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By Sanjay Kumar
How long will South Asia be a prisoner of politics? And how long willpolitics will be a barrier to regional economic cooperation? These were the questions asked and debated at a recent conference in New Delhi I attended entitled “Transforming South Asia: Imperatives for Action.”
Organized by the Indian Council of World Affairs and Association of Asia Scholars, the two-day conference brought together scholars and academics from all the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations.
The agenda didn’t focus on how to resolve political disputes or reduce political tensions, but rather on how to bypass politics altogether and embrace economics to demolish the invisible wall that keeps the region’s countries aloof from each other. There was general agreement that the time has come for South Asia to rise above the mutual suspicion that has marked politics in the region, and engage with each other to claim the same space inthe global economy South Asia enjoyed before the advent of colonization. According to one estimate, the subcontinent made up two thirds of global GDP during the 18th century, compared with just 6 percent to 7 percent now.
Read the full story at The Diplomat