Asia to name a few. The war was a part of South Asian culture as military power was the critical component of the rulers. However, it was only the northern empire or China that never exhibited its territorial appetite in South Asia.

It is not only external forces and powers with which South Asian countries had to fight on different occasions, but the countries in the region also fought wars among themselves. Nepal has never been a direct colony and it has always refrained from being under control of any external power. But it has the bitter but proud experience of fighting war with its neighbors to defend its territorial integrity. Nepal fought several wars with Tibet and a decisive war with British colonial power that had its dominant presence in South Asia.

British colonial rulers in South Asia built a military culture and created a strong armed force with the help of which they controlled large swath of land in the region. India has given continuity to the military legacy and doctrine that British left in South Asia. As a result, South Asia, already one of the poorest regions of the world, is becoming a heavily militarized zone. South Asia is the region with three nuclear powered countries— China, India and Pakistan and arms race is picking up in an alarming level with some powerful countries competing to build-up their conventional as well as nuclear arms and ammunition. The over-spending on defense at the expense of other social service sectors like health, education, food security and development, South Asia is likely to turn into a dangerous region in the world with nuclear bombs always hovering over the heads of over one fifth of humanity.

This arms race and military build-up in the region has sent a shock wave to the people in South Asia. The smaller and weaker countries of South Asia are feeling more and more vulnerable. The over-spending on defense is their misplaced priority rendering people more insecure and vulnerable. The governments which have over-emphasized on militarization try to justify their move in the name of ensuring security of their people and defense of the country. In reality, the military power can never ensure people’s security, which has been a proven fact. A country cannot be saved and defended only on military strength. The case of Soviet Union should teach us a good lesson. The Soviet Union was a super power and had powerful military capable of destroying the entire world. But it could not prevent the country from being disintegrated. Now Soviet Union has been disintegrated into many states. Thus, the over spending in military and over-emphasis on military power only augments insecurity among its own people as well as in the neighborhood. Over-spending on military bleeds national economy as it would compel to cut budget in social sectors like health, education and development.

The latest case is India’s decision to hike defense spending and its arms procurement. Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, presenting annual budget for the fiscal 2012-13 on March 16, 2012, hiked the defense outlays to 1,93,4.729 billion Indian rupees or 40.44 billion US dollars, which is almost 18 per cent hike compared to last year’s defense budget. India’s hike in defense budget is one of the highest increases in recent years.

India’s move came under the pretext of countering military build-up by China and Pakistan. But in reality, this is not justifiable. Pakistan does not match with India in terms of military weapons and manpower and it does in no way intend to be at par with India on military strength. What Pakistan is doing is to maintain only deterrence. India’s hike in military expenditure and increased import of sophisticated military hardware will definitely compel Pakistan to spend more money on the modernization of its army and weaponry and divert the tax-payers’ money into arms purchase. So far as India’s claim to counter China’s military build-up is concerned, Beijing’s military strength is too large for India to counter. China does in no way compete with India. Its competition is with the United States and its allies. China’s military modernization and consolidation is entirely for defensive purpose which Beijing has time and again stated.

But China is suspicious about India’s military intention and ambition. This is because New Delhi has already brought the United States of America—China’s military and economic rival—to India in the name of India-US strategic partnership. Already suspicious from the strong American military presence in the Pacific region including Japan, South Korea and other countries in the East Asia and also in the South China Sea, Beijing has taken the India-US strategic partnership as a move to encircle China from all sides. In all practical purpose, New Delhi’s intention was to intimidate China by brining the United States. Moreover, the anti-China activities that are being instigated by western countries with support from New Delhi has made China further cautious. With US-India military alliance getting closer and stronger, China, too, will be left with no alternative other than further strengthening and modernizing its armed forces in order to counter the newly emerged security challenge in the vicinity.  This is likely to lead to further armed race in South Asia.

India’s large increase in the defense budget has had its negative impact on various sectors and also sent a negative message to its immediate neighborhood and also beyond. While, Pakistan and China have already taken India’s recent decisions and moves with extra caution, other South Asian countries have viewed these developments with much indignation. Already feeling insecure and bullied by India’s high handedness and meddling in small South Asian countries, the hike in defense budget and increased arms import of India has further added a sense of insecurity and fear in the entire region.

India is world’s largest arms purchasing country. A Swedish think tank organization, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), released its well researched report on March 20 this year   in which it has stated “India is the world’s largest recipient of arms…India’s imports of major weapons increased by 38 percent between 2002-06 and 2007-11.” New Delhi’s imports of arms include several new equipments ranging from combat aircraft to submarines and artillery.

In recent years, India has bought reconnaissance aircraft from the Boeing worth 2.1 billion-dollars and medium range missiles for 1.4 billion dollars from Israel. So far as New Delhi is not only purchasing arms from Israel but also having strategic and military partnership with the Jewish state. According to reports, Israel has agreed to share its military expertise with India in various fields such as surveillance satellites and space exploration. This is yet other move to intimidate Muslim countries in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. In practice, Indian defense expenditures have no bounds. In the past decade, India has spent billions of dollars on purchases of arms, planes, radars and ships from the US, Russia, Britain, Germany, Israel, France and other western countries.

Given India’s ambitious defense and military build-up, a Washington-based think tank, Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), exposed India’s military intention. The Center has revealed in its report “India’s defense budget has roughly quadrupled since 2001—reaching $36.3 billion in the 2011–2012 budget. Of the total defense budget, approximately 40 percent (some $14.5 billion) is allocated to the defense capital outlay budget.”

Currently more than half of India’s budget is allocated for armed forces, but its major portion is being spent on defense purchases, which leaves less than half for everything else including infrastructure development projects, education, healthcare, poverty alleviation, and various human services. New Delhi’s latest arms purchases will leave even less for what India needs most to lift hundreds of millions of its citizens from abject poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease. Analysts have dubbed India’s ballooning defense budget at the expense of investment in social and economic sectors is nothing other than preference to gun than butter.
Despite being the tenth largest economy in terms of size of the GDP, India is the country of the largest number of poor people. The Indian establishment has not been able to deliver basic services to tens of millions of poor people, who live under sub-human condition. A United Nations report states that India ranks 134th of 182 countries on the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index. It estimated that 50 per cent of the world’s undernourished population lives in India. Nearly 31 per cent of the billion-plus Indians earn less than a dollar a day.  But in the name of consolidating its security, it has siphoned off money to defense contracts and arms import. This has two objectives: one is to benefit the arms dealers and politicians through the contract and commissions. The second is to dilute and divert public anger against the government into other areas. The third one is to further intimidate the neighbors and maintain its hegemony in the neighborhood. Thus, the hike in defense budget and heavy procurement of arms is not going to make people feel secure when a large number of people are dying and starving. Instead, it would create human insecurity at home and sent a message of threat to the neighbors.