The trouble with India......

The terrorist attacks on Mumbai's railway network have once again brought India's internal problems to the fore. India has the image of a large, stable, mostly peaceful country, partly because of the atrocious conditions in neighbouring countries Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Tibet. But a quick glance over recent events in India will confirm that this is hardly the case.

Last week, Kashmiri terrorists cashed in on burgeoning tourism in their state by launching a grenade attack on tourist vehicles, killing eight people. Earlier, a gathering at a sufi shrine outside of Srinagar was attacked, with the intended victim possibly a politician. In fact, there have been plenty of terrorist attacks in Kashmir particularly since the earthquake made border crossings less dangerous. The "ceasefire" after the Kargil crisis in 2003 had only a limited impact on de-escalating violence. Even the bus service linking Srinagar with Muzzafarabad to enable Kashmiri families to re-unite after decades has been targeted.

The Maoist rebellion is gaining momentum in central India. The train hijacking in the Latehar region in Jharkhand and the prison break staged in Jehanabad in Bihar are examples of the increasing menace these terrorists pose to India. In recent times, their attacks have become more daring, violent, frequent and widespread, causing much concern amongst the State Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhatisgharh and Bihar, the states worst affected by Maoist insurgency. It would be cynical of me, but not entirely unwarranted, to suggest that the targeting of politicians and policemen has made the government take this threat more seriously. The Maoists seem to have finally gotten beyond their initial policies of killing defenceless traffic police and government employees (of any description, usually 'paper-pushers' and other weak targets). They still kill helpless villagers to instill fear in the populace, and still take whatever they can from the land, forcing thousands of poor farmers into further debt. The epidemic of farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh is not all due to drought and government indifference, though that is certainly a factor.

The far east of India is another region of massive discontent and simmering anger. Assam is continually rocked by attacks on State targets by ULFA (united liberation front assam) and other seperatist organizations. To add further misery to the situation, there has been increased aggression against Bengali Muslims, many of them refugees from Bangladesh, in a overwhelmingly Hindu-majority state. The Nagas, almost entirely converted to Christianity by European missionaries, are demanding a fully independent Christian country in their ancient tribal lands. Ethnic minorities in Nagaland have long faced intense discrimination at the hands of the Nagas. Manipur has at least ten or fifteen seperatist groups controlling parts of the state. The official State government has only a ceremonial role in administration; Manipur is basically run by these various terrorist organizations as they please. Arunachal Pradesh, which the Chinese claim is being "illegally occupied" by India, is another state in the grip of seperatist rebellion. It is now the only site of Sino-Indian border disputes, now that Sikkim has been officially recognized by China, and invaded parts of Ladakh have been ceded to China by India.

Perhaps the most shocking event in India in the last few years was the assault on the Indian parliament in December 2001. Security cannot be expected to be tight on the rail network, in remote villages and in mountainous areas, but surely in the heart of the Indian capital, in the surroundings of the Parlaiment, one would expect greater vigilance.

Even limiting myself to the last few years, it would take me days to get through all the examples of instability in India. I haven't even mentioned the communal violence in Gujrat, the Delhi bombings and the attack on the Sankata Mochan temple in Varanasi. So you can see that the image of India as being largely safe and stable is somewhat exagerrated. So far, India has been held together, giving a semblance of unity. But I do wonder.... Is India on the brink of collapse?? Or am I just too pessimistic at times???