Forcing Languages on People Doesn’t Lead to Good Things
Dear Reader,
Hope you are doing well. This week’s edition focuses on Sri Lanka’s reaction to the Russia-Ukraine War, the importance of linguistic pluralism, and the future of the Quad.
Sri Lanka & the Russia-Ukraine War
Due to its long-standing political, economic and military ties with Russia, Sri Lanka has maintained neutrality throughout the Ukraine crisis. However, it has also given political space for Ukrainians in Sri Lanka to protest the Russian invasion and has sought to reassure overstaying tourists of their safety.
Nonetheless, the Russian invasion of Ukraine occurred at a particularly testing time for Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan economy, already facing a looming balance of payment crisis since 2020, suffered heavily. The war disrupted Sri Lanka’s tea exports due to Western sanctions on Russia while also halting recovery in the tourism sector. Ultimately, rising fuel and food inflation became a significant factor in undermining the government’s legitimacy and led to massive economic and political instability in the country.
A new research note by Shrey Khanna explores what the Russia Ukraine conflict means for Sri Lanka.
Forcing Languages on People Doesn’t Lead to Good Things
In his column in The Mint, Nitin Pai writes about how India’s linguistic pluralism has enabled it to do better than all of its neighbours. One by one, Nitin highlights how policies of linguistic hegemony have failed in each of India’s neighbours, from Pakistan to Myanmar. Arguing that Indians should stop insisting on repeating the mistakes our neighbours made, Nitin argues:
Each of India’s neighbours has either come to grief or limited its potential because of the fixation with a single national language. India, with its much greater diversity, has done better than all of them. Not because we don’t have the same pressures, but because we have arrived at better compromises than they have. For that reason, we should not allow chauvinists and maximalists to destroy the linguistic pluralism that this nation has achieved. Pluralism is the magic formula that the others missed.
We would do well to heed the warning that the history of our neighbourhood offers us: Don’t mess with language. For doing so leads to disaster. Gradually, then suddenly.
Using “National Security” to Undermine Democracy
Writing in ThePrint about Manish Tewari’s new book, 10 Flashpoints 20 years: National Security Situations That Impacted India, Lt. Gen. Prakash Menon underlines how information is regularly denied to the Parliament by citing national security reasons. Gen. Menon argues that this undermines Indian democracy.
Most questions pertaining to China’s actions on the northern borders have remained unanswered. If secrecy was the issue, then nothing prevents the government from providing a classified briefing to the leaders of opposition parties. Denial of such information to parliamentarians must be viewed as an act of undemocratic centralisation of power. A phenomenon that characterises authoritarianism.
Such denial of information diminishes our political democracy that is one of the four pillars of India’s national power. The others are domestic economic growth, social inclusion and a broadly liberal constitutional order. Nourishing these foundations is a strategic imperative of a high order. In practice, over some time, there has been a steady regression in transparency, which is the lifeblood of a strong democracy. The Standing Committees of Parliament appear to be having progressively shrinking ability to monitor and correct the transgressions of the executive. Even their recommendations are often met with inaction by the ministries concerned. The executive acts mostly when it perceives benefits in a narrow silo.
Future of the Quad
Since the 2017 relaunch of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), it has been popular in the discourse on Indo-Pacific in India. In the May 10 episode of All Things Policy, Megha Pardhi spoke to Dr. Brendon Cannon on various aspects of Quad in the Indo-Pacific and the future of Quad.
Dr. Brendon J. Cannon earned a Ph.D. in Political Science with an emphasis on International Relations at the University of Utah, USA (2009). His research interests include contextualizing domestic, regional, and international relations in eastern Africa, regional security in the Gulf and western Indian Ocean region, the political economy of ports, bases, and airports, as well as the Indo-Pacific strategy of India, Japan, the US, and Australia as well as China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as they relate to and are operationalized in Eastern Africa. He is the author of multiple articles and books on the Indo-Pacific.
Licence Raj in India
Earlier this year, we conducted a 3-part interview with Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, on the economic reforms of 1991.
The following video is a snippet from the conversation. Mr. Ahluwalia gives an overview of the global economic situation in the 1970s-80s and talks about the Licence-Permit raj in India. The Licence Raj or Permit Raj refers to the system of licences and regulations that hindered the setting up and running of businesses in India.
We will soon be releasing more such insightful snippets. Subscribe to our YouTube channel so that you don’t miss them!
China-Solomon Islands Security Deal
China and the Solomon Islands signed a security pact on 19th April 2022, which will allow the latter to request police or military personnel from China to maintain social order or help with disaster relief. Similarly, China may be able to place military equipment and personnel stations on the Islands.
In a new Takshashila Unredacted note, Megha Pardhi has summarized the pact and its implications.
What We Have Been Reading
This week’s book is The Comrades And The Mullahs: China, Afghanistan and the New Asian Geopolitics. Recommending it, Megha Pardhi says:
The Comrades and The Mullahs: China, Afghanistan, and the New Asian Geopolitics by Ananth Krishnan and Stanly Johnny, aims to investigate emerging equations after the fall of Ashraf Ghani’s government. The book unfolds the tragedy of Afghanistan and its implications for the geopolitics of Asia. What makes ‘Comrades and Mullahs’ different is that this book is not another dry political assessment of how China is encroaching on Afghanistan and how the US has failed. This book also highlights the tragedy of Afghanistan, its people, and its ill-fated geography. As the authors have noted, “beyond all the debates and discussions about geopolitical games, the ability of the regime of the day to stabilize the country is what ultimately matters above all else.”
That’s it from us this week. Take care and stay safe!