NCERT Book Class 12 Political Science (Contemporary World Politics) Chapter 3 Contemporary South Asia

Chapter 3
Contemporary South Asia

Overview
Let us shift our gaze from the larger
global developments in the post-
Cold War era to developments in
our own region, South Asia. When
India and Pakistan joined the club
of nuclear powers, this region
suddenly became the focus of global
attention. The focus was, of course,
on the various kinds of conflict
in this region: there are pending
border and water sharing disputes
between the states of the region.
Besides, there are conflicts arising
out of insurgency, ethnic strife and
resource sharing. This makes the
region very turbulent. At the same
time, many people in South Asia
recognise the fact that this region
can develop and prosper if the
states of the region cooperate with
each other. In this chapter, we try
to understand the nature of conflict
and cooperation among different
countries of the region. Since much
of this is rooted in or conditioned
by the domestic politics of these
countries, we first introduce the
region and the domestic politics Source: Subhas Rai’s adaptation of ‘Liberty Leading the People’,
of some of the big countries in the painted by Eugene Delacroix in 1830. Courtesy of Himal Southasian,
region. (January 2007) The Southasia Trust, Nepal

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