Class 12 Political Science Chapter 3 Contemporary South Asia Short Notes

1. Social dominance of the military, clergy, and landowning aristocracy, leading to the frequent overthrow of elected governments.

2. The conflict with India has made the pro-military groups more powerful; they argue that the army’s stay in power is justified.

3. Lack of genuine international support for democratic rule.

4. The United States and other Western countries encouraged the military’s authoritarian rule for their own reasons: fear of ‘global Islamic terrorism’ and of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal falling into terrorist hands made the military regime look like the protector of Western interests.

On the other side: a courageous and relatively free press, a strong human rights movement, and a pro-democracy movement that General Zia faced from 1982 onwards.

1. Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan from 1947 to 1971, made of the partitioned areas of Bengal and Assam.

2. Resentment at the domination of western Pakistan and the imposition of Urdu; protests for Bengali culture and language, fair representation and a fair share in political power.

3. Sheikh Mujib-ur Rahman led the struggle and demanded autonomy for the eastern region.

4. In the 1970 elections the Awami League won all the seats in East Pakistan and a majority in the proposed constituent assembly.

5. The West Pakistani leadership refused to convene the assembly; Sheikh Mujib was arrested.

6. Yahya Khan’s army tried to suppress the movement; thousands were killed; large scale migration into India created a huge refugee problem.

7. India supported the demand financially and militarily; the December 1971 war ended in the surrender of the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan and the formation of Bangladesh.

Nepal and Bhutan over the migration of ethnic Nepalese into Bhutan; Bangladesh and Myanmar over the Rohingyas; Bangladesh and Nepal over the future of the Himalayan river waters.

Seven countries in this chapter’s South Asia. 1985 SAARC. 2004 SAFTA signed, 1 January 2006 in effect. 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, with the help of the World Bank. 1968 the Maldives becomes a republic. 2008 both Bhutan’s constitutional monarchy and Nepal’s republic. 1983 the LTTE’s armed struggle begins, 2009 it is vanquished. 1989 the IPKF pulls out. 1998 India tests at Pokhran, Pakistan in the Chagai Hills.

People: Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Zia-ul-Haq, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan); Sheikh Mujib-ur Rahman, Ziaur Rahman, H. M. Ershad, Noor Hossain (Bangladesh). Noor Hossain is remembered by a mural in Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, with “Let Democracy be Freed” painted on his back.

Parties: Pakistan People’s Party and Muslim League (Pakistan); Awami League and Bangladesh National Party (Bangladesh); Maldivian Democratic Party (the Maldives); Seven Party Alliance (Nepal).

From the Human Development Report 2018 table: Sri Lanka has the region’s best figures in the chapter’s table, with an adult literacy rate of 91.2 per cent, an infant mortality rate of 8.0 per 1,000 live births and an HDI rank of 76; Pakistan’s infant mortality rate is 64.2 and its HDI rank 150.

From the SDSA survey: more than 19,000 ordinary citizens interviewed in the five big countries of South Asia, reported in State of Democracy in South Asia (Oxford University Press, 2007).

Whether South Asia will continue to be known as a conflict prone zone or will evolve into a
regional bloc with some common cultural features and trade interests will depend more on the
people and the governments of the region than any other outside power.