South And Central Asian Studies - Mphil Thesis

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    The Post-Cold War Global Politics: A Study of India's Role in Nonaligned Movement
    (Central University of Punjab, 2018) Kumar, Manish; Verma, Sudheer Singh
    The post-Second World War confrontational bipolarity enforced infant decolonised nations to adopt the policy of nonalignment to preserve their hard won sovereignty. India as pioneer nation introduced the notion of nonalignment and contributed to the development of Nonaligned Movement through prolonged collective deliberations with Asian and African countries for global peace and equitable global order. Using Nonaligned Movement's platform, India significantly gained her security, national development, and world order interests but loses some strategic interests during the war with China in 1962. However, being non-aligned, India has constructed enough capacity to cope further security challenges through building strategic alliances with suitable powers. India being a frequent participant country in periodical summits of Nonaligned Movement has committed to its principles and objectives. The end of the Cold War had posed several questions over its enduring existence in the global politics. The post-Cold War unipolarity has made Nonaligned Movement increasingly "responder" rather 'demander'. India's increased economic, military and political weight in global politics in the 21st century, realised New Delhi to calculate the potentials of Nonaligned Movement in accordance with its aspiration of great power status. In this context, by all reckoning, India is likely to be crediting the third world solidarity, nonetheless passionate for multialignment with major powers to gain its commensurate office in global governance.
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    Neoliberal Politics: A Study of Restructuring of the Indian State
    (Central University of Punjab, 2018) Singh, Hushiar; Verma, Sudheer Singh
    Neoliberal Politics refers to 'economic rationalism', which is based on the efficiency of market forces and characterised it by minimal government intervention. It emerged in contrast to the welfare state model, in which the state takes responsibility for protection and socio-economic well-being of its citizens. On the other side, the neoliberal politics claims that the well-being of human can be forwarded by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills through private property rights, free market and free trade within the institutional framework. In post-independence era, Indian founding fathers constitute the developmental state structure for the welfare of the citizens. With the passage of time welfare state's institutional inefficiencies, government's unfinished distributive programmes, and slow economic progress induced the government towards neoliberal politics. Hence, in the wake of neoliberal politics in the 1980s, the Indian government has begun to transform the developmental path. Hereafter, the government has started to the institutional restructuring of the state and constituted new institutions for private entrepreneur lead development. As a result, the developmental state system has been restructured in order to free market system. With this background, the study has made an attempt to relook democratic socialist character of the Indian state and its journey from close to open market (1950 to 2014). After analysing the associated impacts on the democratic process and social welfare imperatives, the study concludes that the neoliberal politics has restructured the state institutions from the commanding control of the market system to the regulation based market system.
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    Nuclearization in South Asia: The China Factor
    (Central University of Punjab, 2013) Mir, Arif Mohmad; Singh, Bawa
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    Pakistan and Russia Relationship: Changing Dynamics in the Post-Cold War Era
    (Central University of Punjab, 2016) Singh, Besakh; Verma, Sudheer Singh
    It would be an important relationship for Pakistan to become a regional partner of Russia, which is a major regional player in the South Asia. During the Cold War and the Post-Cold War era, Pakistan and the Russian Federation (erstwhile the Soviet Union) relationship fluctuated time to time. Pakistan and Russia relationship have been remained over shadow on India and United State of relationship. Both countries' relationship has positive effects on the regional and global political environment. These positive effects are in the geopolitics, economic, security, and trade. It is evident that in the post 9/11 attack, Pakistan emerged as a 'frontline state' in the 'war on terror'. Generally, nation-states follow strategies to gain economic and security related interests out of available opportunities in the world politics. It has been seen as progress in international relations when Pakistan and Russian relations recently moving towards trust zone in the Post-Cold War era. In Inspite of the limitations, the relationship has strong prospects in the Post-Cold War era. Thus, Pakistan has to keep maintain its diplomatic focus on the mutual interests through keeping friendly relations with the Russian Federation. The both countries' relations would help in easing the Political environment in the South Asia.
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    Cantomentisation and transformation in south asia: a study of colonial military of punjab/firozpur
    (Central University of Punjab, 2013) Singh, Bhupinder; Varghese, V.J.
    Military history in general is seen as an under-researched area, though military remained important to every country from time immemorial and countries and kingdoms maintained military for protection and security as well as for satisfying their imperial designs. It is well known that military has played a major role in the making of the British Empire in South Asia/ Indian Subcontinent in which Punjab played a strategic and pivotal role. The British Indian army was heavily concentrated in Punjab with a robust of network of military cantonments, apart from converting it as one of the most important army recruitment grounds. Punjab was thus turned into a 'garrison state'. The present dissertation is an attempt to map the military landscape of Punjab under colonialism and how it impacted the geography and socio- economic life of the region. From the 1830's a series of cantonments were established in the province- Firozpur, Lahore, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Peshawar, Ambala, Kanpur, Bathinda, Rawalpindi etc. which were vital in sustaining colonialism in India and maintaining the colonial dominance over the sub-continent. The cantonments transformed the life and geography of the respective locations/areas where they were established in the terms of demography and amenities. The attempt here is to make preliminary exploration into the details of the making Punjab a garrison state with these networks of cantonments and the changes they brought to the region. The study also makes a specific exploration into the history Firozpur cantonment.
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    Politics and ethnic conflict in Bhutan: A nepalese perspective.
    (Central University of Punjab, 2017) Singh, Balinder; Singh, Bawa
    Driglam-Nam-Za, Gross National Happiness Bhutan is one of the most contemporary additions to the world's democracies. For over a century the nation had been run by kings of the Wangchuck dynasty. But, in 2001, a fundamental change was announced by the fourth king. Bhutanese society is multi-ethnic, being composed of several distinct communities whose differences rest on ethnicity, profession, social structure, beliefs, and values. The people consist of so-called indigenous groups as well as immigrants from neighbouring countries, namely Nepal, India, Myanmar (Burma) and Tibet (China). The Bhutanese people (Ngalong) have been imposing their own culture as the core value of the nation and also dominate the socioeconomic and political elite and decision-making institutions of the country. The King's family belongs to this ethnic group. Lhotshampa, an ethnic group of Nepalese origin, had been migrated to Bhutan since the 19th century. These people have been practising the Hinduism. This ethnic group has been facing discrimination from Bhutan's ruling class for decades. The ethnic crisis has been constitutionalized given the adoption of discriminatory policies such as one nation one people policy, one language policy, Citizenship Act (1985), assimilation of the culture, depriving of socio-economic opportunities for Lhotshampa ethnic group. The policy promoted the ruling class's language and religion Lamaistic Buddhism favouring the Ngalong Drukpa ethnic group over the ethnic group in question. As a result, the tension has risen between the native and ethnic groups led to a Bhutanese ethnic crisis. It left indelible imprints on the Bhutan-Nepal relations. Later on, these two countries engaged in diplomatic engagements to sort out the ethnic crisis. Now the current status of the Lhotshampa refugee has been sorted out. However, a small number of refugees are still a bone of contention between both the countries.
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    Women explotation in contemporary south asia: Field experiences of child marriage in bathinda district
    (Central University of Punjab, 2014) Kaur, Manpreet; Kaushiki, Nishtha
    Women are exploited at every step of her life. Child Marriage and marital violence happens to be the first phase and is one of the ways in which women are exploited. The present research is an attempt to bring to the surface various underlying causes and effects of Child marriage in their life. It is also a humble attempt to recommend some measures to stop child marriages and sexual abuse of the child bride/ marital rape cases. For this purpose, case studies from Bathinda District of Punjab have been selected for the field study. The study tries to evaluate the extent to which women have utilised the legislative measures against these two activities, experiences of the victims and the socio-economic causes behind the problem. Thus, this study is of immense importance for women empowerment as it attempts to create awareness among the people on the issue.
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    Obama's asia pivot policy : Implications for south asia
    (Central University of Punjab, 2014) Ramzan, Hilal; Kaushiki, Nishtha
    One of the hallmarks of US President Barrack Obama's foreign policy is the 'pivot to Asia'. This policy is aimed at rebalancing US defence policies towards Asia. The Obama administration has rearticulated its policy away from the Middle East toward the Asia-Pacific. The focus of this research is on the strategic aspect of the policy. Under this rebalancing strategy, Washington, aims to increase its naval presence from the current 50/50 split between Atlantic and Asia-pacific to 40/60 respectively by 2020. Further, the geographical scope of the Asia-Pacific has been defined as 'stretching from the Indian subcontinent to the western shores of the America's, the region spans two oceans, the Pacific and the Indian oceans that are increasingly linked by shipping and strategy. As India has been termed as a 'linchpin' of this policy; it is going to be more affected. This research is a humble attempt to analyze the consequences of the Pivot on South Asian countries, with special focus on India. The first section of the dissertation discusses the rise of China and US's relative decline in order to explain the background of the pivot. It then moves on to discuss the changing geopolitical shifts in the Asian balance of power. This part sets to explain how the US and Chinese competing interests have changed the security architecture of Asia and how South Asian countries, particularly India is going to deal with it. Finally, the study would attempt to recommend some measures that India could adopt and benefit from the geopolitical opportunity from the emerging competition between US and China.
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    Democratic transformation in south asia: Emerging trends
    (Central University of Punjab, 2014) Gulam, Mudasir; Singh, Bawa
    The South Asian region has experienced authoritarian and autocratic rule since its inception. India is the only country in South Asia to become a successful democratic country after independence. Sri Lanka has also adopted the similar model with presidential type of government. While the other countries of the region like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan have experienced ups and downs in their political systems. Pakistan after attaining its independence witnessed a rapid erosion of hopes to move the new nation to a democracy. The general elections held on 11 May, 2013 in Pakistan brought the first transition between civilian governments in a country which clearly shows the transformation of democracy in the country. Bangladesh came into existence in 1971 and since then many pro- democracy movements were observed in the country. These movements led to the multi- party democracy since 1991 till late 2006. It is evident that after 2009 the country has moved towards marginal political stability in its political affairs. Nepal, a kingdom, had monarchy which kept on flip-flopping between absolute and constitutional monarchy and vice-versa for many years. Democratic regimes proved to be short lived and unstable. The Nepalese movement in 2007 created a history in the country and moved ahead towards the consolidation of the democracy and General Election 2008 was the first step towards democratic transition. This way the Constitutional Republic was adopted in Nepal with the v collapse of monarchy rule. Bhutan has transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a multi-party democracy. The growth of Bhutanese democracy has been marked since 1950s. The first democratic elections in Bhutan began in 2007, and all levels of government had been democratically elected by 2011. All this explains the transformation from an absolute monarchy to democracy in the Kingdom of Bhutan. It is now clear that the South Asian region has experienced a democratic resurgence in the recent past. All the South Asian countries now have a democratic system but this transition to democracy is still fragile and susceptible.
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    China-pakistan strategic relationship : Implication for south asia
    (Central University of Punjab, 2014) Naiko, Ghulam Mohiudin; Kaushiki, Nishtha
    Strategic relations between the two countries were established in 1972. Ever since then the two countries have given to each other the much required political and diplomatic support on various issues like, Kashmir, Tibet, Taiwan and Xinjiang, etc. In this study, an attempt has been made to first analyse the rationale behind the Sino-Pak relationship. How and why India is a major factor in their bilateral relations has been probed into. The study discusses the scope of their strategic relationship. The next section of this research includes the implications of their strategic relations on South Asia and particular emphasis has been placed on India. It has been analysed how strategic relation between the countries work for tying down India to South Asia?. The second part of the dissertation has dealt with the recent geopolitical shifts in the region that have further cemented their bilateral relationship, such as Indo-US nuclear deal and a ten year defense pact; Asia pivot etc. It has brought to surface the shifting Asian balance of power and how the Sino-Pak strategic relations affect India. Finally, the study is an attempt to recommend some policy measures for India that it can adopt for neutralising the affects of their strategic partnership on its foreign policy and larger strategic goals.