area studies vol.2(1), 2008

Editorial

1. Influence of Ramayana in Indonesian ArtV. Suryanarayan

2. Social Anthropology and Area StudiesSwatahsiddha Sarkar

3. Sino-Indian Economic Relations: Competitionand PartnershipGautam Murthy

4. Geo-Strategic Significance of the Indian Ocean:A Perspective of Indian Foreign PolicyRaj Kumar Kothari

5. Israel’s Counter Terrorism Strategies - ARetrospectT. V. Gopala Chari

6 . Tourism’s Role in Southeast Asian EconomiesM. Prayaga & G. Vijay Kumar Reddy

Profile of an Area Study Centre

AREA STUDIESA Journal of International Studies and Analyses

Volume 2 Number 1 January – June 2008

CONTENTS

3

4

15

37

52

75

101

131

Editor

K. RAJA REDDY

The Editor invites original articles on various aspects

of international affairs. Manuscripts should be double

spaced and submitted by way of soft and hard copies.

Notes should be numbered consecutively, super scribed

in the text and attached at the end of the article. Figures

and Tables should be presented on separate sheets.

Commentaries, book reviews and responses to articles

are invited.

Address for contributors and correspondence:

The DirectorCentre for Southeast Asian & Pacific Studies

Sri Venkateswara University,Tirupati – 517 502

Andhra Pradesh, [email protected]

Technical Assistance: M. Prayaga, Assistant Professor

Editorial

At the outset, I feel morally obliged to acknowledge withdeep gratitude the receipt of the sanction of the financialassistance from the University Grants Commission whichenables our Centre to aim with redoubled energies, at continuingthis journal, the very first of its kind in India.

Coming to the details of this issue, six erudite and highlyinformative articles focusing on various aspects of several areasevidently form the contents of this issue. The article on theimmense vogue enjoyed by Ramayana in Indonesia depictsRamayana as an integral part of Indonesian life and art as muchas it is in India. Another article throws light on the importanceof Social Anthropology by virtue of its affinities with and itsconsiderable role in the Area Studies. Yet another article onthe Sino-Indian Economic relations describes in detail, theburgeoning trade between India and China that led to economicpartnership between the two nations. The article on IndianOcean lays due emphasis on its geo-strategic significance toIndia. A paper on Israel’s counter terrorism, having describedthe strategies adopted by Israel, endorses and advocates themas effective ones in containing terrorism. The article on therole of Tourism in Southeast Asia provides fairly detailedinformation about tourism industry and credits it with thefulfillment of two-fold aims of providing jobs to manySoutheast Asians, and earning lucrative revenues for therespective countries. The contributors, to repeat, areresponsible for the individual views, expressed in their articles.

In fine, a profile of the Centre for SAARC Studies locatedat the Andhra University in Vasakhapatnam, figures as an itemunder regular feature in this issue.

Editor

4 Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

* Prof. V. Suryanarayan, Former Director, Centre for South andSoutheast Asian Studies, University of Madras, Chennai.

1

Influence of Ramayana in Indonesian Art

V. SURYANARAYAN*

In a dim distant unrecorded agewe had met, thou and Iwhen my speech became tangled in thineand my life in thy life ...

From the heavens spoke to me two mighty voicesthe one that sung of Rama’s glory of sorrowand the other Arjuna’s triumphant armurging me to bear along the wavesthis epic lines to the eastern islands;and the heart of my land murmured to me its hopethat it might build its nest of lovein a far away land of its dream.

Rabindranath Tagore,To Java, August 21, 1927

The spread of India’s cultural influence is a fascinatingchapter in the history of Southeast Asia. Even a casual visitoris struck by the deep and abiding influence India has left notonly in the field of religion, polity, art and literature, but evenin day-to-day life of the people there. Indianised kingdomslike Funan, Sri Kshetra, Pagan, Khmer, Sri Vijaya, Sailendra.and Majapahit, the familiar Indo-Sanskritic vocabulary in Thaiand Bahasa Indonesia, the architectural monuments likeAngkor, Pagan, Borobudur and Lara Djonggrong, the literarymasterpieces like Ramkien, Amaramala; Arjuna Vivaha andBharata Yuddha; the Wajang Kulit based on the Ramayanaand Mahabharata themes; the living Indian traditions in the

5Influence of Ramayana in Indonesian Art

island of Bali - all these bear testimony to the courage andzeal of Indian princes, priests, poets, merchants and artisansand to the accommodative and assimilating qualities of thepeoples of Southeast Asian countries. The greatest ofIndonesian nationalist leaders, President Sukarno, wrote in aspecial article in The Hindu on 4 January 1946:

In the veins of every one of my people flows the blood ofIndian ancestors and the culture that we possess is steepedthrough and through with Indian influences. Two thousandyears ago, people from your country came to Jawadvipa andSuvarnadvipa in the spirit of brotherly love. They gave theinitiatives to found powerful kingdoms such as those of SriVijaya, Mataram, and Majapahit. We then learnt to worshipthe very Gods that you now worship still and we fashioned aculture that even today is largely identical with your own. Laterwe turned to Islam; but that religion too was brought by peoplecoming from both sides of the Indus.

Ramayana is not only the epic of India, bu also the nationalepic of Indonesia. It had been a perennial source of inspirationin the past and continues to exercise its charm and fascinationeven today. The simple story of Rama and Sita has been toldand retold a million times in innumerable ways in differentparts of the archipelago. No doubt, in the process of diffusionand transplantation, the Ramakatha has undergone variationsand adaptations. The immense vitality of the Ramayanatradition in Indonesia is a proof, if a proof is necessary, to theaptness of Brahma’s assurance to Valmiki: “And O Great Sage,so long as the mountains stand and rivers flow, so long willthis story of Rama’s heroic deeds be told and cherished onearth”. As a former Indian Ambassador to Indonesia, K.M.Kannampilly, has written: “For over fourteen centuries now,the Ramayana has continued to be a living force among thepeople of Southeast Asia influencing their hearts and thoughts,inspiring their artistic creations and forming the mainspringof their cultural life. To them the hero and heroine of theRamayana have always been models of chivalry, nobility and


faithfulness, characters of great spiritual beauty”.Even in the world of scholarship relating to Ramayana

tradition, Indonesia has played a pioneering role. The Ministryof Information and Culture organized the First InternationalRamayana Festival in Jakarta in August-September 1971.Scholars and artists from India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Burma,Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos andCambodia participated in this unique seminar, whose objectivewas to promote “deeper cultural understanding among nations”.Four years later, in 1975, New Delhi picked up the threadsand on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Tulsidas’sRamcharitamanas, the Sahitya Akademi convened aninternational seminar on “Asian Variations in Ramayana” inJanuary 1981. These and subsequent seminars and publishedproceedings are significant milestones in our understandingof the splendidly multifaceted Ramayana heritage.

Vitality of RamayanaIn the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Prof. A. A.

Macdonnel has written: “Perhaps no work of world literature,secular in origin, has ever produced so profound an influenceon the life and thought of a people as the Ramayana”. Thewell known journalist, N.S. Jagannathan suggests a trivial, butsignificant, example. The Chennai telephone directory containsover 21,000 entries of Rama and its variations like Raman,Ramaswamy and Rarnachandran. This does not includeRaghava and its variations. Then you have variations of Sita,Janaki etc. Literary manifestations of Ramayana are legion.As Tulsidas has said, Ramakatha kai miti jaga nahi - It isimpossible to keep count of the Ramakathas of the world.

Prof. Romila Thapar has given an interesting explanationfor the prevalence of many Ramayanas. According to Prof.Romila Thapar, “The Ramayana does not belong to any onemoment in history, for it has its own history, which liesembedded in the many versions which were woven around thetheme at different times and places”. Not only do diverse


Ramayanas exist but each Ramayana text reflects the geniusof the people and the place where they lived. Here, it may notbe out of place to quote a story which A.K. Ramanujan haswritten: One day, when Rama was sitting on the throne, hisring fell down. When it touched the earth, it made a hole anddisappeared into it. Rama asked Hanuman, his trusted disciple,to find the ring. Hanuman immediately transformed himselfinto a tiny creature, went down the hole and entered thenetherworld. The women in the netherworld caught him andtook him to their king. All the while Hanuman was repeatingthe name of Rama. The King, having learnt that it wasHanuman, asked him as to what made him enter thenetherworld. Hanuman answered that since Rama’s ring fellinto a hole he wanted to take it back to Rama. The King thenordered for a platter to be brought in which, there werethousands of rings. The King asked Hanuman to pick upRama’s ring. All of them looked alike. Hanuman looked atthe platter and pleaded his inability to identify Rama’s ring.The King then told Hanuman: “There have been as manyRamas as there are rings in this platter. When you go to earth,you will not find Rama. The incarnation of Rama is now over.Whenever the life span comes to an end, the ring falls downand I collect it and keep it. Now you can go”. So Hanumanleft. Ramanujan tells this story to drive home the point thatfor every such Rama, there is a Ramayana. The number ofRamayanas and the range of their influence in India andSoutheast Asia are astonishing. Naturally, these Ramayanasdiffer from one another.

I am tempted to refer to two versions of Ramayana. InAdyatma Ramayana, a later day Ramayana composed in the16th century, there is an interesting story. When Rama is exiledto the forest, he does not want Sita to accompany him to theforest. Sita argues with him. At first, she uses the usualargument in the capacity of his wife, she should share thehusband’s sorrow and suffering, and thus she too should be inexile, along with her husband. When Rama still resists the


idea, Sita becomes furious and bursts into tears. CountlessRamayanas have been composed before this. According to oneRamayana Sita does not go with Rama to the forest.

Many writers have reconstructed the story of Ramayanaand some of them are really moving and appealing. The Tamilwriter, Puthumai Piththan, has written an absorbing and amoving short story, Shapa Vimochanam (Release from thecurse). The story is in the form of a conversation betweenSita, who has been exiled, and living in Valmiki’s hermitageand Ahalya, years after her emancipation. They discuss theethics of Rama’s conduct, While Ahalya begins berating Rama,Sita starts defending him. The story ends with Ahalya’sstatement as her eyes start blazing: “I do not want the lifegiven to me by a man of this kind” and expresses her will thatshe should turn back into a stone.

Ramayana in IndonesiaRamayana and other Indian epics spread in Indonesia

alongside the Brahmin priests, merchants, kshatriyas, artisansand the poets. An Indonesian inscription in Sanskrit refers toRaghava in AD 732, while the old Javanese inscriptions referto Ravana (AD 824), Lanka (AD 862), Bharata (AD 879),Rama (AD 880), Ramayana (AD 907), Sita (AD 910), Vali(AD 928) and Lakshmana (AD 928). The earliest writtenversion of Ramayana was Ramayana Kakawain by Yogiswarain the 10th century. With the passage of time, numerous otherversions appeared. According to one scholar, there are nearly1200 versions of Ramayana in East Java alone. One of theJavanese versions, the Serat Kanda, begins with an accountof Adam in Mecca and ends with a description of the cremationof Rama and Sita.

How does one account for the dynamic vitality of theRamayana tradition in Indonesia? Does it not conflict withthe tenets of Islam, the religion which 95 per cent of theIndonesians adhere to?

The explanation is to be sought in the Indonesian attitude


towards life. The Indonesian mind believes in synthesis and isaccustomed to an intermingling of diverse and apparentlycontradictory elements. The average Indonesian finds nodichotomy in his moral obligations as a Moslem and hiscontinued acceptance of the older Hindu and animist practices.As the well known authority on Indonesia, Prof. J.D. Legge,has written, “The propitiation of spirits, the observance ofcustomary rituals surrounding the main stages of life, the resortto magical practices in curing illness may all be accepted bythe same person, who is ready to observe the Moslem law inmarriage, to accept the Moslem ritual of circumcision, or tofollow the daily pattern of prayer, the weekly communityworship and the annual month of fasting”.

The first great religion to arrive in Indonesia was Hinduismand it was followed by the Mahayana form of Buddhism.Before the Hindus arrived, the people of the islands wereanimists. The new religions did not vye with each other formustering people’s support but on the other hand, they gotblended with the native animism and thus assumed new shapes.Accordingly, Siva merged with the Buddha and the SivaBuddha cult came into existence. In many parts of Indonesia,the Banyan tree is still considered as sacred and is never cutdown. Similarly, at the time of harvest, each stalk of paddyhas to be cut in a different fashion and also as quietly aspossible, to avoid disturbing Devi Sri, the guardian spirit offertility. The belief in magic is common and the Kris, the shortceremonial dagger, is endowed with magical powers and isworshipped every day.

Islam came to Indonesia in the 16th century and beganspreading throughout the archipelago in the course of the nextthree hundred years. It was brought by the merchants ofGujarat, Kerala and the Coromandel Coast and had alreadyundergone changes in the direction of mysticism whichfacilitated its adoption and adaptation in Indonesian setting.As a distinguished Sociologist Clifford Geertz has observed:“Indonesian Islam, cut off from its centres of orthodoxy in


Mecca and Cairo, vegetated, another meandering tropicalgrowth on an already overcrowded religious landscape.Buddhist mystic practices got Arabic names, Hindu Rajassuffered a change of title to become Moslem Sultans, and thecommon people called some of their wood spirits Jinns; butlittle else changed”.

However, it must be pointed out that the impact of Islamwas felt in different ways in different strata of society. As theisolation of Islam broke down with the establishment of contactwith centres of Islamic orthodoxy in the Middle East, newgroups began to emerge and occasional tensions arose betweenthe “more faithful” and the “less faithful”. Broadly, thesegroups could be divided into three categories: 1) The Santri,the devout Moslems, who consider themselves as the truefollowers of Islam, mainly belong to the trading community;2) The Abangan, the nominal Moslems, who in their dailylives, lay greater stress on the animistic aspects of Indonesiansyncretic religion, belong mainly to the peasant masses and 3)The Prijaji, who stress the Hindu aspects and belong to thearistocracy in the towns. Numerically, it is the Abangan, whodominates the Indonesian scene and has added colour andrichness to the religious landscape. They patronize the WajangKulit, while the Prijaji folks are responsible for the enrichmentof the more refined dance-drama traditions.

Wajang KulitThe Ramayana, along with Mahabharata, provides the base

and has contributed to the efflorescence of Wajang Kulit (theshadow or leather puppet theatre), known throughoutIndonesia, especially in Central and Eastern Java. The Wajangis not merely a form of popular entertainment but aninseparable part of Indonesian life and reflects the social orderwith all its complexities. Both physical and moral attributesare identified with different characters and in the final analysis,the Wajang represents the triumph of virtue over evil. Eventhe orthodox Moslem Ulemahs, could not deny its complelling


appeal and came to terms with it by declaring that Wajang wasthe invention of no less a person than Sunan Kalijaga, anhonoured Islamic saint. Though the main themes are derivedfrom Indian epics, the local genius has introduced manyadditions, deletions and interpolations in the stories. In theprocess, the influence of Wajang has not decreased, butcontinues to be ever growing.

The stories can be divided into three groups - 1) CaritaPokok - Pokok means the trunk of a tree. The stories, therefore,are made to revolve around the main characters of Ramayanalike Rama, Sita, Hanuman etc. 2) Carita Carang Dinapur -Carang means branch, which implies that the stories centreround the secondary characters like Vibhishana, Bali etc and3) Carita Carangan - Carangan means a twig. In other words,the stories are far removed from the main theme and are merefigments of the poet’s imagination. The Wajang season beginsafter the harvest and extends to the beginning of the rainyseason. The manipulation of the puppet’s movements, thecontrol of the orchestra, and the delivery of the dialogue - allare done by the Dalang, who is “at once the composer,improviser, producer, orator, singer, choir master, dance masterand stage manager”. A good Dalang identifies himselfcompletely with the characters and is able to communicatethe nobility of the story to the audience. Keeping within thebounds of Ramayana, the Dalang varies the mode ofpresentation to suit the audience and mixes the narration withsome earthly wit and humour. So important is Dalang’s role,that the Indonesian classic Navaruci attributes divine qualitiesto him. To quote the relevant passage, “We are just like theWajang puppets, all our movements are brought out by thedalang, the world is the stage”. The Wajang Kulit performanceis accompanied by a Gamelan orchestra. The performancegenerally lasts throughout the night, although in urban areasnowadays it is generally reduced to three or four hours. A Malayscholar on Ramayana has testified to the fact that a goodDalang “can still draw a larger audience than a local open air


cinema showing the best in Hollywood Coca Cola culture”.

Ramayana in PrambananThe very first rendering of Ramayana in Indonesia

appeared in Central Java in the language of the stone. It wassculptured into the balustrades of two temples, Chandi Sivaand Chandi Brahma. They stand in the courtyard of a complexof temples, known locally as Lara Jonggrang. In ChandiVishnu, the last of the three temples, there are reliefs, whichtell the story of Krishna, another incarnation of Vishnu.

The village of Prambanan has lent its name to thissprawling group of Hindu temples. According to LokeshChandra, Prambanan is derived from param brahma oruniversal soul. Lara Jonggrang means “slender maiden”, thedaughter of Ratu Baka, the king, who was killed by her suitor,a sorcerer’s son. The town nearest to the temple is calledYogyakarta, which in old Javanese language is equivalent toAyodhya, the legendary birth place of Rama.

In Lara Jonggrang, we have a complete pictorialrepresentation of Ramayana, from Balakanda to Uttarakanda.Perhaps there is no sculptural depiction of the epic elsewherein the world during this period, from mid-ninth to mid-tenthcenturies. Thanks to the pioneering work done by Indonesianand Dutch archaeologists, the temples have been restored totheir original splendour. There is controversy as to who builtthem, when they were built and for what purpose. It is possiblethat the construction of these Hindu temples was undertakenin a sort of competition with the Mahayana Buddhist monumentof Borobudur. However, it is obvious that the co-existence ofSaivism and Tantrayana Buddhism was the order of the day.

The Ramayana in Prambanan opens with a magnificentrelief depicting Vishnu reposing on the coils of the serpentAnanta, afloat on the cosmic ocean. The scene is arepresentation of the Gods approaching Vishnu for help againstRavana. It is followed by sage Visvamithra’s visit to KingDasaratha’s court, the killing of Tataka by Lord Rama, Rama


defending the hermitage of Visvamitra against Maricha andSubahu, Rama winning the hand of Sita, Rama’s confrontationwith Parasurama, Kaikeyi’s demand that her son Bharata aloneshould be consecrated as Yuva Raja, Rama, Sita andLakshmana leaving for the forest, Bharata receiving Rama’ssandals, the cremation of Dasaratha, the killing of Viradha,the Shurpanakha episode, Rama killing Maricha, Ravana’sseizure of Sita, Jatayu’s valiant efforts to protect Sita, Jatayu.giving Sita’s ring to Rama, Rama killing Kabandha, Ramameeting Sabhari, Rama’s meeting with Hanuman, meeting withSugriva, Sugriva’s duel with Vali, the killing of Vali, Sugrivaregaining the throne, Hanuman’s search for Sita, Hanumanmeeting Sita, the burning of Lanka by Hanuman, return ofHanuman and meeting with Rama, the construction of the Sethuthe causeway and the arrival of Rama and the Vanaras in Lanka.The narration ends in Chandi Siva with the building of thebridge across the ocean.

The story continues in Chandi Brahma. It begins withVibhishana’s defection to Rama’s camp, Rama’s envoy Angadagoes to Ravana’s palace, monkeys on the march, preparationfor war, Indrajit attacks Rama and Lakshmana with Nagapasha,the battle between Rama and Ravana, the awakening ofKumbakarna, the death of Kumbakarna, queen Mandodari andSita being informed of Ravana’s death, Rama and Sita reunited,Rama enthroned in Ayodhya, scandalous gossip concerningSita, Lakshmana escorts Sita to the forest, Sita arrives inValmiki’s hermitage, Sita gives birth to Lava and Kusha, Ramameets his sons, Lava and Kusha sing the story of Rama, Valmikirecounts to Rama all that had happened, and finally a scene ofcelebration with sages feasting in a ceremonial banquet.

The three temples in Prambanan are held in greatveneration by local population. They are the best examples ofIndo-Javanese art and represent the apotheosis of Saivism inthe archipelago. The Indonesian Government, in recent years,has been sponsoring dance-drama performances in thebackdrop of these temples during June-October. During the


rule of the Majapahit dynasty, which represented the final phaseof Hindu hegemony in Java, scenes from the Ramayana,especially from the Yuddhakanda, were depicted in the templeat Panataran in East Java. Though the figures are stylized andsophisticated, they are not very natural and do not have theartistic excellence and visual appeal of those in Prambanan.

ConclusionOver the centuries, Ramayana has inspired and influenced

people in different parts of the world. Dr. V. Raghavan, thedistinguished authority on Ramayana, has remarked, “It is truemany stories and episodes have been added in different versionsof Ramayana, especially in Southeast Asia, and in some ofthem some of the major deviations from the central Ramayanaplot of Valmiki occur. But Rama is always the central figure,around whom all the other characters revolve and his storyillustrates the message of the triumph of good over evil”

This essay is partly based on my earlier writings.

15Social Anthropology and Area Studies

2

Social Anthropology and Area Studies

SWATAHSIDDHA SARKAR*

Evans-Pritchard had made an interesting observation thateven well-read laymen have noticed a good deal of hazinessin the discipline of social anthropology.1 In fact, one can comeacross great deal of vagueness, obscurity and misconceptionsin all disciplines, Area Studies being no exception. This neednot prevent anyone from thinking in terms of some kind ofrelationship or the other between any two disciplines like socialanthropology and area studies. Moreover, while anthropology,the study of mankind, considered in its widest science,approximates almost to a universal science today, socialanthropology, one of its many branches, deals with man as aherd animal, the questions of marriage, inheritance, intertribalrelations besides tribal cohesion, war, trade, religion and soforth. These facts and the fact that anthropology as a whole isbrought into close relation with history by migrations oftenresulting in the intermingling of the races and culture contactas well as other anthropological terms like ethnography andethnology, have inspired me to make this humble attempt atpostulating a kinship between social anthropology and areastudies on the basis of the origin, development, growth of thesubject matter, and the evolution of the methodologies of boththese disciplines.

The phrase ‘social anthropology’ has very recentlycome into use. The subject, however, has been taught underthe names of anthropology or ethnology, since 1884, 1900 and1908 at Oxford, Cambridge, and London, respectively, but thefirst university chair which bore the title of social anthropology

* Swatahsiddha Sarkar , Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Universityof North Bengal.


was the honorary professorship held by Sir James Frazerat Liverpool in 1908.

From 1940s onwards, the subject has been receiving widerrecognition and social anthropology is now taught under thatvery name in a number of universities in Great Britain and inthe Dominions.2 On the other hand, the stimulus to area studies,was meaningfully provided by the USA in the post- WorldWar II situation in which the US, having emerged as a majorpower had started playing its big brotherly role with thesocieties that lay beyond her normal sphere of national concern.Great Britain and other European powers followed suit andinfused their already existing institutions of Oriental Studieswith a primarily geo-political interest in Area Studies.3

Anthropology etymologically means science (‘logos’) ofman (‘anthropos’) and has three distinct sub-branches viz.,physical anthropology (that studies physical aspects of man),palaeontology / palaeo anthropology (that swots up the fossilman) and cultural or social anthropology (that deals withhuman beings in the context of social and cultural milieu).Since its beginning, the discipline of anthropology in general,denoted all these three specialised fields (viz. physical, palaeo,and social-cultural) of research, teaching, training, and evencareer on a common platform (called anthropology), unlessthey needed to be specified and earmarked separately. Thus, itneeds to be made clear at the outset, that whenever the termanthropology is used in the present paper, it is intended tomean the social or cultural anthropology and not the otherspecialised branches of the discipline. Area studies programmeon the other hand, is not the sub-branch of any other discipline.Almost all the branches of social sciences have, in a certainsense, produced a vast array of concepts, theories, or freshinterpretations regarding one specific area or many. Perhapsthe uniqueness of the area studies programme lies in the factthat it includes all the research activities in the social sciencesand humanities, given that a great deal of such research worksdeals with real people in their humane context. Thus, by ‘area


studies programs’, we mean those programs which had attainedmaturity during the main period of the historical decolonization(the 1950s and 1960s) and then provided the framework forthe U.S. studies of non-European cultures. The Committee onWorld Area Research of the Social Science Research Councilduring 1950s, pointed out the most desirable features of thearea study programmes in the US, like: i) an intensive languageinstruction, including the control of teaching by a linguisticscientist and a specific descriptive analysis of the language inquestion; ii) joint seminars, with a participation of more thanone faculty member; iii) group research; iv) combined studyin humanities and social sciences; v) availability of specialisedmaterials including news papers, official records, maps andother sources; vi) provision for the participation of foreignstudents and faculty members.4

Social anthropology studies social behaviour generally ininstitutionalized forms such as the family, kinship system,political institutions5; and it studies them in simple societiesor historic societies.6 John Beattie has provided a very succinctand relevant view point in this regard that the study of ‘otherculture’ is of elemental interest for the social anthropoligists7.Social anthropology studies societies as a whole i.e. it studiestheir ecologies, their economies, their legal and politicalinstitutions, their family and kinship organizations, theirreligions, their technologies, their arts, etc. as parts of generalsocial systems. Those who are engaged in area studies, needto have an intense concern about the relevance of their workin terms of generating practical policy perspectives for thenation state concerned. Moreover, Area Studies work when itis funded, generally aims at explaining the practical issues ofconcern like the actual happenings or the lessons to be drawnin the course of inquiry but certainly not the wild conjecturesconcerning the events in the state of being imminent. In otherwords, area studies envisages a social scientific investigationwith the overall aim of knowing one’s enemy, friends andneighbours in the international arena. It is basically a pragmatic


involvement of several social science disciplines to understandthe various facets of society, polity and economy of a particulararea with the aim of preserving one’s own interests.8 Thus,area studies basically means ‘foreign area studies’ which cannotafford to be spontaneous, being a designed academic exercisedetermined by the global political economy at large. Hence,the subject matter of area studies or for that matter the verydecision to choose a particular area that needs to be studied, iscircumscribed by the politico-military and economic interestsof the nation state concerned .

Another area of our inquiry is to find out why both thesebranches of study are paying all attention to studying the ‘alienareas’ rather than their own. In the case of social anthropology,the simple societies have attracted the attention of theanthropologists since the nineteenth century because, it wasbelieved that they provided important clues in a search for theorigins of institutions. In subsequent periods too, anthropologistscontinued to be interested in the simple societies because, itwas held that they displayed institutions in their simple forms.Moreover, it is a fruitfully sound method to proceed from anexamination of the more simple to an examination of the morecomplex, in which what has been learnt from a study of themore simple, would be an aid.9 Perhaps for this reason, thefunctionalists developed their respective models of argumentby primarily working in simple societies. Another valid reasonfor social anthropologists studying simple or historical societies,even at the present time is that these societies are rapidly beingtransformed and so must be studied at the earliest opportunity.Area study on the other hand, as said earlier, is a post-Warphenomenon. It was the US and other European countries whichhad felt the urgency of such a branch of study in order to maintaintheir control over the political economy of a decolonised worldorder. The post-World War international politics wascharacterised by the division of the world order practically intotwo ideologically mutually antagonistic blocs. The First Worldconsisted of the industrially developed capitalist countries, led


mainly by the big brother USA. The Second World on the otherhand, was the bloc of the socialist countries, headed chiefly bythe (erstwhile) USSR. The nations falling in between thecapitalist and the socialist blocs, had weak and developingeconomies and fell under the banner of Third World and livedmore as buffer zones amidst the two ideologically hostile groupof nations characterised by the Cold War than as independentones. Up to late 1980s, the main theme of the internationalpolitics was the balance of power and détente. The nationsthroughout the globe, have been either showing inclination tojoin the capitalist bloc or the socialist bloc as if to perpetuatethe so-called Cold War between the two regimes. Although areastudies programme was initiated in the US, the necessity to knowone’s friends and foes, particularly within the bi-polar worldorder, had been well appreciated by both the polar countriesand also by those who remained in-between. With the formationof NAM (Non-Alignment Movement) and other regionalcooperative movements / initiatives/ forums (like SAARC,ASEAN, SAPTA, etc.) organised by the third World countriesto minimize the gap between them (the ‘South’) and the industrialNorth, the spread of area studies programmes even in the so-called third world countries gathered momentum and receivedan institutional support base. Thus, the study of the alien nationstates or for that matter the discipline called area studies nolonger remained to be the prerogative of the developed countriesalone. Since the early 1990s, the world scenario has received aserious jolt with the breakdown of the socialist regime. Therelevance of NAM was severely questioned and the so-calledbi-polar world order was gradually transformed into a uni-polarone. Several neo-imperialist forces like globalization, marketeconomy along with the rapid growth of the nuclear power gameand global terrorism, have radically altered the global politysince the 1990s. The entire gamut of the international politicalorder has shifted from ‘balance of power’ to ‘balance of terror’.Within the changed global political scenario, the necessity forany nation state to study foreign areas, (regardless of their having


already been developed or not), has multiplied by many moretimes than earlier. Like anthropology, area studies do alsogenerate a specialised social scientific knowledge base regardingparticular areas, which help the nation state concerned, to adoptfresh policies, programmes and attitudes towards alien nationstates.

It appears from the foregoing analysis, that the area studiesprogramme is of recent origin but has emerged mostly as anacademic exercise necessitated by the post-World War II globalpolitical compulsions. Some may uphold the view that it is theonly discipline constrained by the territoriality of a nation stateconcerned and at the same time its scope is delimited by thegoal that the specific academic exercise designed at the behestof the host country or the donor agency. Still, some others mighthold the view that the origin and development of the area studiesprogramme has been neither spontaneous nor is devoted entirelyto the cause of the generation of knowledge. Area study by virtueof its own nature, is a part of practical intelligence or what mayalso be categorically referred to as ‘phronesis’ but it hardlycontributes, in any meaningful sense, to the generation ofknowledge or ‘episteme.’10 Thus, on the basis of the ‘phronesis’-‘episteme’ causation, area study may be differentiated fromanthropology, which has been an already established academicdiscipline supposedly dedicated to the cause of generating‘episteme’. If the analysis of the relationship between area studyand anthropology is extended any further on the basis of theabove said dichotomous logistics of ‘phronesis’ vs. ‘episteme’,one would be struck by the similitude of both the disciplines (interms of their objectives, approaches, and even the contents oftheir study) since anthropology, as would be shown in thefollowing analysis, throughout its early development, hadremained far more close, much like area study, to the domain of‘phronesis’. It is an oft-quoted assertion that, ‘describing distantsocieties and cultures in foreign lands’ has been a major concernin anthropology, particularly in social and culturalanthropology.11 This also holds true for those who are engaged


in the area studies programme. In fact, a proper analysis of thegrowth of the discipline of anthropology would indicate that itwould not be very wise to stick to the distinction betweenanthropology, a discipline primarily devoted to the cause ofknowledge, and area study- a separate branch of study inspiredby the practical needs. In order to arrive at such an inferencethat, much like area studies, anthropology is also a part of‘phronesis’, it is necessary to peep into the early origin anddevelopment of the discipline.

The history of anthropology is traced to the Greeks, withHerodotus as the father of anthropology as well as of history.A second view is that, anthropology developed out of theRenaissance and the concurrent voyages of discovery, whichrendered more information about human cultural, racial andlinguistic diversity available. Thirdly, there are those whochoose to restrict the label ‘anthropology’ to the developmentsbeginning with the founding of professional societies in themid-nineteenth century. Each of these views is, in some senseor the other, correct. Herodotus did perform some of the tasksof an anthropologist in the course of his observations andtravels. The voyages of discovery did result in a considerationof anthropological issues as Europe turned more and more tostudying the world around it. Yet none of these starting pointsalone are sufficient. The history of a discipline such asanthropology, may be conceived in two ways. The firstapproach is chronological and depends on the succession andinterrelationship of events from some more or less arbitrarystarting point in the past to the present. From such a perspective,Herodotus would belong to the history of anthropology hadhis works influenced the later anthropologists in a directcontinuity to the present time. An alternative approachsuggests, that anthropological inquiry, regardless of its positionin time, has a structure that is of concern to the discipline wenow label as anthropology. The inquiry is illustrative ratherthan chronological.12 Keeping in view these arguments, I havemade an attempt in the following pages to trace the history of


anthropology with a focus on the individual manifestation of‘episteme’ or ‘phronesis’ that figured in the early narratives.

Classical AntiquityThere had been no continuity in the anthropological tradition

of comparative studies in the classical antiquity and in the middleages. In both the periods of time, there were, however, a numberof individual attempts by writers who had displayed some interestin the cultural differences. The essence of the anthropologicalpoint of view is that, in order to understand ourselves, we needto study others. In contrast, the ancient Greeks for the most partheld, that the way to understand ourselves is to study ourselveswhile the ways of others become irrelevant. This was the viewexpressed by such influential thinkers as Thucydides andSocrates. In this context of general indifference, a few writersof classical antiquity, who took an interest in the anthropologicalcomparison, are eye-catching exceptions. The earliest and themost important of such writers is Herodotus, whose Historywas written in about the middle of the Fifth century B.C.Herodotus displayed as much interest in the customs of theEgyptians, Scythians, and other ‘barbarian’ (i.e. the non-Greeks)peoples as he did in the Greek and Persian political history, andon the basis of his contribution, he is often recognised as the‘father of anthropology’ as well as ‘the father of history’.13

Herodotus was a better observer of the human behaviour than atheoretician in the field concerned, and therefore, his work wasnot aimed at generating the ‘episteme’, in the truest sense of theterm.

The description of India and its peoples written in the ThirdCentury B.C. by Megasthenes appears to embody the closestapproach to an anthropological study in Greek only afterHerodotus. Megasthenes was the ambassador (at the court ofChandragupta) of the Greek ruler of Western Asia SeleucusNicator, where he had excellent opportunities to observekeenly, the Indian life at first hand and to seek answers for hispertinent questions from the informants. Megasthenes’


weakness was not mendacity but an innocent inability todistinguish the circumstantial narratives of the Indianmythology from the actual reports of areas he could not visitpersonally.14 Thus, in Megasthenes’ account, we find nosystematic attempt to generate ‘episteme’ but a serious exerciseon the part of an ambassador who had noted down the socio-cultural life processes of people during Gupta period in Indiaor, in other words Megasthenes’ contribution was basically interms of a response to ‘phronesis’.

In Latin literature, the only works of classical antiquitywhich resemble ethnographic reports, there is a treatise entitledOn the Origin, location, customs and peoples of the Germans,written by Cornelius Tacitus15 in A.D. 98. At the time he wrotehis essay on the Germans, the Roman emperor Trajan was onthe left bank of the Rhine, and the timing suggests that Tacituswas motivated by a desire to persuade the emperor to undertakean invasion of Germany. The Germania (as the treatise isshortly termed), certainly reads like a monograph of the sortwritten by the political commentators of today, to explain thebackground of the current events and perhaps would influencethe public policy at the same time.16 In fact, Tacitus’ work wasmore systematized than the earlier accounts. It is worth noting,that anthropology began its systematic march (especiallythrough Germania) not as a detailed ethnographic account,but as a political narrative which had furthered theconsolidation of the Roman Empire. Thus, in a certain sense,Tacitus’ account can be situated more within the purview ofthe area studies than anthropology.

Renaissance FoundationsAll the classical accounts had little effect on any one’s

thinking until after its rediscovery in the Renaissance, when anew tradition of interest in cultural differences had developedon a different basis. In this new context, the earlier accountswere read with great deal of enthusiasm and meticulousattention for the ethnographic material and the practical


concerns they had contained.The intellectual climate of Mediaeval Europe was not

amenable to comparative studies. In the Thirteenth century,however, the Europeans had their attention compellinglyattracted to the Mongols, a strange people from the easternend of the world about whom the European literary traditionhad provided no information. Jengniz Khan defeated Russiansat the Kalka River in 1223; Batu overran Russia between 1237and 1240, and in 1241 he destroyed the armies of Poland andHungary, supported by French and German contingents. In1259, Berke invaded Poland again and defeated a crusadeagainst him from the West. Here were the ‘barbarians’ (i.e. thenon-Greeks) whom the Europeans obviously could not affordto ignore. Many emissaries were sent to the new rulers of Asiawith orders to collect information in the course of conductingtheir official business. Respect for the military power of theMongols led to some sober and factual reporting.17

The most informative of the European envoys to theMongol Courts was the Franciscan friars Giovanni da Piandel Carpini, who had travelled in Asia between 1245 and 1247,and Willem van Rubrock, who had made his trips in 1253 and1254. These men wrote accounts of their experiences amongthe Mongols which were intended primarily as militaryintelligence reports but included a certain amount ofinformation on Mongol customs.18

A few years later, Marco Polo spent 17 years (1275-1292)in the service of Kublai Khan as an official of his imperialadministration. He returned to Italy with many marvellous talesto tell. Marco Polo’s narrative is, in a sense, a panegyric, a tributeto Kublai Khan, whom Marco Polo had served loyally andadmired ardently; it also reflects a personal interest in the culturaldifferences which Marco says, he had learned from the GreatKhan himself.19 However, the ethnographic information inMarco Polo’s book is neither very extensive nor very accuratebut is definitely a dedication to Mongol suzerainty.

The importance of the Renaissance point of view in making


men sensitive to cultural differences, is clearly seen in the recordsof the early Portuguese and Spanish explorations in Africa andthe Atlantic. The accounts of most of the early explorers arelimited to relating their own adventures, discussion of theproblems of migration, and description of the physicalcharacteristics of the new race and the availability of theopportunities for trade. The rare writers who devoted someattention to the natives and their customs in the early days ofthe great voyages of discovery, were all either educated Italiansor men who had been exposed to Italian Renaissance influence.20

The first great programme of the western voyages wasthat of Prince Henry, the navigator of Portugal and it took placein the Fifteenth century and was contemporaneous with thefirst flowering of the Renaissance scholarship in Italy. Aftersending ships to explore Maderia and the Azores, Prince Henryturned his attention in 1434 to the west of Africa, looking forslaves and gold. In 1441, his captains reached the Senegal atthe northern edge of black Africa, and the Europeans stood atthe threshold of their first contemporary new world. Thereafter,voyages along the West African coast for trade and furtherexplorations became frequent.21

In Renaissance period, we find several studies directlyconnected with the practical intelligence. In the name ofoverseas odysseys, those studies were conducted mainly tofind out the resources (viz., of gold, slaves etc.) and also theprospect of trade and commerce. If anthropology is the searchfor ‘episteme’ and area studies is a part of ‘phronesis’, then itcan fairly be argued that the accounts of the Renaissance perioddelineated anthropology very much like area studies. Moreover,the travellers, who were the torch bearers of anthropology atthat point of time, saw only what they were prepared to seeand therefore did not dedicate themselves to the generation of‘episteme’.

Voyages and PhilosophersDuring the Middle Ages, men had depended on stereotypes


handed down from the ancients in which the imaginary reportsof travels were not easily to be distinguished from the realreports, such as those of Herodotus. As voyages became moreand more common, the European public became sensitive tothe emergence of cross cultural insights. The early explorershad sufficient practical motivation to observe accuratelybecause of their commitment towards developing trade andcommerce.22 There were also some clever forgeries of travelnarratives in the name of a genre that had developed overseveral centuries of exploration and colonization; but now theyare closer to ethnographic reality.

In each area of the world, the process of gaining andutilizing information about the cultural similarities anddifferences proceeded with slight differences. Attitudes towardnative peoples always depended simultaneously on thecharacter of the people contacted and on the motives andpolitical fortunes of the contact. For example, Curtin describedthe British attitude toward Africa;23 Bearce dealt with theBritish attitudes towards India 24 whereas Pearce25 and Smith,26 threw light on the American attitudes to the American Indian.In each case, the discussion was thoroughly dependent on anenlarged intellectual context within which the contact waspursued, maintained and rationalized.

This tradition continued in other works too. For example,Samuel Hearne, a sailor by profession, worked for the Hudson’sBay Company. Hearne’s writings about his explorations innorthern Canada were popular, partly because of the Britishneed for a Northwest Passage, which would open a trade routein the northern part of the continent. Gonzalo Fernander deOviedo wrote the official Spanish history of the New World,published in 1526. His primary concern was realistic one, thatsome of the aborigines were belligerent and needed to beapproached with caution.27 Thus, as it happened in the case ofthe French and the British colonists of further north the politicaland anthropological questions were not isolated from eachother. As a result of the voyages of discovery and the reports


thereof, the everyday life of the primitive men came to beknown, but everywhere such endeavours were some way orthe other backed and influenced by some political or economicinterests, and the entire exercise was led towards ‘phronesis’.

Thus, we find that the origin and development ofanthropology can never be traced merely by specifying any dateexcept by finding out the early accounts which had dealt with‘other cultures’. Moreover, in the light of the aforesaid historicityof the discipline, anthropology can hardly claim that thediscipline had always aimed at generating ‘episteme’. Eachcourse of its history is guided, and even moulded by crudepractical intelligence. Although any attempt to differentiate areastudies from anthropology, only on the ground that while theformer is a part of ‘phronesis’ the latter aims at generating‘episteme’ would amount to mere oversimplification, the factremains that both the disciplines have been orienting themselvestowards joining the realm of ‘practical intelligence’. Moreover,the ‘phronesis’ part in anthropology was so prominent duringthe peak days of colonialism that the discipline sometimes wasbranded as colonial intellectuality. Perhaps, this aspect promptedthe former socialist countries like the USSR not to promoteanthropology courses in any of its academic institutions. Allthese versions of anthropology undoubtedly make it closer tothat branch of academics, which we now label as area studies.Professor Andre Beteille, a renowned social anthropologist, hasalso maintained a similar observation when he remarked that,in South Asian countries, anthropology and area studies havehad similar origins and displayed similar patterns of growth.28

Professionalization of AnthropologyBy about the middle of the nineteenth century,

anthropology had developed into a discrete subject of inquiry.The existence of a number of traditions of anthropologicalstudy per se led to no profession. Institutions for the study ofthe human cultural diversity were established and for the firsttime, an individual scholar could earn his living by the practice


of anthropology. Turning now to the professionalization of theBritish anthropology, we find that anthropology had a slightlydifferent though overlapping set of culture heroes like E. B.Tylor, Sir James Frazer, and Bronislaw Kaspar Malinowski,among others. The field-work tradition developed largelythrough Malinowski, who, by virtue of his interest in Australiaduring the First World War, devoted considerable time to thestudy of the inhabitants of the Trobriand Islands. The courseof development stresses the relatively brief period in whichanthropology could emerge as a discipline. No longer didanthropology remain as a mere tradition as academic statuswas conferred on it.

The interest in the customs and appearance of theinhabitants of any distant land is, of olden times. Thedescriptions of Herodotus show that even among the notionsof antiquity that had nourished a self-centred civilization,this kind of an interest had not taken a back seat. Thetravellers of the Middle Ages aroused the curiosity of theircontemporaries by the recital of their experiences. Theliterature of the Spanish conquest of America is replete withremarks on the customs of the natives of the New Worldthough there is hardly any indication of the thought that theseobservations might be made the subject of scientifictreatment. They were destined to remain in a state of merecuriosities for the other culture.29

Professionalization of anthropology has furthered thegrowth of the discipline towards the development of a soundtheoretical basis through the works of some renownedanthropologists belonging to the British, American, andGerman traditions. Evolutionism, diffusionism, functionalismthus reigned supreme in those days. In fact, with the move inprofessionalism, anthropology seems to have attained its rightto claim for being a part of ‘episteme’. However,anthropology’s status of being a part of ‘phronesis’ had notbeen totally withdrawn. Once more, this had been reflected inthe applied perspective of the discipline.


Applied AnthropologyApplied perspective of anthropology generally starts with

the question: What is the use of knowledge of primitivesocieties? An answer to this question may be arrived at throughthe discussion of its use for the primitive peoples themselvesand for those who are responsible for their welfare, and adiscussion of its value to the men who study it, namely theanthropologists themselves.

The value of social anthropology for purposes ofadministration, has been generally recognized from thebeginning of the twentieth century and both the colonial officeand colonial governments have shown an increasing interestin the teaching of and prosecution of research in anthropology.For a good number of years, past colonial cadets, before takingup their appointments, had received among other courses ofinstruction, certain required instructions in social anthropologyin Oxford, Cambridge and London.30 Several important studieshave been produced in this way, the most remarkable being,the research work embodied in the series of volumes by Rattaryon the Ashanti of the Gold Coast.31 Valuable works of the samegenre were also prepared by Dr. Meek in Nigeria and F. W.Williams and E. W. Pearson Chinnery in New Guinea.32

Strangely enough, even at their best, the writings of theseadministrators cum anthropologists, seldom satisfy theprofessional scholars.

In any case, the rapid progress of the applied anthropologyreminded one, of an old adage that says: the proof of thepudding is in eating. Thus, the use of anthropology, particularlyfor the process of governance, led the governments in theBritish Commonwealth, the United States and elsewhere, tomake good use of the trained social anthropologists in variousways. First, the governments sometimes took the trained socialanthropologists on their permanent establishments and eachof them performed the dual role of an anthropologist, on onehand and a civil servant on the other. This had led to theemergence of a host of administrators cum anthropologists in


the colonial administrative systems throughout the globe. Theprimary business of these administrators cum anthropologistswas to deal with practical problems, on which they could bringto bear the techniques and special knowledge with which theyhave been equipped by their professional training.33

A second way in which a government could make apractical use of social anthropology is to employ a professionalon contract for a period of a year or two, to carry out a specificpiece of research. An anthropologist who has made a specialstudy of the religious institutions, might be taken on contractto investigate the emergence of the communal movement in aparticular area; or, an expert in political organization might beengaged to make a study of a community for which majoradministrative changes are to be proposed. The SudanGovernment employed the anthropologists like Evans-Pritchard,34 Nadel,35 and Seligman36 in this way, before theWorld War II.

Moreover, many individual missionaries have taken deepinterest in anthropology and have realized its value for theirown work. Their attitude is well expressed by Pasteur Junod,the author of one of the finest anthropological monographsever written. He declared without much hesitation, that hisaim in collecting the information embodied in his book waspartly scientific and partly to help the administrative officersand missionaries. In his words: ‘To work for Science is noble,but to help our fellow men is nobler yet’.37

Thus, anthropology, even in its applied perspective, hasbeen directly connected with the political economy of therespective regimes and therefore, forms a part of ‘phronesis’.However, it would be erroneous to presuppose, that in the wakeof this political and administrative patronage, theanthropologists have produced only that much which theauthorities have demanded from them. In reality, theanthropologists had shown a great deal of resentment againstthe increasing ‘governmentality’ of the discipline, which isbest expressed in Mary Kingsley’s comment : ‘In colonial rule


goodwill is no substitute for knowledge which will act in thedirection of preventing us from engineering our good intentionsin such a manner as to make them appear tyrannies and hatefulto those whom we wish to benefit by them.’38 The point isthat, the applied domain of anthropology by definition, didnot inspire the scholars to devote themselves entirely toknowledge but demanded that the practitioners of anthropologyshould attempt to ascertain from the respective authorities,the facts and to assess the likely consequences of altering them.Thus, social anthropology in its applied version, is not muchdifferent from the area studies.

MethodologyThe attempt to analyse the relationship between area study

and anthropology in matters of their methodologies, is no lessappealing particularly, when one starts with the issue that sinceanthropology, mostly becomes a part of ‘phronesis’, thequestion arises if both the disciplines employ similar type ofmethodology in their respective fields of study. If not, doeseach discipline have a distinct methodology of its own?

As in other sciences, whose subject matter is the actualdistribution of phenomena and causal relation, we find inanthropology two distinct methods of research and aims ofinvestigation. The first one is the historical method whichendeavours to reconstruct the actual history of mankind; theother one is the generalizing method, which attempts toestablish the laws of its development. According to the personalinclination of the investigator, the one or the other methodprevails in research.39 Principal tools of the data collectionused in the researches in anthropology, are – participant’sobservation, interview, genealogy, pedigree, case-history,content analysis and the like. By making use of thesetechniques, the anthropologists attempt to arrive at ‘thickdescriptions’ regarding the people and their culture of anysociety, other than their own.

On the other hand, area study, the youngest one in the


family of social sciences, is basically a multi disciplinaryprogramme of study. Hence, it employs the methods andtechniques of other disciplines including those of anthropology.Initially, area study had relied on several simple approacheslike subjective opinion, non-methodical observation, or simplythe description of the unfamiliar. But by adopting the strategyof pragmatic borrowing of the different methods used in othersocial sciences, area study has enriched itself methodologicallyover the years. However, this act of borrowing as pursued byarea study programmes, is not simply because of the fact thatthe discipline has yet to develop for itself its own methodologybut because area study seeks to gain a more detailed multi-disciplinary command over a particular area which can not bearrived at, by the disciplinary singularity of the disciplinealone. The uniqueness of area studies lies not only in itscollection, but also in the use of diverse methods andtechniques of various disciplines in such a balanced mannerthat all these would help one to gain a proper, in-depthunderstanding of a particular area, and thus tend to gratifyone’s own interest. Methodologically, area study may remainin the state of becoming, but in view of the applicability ofvarious methods on the one hand and the significance of itsresearch findings on the other, one may state that area studyhas received no less credibility than social anthropology as abranch of social scientific investigation. Moreover, in the lightof the present day comparative academic discourses, whichhave a widely acknowledged multi-disciplinary scholarshipin preference to a distinct discipline with a defined body oftheory and methodology to explicate a vast array of socio-politico-economic issues all at once, one can foresee promisingprospects for the discipline of area study.

ConclusionThe analysis makes it crystal clear, that there is no such

hard and fast difference between area study and socialanthropology as far as their subject matter, and initial


developments are concerned. More often than not, both thedisciplines, by definition, focus on the ‘foreign areas’ or ‘othercultures’; methodologically, both use more or less the sametechniques. Hence, it would not be an exaggeration to arguethat, an anthropologist can profitably conduct and continuehis research in the field of area studies and the research findingsof area studies can also be fruitfully used in anthropologicalresearches and vice-versa. A scholar, irrespective of hisdisciplinary orientation, faces the same challenges when hestarts studying societies and cultures other than his own.Therefore, it would not be very wise to stick to the ‘episteme’– ‘phronesis’ dichotomy to establish both the disciplines ofanthropology and area studies as water tight compartments.Before concluding the whole exercise, it would be pertinentto refer to the message which is implicitly embodied in thelife and works of a distinguished American anthropologist RuthBenedict, whose contribution particularly during the last yearsof her career (she died in 1948), is a by-product of her conductof a series of ‘culture at a distance study’ by the use ofanthropological techniques and by working with culturalwholes and living informants in addition to the culturalproducts - like films, plays, novels, works of history,journalistic write-ups and so on – all to produce culturaldescriptions relevant to the prosecution of the War criminalsand, later, the formulation of conditions of peace. After makingpreliminary studies on Rumania, Netherlands, and Germany(all of which, had not been published at all), Benedict producedher treatise on Japan that brought her its posthumous fame. In1945, when the war was over, she wrote The Chrysanthemumand the Sword 40 as a contribution to an understanding of thecultural potentialities of Japan as part of a peaceful andcooperative world. The spirit of cultural appreciation and thehumane understanding is rhetorically and symbolicallyrepresented in the very title of her book; Chrysanthemum, thenational flower of Japan which denotes the culturalpotentialities of Japan that were at stake particularly after the


World War II. The word Sword had been used both as aninnuendo against the baneful, war effects, that had plaguedJapan during the 1940s and also as an advocate of the humanedimension of the entire process of war and peace that pervadesthis book and makes it the most acceptable of all the wartimecontributions to the credit of the anthropologists though it infact, enriches that branch of knowledge we now label as areastudy and thus makes it the real beneficiary. In fine, it may besuggested that both anthropology and area study share not onlysimilar kinds of goal as academic disciplines but many a timesubstantially contribute to each other’s fields of inquiry. Thelife and works of very many scholars like Ruth Benedict, amplyreflect anthropology more as the area study and Benedict’sChrysanthemum and the Sword may be treated merely as thetip of the iceberg, in this regard. However, the research findings,both the disciplines have been cultivating, are not very similarto each other, nor are they being used even for accomplishingsimilar types of ends, academic or otherwise.

Notes & References1. E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Social Anthropology, (Universal Book

Stall, New Delhi, 1996 reprinted), p. 1.2. Ibid. p. 3.3. B.P. Mishra, ‘Area Studies: Policy and Methodology’,

Occasional Paper No. X, Centre for Himalayan Studies, NBU,1996, p. 10.

4. Wendell Benett, Area Studies in American Universities, SocialScience Research Council, (New York, 1951).

5. Evans-Pritchard, n.1, p. 5.6. Here the term ‘simple society’ instead of ‘primitive society is

used so as to avoid the issues of ethnocentrism. Such terms as‘Primitive’, ‘Barbarian’ and the like, are loaded with ethnocentricattitudes, even though we use these terms in anthropologicalliteratures as somewhat given concepts. On this very issue say,ethnocentrism among anthropological concepts, a good deal ofdebate can be initiated, which is, however, not the aim of thepresent exercise.

7. John Beattie has written a very commendable introductory book


on social anthropology where he provided such a view.Interestingly, without any ifs and buts, he used the phrase ‘OtherCulture’ as the title of his book. For details vide, John Beattie,Other Culture, (Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London andHinley, 1977 reprinted).

8. Mishra, n.3, p. 1.9. Evans-Pritchard, n.1, p. 8.10. These two Greek terms (‘episteme’ and ‘phronesis’) are

borrowed from Mishra’s paper (Mishra, n.3), which he used tojustify the claim of area studies to be a part and parcel of socialscience, but in the present paper, the same is used to analyse towhat extent it would be feasible to distinguish area studiesprogramme from the discipline of anthropology, bycharacterising the former as ‘phronesis’ and the later as‘episteme’.

11. N.C. Chowdhury, ‘Area Studies: Some AnthropologicalObservations’, paper delivered in National Seminar on AreaStudies, CHS, NBU, held in 17-18 March 1984.

12. Regna Durnell (ed.), Readings in the History of Anthropology,(Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1974), p. 12.

13. It was Cicero who called Herodotus ‘the father of history’ (vide,Arnaldo Momigliao, ‘The Place of Herodotus in the history ofhistoriography’, in Secondo Contributo Alla Storia Degli StudiClassici, Storia e Letteratura Vol. 77, 1960, p.29, as quoted inDarnell, n.12) and J.L. Myres who called him ‘the father ofanthropology’ (vide, J.L. Myres, ‘Herodotus and Anthropology’,in R.R. Marett (ed.), Anthropology and the Classics, (ClaredonPress, London, 1908), p. 125.

14. John Howland Rowe, “The Renaissance Foundations ofAnthropology,” in Regna Darnell (ed.) Readings in the Historyof Anthropology, n.12, p. 65.

15. Cornelius Tacitus, De Origine et Situ Germanorum, Edited byJ.G.C. Anderson, (Claredon Press, Oxford, 1938).

16. J.H. Rowe, n.14, p. 65.17. Ibid, p. 67.18. Ibid.19. Marco Polo, The Description of the World, A.C. Moule and

Paul Pelliot (eds.), (Routledge, London, 2 Vols., 1938).20. J.H. Rowe, n.14, p. 73.21. Ibid, pp. 73-74.


22. Regna Darnell, n.12, p. 79.23. Philip Curtin, The Image of Africa: British Ideas and Action

1780-1850, (University of Winconsin Press, Madison, 1964).24. C.D. Bearce, British Attitudes Toward India: 1748-1858,

(Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1961).25. Roy H. Pearce, The Savages of America; a study of the Indian

on the Idea of Civilisation, (John Hopkins Press, Baltimore,1953).

26. Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land: The American West as Symboland Myth, (Vintage, New York, 1950).

27. Regna Darnell, n.12, p. 82.28. Andre Beteille, Sociology: Essays on Approaches and Methods,

(Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002), p. 122.29. Franz Boas, “The History of Anthropology,” Science, Vol. 20,

21 October 1904, p. 514.30. Evans Pritchard, n.1, p. 110.31. R.S. Rattary, Ashanti Laws and Constitutions, (Oxford, 1929).32. As found in Evans-Pritchard, n.1, p. 111.33. John Beattie, n.7, p. 268.34. E.E. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer, Oxford University Press,

Oxford, 1940.35. S.F. Nadel, A Black Byzantium, (Oxford University Press,

Oxford, 1942).36. C.G. Silligman, The Vedas, (Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge, 1911).37. H.A.Junod, The Life of a South African Tribe (vol. 2),

(Neuchatel and London, 1913), p. 10.38. S. Gwynn. Life of Mary Kingsley, 1933 as quoted in Lord Hailey,

An African Survey (revised edition, London, 1956).39. Franze Boas, n.29, pp. 513-514.40. Ruth Benedict, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns

of Japanese Culture, (Houghton Miffin, Boston, 1946).

37Sino-Indian Economic Relations: Competition and...

3

Sino-Indian Economic Relations:Competition and Partnership

GAUTAM MURTHY*

India has been universally acknowledged as one with avibrant democracy despite vast religious, caste and economicdiversities. China’s per capita income began to exceed India’sonly in the 1990s, though forty years earlier, India’s was abovethat of China. India had avoided the pitfalls of the Great LeapForward and the Cultural Revolution, though after the reformsof Deng Xiao Ping since 1978, China has been way ahead ofIndia in all the economic and social parameters. In 1991, theIndian government initiated the economic reforms. India’smarket-oriented liberalization and removal of industriallicensing and controls resulted in an acceleration of GDP toabout 6 per cent a year since 1991, the fastest for any nationbut considerably lower than the Chinese pace of about 9 percent in the corresponding period.

China’s amazing economic success has been stunning theentire world, as if China alone knows how to move with thetimes and how to swim with the current. Its aim has been tobe a middle-level developed country in the mid-twenty-firstcentury. Today, China is the world’s most competitive nation,and the seventh largest exporter. China desires to getmodernised rapidly by attracting more foreign investment.However, it must be remembered that the share of FDI in totalinvestment in China is less than 8 per cent, reflecting the extentof capital formation in the economy. The entry of China intothe WTO will make China a more transparent and lesssubsidised economy, meaning the availability of more market

* Dr. Gautam Murthy, Associate Professor of Economics, Centre forIndian Ocean Studies, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.


access opportunity in the domestic markets of China. Indiawas described until recently as a traditional “mixed economy”with a large public sector, but also with lot of privateentrepreneurship.

China by contrast, has been for the most part, creditedwith a command economy, which until recently, had a smallprivate sector, having only recognised the legal possibility ofhome-grown capitalists, a few years ago. The Chinese economyhas grown at an average annual rate of 9.8 per cent for two-and-half decades, while India’s economy has grown at around5-6 per cent per year over the same period. The Chinese growthhas been relatively volatile around this time, reflecting stop-go-cycles of state response to inflation through an aggregatecredit management. The higher growth in China essentiallyoccurs because of the much higher rate of investment in China.The investment rate in China (investment as a share of GDP)has fluctuated between 35 and 44 per cent over the past 25years, compared to 20 per cent and 26 per cent in India. Infact, the aggregate incremental capital-output ratios (ICORs)have been about the same in both the economies. Within this,there has been the critical role of infrastructure investment,which has averaged at 19 per cent of GDP in China, comparedto 2 per cent in India, over the 1990s. China has far moreimpressive achievements in the social sector than India, asshown in the Table-1.


Table-1 : Social Sector Indicators-A Comparison of India and China -2005

Source: TATA Economic Services and Tenth Five Year Plan,Government of India.

The mantra of China is shar ply focused on becoming aneconomic superpower and hence everything else follows-foreign policy begins and ends with economic policy. China

DESCRIPTION INDIA CHINA

Gross enrolment ratio in primary schools (%)

99 114

Adult Literacy (%) 65 91

Labour cost per worker in manufacturing ($ per year)

1,192 729

Education expenditure (% of central govt. expenditure)

13 13 (Excluding dropouts

reenrolling)

Physicians (per 1,000 population)

0.4 1

Health expenditure (% of GDP)

5 6

Health expenditure per capita ($)

24 49

Contraceptive prevalence rate (%)

52 83

Human Development Index (HDI)

0.602 (HDI Value)

127 (Rank) - Year 2003

0.755 (HDI Value)

85 (Rank)- Year 2003


is creating a national economy, and the result is a massive andpainful restructuring of industry and society. Competitionacross provincial boundaries is becoming a reality. As a result,the country is experiencing deflation, a continual decline inprices and as prices fall, the economy stagnates.

Chinese export growth has been much more rapid,involving aggressive increases on world market shares. Thisexport growth has been based on a relocative capital that hasbeen attracted not only by cheap labour but also by excellentand heavily subsidised infrastructure, resulting from the highrate of infrastructure investment. In addition, since the Chinesestate has also been keen on provision of basic goods in termsof housing, food and cheap transport facilities, this has playedan important role in reducing the labour costs for employers.In India, the cheap labour has been available because of lowabsolute wages rather than public provision and underwritingof labour costs, and infrastructure development which has beenminimal. So it is not surprising that it has not really been anattractive location for export –oriented investment, its rate ofexport growth has been much lower, and exports have notbecome an engine of growth.

In terms of inequality, in both economies, the recent patternof growth has been inequitable. In China, the spatialinequalities across regions have been the sharpest. In India,vertical inequalities and rural-urban divide have become muchmore marked. In China recently, as a response to this, therehave been some top-down measures to reduce inequality, forexample, through changes in tax rates, greater publicinvestment in western and interior regions and improved socialsecurity benefits. In India, it is political change that has forcedgreater attention to redressing inequalities, though the processis still very incipient.

In terms of the future prospects, surprisingly, botheconomies end up with very similar issues despite these majordifferences. There are clear questions of sustainability of thecurrent pattern of economic expansion in China, based on high


export-accumulation model that requires the constantlyincreasing shares of the world markets and very highinvestment rates. Similarly, the hope in some policy quartersin India that the information technology-enabled services canbecome the engine of growth is the one, which raises theproblems of sustainability.

The most important problems in the two economies arealso of similar nature being mainly the agrarian crisis and theneed to generate more employment. In both economies, thesocial sectors have been neglected recently by publicintervention. In both the countries, the policy message appearsto be the same in driving home that the most basic issues arethose that require to be addressed first so that and if so, theother areas of expansion will probably look after or take careof themselves. Undoubtedly, India has individual liberty,political pluralism, and the institutional framework to takeadvantage of globalization. Still, it is constrained by masspoverty, lackadaisical government, growing fiscal problems,and a poor physical infrastructure. China has much lessdegrading poverty than India though the latter has more tradeand investment links, while the Chinese have a superiorphysical infrastructure. It is rapidly conforming to the globalbehaviour patterns, and creating an internationally acceptedlegal system. However it too has fiscal problems to encounter,hidden in the banking system, and the political risk.

China’s industrial strength and infrastructure, and its vastpool of skilled labour, make it a natural choice for themanufacturing sector. India, on the other hand, with a boominginformation technology sector and huge reserves of English-speaking graduates, is a better option for outsourced serviceand technology development facilities. China has beenfavoured heavily by multinational corporations (MNCs) formanufacturing, with only limited business process outsourcing(BPO) activity coming in from Japanese and Korean firms.As opposed to the concentrated outsourced services and R&Dfacilities found in India, China has become the hub of


manufacturing.As the WTO and TRIPS agreements progress, the export

orientation of each country may cross into the present domainof the other, due to drops in garment quota requirements andstrengthening of the IPR culture.

The key strategies of Chinese reforms were to effect amassive increase in incomes in the rural areas first and thenmeet the demand for consumer goods by encouraging thegrowth of VTEs (Village and Town Enterprises). The VTEsmet the demand for basic consumer goods in the rural areasitself. There was continuous decentralisation and a system ofprofit taking with punishment for default. In India, theagricultural sector still accounts for about 70 per cent ofemployment, but its share in GDP is down to 25 per cent. Inother words, the relative per capita income of the agriculturalworker must be going down. China can assist India in herglobalization efforts, by allowing to cheaper imports fromChina itself to be used, to produce low cost products in Indiaitself through the joint-venture strategy. By trading with China,India can become a little more competitive in global markets.A proper strategy of engagement with China forged to rise tothe level of competition, can be India’s policy for the future.

India must emulate China by taking advantage of its cheap,hardworking and skilled workers to leverage better in the worldmarkets. To compete effectively, India needs to expand itsprimary and secondary education, and give more emphasis tovocational education and training.

China is in fact to be viewed as “many small markets”,rather than “the world’s biggest market”. China today has goodinfrastructure - railways, roads and airports - so there is forthe first time substantial inter-city and inter-provincialcommerce, as one city can compete against “backwardmanufacturers” in another. Consequently, there is the rise ofnational domestic brands.

At the political level, the Communist Party of China,though corrupt to the core, still survives. A day will come when


new attitudes will brush aside the corruption of the old, and anew China will emerge. Beijing strikes hard against recalcitrantelements and dissidents not realizing for a moment that it canmuzzle on the dissidents but not on their ideas.

Since 1978, when the great modernizer, Deng Xiao Pinghad begun China’s reforms, and later in the nineties consequenton the former President Jiang Zemin’s vision, China has movedrapidly in its growth rates. However, the new Chineseleadership needs to move ahead faster in political reforms. Torecall, Chairman Mao’s words “it takes only one spark to starta prairie fire”. The next spark should not cause any dramaticupheavals.

The share of manufacturing in China’s GDP is 49 per cent,and the Services constitute 33 per cent of GDP. The biggestcurrent draw for international investors is the “WesternDevelopment Project” (headquarters in Chonqing), initiatinggrandiose plans for Xinjiang and Tibet.

At the geo-political level, Sino-Indian relations should riseabove the present border disputes, and past tilts. Relationsshould be non-hyphenated, and stand-alone, not guided by anythird country. India occupies a special place, as the land of theBuddha in China.There is also admiration in India for China’seconomic achievements. India has an edge over China in termsof intellectual capital for the future knowledge economy.

Some of the general strengths and weaknesses of Indiaand China are enumerated below.

Strengths of China• Confucian ethic of discipline and obedience.• Authoritarian Militarist State, with severe penalties for

non-compliance.• Highly disciplined top leadership that implements

decisions once agreed, without further argument.• Productivity of Chinese labour is five times that of India.• China has a system of incentives and disincentives at

Central, State and Town-level for performance.


• Small-scale imitator of well-known brands, giving betterquality for a lesser price, not the original brandedmanufacturer. Chinese “under design” products to makethem affordable to poorer households. Those who canafford to pay more for superior quality do so. In India,established manufacturers are unlike the Chinese; they areconditioned by MNCs, whose practices are evolved in themarkets that can afford high prices for superior products,and that suited an economy where capacities wererestricted by license. China dominates the export of labour-intensive products world-wide and India does not, exceptin gems and jewellery. Chinese manufactured goodsexports as a per cent of GDP was 18 per cent as against 4per cent for India (1999-2000).

• China has a system of incentives and disincentives atcentral, state and town level- for performance and non-performance.

• Foreign investment in China is in land, buildings, plantand machinery. Of the comparatively small foreigninvestment in India, a high proportion is in portfolioinvestment, and in buying existing capacities.

Weaknesses of China• Communist Party of China still dominating, no democratic

dissent is tolerated.• The Chinese legal system has still many weaknesses for

corporate grievance redressal.• China has yet to adapt fully to rules and regulations of a

free market economy.• China has lax labour regulations and workers in many

industries have to toil for longer hours.• Working conditions are tough as workers stay in crammed

dormitories inside industrial zones to work from 8 A.M to8 P.M.They are not allowed to form their own associationsat national or regional level. This advantage may not lastlong, as workers become conscious of their rights. Even


though labour issues are not raised at WTO, such unsoundprocedures and practices could come under attack.

• China’s entry into WTO will call for a “fresh look” at itsglobal interaction and domestic re-structuring.

• Corporate governance too is not of a high quality astransactions are not wholly transparent. Managers of StateEnterprises indulge in various irregularities-like siphoningof funds offshore, which in many cases comes backdisguised as FDI.

• Chinese capital markets too are underdeveloped andregulations are not in tune with free-market earnings.Foreign investors can invest in B-group shares-only atShanghai and Shenzen-and cannot indulge in A-groupshares-meant strictly for locals.

Strengths of India• A stable and vibrant democracy. India’s greatest

achievement is sustaining a democracy in exceptionallydifficult circumstances.

• Profuse use of the English Language.• Availability of world-class scientific, technical, managerial

and professional manpower.• Established Western style corporate democracy and a

functioning legal system for grievance redressal andcontract enforcement.

• A growing and sizable middle-class estimated at 200million.

• Indian culture encourages risk without reward and as itsdefence forces have shown, Indians can be extremelydisciplined and productive.

Weaknesses of India• Hypocrisy of Indian political leadership.• Poor implementation capacity of Indian administration.• Speculative mentality of Indian industry.• Rampant corruption, stifling the delivery system of any


constructive programme.• “Vested Interests” and “Entrenched Rural Hierarchies”

hampering any societal changes.• Indian bureaucrats and politicians have yet to develop an

awareness that more trade and intensified economicrelations enhances India’s security, power and influence.

The similarities are striking. China and India are amongstthe five biggest countries in the world in terms of area,geographical diversity, population, market-size and economymeasured in terms of purchasing power parity. Both thecountries were economically exploited by western powers, andattained liberation within a few years of each other in the midtwentieth century. They both pursued socialist models ofdevelopment before opening up gradually, China from 1978,and India from 1991.China and India are presently the fastestgrowing major economies of the world, although the majorityof the population continues to be dependent on agriculture.The state sector continues to dominate economic activity inboth the countries, with the role of private enterprise expandingfast. In both China and India rapid economic growth haswidened the regional economic disparities.

Both China and India face serious fiscal problems andballooning domestic debt and contingent liabilities, needingmajor public sector adjustments in the foreseeable future.However, much of India’s public sector deficit has beenabsorbed directly by the government, whereas China has reliedmore heavily on the banking system to fund the deficit.Therefore, while India has higher fiscal deficits, China’sbanking system has more non-performing assets.

Corruption is endemic in both China and India.However, inChina it is more centralized around the entrenched communistparty, which practically guarantees quick action. In India,corruption is more dispersed, and outcomes less certain. Becausecorruption in India is subject to legislative, media and judicialoversight, it is less of a systemic risk than in China.


China has shown far grater urgency in privatizing andclosing a large number of state enterprises, while India’sprivatization progamme has floundered. While China haseffectively lowered trade barriers, with customs tariffcollections comprising only about 3 per cent ad valorem, Indiantariffs are still amongst the world’s highest. Economicdecentralization has proceeded at a much faster pace in China,with local governments in China having effective economicstrengths and decision-making powers; wheras India’scentralized economic control is relaxing its grip only gradually.

While China is a closed society run by a tightly knitcommunist party, India is an open democratic society, with anindependent judiciary and press. With political dissent not airedin the public domain, China has overt political stability,arguably difficult to sustain during a severe economicdownswing.

Both China and India face major future developmentalthreats: for India the threats centre on policies to enhancesavings and growth rates to remove poverty within a targetedtime frame; for China the threats are more institutional withinstitutions, especially financial, legal and political, not in syncwith the needs of a market economy.

The areas of convergence of interest between China andIndia and the time-frame in which they start influencing thedecision making are given in the Table-2.


Table-2: Areas of Convergence of Interestbetween China and India

Source: “Dealing with China in the 21st Century,” in Vinod Saighal,Restructuring South Asian Security.

China could overtake India as the next InformationTechnology (IT) power and business-outsourcing hub forcountries like the US, despite its lack of experience. China’soffshore services will mature within the next five years, andcompanies should begin looking at the country as a potentialsource for IT-enabled services. Lower costs (roughly 1/6th ofUS counterparts), political stability, strong GDP growth (7.9per cent in 2001) the country offers the kind of environmentneeded by interested global companies.

India-China bilateral trade has now crossed the $12 billionmark. However, the top five exports to China comprise mainly

Area of Convergence

When Became Apparent

Joint Approach

Himalayan environment

First decade of the 21st Century

Joint eco-restoration in border areas and Tibet

Further Eastward or Southward expansion of NATO

First decade of the 21st Century

Commonality of interest with Russia

Any Further Weakening of Russia

Immediate Several Possibilities

Increasing US military presence in Central Russia

Immediate Commonality of interest with Russia

Asian Stability Immediate Several Possibilities

Global Multi-Polar Stability

Anytime in future In concert with UN


primary or low value –addition products -iron- ore, plastic andlinoleum, ores and minerals, marine products and drugs andpharmaceuticals. Her imports from China are electronic goods,coal, coke, and organic chemicals, silk, medicinal andpharmaceutical products. India should move up the value chain,and export more IT-related products and pharmaceuticals, asit has been doing recently.

However, despite China’s better image abroad, the imageof Indians abroad is very high in complete contrast the imageof India is poor-but improving. The Indian diaspora has gainedconsiderable salience abroad, a number of Indian $ billionaireslive in the US and are highly rated. Despite loud proclamations,foreign investors consider everything unfriendly about India-the government, the bureaucracy and the infrastructure. Wehave to change the mind-set and working of the Indianinstitutions.

India’s trade with China was set to grow to $20 billion by2007.During 2005-06, the trade between the two countries wasexpected to be around $15 billion. Trade and economic co-operation hold the key to strengthening the overall bilateralrelationship. During 2000-01, India-China trade volume wasjust $2 billion, but rose sharply to $11.3 billion in 2004-05.However, the trade basket needs diversification from rawmaterials and products of natural resource-based industries. Ifthe trade and economic linkages are to expand exponentially,it is imperative that the diversification takes place in thecommodity-mix. China and India between themselvesproducing practically everything, cheaply and with highquality.With high export growth rates-India and China havebeen galloping, but they must also gallop in tandem.

A recent study by Goldman Sachs shows that India willtake a long time to catch up with China-may not keep paceeven by 2050. This is because, China has a much larger basein GDP than in India; therefore, even smaller relative increasesin income for China would mean a higher absolute increasethan India. This is evident from Table-3.


TABLE-3: What will it mean for India to catch up with China?

Source: Will India Catch-up with China?, Mohan Guruswamy (etal), Centre for Policy Alternatives, New Delhi.

China is today the world’s manufacturing hub. India shouldemerge as the world’s technology and IT (InformationTechnology) hub, if it follows pro-active policies. India andChina thus have a lot to learn from each other’s experience,and can be dynamic partners, rather than competitors in theglobalised world.

References1. Chang, Gordon G., The Coming Collapse of China, Random

House, (New York, 2001).2. Gary S.Baker, Chug Along with China, (ET, 2003).3. Jayati Ghosh, “Divergent Development Models,” Frontline, 9

September 2005.4. Tony Nash, “China or India? -It’s China & India,” Economic

Times, 11 May 2005.5. Shroff, Minoo R, China’s Remarkable Economic Growth-Some

Lessons, Forum of Free Enterprise, (Mumbai, 2000).6. Wadhva, Charan D, “Geo-Economic Positioning of India’s Trade

and Allied Relations: Perspectives on India’s Experience withRegional Integration,” in V. A Pai Panandiker and Ashis Nandy,

India Year Growth Rate (%)

To catch up China by 2050 8.9

To catch up China by 2020 11.6

Average growth rate since 2000 6.2

Average growth rate in 1990s 5.6

Average growth rate in 1980s 5.6


Contemporary India, (Tata McGraw Hill Publishing CompanyLtd. New Delhi).

7. Saighal, Vinod, Re-structuring South Asian Security, (ManasPublications, New Delhi, 2000).

8. Mohan Guruswamy et al, Will India Catch-up with China?,Centre for Policy Alternatives, (New Delhi, 2005).

9. Yasheng Huang and Tarun Khanna, “Can India OvertakeChina?,” Foreign Policy, July-August, 2003.


4

Geo-strategic Significance of the Indian Ocean:A Perspective of Indian Foreign Policy

RAJ KUMAR KOTHARI *

With an estimated area of about 73,442.7 sq. km., theIndian Ocean is the third largest ocean in the world, only afterthe Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. It is less than halfof the Pacific Ocean and smaller than the Atlantic. The IndianOcean extends from Africa on the west to Australia andIndonesia in the east. Asia lies in the north and Antarctica inthe south. The Indian Ocean is surrounded by about 56countries of Asia and Africa with great diversity in almostevery respect – shape, size, people, resources, economy, polity,culture etc. (Ramakrishna 2006: 19-20) The Ocean includesthe littoral states, the landlocked countries and the island states.Significantly, it is the only ocean in the world being calledafter the name of a country, i.e. India. Indian Ocean includesthe Red Sea, oil rich Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, the AndamanSea and the Bay of Bengal.1

Indian Ocean serves as a great link between the countrieslying on its coasts and even further beyond. One can reachWest Asia, Africa and Europe from the west coast and SouthEast Asia, Far East and Oceania from the eastern coast. TheIndian Ocean thus bridges a gap between east and west. Theocean provides the most direct shipping route between Europeand Far East. It thus carries over 70 percent of the world’smercantile traffic. The great importance of the Indian OceanRegion (IOR) is clearly reflected in its industrial potential.

* Dr. Raj Kumar Kothari, Sr. Lecturer in Political Science, VidyasagarUniversity West Bengal, India. Revised version of this paper has beenpresented at the 17th Annual World History Association Conference atQueen Mary, University of London on June 25-29, 2008. Email:[email protected]

53Geo-strategic Significance of the Indian Ocean...

The natural resources of critical importance found in IOR arenow used by industrial countries worldwide. Huge oil reservesare located in the region. Mineral resources like tin, titaniumand phosphorus are found in the region. It is needless tooveremphasize the economic importance of these resources. 2

The Indian Ocean is the only ocean which has witnessedthe regional interaction since the dawn of civilization.3 Theonly other comparable maritime region, the Mediterranean, isa small landlocked sea, which, in a way, has also been closelyinterlinked with the Indian Ocean in matters of trade andcultural interaction. The Indian Ocean has also interacted withthe Pacific. Thus over a period of time, it has evolved not onlyas a zone of bilateral and multilateral interaction among itswidespread littoral, hinterland and island groups but also as amajor link in the chain of south-south interaction extendingfrom the Mediterranean in the West to the Pacific in the East.(Singh 2005: 342)

India occupies a significant position in the Indian Oceanregion. The ‘landlocked’ nature of the Indian Ocean enablesIndia to be in a commanding position in the region. From theEastern coast of Africa and the shores of the Persian Gulf tothe Straits of Malacca, Indian domination is obvious. TheIndian Ocean has limited outlets. The Red Sea and the PersianGulf are the narrow outlets in the West, while in the east thereare Straits of Malacca, Sunda, Timore and the Arafura Sea.Entry into and exit from the Indian Ocean can be blocked atany time by controlling these outlets. The geo-strategic locationcompels India to play a pivotal role in shaping the ‘maritimeorder in the Indian Ocean. (Ramakrishna 2006: 19-20 also seeSingh 2004: 3) Therefore, the geo-strategic importance of theOcean can never be underestimated from India’s point of view.This paper aims to underline the geo-strategic significance ofthe Indian Ocean from the perspective of Indian foreign policywithin the framework of neo-realism. While doing so, the paperaims to study the importance of the structural factors thatcompel India to maintain its hegemonic presence in the Indian


Ocean in recent years.

Post World War II Structural DevelopmentsRegional and global environments underwent structural

readjustments after World War II. On the one hand, thedevelopment of cold war led to the emergence of superpowerpolitics that disturbed the existing security position in theIndian Ocean; on the other hand, the changes ushered in theprocess of decolonization in Asia and Africa provided anopportunity for the newly liberated people to try and forge theSouth-South linkages.

In the changed situation, maintaining the environment ofpeace in the Indian Ocean became very important becausealmost all the countries surrounding the ocean were in thedeveloping stage. These countries entered into the process ofeconomic restructuring and political modernization. Theycould not afford confrontation and war in the region and thuswanted to maintain peace at any cost. This apart, majority ofthese countries were members of the Non-aligned movementand did not want any external interference in the affairsconcerning Indian Ocean.

The Non-aligned countries strongly felt that the socio-economic prosperity in the region was possible only if therewas economic cooperation and coordination among the richlyendowed littoral states. This could happen only if the externalpowers were not allowed to make their presence in the IndianOcean and were prevented from influencing the littoral states.For example, during the 1960s, the NAM members sought tocontain the growing superpower military presence in the IndianOcean by stating that the Indian Ocean be declared as a peacezone. The move was initiated by Bandarnaike of Sri Lanka inthe Cairo Conference in October 1964. Then the conferenceof the Heads of Non-aligned states held at Lusaka in 1970called upon all states to identify the Indian Ocean as a zone ofpeace utterly free from nuclear weapons. Finally, efforts ofthe NAM led to the passing of the General Assembly resolution


(A/2832) of 16 December 1971 that called for the establishmentof a peace zone in the Indian Ocean. (Singh 2005: 344)(Ramakrishna 2006: 26 also see, Singh 2006: 67)

Once the Indian Ocean was declared as a ‘zone of peace’,it was anticipated that the initiatives undertaken by the NAMwould result in strengthening cooperation and in promotingan understanding among its members. But the effort towardsregional cooperation suffered a setback because although theAfro-Asian littoral states voted for the United Nationsresolution, they were directly or indirectly part of one or theother military alliances formed by the two superpowers to gettheir sphere of influence extended. The newly independentstates of the Indian Ocean region either joined the new alliancesystems or sought to be patrons in the alternative Non-alignedmovement (NAM).

The decades of 1970s and 1980s also witnessedintraregional tensions and conflicts. Various sub-regionalgroups developed political and strategic linkages and as a result,the Indian Ocean was further divided into exclusive subsystemslike the ASEAN, SAARC, GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council)etc. The emergence of regional blocs further hindered the scopefor south-south unity.

The presence of external and regional powers in the IndianOcean on a large scale was also a major factor that largelyshaped the Indian Ocean environment. Among the externalpowers USA and Soviet Union apart from the French presencein the region, was no less significant. Among the regionalpowers, the presence of Japan, China, Australia and the South-eastern states had been of immense significance. The presenceof these powers during and after the cold war compelled Indiato maintain its hegemonic position in the Indian Ocean in orderto get its maritime interests protected. India had to confrontmultidimensional challenges to sustain its powerful presencein the region. However, before we turn to India we ought toview critically the kind of various regional and external powers’presence in the region.


Chinese Presence: In recent years, China has assumed agreater and an assertive presence in both the Indian Oceanand the East China Sea. China, in the post Soviet era, took fulladvantage of the situation through strengthening its presencein the IOR and ultimately assumed leadership of the Afro-Asian world.

Because of its growing energy needs, China has enhancedits presence in South China Sea through which vital oil suppliesare navigated. It has increased its military profile in the SouthChina Sea. Several reports suggest that China has soughtstrategic agreements with several South and South East Asiancountries. In recent years, she has conducted several roundsof strategic dialogue with countries like Russia, US, France,Britain, Germany, India etc. (Sharma 2006: 46) Many of thecountries in the region have remained suspicious of the Chinesemaritime activity in the region. The fact of the military forcesof China being modernized has been raising lot of concernamong others in the region. (Vasan 2006: 80-81) Therefore,the might of China is all worrisome to India and need effectivecounters at all levels.

Long ago, Panikkar and Vaidya had warned us against theperilously potential maritime strength and the consequent threatfrom China. The links established by China around the IndianOcean form a ‘string of pearls’, which Beijing had establishedacross the Indian Ocean, from Myanmar, through Bangladeshto Pakistan. (Mohan 2005) China’s growing links with Iranand Yemen have become noticeable. This of course, isconcerned with China’s ever increasing energy security drive.(Scott 2006: 19-20)

Australia: Australia shares a long western coastline withthe Indian Ocean. Its possession of Christmas and Coco islands,south of Sumatra, gives Australia a territorial presence in theeastern part of the Indian Ocean. In the southeastern regionalso its presence is felt because of its possession of HeardIsland in the sub-Antarctica. (Scott 2006: 16) However, thepresence of Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in the region, cannot


be ignored by the Indian Ocean powers.France: France’s role in the Indian Ocean is somewhat

different from that of Australia. France retained some scatteredpossessions around the Indian Ocean. The small republic ofDjibouti continues to give France the military facilities at thevital gateway between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.Besides, the French presence also continues in the southwestof the Indian Ocean. There are the French island possessionsin the far southern reaches of the Indian Ocean, viz, Kerguelen,Amsterdam, and Crozet islands. France has also set up basesin Diego Suareg and Reunion Island. (Scott 2006: 16-17)

Japan: In recent years, Japan’s maritime reach has beensteadily growing which has been indicated through its supportduring the Gulf and Afghanistan crises. At the bilateral level,Japanese-Indian security and defence convergence is equallyevident. Japanese navy carried out joint operations with theIndian Navy off the coast of Chennai in May 2001, while theIndian Navy too moved eastwards into East Asia to get engagedwith the Japanese navy. (Scott 2006: 17) While both sharecommon security concerns over the growing menace of piracy,their shared worry about China too is to be taken cognizanceof.

US Presence: Most of the former British colonies becameindependent countries after the World War II, which resultedin the shrinking of the British Empire and diminution in itsinfluence in the Indian Ocean. By mid 1960s, it had lost almostall the colonies so that serious economic strains wereexperienced in Britain. Consequently, Britain startedwithdrawing its military forces from the Indian Ocean regionwhich created a ‘power vacuum’, thus making it congenial forthe onset of the super power rivalry. The USA immediatelyjumped into the fray and made efforts to fill the ‘power vacuum’created by the withdrawal of the British forces. The USAobtained Diego Garcia Island from Britain on lease, to build amilitary base there. The base is fully equipped with nuclearweapons and provides decisive advantage for the USA to


command the areas of the Middle East, South Asia, CentralAsia, Russia and China. In addition to Diego Garcia, USA hasset up military bases near Asmara (Ethiopia), Bahrain, Mahe,Woomera and at Harsld E. Holt (Australia). The military basesat Vacaaos (Mauritius), Gana Island, Masirah Island,Simonstown (South Africa) and Port Louis (Seychelles) arejointly owned by the US and UK. (Ramakrishna 2006: 25)

A major hindrance to cooperative framework in Asia isthe preponderance of US power. The US military presence inAsia particularly in Asia Pacific is organized around the USPacific Command and the US Central Command. The IndianOcean is in fact reemerging as a strategic area of concern. TheUS Pacific Command has at its disposal, a fairly large navaland air force component. The new American grand strategy,particularly after 9/11, based on ‘muscular dominance’, hasbecome a major source of insecurity and instability in Asia.Its strategy of military dominance, ‘war on terrorism’ and‘preemption’, is designed to secure and protect primarily theAmerican interests. The United States has a huge militarypresence in several regions of Asia. Its overall foreign policyobjective has been to set up a system of global governanceand force other nations into compliance. (Sharma 2006: 46-47)

Today, the US presence in the region remainsunquestioned. On the other hand, the debate centers round theissue of the required and desirable extent of the US presence.There are several countries in Asia, which regard the US as astabilizing force though the degrees to which nations hold thisview vary. This view has been put across by Japan, Korea,Philippines, etc. Thus, the obvious salient issue is not whetherthe US should maintain its presence in Asia, but in what wayand at what level, and on what conditions should themaintenance of the US presence continue. (Sharma 2006: 47)While the security of the Asian region essentially depends uponthe close cooperation between the Asian nations, major globalpowers have to be involved and hence the absence of any room


for the US to be excluded.Soviet/Russian Presence: In order to counter the US

influence, the Soviet Union sent its fleet in 1968. Since 1970,it steadily built trade and economic connections with Indiaand the countries bordering the Indian Ocean. Moscow hadentered into bilateral treaties with several countries of theregion such as India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Iraq, Egypt,Mauritius, Somalia, Seychelles, etc. Soviet Union maintainedmilitary bases at Berbera, Masira, Umakas, Dahalak islands.It constructed naval radio stations and ammunition depots atthe Red Sea, and also obtained access to port facilities inSomalia, Mauritius and Singapore. In the post Soviet years,Russia withdrew its presence from the Indian Ocean. Recentreport however indicates Russia’s renewed interest in the IndianOcean. (Ramakrishna 2006: 25-26) Russia has been desperatelytrying to gain a foothold in the oil rich countries of the MiddleEast.

India’s PositionIndia’s position in the Indian Ocean is to be viewed against

the backdrop of the powerful presence of the various externaland regional powers. As stated earlier, India occupies a specialposition in the Indian Ocean region. For centuries together,Indians have used the Indian Ocean to further their economicand strategic interests. In fact, the Indian Ocean has been apowerful medium of trade, defense, colonization and diffusionof Indian culture particularly in Southeast Asia. The Mauryankings had established ports on the Bay of Bengal in the fourthcentury B.C. Kautilya made a mention of a separateadministrative division of overseas maritime activities in hisfamous Arthsastra. Large naval kingdoms of the Cholas andChalukyas were set up in South India. Sri Vijaya Empire, setup by the South Indian rulers in Southeast Asia from eighth toeleven centuries, maintained strong cultural and commercialties with South India through the Indian Ocean. The Arabexplorers and traders increased their activities in the Arabian


Sea from the middle of the Thirteenth century to the beginningof the Sixteenth century. However, they could not exercisemuch control on this ocean. (Ramakrishna, 2006: 24)

The European influence on the Indian Ocean started afterthe landing of Vasco da Gama on the western coast of India in1498. Major European powers were eventually drawn into along and bloody struggle for power on the Indian Ocean. Outof all the European powers, Britain was in possession of thebest kind of naval force and had eventually gained supremacyover the Indian Ocean and the Indian sub-continent.(Ramakrishna, 2006: 24) During the Eighteenth and Nineteenthcenturies, sea ports like Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, weredeveloped to see that the sea trade and maritime activitiesreceived a boost. Consequently, on the eve of independence,there were 3 major ports. By 2002, 12 major ports and 184intermediate and minor ports have come up. (Singh 2006: 65)

Politically as long as India remained under colonial rule,New Delhi did not command the high seas. Even in the initialyears after independence, New Delhi did not evince muchinterest in the Indian Ocean except for economic reasons. TheBritish were reluctant to pass on their maritime expertise toIndia. India continued to depend upon Britain for the warships,training and naval experts. Till 1957, the Chief of Naval Staffof India was a British. Indian Navy was treated as an adjunctof the Commonwealth navy. However, over the years, India’spresence in the Indian Ocean became obvious. According toK. R. Singh, certain developments during the 1960s contributedtowards making the impact of India’s powerful presence inthe Indian Ocean felt by one and all. (Singh 2006: 66) Thesewere: (i) the British decision to concentrate upon NATOcommitment in the Atlantic and in the North Sea, as well as itsanother decision to withdraw from east of Suez: (ii) thewillingness of the USSR to transfer modern weapons in largenumber on easy financial terms to India; and (iii) the IndianNavy’s lackluster performance during the Indo-Pak conflictsof 1965. Since the early 1970s, India started developing its


Navy by using the British and the Soviet equipment that helpedto reorient its maritime naval perspective on the Indian Ocean.

Post Cold War YearsThe end of cold war and the demise of the Soviet Union

resulted in some basic restructuring in the international orderthat had significant bearing upon the Indian Ocean regionstates. The onset of globalisation has brought in structuralchanges in the global political and economic system whichcompelled the nations to radically redefine their political andeconomic policy regimes. Many of the states had to open uptheir economy under pressure from the West. The withdrawalof the Soviet navy from the IOR, the emergence of the newlyindependent republics in the Central Asia, the Gulf war, andthe end of the apartheid regime in South Africa were some ofthe major developments which forced the IOR states to reorienttheir foreign and security policies.

For almost till the late 1980s, India’s presence in the IORwas viewed through Soviet prism only. This perceptionchanged after the end of the cold war and the disintegration ofthe USSR and subsequent removal of the Soviet Navy fromthe region. Major Powers began to evaluate India as a majorregional power in its own right. This development providedthe necessary input to India for improving bilateral ties withbig powers and build structures of maritime cooperation atthe regional level.

Options before Indian foreign policy makers became widein this changed situation. India could get out of its pro-Sovietimage which helped to rehabilitate New Delhi in SoutheastAsia. India also got its economic policy reoriented and its newpolitical elite were willing to liberate the country’s economyfrom the age-old impediments to progress. These developmentsin the 1990s enabled India to see that its policies dovetailedwith the individual policies of the members of the ASEANand SADC (South African Development Community). (Singh2005: 345)


The Indian Ocean Rim Initiative: The Indian Ocean RimInitiative was launched in March 1995 at Port Louis by sevenlittorals of the Indian Ocean - Australia, India, Kenya,Mauritius, Oman, Singapore and South Africa.4 It emphasizedthe economic cooperation among a few like-minded states ofthe Indian Ocean region with the sole objective of stimulatingintra-regional trade and investment. Thus, the focus wasprimarily on the economic matters. Political and strategic issueswere consciously excluded (Singh 2005: 346-347).

A working group composed of members of all the sevensponsoring states, was constituted to formulate a charter, andchalk out a future work program as well as the composition offuture membership. The working group met at Port Louisduring 15-17 August 1995. Among other things, itrecommended that the membership be extended from seven tofourteen countries. The proposed list of new members was –Indonesia and Malaysia from Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka fromSouth Asia, Yemen from Southwest Asia, and Tanzania,Madagascar and Mozambique from Southern Africa. Theworking group in its meeting on 9 September 1996, finalizedthe details which were then discussed in the intergovernmentalmeeting held at Mauritius during 10-11 September 1996. Allthe fourteen states participated in it. The Charter was alsofinalized and recommended for formal approval. The detailswere formally adopted when the foreign ministers of fourteenstates met in Mauritius during 5-7 March 1997. (Singh 2005:348-349) A new regional program for economic cooperationwas formally launched on the Indian Ocean. The IOR-ARCbecame a reality. 5

Another parallel initiative to forge the IOR countries intoa wider political and economic forum was mooted by Australia.The Perth meeting was held in June 1995 in which the delegatesfrom India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in South Asia,all the M-7 members, and the participants from other rimcountries, took part. However, the Australian plan became deadfor different reasons. (Rao 2005: 363-365)


India has a substantial trade with IOR-ARC members thatamounted to about $ 7.342 billion in 1995-96. India had alsoattracted investments from these states to the tune of $ 2.29billion, till 1995. There remains a vast scope for India topromote joint ventures in the IOR-ARC countries by virtue ofits technological expertise and financial base. (Singh 2005:351)

Indian financial institutions like the FICCI (Federation ofIndian Chambers of Commerce and Industries) have beenevincing a deep interest in the activities of the IOR-ARC. Theinitiatives undertaken by FICCI would facilitate the trade andinvestment opportunities in the IOR-ARC. This apart, theIndian Institute of Foreign Trade has been coordinating aproject with IOR-ARC. The project is an Indo-Mauritiusinitiative, but is kept open for others to join. The Confederationof Indian Industries has already formulated a proposal for anIOR Trade Fair to be organized once in every two years. Thenational Council for Applied Economic Research and CII hasalso been jointly coordinating the project dealing withinvestment facilitation and promotion. (Singh 2005: 352)

Thus, India has been deeply involved in promoting thenewly created IOR-ARC. However, the IOR-ARC does notsignify the completion of India’s policy on the Indian Oceanregion. Rather it can only be one of the several means towardsthe end. K. R. Singh has argued that further research and studyconcerning India’s interests in the IOR-ARC would revealsome new areas of cooperation. (Singh 2005: 352)

India’s strategic engagement: Over the years, India hasincreased its strategic engagement with several countries inthe region. It has signed military oriented agreements withseveral countries including Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.Recently, India conducted joint naval and military exerciseswith China, US, Japan, Russia and some other Asianneighbours. Its greater economic, military and naval presencehas been more or less unanimously acknowledged by all majorplayers in the regions. (Sharma 2006: 46)


It is interesting to note that the South Eastern countries inparticular, have not been critical of the growth in the maritimepower of India. Rather many view this development assomething that would provide the much required balance inthe region. The Navies and the Coast Guards of Malaysia,Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Korea andeven China, have been exercising together in different partsof the ocean by way of trying to learn something or the other,from each other. (Vasan 2006: 81) This has enhanced India’sregional profile to a greater extent. At the same time, it hasalso strengthened the cooperative regional security frameworkin the Indian Ocean.

Since the early 1990s, New Delhi had started expandingits economic activities and military presence in the IndianOcean. Top ranking leaders have emphasized the importanceof the Indian Ocean in India’s foreign policy from time to time.In 2003, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee told theannual Combined Service Conference that “the strategicfrontiers of today’s India, grown in international Stature, haveexpanded well beyond confines of South Asia…Our securityenvironment ranges from the Persian Gulf to Straits of Malaccaacross the Indian Ocean…and South-East Asia. Our strategicthinking has also to extend to these horizons.” (www.saag.org/papers9/paper832.htm) In October 2004, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh stated: “Our strategic footprint covers theregion bounded by the Horn of Africa, West Asia…South-EastAsia and beyond, to the far reaches of the Indian Ocean.Awareness of this reality should inform and animate ourstrategic thinking and defence planning.” (Singh 2004)

In 2006, Indian Foreign Minister stated: “geographyimparts a unique position to India in the geo-politics of theAsian continent, with our footprint reaching well beyond SouthAsia…from the Persian Gulf to the Straits of Malacca.” (asquoted in Scott 2006: 2) Keeping in mind India’s variedmaritime interests, chief of naval staff, Arun Prakash stated:“no one can stop India from becoming a maritime power…our


maritime interests are now all over, anything that happensbetween the east coast of Africa and the Malacca Straits is ofimmediate concern to India. We have the business to knowwhat is happening in this part of the Indian Ocean.” (as quotedin Scott 2006: 2. for detail see Prakash 2006)

In recent years, the successive BJP and the Congressgovernments undertook serious building and purchasingprogram to strengthen Indian Navy. A brown water fleet isbeing transformed into a long range ocean-going blue waterfleet. Thus, Indian Navy has acquired weapons of vast rangeand its naval forces are deployed across vast distances fromthe Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal and the farthest reachesof the Indian Ocean. (Prakash 2005. also see Scott 2006: 7)Noted scholar C. Raja Mohan has also emphasized the needto protect Indian maritime interests with utmost care andurgency. (Mohan 2003)

India’s Ministry of Defence Annual Report articulates theobjective of its foreign policy: “India’s parameters of securityclearly extend well beyond the confines of its conventionalgeographical land borders. Given its size, location, trade linksand extensive Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), India’ssecurity environment extends from the Persian Gulf in the westto the Straits of Malacca in the east…to the Equator in thesouth. India’s links with most nations in this region aretraditional and civilisational, supported by centuries ofmaritime trade and migration of people.” (as quoted in Scott2006: 7)

In order to strengthen India’s naval reach, defencecapability is being modernized. The purchase of IL-78 aircrafttanker in 2003 has enriched the Indian Air Force units to asignificant level. (‘India in the Indian Ocean’ 2006: 58-59)This apart, India’s TU-142M and IL-38 maritime surveillanceaircraft have been upgraded. The navy is also raising threesquadrons of Israeli-built Heron II unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs), which enables it to set up an Indian Naval SquadronINAS 342 at Kochi. Besides, India has been engaged in


negotiating the purchase of PC 3 Orion long range surveillanceplanes from the United States. (Scott 2006: 8)

India is thus busily engaged in projecting its power acrossthe breadth of Indian Ocean in an unprecedented way. DavidScott has made some significant study of the changes to whichIndia’s Indian Ocean policy has been subjected over the yearssince the time of Nehru. The post cold war years have seen thereversal of Nehru’s post independence maritime discourse.Writing in 1954, Nehru said: “we have no intention of sendingexpeditionary forces to other countries or to have anyoperations, military, naval or air, far from our country...thismeans that our Navy will at no time be charged with protectingthe sea routes” to and from India, and that “this also leads tothe conclusion that we do not normally require big ships...Longdistance submarines are not a necessity for us. This applies toan aircraft carrier also.” (Kumar & Prasad 1999: 307) Today,half a century later, it is seen that distant places are visited bythe Indian Navy projecting itself eastwards, westwards andsouthwards, in defence of sea routes around the Indian Ocean.(Scott 2006: 8)

K. R. Singh has argued that Indian foreign policy in theIndian Ocean since 1990s, has been directed towards – resourceenhancement, resource utilization and the promotion of a newframework of regional peace and security. (Singh 2005: 354-355) New Delhi has been cooperating with other regionalpowers in the Indian Ocean in sharing whatever expertise ithas acquired in various fields including technology. India hasengaged itself in various capacities with other players in theregion. For example, India has concluded bilateral agreementswith Indonesia and Thailand for conducting joint patrols from2001 to 2005 along with the maritime boundaries. (Vasan 2006:82)

India currently trains the military and the police personnelfrom the Maldives. It has provided military equipments andtrained Maldivian paratroopers in regard to the counterinsurgency operations. Indian naval vessels patrol along the


archipelago’s many coastlines and watch over its sea lanes. In2006, India provided a fast attack craft to Maldives which hasa range of 3600 kms. This development, according to S.Dikshit, is to be viewed as part of the country’s overall strategy,to strengthen maritime and security ties with other countries.(Dikshit 2006. also see Scott 2006: 5)

Similarly, there is excellent coordination between themaritime forces of India and Sri Lanka. India’s strategicinterests in Sri Lanka were clearly obvious in its militaryintervention during 1987-90. The Indo-Sri Lankan Agreementof 1987 gave India a substantial voice in Sri Lankan militaryaffairs. (Scott 2006: 5-6)

Regular annual naval intercourse with the central IndianOcean islands has been the Indian Navy’s recourse. The centralIndian Ocean republic of Mauritius is India’s strategic outpostfor its naval power projection and presence. Geopolitically,Mauritius is very important from Indian foreign policy pointof view. Mauritius serves as a springboard for Indian navaloperations to be effective along the East African coastline andto jump into the central Indian Ocean. (Scott 2006: 11) In theyears 2003 and 2005, Mauritius sought surveillance of itsExclusive Economic Zone by the Indian warships, INS Shardaand then INS Suvarna. The importance India attaches toMauritius is evident from the fact that the Indian Prime MinisterManmohan Singh chose the island nation for his first officialvisit to a country. Visiting in March 2005, Singh declared:“We see Mauritius as friendly gateway to the African continentand an invaluable partner.” (“Visit of Dr. Manmohan Singh toMauritius” 2005, also see Scott 2006: 12)

India’s naval presence in Mauritius has been particularlyevident in recent years. Ten Indian Air Force planes transitedthrough Mauritius to participate in the Air Defence Exercisein South Africa in September 2004. Indian warships haveregularly visited the island, four ships in August 2002, withthe destroyers INS Delhi and INS Ranvijay, conducting jointexercises with Mauritian ships off Port Louis. INS Savitri


visited Mauritius in September 2004, as did INS Tabar in July2004, the INS Sharda in April 2005. These visits signified thenature of defence and security cooperation between India andMauritius. This apart, the present deployment of the Indianfleet of ships to South Africa, Seychelles, Kenya, Mauritius,Comoros and the Reunion Island is an endeavour to furtherstrengthen the bonds of friendship and harmony with India’sneighbours in the Indian Ocean. (High Commissioner of Indiato Mauritius 2005. also refer Scott 2006: 11)

This apart, Russian links with India in the post Soviet years,have also served New Delhi’s maritime interests. Russia hassupplied an aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and variousadvanced stealth frigates. In 2005, Russia sent a substantialfleet through the Mediterranean and down the Red Sea, toconduct joint maneuvers with the Indian Navy in the Gulf ofAden. (Scott 2006: 18)

Joint naval exercises with the United States which beganin the 1990s, have been continuing till date with full potential.The two countries have been conducting joint naval exercisesin the Arabian Sea involving their aircraft carriers, USS Nimitzand INS Viraat for the first time. As India’s defence ministerput it: “India and the United States have committed themselvesto comprehensive cooperation in ensuring a secure maritimedomain” in and around the Indian Ocean. (Mukherjee 2006)In the wake of India’s nuclear explosion in 1998, USAsuspended its joint naval exercise for some time but resumedthe same after 2002. India’s nuclear explosions were criticizedby USA, China, Australia and some other powers. Barring thisdevelopment, Indo-US strategic relationship has become closer,as both share common concerns about the Chineseexpansionism, and the Islamic terrorism in the Indian Ocean.It may be added that during 1980s, India had opposed andcriticized the US military presence in the Indian Ocean.

ConclusionIt has been driven home in the paper, that in recent years,


India’s naval presence in the Indian Ocean in terms of rangeand power has been very significant. India’s presence in a bigway is to be viewed against the backdrop of various regionaland external powers’ presence. Viewed from neo-liberalperspective, India’s hegemonic presence in the Indian Oceanis largely the outcome of the structural factors. However, whatis important to note is that barring a few stray incidents, India’shegemonic presence in the Indian Ocean has been acceptedand welcomed by other powers from within and outside theregion.

India has an important leadership role in the Indian Ocean.The increasing trade and economic relations with other Asianeconomies demand that India adopts a proactive maritimepolicy both in terms of maritime trade and security. However,it is a known fact that effective management of overall securityissue in the Indian Ocean region is a challenging and dauntingtask. The threat of Islamic terrorism, the environmentalpollution and the threat to maritime security demand India andother powers in the Indian Ocean to come closer. Therefore,India in its own interest must continue to make greater effortto strengthen its presence in the Indian Ocean, while takingother powers into confidence.

Finally, the pivotal role that India assumed in the IOR inthe postcolonial age, either in the Non-aligned Movement, theNorth-South dialogue, the disarmament crusade or in theregion’s peace zone movement, qualifies its active involvementin the region’s affairs in the present situation as well. In fact,given the shift in world power structure from military toeconomic strength and the shift of global attention towardsthe Indian Ocean, it is natural and imperative for a country ofIndia’s size and potential, to respond actively to the rapidlyaltering scenario.

Notes1. The International Hydrographic Organisation has

recognized the coast of Antarctica as the southern extreme


of the Indian Ocean. The average depth of the Indian Oceanis 3873 m. (Ramakrishna 2006: 19)

2. The Indian Ocean is endowed with rich variety of naturalresources of which mineral and power resources as wellas food resources deserve mention. (Ramakrishna 2006:21-23)Oil & Gas: Oil and gas are the most valuable of all the

minerals extracted from the sea bed. Most of the oil and gasproducing areas of the oceans are confined to the continentalshelf, but oil wells in much deeper seas have been dug in therecent past. At present, half of the world’s total output of oiland gas comes from offshore wells and over 75 countries areengaged in offshore drilling. In the Indian Ocean, the majorplayers in offshore oil and gas exploration, drilling andproduction, are India, countries surrounding the Persian Gulfand the Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.Coastal areas of Australia (Western Australia) also haveoffshore oil reserves. India has 3.2 lakh sq. km offshore areasof sedimentary deposits on the continental shelf. Mumbai Highis the largest oil producer of India. Significant gas reserveshave been found in the Krishna-Godavari basin off the coastof Andhra Pradesh.

Oil and gas reserves of the Persian Gulf are remarkablyamazing. But these reserves remained unexploited for a longtime because, the gulf has land based reserves also which wereto be exploited first. The offshore potential is very important,especially for smaller states which have restricted land areas.

Aggregates: Marine aggregates comprise sand, gravel orshell deposits etc. used primarily in the construction industry.They are mainly found in the continental shelves. These areused for manufacturing cement.

Placers: Placer deposits are concentrations of heavy,resilient and chemically resistant minerals eroded from theexisting ore bodies by mechanical weathering. Such depositsinclude native gold, native platinum, tin, titanium, magnetite(iron), zirconium, monazite (thorium) and gemstones. In the


Indian Ocean, such placers are found along the coasts of SriLanka, India, Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia. Sri Lanka,India and Australia have titanium sands, whereas Malaysiaand Indonesia have tin deposits. Indonesia is one of the mainareas in the world where offshore placers are mined.

Polymetallic Nodules: Polymetallic nodules are thosewhich contain several metals, the important metals beingmanganese, copper, nickel, cobalt, etc. They occur in manyshapes, sizes and forms and are generally friable. India hasobtained the technology of exploiting these mineral nodulesfrom the ocean beds. The United Nations has grantedpermission to India to exploit the polymetallic nodules overan area of 1, 50,000 sq km in the Indian Ocean. India is thefirst country to obtain such a right as it obtained ‘PioneerInvestor status under UNCLOS III. The National Institute ofOceanography in Goa is to be credited with playing a leadingrole in the research and development of this mining technique.3. This commercial and even civilization interaction suffered

a major setback after Vasco da Gama ignored the traditionalroute and rounded Africa via the Atlantic Ocean to establisha direct sea route between South and Southeast Asia andthe Atlantic littoral of Europe. By the first half of thenineteenth century, the Europeans had not only dominatedtrade and commerce in the Indian Ocean and the Pacificregions but were also beginning to impose their politicaland military hegemony. It resulted in the politicaldominance of the Europeans in the region. Consequently,the entire fabric of the socioeconomic system of the regionwas disturbed. The North-South linkages replaced thetraditional South-South linkages. (Singh 2005: 342-343)

4. The idea of bringing the IOR countries together in a neweconomic framework was first publicly stated byMauritius. (The Hindu, 8 August 1992) The Indian OceanRim initiative after 1993 was not the first initiative of thekind. Earlier in the 1980s, such initiatives were undertakenon two occasions. In 1983, France took the first initiative


when its headquarters were in Mauritius. It was howeverconfined to a few states of the western Indian Ocean. Thesecond initiative – the Indian Ocean Maritime AffairsCooperation (IOMAC) – was largely the result of anAustralian initiative, formally launched from Colombo in1987. It had wider participation and included membersfrom even beyond the Indian Ocean. Both these initiativeswere not successful against the cold war background. Indiatoo had kept itself aloof from both the initiatives becauseof its diplomatic isolation in the region at that time andalso because it did not wish to join what it considered tobe largely western initiatives. (Singh 2005: 346)

5. The IOR-ARC is just an inter-governmental agency inwhich decisions are taken by consensus. It has not beenconceived either as a closed trade bloc or as a preferentialtrade area. The charter defines the scope of the activitiesof the IOR-ARC. Economic cooperation is accordedprimacy. The charter enables member states to reachbeyond the narrow confines of sub-regional groups tointeract with other states in the Indian Ocean region. ThusIndia can fruitfully interact with Indonesia, Malaysia andSingapore without being a member of the ASEAN. It thusgives New Delhi an opportunity to enlarge its field ofeconomic interaction.

References

Dikshit, S, “India Transfers Naval Ship to Maldives”, HindustanTimes, 17 April 2006.

‘Editorial’, Indian Ocean Survey, Vol. 2, No. 2, July-December2006.

High Commissioner of India to Mauritius, “Visit of Indian NavalShips Delhi and Trishul to Mauritius”, 21-24 June 2005, see.http://indiahighcom.intnet.mu/prl_14_IndianNavi_Delhi_Trishul.htm

“India in the Indian Ocean”, Naval War College Review, Vol.


59, No. 2, 2006, pp. 58-59.

Mohan, C. Raja, “There’s a New Game in Asia: India, IndianOcean and China’s ‘String of Pearls’”, Indian Express, 31 May2005.

Mohan, C. Raja, Crossing the Rubicon. The Shaping of India’sNew Foreign Policy, (New Delhi, Viking, 2003), pp. 204-236.

Mukherjee, Pranab, “India – a Rising Global Player”, 3 June2006, http://www.iiss.org/ conferences/the-shangri-la-dialogue/2006-plenary-session-speeches/second-plenary-session-pranab-mukherjee.

Nehru, Jawaharlal, “Naval Policy”, 12 May 1954, in R. Kumarand H. Prasad (eds.), Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru(Second Series), Vol. 25, Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, NewDelhi, 1999.

Prakash, A, “Shaping India’s Maritime Strategy – Opportunitiesand Challenges”, November 2005, http://indiannavy.nic.in/cns_add2.htm

Prakash, A, interview in Sainik Samachar, (Ministry ofDefence), Vol. 53, No. 13, 2006.

Ramakrishna, S & Baladishan, A, “Geopolitics of the IndianOcean”, Indian Ocean Digest (Osmania University), Vol. 21,No. 1, Issue: 41, January – June 2006, pp. 19-27.

Rao, P. V, “India and the Indian Ocean Rim Cooperation” inRajen Harshe and K. M. Seethi (ed.), Engaging with the World:Critical Reflections on India’s Foreign Policy (New Delhi,Orient Longman, 2005), pp. 356-376.

Sakhuja, Vijay, “Container Transportation Security in South andSoutheast Asia”, Indian Ocean Digest, Vol. 21, No. 1, Issue:41, January – June 2006, pp. 1-8.

Scott, David, “Indian ‘footprints’ in the India Ocean: PowerProjection for the 21st Century”, Indian Ocean Survey, Vol. 2,No. 2, July-December 2006, pp. 1-26.

Sharma, R. R., “Future Architecture of Security in Asia and the


India Ocean Region” in V. D. Chopra (ed.), India’s ForeignPolicy in the 21st Century (New Delhi, Kalpaz Publications,2006), pp. 43-50.

“Ship with Indians Hijacked”, The Telegraph, May 20, 2008.

Singh, K. R, “Indian and Indian Ocean and Regional MaritimeCooperation”, International Studies, Vol. 41, No. 2, 2004, pp.195-218, 205.

Singh, K. R., ‘India and the Indian Ocean’ in V. D. Chopra (ed.),India’s Foreign Policy in the 21st Century (Delhi, KalpazPublications, 2006), pp. 65-68.

Singh, K. R, “The Indian Ocean Rim Association for RegionalCooperation: Regional Cooperation in the Indian Ocean”, inRajen Harshe and K. M. Seethi (ed.), Engaging with the World:Critical Reflections on India’s Foreign Policy, (New Delhi,Orient Longman, 2005), pp. 342-355.

Singh, M, “PM’s Address at the Combined Conference”, 24October 2004, http://pmindia.nic.in/speech/content.asp?id=37

Srivatsan, V, “Continental Shelf Delimitation: An India-CentricSWOT Analysis”, Indian Ocean Survey, Vol. 2, No. 2, July-December 2006, pp. 40-51.

The Hindu, 8 August 1992.

Vasan, R. S., “Indian Maritime Power in the Asian Context:Challenges and Responses”, Indian Ocean Digest (OsmaniaUniversity, Hyderabad), Vol. 21, No. 2, Issue 42, July-December,2006, pp. 79-93.

“Visit of Dr. Manmohan Singh to Mauritius – Statement onDeparture from New Delhi”, 30 March 2005, http://meaindia.nic.in/speech/2005/03/30ss01.htm.

www.saag.org/papers9/paper832.htm

75Israel’s Counter Terrorism Strategies: A Retrospect

5

Israel’s Counter Terrorism Strategies:A Retrospect

T. V. GOPALA CHARI*

IntroductionEver since the inception of its formation in 1948, the state

of Israel has been facing the threat of terror attacks fromorganizations such as the Popular Front for the Liberation ofPalestine, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hizbollah.Because these groups cannot defeat the Israel Defense Forces(IDF) on the battlefield, they target Israeli citizens in an attemptto subvert the national will. Terrorist violence aims “toundermine the personal security of civilians, to sow fear andtrepidation, and to sap public morale” in order to exert pressureon the decision makers to make political concessions.1

Over the past five and a half decades, the Israeligovernment has developed a variety of measures to preventterrorist attacks or to mitigate their pernicious effects. Israelhas also made a virtue of the necessity by creating a cutting-edge security industry that markets counterterrorismtechnologies, products, and services throughout the world. Theprimary goals of Israeli counterterrorism strategy are to preventterrorists from influencing the national agenda and to preservethe psychological resilience of the civilian population. Besides,the government’s campaign against terrorism involves astriking back against terrorist cells to protect the homeland,by expanding the campaign against terrorist organizations andtheir state sponsors, and by delegitimatiging terrorisminternationally. However, it has not been successfully creatingan atmosphere where common citizens are excluded from this

* Dr. T. V. Gopala Chari, Associate Professor, Centre for Indian OceanStudies, Osmania University, Hyderabad.


ongoing Anti-terror process.2

Consequently, most of the innocent people have been arevictimized by the terrorist attacks for all their non-involvement.The counter terrorist warfare by the Israeli government hasalso often been responsible for the public insecurity. This kindof a situation posed a psychological threat to the commonresidents of Israel. Before examining further, whether Israelcounter terrorist policies and practices are adhered to, in itsset goals, it is appropriate here to examine the globally acceptedcounterterrorism policies which are mostly endorsed by theexperts in the field.

Counterterrorism ParametersAn analysis of the experience of other countries, and the

existing literature on the worldwide counter-terrorism policies,yields several parameters that together support a correspondingclassification of the counter-terrorist policies of differentcountries. The approach that each country adopted can beclassified as “rigid,” “flexible” or somewhere in between, basedon national attitudes toward the parameters describedhereunder (“counter-terrorism parameters”). The mainparameters likely to emerge in different situations are asfollows: This information, it was felt, will be useful to analyzeIsrael’s case in the present context.• Willingness to negotiate with terrorists: A consideration

of the conditions under which the government is willingto negotiate with terrorists, be it during a hostage event oras part of any other scenario entails the question: Arenegotiations with terrorists seen as a taboo or once thehostages are involved, does the government feel that thenegotiations should not be ruled out – even if this meansthat the state must be ready to surrender to the terrorists’demands?

• Attitude toward states’ sponsors of terrorism: Shoulddiplomatic, economic, and even military sanctions beimposed on states that sponsor terrorism? Or is it better to


maintain economic and diplomatic ties and use them inorder to convince the country involved, to reduce orabandon its support of terrorism?

• How terrorism is perceived: Is terrorism regarded as amilitary conflict between a regular and an irregular army,requiring the development of appropriate weapons andtactics; or is terrorism regarded as first and foremost asocio-political issue that must be solved with socio-political tools? In this context, what portion of the country’scounter-terrorism policy is dominated by the militaryoption?

• The terrorist organizations’ rationality and motivation:How far “rational”, is the adversary terrorist organizationin the eyes of the government in question? How farsignificant are the cost-effectiveness considerations in theterrorist organization’s decision-making process, and towhat extent does that organization direct its activitiestoward the accomplishment of the defined goals?

• The objective of the counter-terrorist warfare: whichone of the most distinctive parameters that distinguishesone from the other of different counter-terrorist policies,is their ultimate objective? Does the government inquestion aim to annihilate terrorism, to reduce its impact,or to resolve the underlying issues?

• The resources invested in combating terrorism: Thisparameter quantifies counter-terrorism policy: whatportion of the resources at its disposal does the state investin handling terrorism?

• Timing: Should counter-terrorist policies involve routineor proactive strikes, or should the state limit its actions tostrictly defensive preemptive measures? Alternately,should the government adopt a policy of retaliation, andrespond forcefully to any terrorist attack against thestate?

• Deterrence as part of counter-terrorist warfare: Anassessment of whether it is possible to exact such a high


price by the terrorist organization that the latter willperceive the exorbitant cost as something exceeding thebenefits to be gained?

• The “boomerang” effect: Are serious strikes against theterrorist organizations likely to escalate the situation? Inother words, do counter-terrorist attacks have a boomerangeffect, or is this idea groundless?

• The state’s stance on the “democratic dilemma”: Shouldthe most effective counter-terrorist activity be implementedat all costs, even at the price of eroding liberal-democraticvalues; or should these values be upheld at all times, evenif this means compromising on the efficacy of counter-terrorist activity? In this context, is emergency legislationabsolutely necessary in order to fight terrorism, or shouldit be viewed as a substantial threat to democracy, and thusnot to be considered? A similar conundrum arises inconnection with collective punishment – is it imperativein order to isolate the terrorist from within, or does itinstead, weaken the efficacy of counter-terrorist warfareas it broadens the resentment and hatred toward the stateand enhances the popularity of the terrorist organization?

· Publicizing the government’s counter-terrorist policy:Finally, if a government has an accepted counter-terrorismpolicy, should this policy be made public, and its specificsbe announced and adhered to consistently, in order to deterthe terrorists? Or will such publicity limit the options atthe disposal of the decision-makers, and thus stand in theway of their deviating from previous statements?All the parameters listed above are interconnected. Taken

together, they compose the fabric of counter-terrorist policy.On each parameter, governments can choose policies anywhereon the continuum between rigidity and flexibility; there is thusa wide array of combined policies that any government canadopt. History and professional literature show that changingcircumstances have caused governments to alter their policies.It must therefore be noted that any classification of a counter-


terrorist policy is time- and place-dependent, and could changefrom one period to the next provided a new government takespower, when a substantial change takes place in the country,or when there is a change in the scope and attributes ofterrorism. 3

Israel’s ExperienceThe parameters outlined above serve to categorize the

trajectory of Israel’s counter-terrorist policies over the two andhalf decades on a continuum between rigidity and flexibility,stressing the differences between the changing governments.The following methodological issues are pertinent to beaddressed. 4

• Did Israeli decision-makers perceive terrorism as a tactical,strategic or existential threat?

• What were the objectives of Israel’s counter-terroristactivities during the last two and a half decades?

• What tools and methods of operation were selected topromote these goals, and to what extent did they succeed?

• How did Israel’s decision-makers address the “democraticdilemma” during their period?Israel has learned over years that terrorism is a stubborn

phenomenon and that, in contrast to the conventional warfare,decisive victory over terrorism is rare. When countermeasuresblock one avenue of attack, terrorists improvise some newmeans of inflicting damage often by taking a detour. Forinstance, after a series of aircraft hijackings forced Israel toimprove the aviation security, terrorists began to target Israeliembassies overseas. When security at embassies wasstrengthened, terrorists responded by attacking markets, buses,and pedestrians in Israeli cities.5 Accordingly, counter terrorismstrategies have evolved and continually adapted as per theground requirements.

Palestinian terrorism against Israel has escalateddramatically especially against Jewish settlements and militarybases in the Gaza Strip. Particularly damaging to the morale


of the Israeli population, has been a wave of suicide bombingsby Palestinian terrorists in crowded buses, markets, restaurants,and nightclubs. These attacks, which occur essentially atrandom, pose a serious threat to the psychological andeconomic well-being of the Israeli society. 6

Given the high motivation of suicide bombers and therelative simplicity and low cost of the explosives they use,deterrence is impossible and prevention is far from beingcertain.

Although Israeli counterterrorism authorities interdictedthe attempted suicide attacks to the maximum extent, the smallnumber of bombers who penetrate the security net can stillwreak considerable death and destruction. Israelicounterterrorism strategy basically comprises the followingelements: 7

1. Intelligence collection and analysis.2. Military and paramilitary operations.3. Aviation security.4. Defense against chemical and biological attacks.5. Managing hostage situation.6. Strengthening psychological endurance of the civilian

population.

The Role of IntelligenceThe vigilance of the Israeli public plays a key role in

preventing terrorism. It is a known fact that the average Israeliis highly aware of suspicious packages, individuals, and actionsthat could pose a threat to the public safety and does not hesitateto notify the police of it. As a result, ordinary citizens foil theconsiderable number of attempted terrorist attacks in Israel,including time bombs left by terrorists. Israeli experts contendthat beyond a vigilant citizenry, intelligence is the essentialfoundation of any systematic effort to combat terrorism. Thefirst priority must be placed on intelligence, then on counterterrorism operations, and finally on defense and protection.To support its war on terrorism, Israel has developed a highly


coordinated and efficient intelligence apparatus. Drawing onhuman and technical means, Israeli government agencies workcontinually to identify terrorist operatives and cells. Threatsare categorized into those that appear imminent and requireimmediate attention and those that are less probable but couldemerge later on, and those that are unlikely to befall but stillpossible.

Israeli foreign and domestic intelligence agenciescooperate well in collecting and sharing terrorism-relatedinformation. The Israel Security Agency known as Shin Bet,reports directly to the Prime Minister and is responsible fordomestic intelligence, counterespionage, internal security, andthe prevention of terrorist acts. The Arab Affairs Division ofShin Bet conducts political subversion and surveillance of Arabterrorists, while the Protection and Security Divisionsafeguards Israeli government buildings and embassies,defense contractors, scientific installations, key industrialplants, and the national airline El Al. Israel also has a foreignintelligence agency, Mossad ( “institute”), and a militaryintelligence service, Aman. Shin Bet works closely with Mossadand Aman to prepare an annual terrorism threat assessmentfor the Prime Minister. Israeli government agencies gatherhuman intelligence on terrorism by deploying undercoveragents in the Palestinian-controlled areas and by recruitinglocal informants inside or close to terrorist organizations. Israelalso engages in frequent police operations in which largenumbers of suspected Palestinian militants are rounded up andinterrogated. However, only rarely do such operations yieldtactical warning of an imminent terrorist attack and theapparent tips obtained during interrogation may amount tomisinformation designed to deflect attention from the realtarget.

In addition to human intelligence, Israel has developedsophisticated technologies for detecting explosives and armsat a distance, electronic eavesdropping and signals intelligence,and visual intelligence with unmanned aerial vehicles.


Nevertheless, Israeli intelligence agencies give priority tohuman intelligence over high-tech methods.

Military & Paramilitary OperationsIsraeli counter terrorism operations are designed to disrupt

the “terrorist infrastructure” in the West Bank and Gaza byattacking bomb factories and safe houses, gatheringintelligence, and by arresting or killing key terrorist leadersand bombmakers. A major focus of Israeli counter terrorismoperations is to prevent Palestinian terrorists from the WestBank from infiltrating Israel to stage attacks. Severalorganizations and units are involved in such operations. ShinBet detachments work with Aman undercover units to counterPalestinian terrorists. In addition, an elite IDF commando unitcalled Sayeret Matkal is Israel’s premier counter terrorismorganization and is involved in almost every major counterterrorist operation, as well as in hostage rescue operationsconducted by Israel. The IDF and the Frontier Police, a militaryorganization under police control, have created counterterrorism units, including Duvdevan and Shimshon. The IsraeliPolice Force’s Yamam, a professional anti terror unit,specializes in hostage rescue taking advantage of the longexperience and training, whereas the members of SayeretMatkal and other IDF counter terrorism units before their entryinto the real operations, provide basic training for commandos.Israel has sought to prevent suicide operations by disruptingthem at the organizational, training, and planning stages, beforethe shahid (“martyr”), is more or less on his way to the target.IDF operations to eliminate the “terrorist infrastructure”, aredirected against the activists who recruit and train the suicidebombers, manufacture the explosive belts, gather operationalintelligence, drive the shahid to the target, and otherwiseprovide logistical and moral support. Because terrororganizations continually recruit new operatives and require alarge network of supporters, aggressive counter terrorismcampaigns can weaken the morale of the terrorists, hamper


enlistment efforts, and deter collaborators. Military operationsagainst terrorism also reassure the Israeli public that theinitiative in the war against terror is on the side of thegovernment. 8

Aviation SecurityIsrael’s expertise in aviation security is legendary, and this

area remains a top priority because the stakes are enviablyhigh. Large passenger aircrafts are attractive targets forterrorists because once in the air, they become extremelyvulnerable. A small explosion that might kill only a few peopleon the ground can bring down a jumbo jet, killing hundreds.Such a disaster would also attract extensive media coverage,magnifying its psychological, political, and economic impact.Israel allocates sufficient security budget to El Al, the Israelinational airline, covering Ben Gurion International Airport nearTel Aviv and other airliners of the country. Terminal securitywhich has been a major concern for Israel and Ben Gurionairport, is protected by a defense in depth that begins with acheckpoint on the single access road, where armed guardsexamine vehicles and question suspicious-looking drivers orpassengers. Additional plain clothed security officials monitorthe entrances to the terminal, continually scan the crowdsinside, and frequently check wastebaskets for explosivedevices.

El Al’s passenger screening system relies on psychologicalprofiling techniques backed up with high-technologyequipment which has been highly effective. The airport securitysystem has been largely confined to screen the baggage ratherthan people, but Israel’s security model aims at ferreting outindividuals with terrorist intentions as well as the luggageregardless of its kinds. This profiling process relies on an accessto intelligence and careful observation of would-be passengersbesides personal interviews. The main reason for Israel’sprimary emphasis on human factors is that advances inexplosives technology have made it increasingly difficult to


find bombs hidden in luggage. For instance, plastic explosivescan now be disguised in almost every conceivable form,including shoe soles, toys, cell phones, and clothing.

Despite its strengths, the El Al profiling system haspotential pitfalls, including human error. Personal rapportbetween the interviewer and a charming passenger can have a“blinding” effect, so that the interviewer does not detectsuspicious signs. In addition, because of co-sharing agreementsbetween El Al and other carriers, some transiting passengers(mainly business people) arrive at Ben Gurion InternationalAirport only an hour before next flight. This brief layover doesnot provide enough time for profilers to verify passengers’stories before takeoffs. Fortunately for them, only a fewinternational passengers transit through Ben Gurion airport.

Second-tier measures include luggage conciliation(matching bags to passengers who board an aircraft) and theprocessing of baggage and cargo through explosives-detectiondevices such as InVision scanners and chemical sniffers.Screened luggage that appears suspicious, is diverted to anon-site laboratory at Ben Gurion airport for detailed chemicalsampling and analysis. In addition, a compression chamber isused to check bags for bombs that have air-pressure fuzes. Asa third line of defense, El Al employs on-aircraft protectivemeasures, including at least one armed sky marshal per flight,reinforced and bulletproof cockpit doors, and explosion-resistant cargo holds. Another threat to Israeli aviation derivesfrom the possible terrorist use of shoulder-fired ground-to-airmissiles, such as Stingers. Since Ben Gurion airport is situatedonly at a few miles from the West Bank, the threat of a missileattack is real. Because installing antimissile countermeasureson every plane would be prohibitively costly, Israel relies onenhanced perimeter security. Ground services such as cleaning,catering, and refueling also present potential vulnerabilitiesand necessitate the careful vetting of the personnel. Shin Betstrives to remain one step ahead of the terrorist enemy, whomay devise new tactics to circumvent the existing security


systems. To this end, Israeli security specialists continuallyanalyze “possible ways of action” for attacking passengeraircraft, collect operational information, and try to spot andcorrect weak links in the Aviation security system.

Defense against Chemical and Biological AttacksAnother area of terrorism prevention in which Israel is a

world leader, is passive defenses against the military or terroristuse of chemical and biological weapons. Israeli civilians facea direct threat of chemical or biological attack from countriessuch as Syria, Iraq, and Iran, besides Palestinian terrorists whohave begun showing a growing interest in these weapons.Though the chemical warfare capabilities of Hamas are stillrudimentary, Israeli security officials are concerned that theterrorist groups appear as though they are determined to acquireor to produce more advanced chemical agents. In view of thisthreat, Israel has implemented the world’s most sophisticatedcivil defense program against chemical and biological attacks.The Israeli government began to provide each citizen with afree kit consisting of an individually fitted gas mask and anauto-injector containing nerve-agent antidotes. Special masksare issued to infants, children, and individuals with respiratoryproblems. The IDF’s Home Front Command (Pekood ha-Orref)operates a nationwide network of distribution centers,including a computerized record of everyone who has receiveda kit and the date of issue. Notices are often mailed outreminding the citizens of getting the mask, air filter, and auto-injector replaced when even the equipment’s operational lifehas expired. The IDF developed the doctrine of “a sealed bodyin a sealed room.” Each household was instructed to prepare aspecial shelter against chemical or biological attack: an interiorroom that has few, if any windows and can be sealed withplastic sheeting and tape to render it airtight. In response toair-raid sirens, warnings broadcast on radio and TV, or thesound of a nearby explosion, Israeli citizens were asked toenter the special room, to seal the door with tape or cloth, put


on their gas masks (creating the “sealed body”), and to keepthem on until the “all clear” announcement was given. 9

The government of Israel has required all newlyconstructed public buildings, apartment complexes, and single-family homes, to incorporate a “protective room” that is bothbomb-resistant and is capable of being sealed airtight. Mostprotective rooms are equipped with electricity and a telephonehookup; the more elaborate ones have water, a bathroom, anda TV connection. Another lesson of the Gulf War was that noteveryone could hear the air-raid sirens. To address this problem,Israeli citizens were asked to turn on the radio before going tosleep and to tune it to a special station that broadcast only air-raid warnings. In the event of a chemical attack, the stationwould commence a live broadcast to wake people and to urgethem to enter the sealed room. Israeli public health authoritiesare also aware of the threat of bioterrorism and have stockpiledvaccines and antibiotics.

Managing hostage situationsAnother pillar in Israel’s counter-terrorist warfare is its

policy with regard to negotiating with terrorists in hostagesituations. Israel’s image as a country that does not concede tothe demands of terrorists was exposed to be unfounded in thecase of many incidents. Unlike other facets of counter-terroristwarfare, this is one aspect on which Israel had a well-publicizedpolicy, albeit not a written one. This policy stipulates that aslong as the option of defeating the terrorists by military meansis still viable, this is the favored option. In the absence of suchan alternative, the government will negotiate with the terroristsand will be ready to accept some of their terms in return forthe release of the hostages. This was indeed the guidelinefollowed by Israel’s governments for many years. Hostagesituations present one of the most difficult dilemmas fordecision-makers. Such situations test their leadership, sincethey are required to adopt decisions under a very tight timetableand under extremely strenuous circumstances.


Strengthening Psychological Coping SkillsThe Israeli government has made a deliberate effort to

counter the demoralizing effects of terrorism by strengtheningthe psychological coping skills of ordinary citizens. Terroristsseek to invoke a pervasive fear in the civilian population bypersonalizing the threat so that everyone feels vulnerable,regardless of the statistical probability that a given individualwill be affected. In an effort to counter this form ofpsychological warfare, Israeli terrorism experts from theInternational Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism visit theschools throughout the country and provide educationalprograms tailored enough to conform to the students ofdifferent age groups. These lectures describe the motives andoperational strategy of terrorists, with the aim of immunizingthe students against the personalization of terror. Thus,“Education particularly among the children and youngergeneration directed towards familiarity with the phenomenon[of terrorism], in all its aspects, will lower the level of anxietyand foil one of the terrorists’ principal aims: to instill fear andundermine the personal security of civilians.” 10

With these policy perceptions on Counter- Terrorism, theIsraeli Governments have evolved and adopted many Counter–Terrorism strategies as discussed hereunder, particularly duringthe time span of the last Two and a Half Decades ( 1980-2005)which is considered to be the most crucial period in the politicalhistory of Israel .

Period One: 1980-1992Counter-terrorist strategies adopted by the governments

led by Yitzhak Shamir and the extent to which these policiesaccomplished their goals, were described by prime ministerShamir himself as below:

…we came very close to annihilating terrorism. In myopinion—and I’m not the only one who think so—it ispractically a fact that in 1992, the PLO was on the brink ofdestruction. Arab terrorism was on the brink of destruction as


a whole because they lost faith in it. Demoralization decimatedall the terrorists’ ranks…The General Security Service andthe Israel Defense Forces showed incredible capabilities anddurability, learned the lessons from every clash, the morale ofour fighters was high and we were truly close to victory.

Undoubtedly, the challenges faced by Shamir and the Unitygovernments to answer the Palestinian violence and terrorismwere immense—at times unprecedented in Israel’s history.These governments scored quite a few points in facing thesechallenges, but Shamir’s analysis of the facts is nevertheless asubjective one made in retrospect, and does not necessarilyreflect things as they really were. Both the governments cameto power after PLO’s military forces in Lebanon had beendefeated and dispersed to various countries. At the same time,these governments had to deal with rising Shiite terrorism inLebanon and fundamentalist-Islamic terrorism in the WestBank and Gaza Strip. Contrary to Shamir’s perception of thefacts, the IDF was unable to handle the “Intifada” (PopularUprising) properly and scored only limited success in Lebanon.Other cabinet members, such as Shimon Peres and YitzhakRabin, maintained that concurrently with military actionagainst the Palestinian organizations, Israel must push forwardpolitical initiatives that would bring an end to the conflict;and these members gained more of a clout over time. 11

Throughout this period, Israel carried out various offensivestrategies involving heavy money and human resources anddefensive strategies as well. These activities were carried outboth routinely and as preventive and retaliatory measures. Inhostage situations, these governments continued the policiesof their predecessors, having learnt the lesson that when amilitary solution was not viable, they were ready to make theneeded concessions to the terrorists—as it was shown by theJibril Deal of May 20, 1985, concluded by the Shimon Peresgovernment when three Israeli soldiers held by the PFLP-GCsince the Lebanon war were exchanged for 1,150 prisoners,held in Israel. The number of terrorists who were released from


prison, the severity of the crimes they had committed, and thegovernment’s willingness to allow them to return to theterritories controlled by Israel, were all unparalleled. However,in terms of political negotiations with Palestinian terroristorganizations, Shamir’s government and the Unity governmentupheld and even radicalized their predecessors’ hard line: ablunt refusal to negotiate with terrorist organizations. Thisphilosophy was even put down in a law that forbade anycommunication with PLO representatives. During this period,several high profile scandals surfaced involving attempts bythe General Security Service to make addends for misdeeds.Most prominent was the Bus 300 Affair, in which twoPalestinian terrorists who had hijacked a bus, were capturedalive and killed by the GSS, which tried to conceal the matter.This scandal, along with the discovery of a Jewishunderground, and the need for mass punishments during theIntifada, illustrate the ethical dilemmas faced by thesegovernments in combating terrorism in the most effective wayon the one hand, as well as in minimizing the injury to liberal-democratic values on the other. Often such dilemmas wereresolved by courts. 12

Period Two: 1992-1996The Oslo Accords and the establishment of the autonomous

Palestinian Authority made it necessary for Yitzhak Rabin toformulate a new counter-terrorist infrastructure. Hisgovernment’s policy was in terms of a split between the peaceprocess and reactions to terrorist attacks against Israel. In otherwords, the peace process continued even after mass-casualtyattacks in Israel, and the counter-terrorist activity persistedregardless of the formal and informal restrictions imposed bythe peace process. However, this disjunction between the peaceprocess and counter-terrorist activities served as a counter-incentive for the Palestinian Authority to destroy the Hamas’infrastructure, or even to pressure the organization to refrainfrom carrying out attacks on Israeli soil. In the absence of such


an incentive, and as long as the movement’s militaryinfrastructure remained intact, Hamas could perpetrate as manyattacks of whatever kind it saw fit in protest of the peaceprocess utterly devoid of the Palestinian national interests.There were occasions when the Palestinian Authoritymanipulated this situation, promising Israel to preventfundamentalist Islamic terrorist attacks as a means of scoringpolitical gains.

Even after Rabin had implored and warned Arafat to actdecisively against terrorism, terrorist attacks in Israelcontinued. Despite Rabin’s policy which was hinting thatterrorism could harm the peace process, apparently there wasno change in the overall situation. But these hints were neverbacked up with action, and a “ritual” following mass-casualtyattacks evolved: closure was imposed on the territories andharsh measures were threatening, including a suspension ofthe peace talks. However, the policy followed by Israel duringthis period failed spectacularly. Counter-terrorist warfare wassubjected to a long list of restrictions – some of which wereimposed by agreements signed with the Palestinians, whileothers were the result of self-restraint, so as not to jeopardizethe peace process. Moreover, even the attempt to move aheadwith the peace process regardless of terrorism, proved a failurebecause, the public could not accept this strategy and demandedthat the Palestinians meet expectations, comply with theirundertakings, and thwart terrorism. The loudest expression ofthis public sentiment was in the elections at the end of Rabin’speriod, which led to a political power-shift in Israel, primarilydue to the sense that personal safety had been seriouslycompromised. 13

On the operative level, Israeli government under Rabincontinued to launch attacks against terrorist organizations,particularly against leaders and prominent operatives. Specialattempts were made to reinforce security, in order to balancethe loss of intelligence sources after Israel had withdrawn fromurban areas in the Territories. It was during this period that the


Jewish terrorism reached its climax with the first politicalassassination of an Israeli Prime Minister by a Jewish extremist.It was also during this period that terrorism’s effect on publicmorale in Israel was at its peak, and influenced political viewsand processes in Israel both directly and indirectly. One of thechanges prompted in this way was the attitude of decision-makers in Israel toward terrorism as a strategic problem, ratherthan as a merely tactical one. 14

Period Three: 1996-2000 and AfterCounter terrorist attacks in the Netanyahu period markedly

came down. As Meir Dagan, the head of Israel’s counter-terrorism bureau observed in 1999, compared to 21 suicidebombings under the previous government, only three suchattacks took place during Netanyahu’s term; the number ofshooting incidents, hand grenades and bombs, dropped fromaround 1,000 during Rabin and Peres’ governments to 250under Netanyahu; the number of Israelis who were killed interrorist attacks fell from 245 to 70. Dagan attributed theimproved results to heightened motivation on the part of thePalestinian Authority to curb terrorism, which included ademand for reciprocity, threats of economic sanctions, and athreat to take away political accomplishments of the PA. Theprime minister concluded: “The difference between 1996 and2000 is overwhelming. It is the outcome of the right policy,correct implementation and an uncompromising stance vis-à-vis the Palestinians according to which “victims of peace” area concept that we shall not tolerate.” 15

Prime Minister Netanyahu attributes the reduced scope ofattacks to his government’s demonstrated persistence, to thelinkage that was created between a continuation of the peaceprocess and military calm, and to Israel’s military operations.This begs the question of whether Netanyahu was correct inclaiming all the credit for reducing the levels of terrorism.Netanyahu’s detractors maintain that this reduction was notthe outcome of any successful Netanyahu policy, but simply


of a lack of motivation on the part of fundamentalist Islamicorganizations to carry out attacks during this time. These groupsrealized that the peace process was in any case heading fordeadlock, and felt no need to waste resources on terror attacksto impede a process that was already effectively bogged-down.Unlike his predecessors Rabin and Peres, who advocatedseparation between the political avenue and counter-terroristwarfare, Netanyahu not only stressed that the two wereintertwined, but also tried to use the political channel as anoperative lever to prevent terrorism in Israel. However, despitethe hard line that Netanyahu says he practised against terrorism,it seems that when he was in power he found at times that thecomplexities of real life made it impossible to put into practiceall that he had preached. Thus, after Palestinian violenceagainst Israel, Netanyahu found himself adopting politicalresolutions to which he had been adamantly opposed in timesof calm. Thus the Hebron Agreement was signed only afterthe Hasmonean Tunnel Incident, while Israel withdrew from13% of the West Bank under the Wye Agreement after violenceerupted over Israeli construction at Har Homa. While analyzingwhether counter-terrorist warfare was successful or not,Netanyahu expressed that: In the last three years [of his term],counter-terrorist policy was successful… The objective wasto make it clear to the Palestinians that terrorism would have aboomerang effect. If they feel that terrorism promotes theirinterests and that Jews have no endurance, then terrorism willproliferate”…In various writings and speeches before hebecame Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu explained howhe thought terrorism should be fought, in line with his generalhard-line policies. In keeping with the accepted principles, andin stressing the need for offensive attacks, most Israeli decision-makers and leaders of the defense establishment in this period,supported the individual targeting of terrorist leaders, althoughwith some hedges. 16

As Prime Minister, Netanyahu did not introduce significantlegislative changes relating to counter-terrorism policy.


Moreover, the leeway that General Security Serviceinterrogators were given to in questioning terrorists, wasnarrowed and the government refrained from passing a lawthat would regulate this issue. Compared to this void in counter-terrorism legislation, Netanyahu’s government made extensiveuse of various punitive and preventive measures, like closure,deportation, administrative arrests, and razing and sealing-offof homes leading the list. Netanyahu emphasized thepsychological impact of terrorism on public morale and spokeof the need to neutralize these harmful effects. His critics, onthe other hand argue that he manipulated people’s fears in orderto make political gains and to defeat Shimon Peres in the 1996elections.

The ‘Democratic Dilemma’: Values Vs StrategiesIsrael’s counter-terrorism policy created a sort of

“democratic dilemma” as there was always a kind of conflictbetween Israel’s counter-terrorist measures during the periodsin question, and the country’s liberal-democratic values. Thelist of measures taken by Israel includes intelligence, offensiveattacks, defensive measures, counter-terrorist legislation,prosecution of suspected terrorists, punitive measures, politicalconcessions, and public relations and education.Predominately, terrorism is a form of psychological warfareagainst the public morale, whereby terrorist organizations,through indiscriminate attacks, attempt to change the politicalagenda of the targeted population. The objective is to lead thecivilian population to see the cessation of terrorist attacks asthe single most important goal, outweighing any other national,social, economic, or other objectives. By convincing thetargeted population that terrorist attacks can be stopped onlyby the appeasement of the terrorist organizations, the terroristshope to win concessions to their demands. The greatest dangerpresented by terrorism is thus, not necessarily the directphysical damage that it inflicts, but rather the injury to thepublic morale and the impact on the way policy makers


perceive and respond. 17

Since terrorism targets the public morale, any effectiveanswer to terrorism must also address the issue of the publicmorale. Countries routinely faced with terrorism, work hardto get the sense of security and confidence of their own peoplereinforced, and at the same time strive to undermine the securityand confidence of the terrorist organizations and theirsupporters. Consequently, while weighing the pros and consof different counter-terrorist measures, the implications of thesemeasures on the public morale should also be taken intoaccount. The fact that Israel suffers a relatively high rate ofterrorist attacks and draws its counter responses, constantlysubjects the leadership to “democratic dilemma.” Most counter-terrorism literature defines intelligence as the key factor ofcounter-terrorist warfare. The pivotal role that intelligenceplays in Israel’s counter-terrorist strategies, is considered byall governments as one of the important measures designed ina tactful manner. Even in case where the necessary intelligenceoperations are not outright illegal, they can still be injuriousto liberal-democratic values. One of the most controversialissues in this context is the interrogation of suspected terrorists.The nature of interrogation methods epitomizes Israel’sdemocratic dilemma. The possible violation of the rights of asuspected terrorist to the extent of torture and physical injury,is juxtaposed with the prospect of obtaining critical informationthat would enable the thwarting of the terrorist attacks andsaving many lives. This issue was the one that all the Israeligovernments between 1980 and 2005 had to face, and itillustrates the sensitive and problematic relationship that thegovernment and the Executive in general (primarily the militaryestablishment and the Security Services) have with thelegislative and the judicial branches of the government. Israel’sgovernments have traditionally backed the mode of operationof the General Security Services; legislators refrained frompassing laws requiring the General Security Services to stickto the methods of operation recommended by the various


investigative commissions that looked into the matter, whilethe courts allowed the General Security Services to continuewith traditional methods of operation, albeit with repeatedexpressions of disdain in the absence of legislation. However,during the last two and a half decades, the freedom that GeneralSecurity Services had in questioning the terrorists, wascontinually diminishing to the point where they werecompletely prohibited from applying any physical pressureincluding what the “Landau Commission” had dubbed as“moderate physical pressure”.

But, the democratic dilemma inherent in intelligencegathering goes beyond interrogation methods. It is also evidentin issues such as surveillance, wiretaps and agent running, tomention just a few. In the case of the use of human sources,the question is, how far intelligence agents may go in order toestablish themselves and their credibility within the terroristorganization? May they, for example, be granted permissionto take part in the organization’s illegal activities, or eveninitiate such activities? The “democratic dilemma” is thus oneof the main dilemmas in the counter-terrorism policy,implemented by any democracy. Terrorist organizations arewell aware of the ethical dilemmas involved in an exercise ofthe counter-terrorist measures, and try to leverage this in orderto undermine the legitimacy of the government against whichthey are fighting. The key question, as mentioned above, iswhether an effective war can be waged against suchorganizations without allowing substantial injury to affect theliberal-democratic values. The answer appears to be positive,although it is not an easy feat. 18

Public Morale and Terrorist WarfareTerrorism in modern times is usually designed to score

political gains by generating public pressures. On a nationalscale, the physical damage caused by modern terrorism isrelatively small, in comparison with other causes of death suchas road accidents and disease. Even if direct financial damages


caused by terrorist attacks are taken into account, the physicaldamage caused by terrorism still does not exceed that of atactical threat, with the exception of some kinds of non-conventional terror attacks. However, in Israel, there is aconsensus transcending the political differences that terrorismis nevertheless a strategic threat (although not an existentialone), to the civilian morale. The erosion of the personal andnational security leads to a heightened anxiety and influencesthe political stances and moves. In retrospect, it can be saidthat this strategy of terror indeed does accomplish some of itsgoals in swaying the public opinion in Israel. Two types offear can be distinguished in this context: “rational fear” and“irrational anxiety.” Since terrorism can cause death, physicalinjury and other damages, it is naturally a scary phenomenon.This type of fear cannot be eliminated or even reduced.However, the primary goal of modern-day terrorism is toaugment “irrational anxiety,” namely, anxiety that transcendsthe actual objective threat by far. For this purpose, terroristorganizations mobilize mass media, internet and variousmethods of psychological warfare, designed to amplify theimpact of terrorist attacks. One of the ways in which this isaccomplished, is by “personalizing” the attacks—convincingthe civilians in the targeted population that it is only by chancethat they themselves or members of their family were not hitthis time, and that they will probably not similarly be luckynext time. Since terrorism is strategically designed to erodethe public morale, and since it is the injury to the public moralethat presents the strategic danger on a national level, counter-terrorism strategies must address the psychological factor aswell. Counter-terrorist warfare must therefore define thepsychological targets of its own that would—to the extentpossible—neutralize the impact of terrorism domestically andinjure the morale of the terrorists and their supportersconcurrently. Naturally, all counter-terrorist measures shouldbe designed to thwart attacks before they occur, sincesuccessful measures of this kind would reduce the physical


damage caused by terrorist attacks and thus also reduce thesubsequent disintegration of the public morale. However, theproposed steps should also have direct influence on the publicmorale. Effective counter-terrorist warfare should strengthenthe people’s endurance, counterbalance the terrorists’manipulation of public opinion, reduce the levels of fear andanxiety, while at the same time deal a blow to the terrorists’morale, by influencing the mood in their domestic environmentand by swaying international public opinion. Without effectiveactions to reduce the psychological damage to public moralecaused by terrorism, a country may well win the battle, butlose the war. The prevention of any specific terrorist attack—a central goal in counter-terrorist strategy—is the equivalentof winning a battle. Yet, if at the same time, tourists refrainfrom visiting and the civilians are afraid to use the publictransport or to send their children on school trips, this meansthat the terrorists have in fact won the war. Ironically, terroristscould win even without shooting a single bullet or detonatinga single car bomb. It is enough for them to create an atmosphereof terror through threats, public statements and demonstratedcapabilities in order to accomplish the psychological effectthey desire. Alongside the crucial need to devote attention todefensive, offensive and punitive counter-terrorist warfare,specific proactive activities that could reduce the damage topublic morale should also be considered. The most importantfacet of Israel’s psychological counter-terrorist warfare is thepublic education that changes people’s attitude towardterrorism, reduces the levels of irrational anxiety and booststhe public morale and the sense of personal security in theface of the terrorist threat. Good public education wouldprevent the country’s routine from being disrupted and wouldreduce the impact that terrorism has on political views andthus on political processes. To quote Rabin: “The Israeli publicshould become its old self again, a fighting people, a peoplewith perseverance, because this conflict will be won by theparty that does not yield.” 19


ConclusionIn assessing the efficacy of Israel’s counter-terrorist

warfare, one’s experience reveals that no comprehensiveachievements can be singled out for praise although one canenumerate certain accomplishments of which Israel cancertainly be proud of. It is true that Israel could not annihilateterrorism altogether but the military establishment led by theintelligence community, was successful in preventing hundredsof terrorist attacks over the years and in protecting the country’sstrategic assets. The most flagrant failure of Israel’s counter-terrorist warfare was that it did not perceive terrorism as apsychological war over national morale. As a result, Israel didnot develop tools to neutralize, or at least to minimize, theinjury that terrorism had caused to the public morale, and hardlytook cognizance of these factors while choosing its counter-terrorist tactics. Moreover, the issue of public morale wasrejected from the outset as political populism and the fear of apossible “boomerang effect.”

To conclude, in order to tackle terrorism, which impactsall realms of life — military, social, political, economic andpsychological — all nations must adopt a long-term strategicperspective. One of the objects of terrorism is to injure thetargeted country’s long-term interests and hinder its progresstowards its goals. Thus, any decision on the mode of respondingto terrorism, and the measures and policies to be implemented— military or political, rigid or flexible — must take intoaccount not only the immediate needs but also the assessmentas to how such measures would influence the country’sinterests in the long-term. A country should have a writtendocument, explaining the anti-terrorist policy or persistencestrategy in combating the terror incidents. Israel never forgeda written, systematic and coherent counter terrorist doctrine.Notwithstanding this fact, some of the decision makers feltthat over the years, several guidelines have evolved, reflectingthe philosophies of contemporary policymakers. Indeed, it isobvious that all the governments during the last two and half


decades, implemented the same counter-terrorist measures, interms of offense, defense and punitive measures, although attimes there were differences in scope, timing, emphases andthe publicity that these governments displayed in their counter-terrorist activities. The cumulative experience in counter-terrorist warfare gained by Israel since its inception, issufficient to set forth principles for such warfare. Althoughrigid adherence to these principles may not eliminate terrorismaltogether, it would enable the state to tackle the problem moreefficiently if the anti-terror strategies are designed to furnishthe decision-makers with a sufficient flexibility to cope withthe challenge of the modern terrorism without compromisingthe democratic values and without injuring the public morale.

References / Notes1. Boaz Ganor, “A New Strategy against the New Terror,” Policy

View, (Shalem Center, National Policy Institute), No. 10, January1995.

2. Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan, Chairman of the Israel National SecurityCouncil, briefing on “Strategic Planning for Dealing With theThreat of Terror,” Tel Aviv, 5 February 2002.

3. Cris Dishman, How to Define Terrorism; Studies in conflictand terrorism, (1999).

4. Charles D. Smith, Palestine and Arab Israeli Conflict, (NewYork, 1988).

5. Ina Friedman, “Strategies for a Long and Bitter War,” JerusalemReport, 5 November 2001, p. 14.

6. Joshua Sinai, “Aggressive Measures: Assessing the Effectivenessof Israel’s Combating-Terrorism Campaign,” Armed ForcesJournal International, May 2002, p. 80.

7. Boaz Ganor, “Background—The Components of Counter-Terrorism ,” International Policy Center for Counter-Terrorism, 1990.

8. Ibid.9. David Stone, “Israeli Civilian NBC Doctrine: Preparing for the

Coming Chemical Catastrophe,” Soldier of Fortune, Vol. 27,No. 2, February 2002, pp. 41–42.

10. Tucker J.B, Combating Terrorism in Israel, (2003).


11. The Asian Age, 5 April 2002.12. The Hindu, 9 April 2002.13. The Asian Age, 20 June 2002.14. The Hindu , 21 June 2002.15. Boaz Ganor, “Suicide Attacks in Israel,” in International Policy

Institute for Counter-Terrorism, February 2000 (Herzliyya,Israel: ICT, 2000).

16. The Telegraph, 4 December 2001.17. Eqbal Ahmed, Beyond Mutual Destruction, (1997).18. The Hindu, 5 December 2001.19. Ibid, 15 December 2001.

The Author wishes to thank Prof. P.V. Rao, Director, Centre for IndianOcean Studies, Osmania University, Hyderabad, for his valuablesuggestions in making this Paper.

101Tourism’s Role in Southeast Asia’s Economies

6

Tourism’s Role in Southeast Asian Economies

M. PRAYAGA & G.VIJAY KUMAR REDDY*

Tourism has been playing a vital role in the economicdevelopment of each and every country, regardless of a countrybeing a developed one or developing one or the least developedone. Each and every nation has been vying with each other tobenefit to the hilt from promoting this lucratively potentialindustry of tourism. Undoubtedly, tourism can help to generatejob opportunities to several millions of people all over theworld thereby to reduce poverty and to attract foreign currency.Tourism is a powerful tool by which tourism generatingcountries as well as the destination countries benefit. TheSoutheast Asian region sits in between three great nations,east of India, west of China and north of Australia. The area,comprising numerous large and small islands and peninsulas,remains remarkable for its diversity of ethno-linguistic groups,for cultivating different customs and for cherishing variouskinds of religious faiths. Southeast Asia is well connected tothe international sea and air routes as it lies between Indianand Pacific Oceans. This region, relatively backward andundeveloped under the European colonialism started to rise tothe level of one of the most important and economically vibrantregions in the post-Second World War period. It is alsoendowed with lust green tropical rain forests, and wide varietyof the flora and fauna. It is an area of myriad hues settingforth exotic varieties of wild life, enchanting beaches, numberof United Nations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganization (UNESCO) acclaimed locations and a fascinatinglegacy of architectural places. The Southeast Asia has been

* Dr. M. Prayaga & Dr. G. Vijay Kumar Reddy, Assistant Professors,Centre for Southeast Asian & Pacific Studies, S.V. University, Tirupati.


marked with amazing abilities through exploitation ofresources, in varying degrees and improvement of technology,transportation and communications. The Southeast Asiangovernments recognized the importance of tourism ineconomic growth. This paper analyses the significance oftourism at global level and the benefits accruing from tourismin Southeast Asian countries and also the India-ASEANtourism cooperation.

Tourism at Global levelIf tourism has been regarded as one of the vital industries

for developed and many developing countries, it is because ofthe income generated by the consumption of goods and theservices utilized by tourists, the taxes levied on businesses inthe tourism industry and the employment in the serviceindustries associated with tourism. The opening of new tradeavenues, globalization and the advent of modern infrastructurecollectively offer an incentive to tourism sector to advancefurther at global level. The tourism sector is the world’s largestindustry and the creator of jobs across national and regionaleconomies. The World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC)research revealed in 1999, that Tourism generates, directly orindirectly, 11.7 per cent of GDP and 200 million jobs in theworld-wide economy and gave a forecast of total 11.7 per centand 255 million by 2010. 1

Tourism spread across many arenas of economyencompassing construction, manufacturing,telecommunications, transportation, catering,accommodations, recreation and services to travellers. As aneffective jobs generator, it provides employment to women,rural people and young people in different size industries,minor or major, and also offers training in hospitality sector.Tourism offers especially for young people, seasonal, part-time and full-time works and wide variety of opportunities.In tourism industry, hospitality and recreation sectors alonethere are 50 categories of employment and approximately 200


classifications of occupations.2 The latest World TourismBarometer released by United Nations World TourismOrganization (UNWTO) indicates the international arrivalsbetween 880 to 900 million by the end of 2007. 3 Thus, tourismbecame the third largest economic activity in the world,surpassed only by oil and motor vehicles. 4

The potentials of revenues obtained by the host countriesin economic, social and cultural areas bring the benefits fromlocal level to national level and to world at large. Tourismrevenues can provide an additional stimulus to the nationaleconomy. They have a multiplier effect from local level tothe community development and on being invested, result inincrease in economic activity. Besides, it contributes to thesustainable development of economy, ecology and society.Hence the WTTC chose to describe the travel and tourismtogether as one which➢ has less impact on natural resources and the environment

than most other industries;➢ is based on enjoyment and appreciation of local culture,

built heritage, and natural environment assets which beingdeserve protection;

➢ can play a positive part in consumer commitment tosustainable development principles through itsunparalleled consumer distribution channels; and

➢ provides an economic incentive to conserve naturalenvironments and habitats thereby to maintain bio-diversity.5

Though there has been considerable debate over thepositive and negative impact of tourism sector, the foremostview of the experts on tourism is “a non-polluting industry,”and “a long-life industry”. Tourism can attract investmentsand connect the dispersed and isolated communities to theoutside world. It can help to change local people’s social habitsand perspective, broadening local horizons. It also canmobilize the foreign exchange that the local people need badly


diversify the local economic activities and provide employmentfor the large supplies of local labour. Since it can offeruncountable benefits, many people emphasize the positiveaspects of tourism as a source of foreign exchange, a way tobalance the foreign trade, an “industry without chimney” – inshort, manna from heaven. 6 Tourism is basically, “an exportindustry that conveys domestic services and the experiencesof domestic resources to foreign consumers in return for foreigncurrencies.” 7 Besides, the multiplier effect of tourism generatesa high revenue-capital ratio and indirect employment in theform of revival of traditional arts and crafts, development ofcommunication and hotels. The expansion of tourism in acountry will require a concomitant expansion through supportindustries, such as foreign exchange, transportation,accommodation and security. Some developing countries haveimproved their domestic infrastructure by using foreignexchange generated by tourist inflows. Tourism can expandand succeed only if an adequate infrastructure is in place, orgrows with the industry.

For some developed European nations such as Switzerland,Austria and France the profitable tourism receipts are used forthe viable development of social and economic welfare of therespective countries. According to the UNWTO, many Smallisland developing states (SIDS) have developed tourismmonocultures, with tourism receipts constituting upto 90 percent of services exports in Bahamas, the Dominican Republic;in Antigua and Barbuda, tourism contributes directly andindirectly to over 75 per cent of the GDP.8 According to WTTCestimates for 2006, the contribution of tourism in Maldiveswas 66.6 per cent of GDP and accounted for 65.9 per cent ofthe exports. In Vanuatu, the tourism sector contributed 47 percent to GDP and 73.7 per cent to the total export earnings.9

Maldives is one of five countries in Asia and Pacific wheretourism is the top contributor to GDP and creating 57 per centof total employment, or 1 in every 1.7 jobs.10 The world inlast decade had witnessed a steady growth in the international


receipts from US $ 450.4 billion in 1997 to US $ 735 billionin 2006 (Figure -1).

Figure - 1: International Tourism Receipt (in US $ billions)

Source: Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and UNWTO, 2007

International tourist arrivals reached from 575 millions in1996, to 846 millions in 2006. During the decade of 1996-2006, international tourist arrivals worldwide grew at anaverage annual rate of about 4.0 per cent. (Table-1). ThoughEurope continues to remain top tourist destination both intourist arrivals and receipts, Asia-Pacific, too improved itsposition in the table of international tourist arrivals. Describingthis transformation, Prof. Erik Cohen said:

Western domination of the tourist system is in thecontemporary world increasingly challenged underthe impact of a growing number of travelers fromnon-Western countries. These come principallyfrom the wealthy Middle East, and from Asia,where the new middle classes of Japan, China,India, South Korea and Thailand developed a tastefor international travel. 11


On the decline of the Western hold, as P.V. Rao remarked,“the West is seen to be losing out its usual tourist traffic to theAsia-pacific just the way its political and economic power ismoving away to Asia.” 12

Table – 1: International tourist arrivals by regionand sub-region, 1996- 2006

Source: UNWTO, Tourism Market Trends: East Asia & Pacific(Madrid:, 2000). UNWTO, Tourism Highlights, 2006.UNWTO, Tourism Highlights 2007 www.unescap.org/t t d w / P u b l i c a t i o n s / T P T S _ p u b s / p u b _ 2 4 7 8 /pub_2478_ch1.pdf

Arrivals (millions of

people)

Market share (percentage)

Average annual growth

rate

1996 2006 1996 2006 1996-2006 Africa 22.2 40. 3.9 4.8 6.0 Americas 114.5 135. 19.9 16.1 1.8

90.4 167. 15.7 19.8 6.7

47.6 94. 8.3 11.1 7.8

29.8 53. 5.2 6.4 5.5

4.5 8. 0.8 1.0 6.6

Asia-Pacific

North-East Asia

South-East Asia

South Asia

Oceania 8.5 10. 1.4 1.2 2.6

Europe 332.1 460. 57.8 54.4 3.3

Middle East 15.8 41. 2.7 4.9 10.4

World 575.0 846.0 100.0 100.0 4.0


Table – 2: International tourism receipts by region,1996-2006

Source: UNWTO, Tourism Market Trends: East Asia & Pacific(Madrid). UNWTO, Tourism Market Trends: Asia(Madrid, 2004). UNWTO, Tourism Highlights (Madrid,2006). UNWTO, Tourism Highlights 2007 Editionwww.unescap.org/ttdw/Publications/TPTS_pubs/pub_2478/pub_2478_ch1.pdf

The governments emphatically advocate tourism as adriving force for economic development. Its promotion of highgrowth rate, inflow of foreign currency, infrastructuredevelopment eventually contribute to the social and economicdevelopment as a whole. On some occasions the potentialopportunities associated with tourism, have been perceived asan alternative to slow agriculture growth and industrial

Receipts (US$ billion)

Market share (percentage)

1996 2006

Average annual growth

rate (%) 1996-2006 1996 2006

Africa 9.2 24.3 10.6 2.1 3.3

Americas 110.6 154.0 4.1 25.3 21.0

Asia-Pacific 86.2 152.6 6.6 19.7 20.8

of which : North-East Asia 37.3 74.3 7.9 8.5 10.1

South-East Asia 30.5 40.6 4.1 7.0 5.5

South Asia 3.8 11.5 12.4 0.9 1.6

Oceania 14.6 26.3 6.7 3.3 3.6

Europe 222.3 374.5 5.5 51 51.1

Middle East 8.2 27.3 14.4 1.9 3.7

World 436.5 733.0 5.5 100.0 100.0


outcome. Besides, the developing nations believed they had acomparative advantage over the industrial countries as theyhave innumerable tourist resources and appeals, like sunlightweather, attractive beaches, magnificent flora and fauna of thetropical forests, and exotic cultures. Taking these intoconsideration, Prof. Ghimire felt, “undeniably, in the 1950sand 1960s, newly-self-governing nations in Asia and Africarecurrently surmised tourism development to be a way ofresource conveyance from the North to the South.”13 The visitsof tourists and their contribution to the national economydevelopment are well supported by diverse subdivisions oftourism industry, such as hospitality, catering, food andentertainment industry, transport, souvenir manufacturing andsale which accounted for unlocking enormous openings foremployment and profits to varied populations.14

Tourism in Southeast AsiaThe Tourism boom in Southeast Asia during the last

decade (1996-2006) is a classic example of maximization andpromotion of new policies and practices by the respectivecountries in the region. Southeast Asia, consisting of tencountries – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam– started a vogue for an exploitation of tourism as one of thefew sectors with promising benefits. The physicalinfrastructural facilities such as transport andtelecommunications prompted the tourism industry whichmade Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore, Thailand,Malaysia and Indonesia, an attractive destination. A studycommissioned by the U.S. Department of Commerce estimatedthat some 200,000 tourists visited Southeast Asia in 1958,which was equivalent to the number of tourists who visitedCambodia alone in 1996. 15 This is an indication of an influxof tourist arrivals to this part of the world. According to theWTO accounts, Southeast Asia, registered 5.2 per cent of theworld total tourist arrivals in 1996. The region is also


accounted for 7.35 per cent of the world’s total tourism receiptsand enjoyed a healthy growth rate of 4 to 7 per cent in the pasttwo decades. 16

The governments’ sponsored programmes to attract touristshave been enormously successful. During the last decade,receipts from tourism to Southeast Asia have tripled; in somecountries like Thailand, tourism has become the primary sourceof foreign exchange. The government’s programmes to attracttourists such as Visit Thailand Programme in 1987, VisitMalaysia Year 1990, Visit Vietnam Year 1990, Visit IndonesiaYear 1991 and Visit Myanmar Year 1996 have been successful.A few other Southeast Asian countries have pursued tourismto the extent of influencing countryside as part of the regionaldevelopment. In Thailand, for instance, tourism has spread toChiang Mai in north and to Phuket, Ko Mai and other islandsin the south. On Phuket island, tourism provided an economicalternative to tin mining and rubber. In Malaysia, the coastalareas of Kelantan, Trengganu, the offshore islands of PulauLangkawi and others have been immensely benefited fromtourism development. 17 The effects of tourism percolatedfrom the urban centres to far-flung country areas. Tourismrevenues in Bali Island, culturally a preeminent area inIndonesia, surpassed the income from rice agriculture. Thatthe Tourism has been part of Balinese culture since 1920s, isbetter understood from a remark that, “some Balinese havenever lived in a culture without experiencing a daily influx offoreign tourists.” 18

Asian countries, as can be noted from Tables 1 and 2, havebeen experiencing a boom in both foreign and domestictourism, particularly in the newly industrializing countries ofSoutheast Asia—Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand,and the Philippines, in East Asia and South Asia , Hong Kong,Japan, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, and India. The considerable growthin Southeast Asia was attributed to the full recovery ofThailand, Indonesia and Malaysia from the impact of the 2004tsunami. The tourism arrivals share has improved from 5.2


per cent in 1996 to 6.4 per cent in 2006. The tourism receiptshave also registered a considerable increase from US $ 30.5billions in 1996 to US $ 40.6 billions in 2006 with an averagegrowth of 4.1 per cent. The reasons for this expanding touristinterests in Asia are obvious : rising levels of financialresources; abiding passion for spending leisure time; theincreasing availability of affordable international travel; theefficient and effective organization of tourism bothdomestically and internationally in infrastructure, coordinationand marketing and the move towards regional promotionalstrategies by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) andthe Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA); the positivesupport and national importance accorded by the governmentsto tourism development; and the search by tour companiesand tourists for alternative exciting and exotic destinationsaway from the over crowded resorts of the west. 19 The otherfactors that contributed to the strong performance of Asia-Pacific region include: rising levels of disposable income andimprovements in transportation. Moreover, the creation ofnew market avenues such as cultural tourism, ecotourism andadventure tourism has made the tourism industry morediversified. 20

Regional TourismsThe international tourism, the intra-regional travel have

become increasingly important in Northeast Asia and SoutheastAsia, particularly between China and Hong Kong, and betweenSingapore and Malaysia. This accounted for 85 per cent ofarrivals in Northeast Asia and 77 per cent in Southeast Asia in2003. 21 Domestic tourism has also emerged as a significantplayer for the developing countries of the region to becomemore rich. In India, the ratio of the International to domestictourists (1:100) is exceedingly higher than the ratios in thecase of Indonesia (1:6), Thailand (1:7) and Vietnam (1:5)(Table -3). Intra-regional travel provides the desired


opportunities for wealth redistribution and economicdevelopment besides contributing to the greater awarenessabout the environment in one’s own country. 22

Table – 3: International and domestic touristarrivals in selected Asian and Pacific countries

Source: UNWTO, Tourism Highlights, 2006 www.unescap.org/ttdw/Publications/TPTS_pubs/pub_2478/pub_2478_ch1.pdf

Challenges to Tourism growthSoutheast Asia registered incessant tourist arrivals growth

as well as receipts thereof. However, Southeast Asia facedsome severe socio-economic and epidemic problems. Thefinancial crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 when thegovernment was forced to devalue its currency and call on theInternational Monetary Fund for aid. Consequently, some ofthe Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia andSingapore, too plunged into severe economic recession. Theserious social problems and political changes that entailedeconomic crisis, impinged on the prospects of Tourism industry.Hotels, transport companies, tour operators and travel agents

Reference year

International tourist arrivals

(million)

Estimated domestic tourists

(million)

Ratio of international to domestic

China 2005 46.8 1,212.0 1 : 26

India 2003 2.8 309.0 1 : 110

Indonesia 2005 5.0 31.3 1 : 6

Thailand 2005 11.6 79.5 1: 7

Viet Nam 2003 2.4 13.0 1: 5


lost business because of economic downturn. 23 Otheruntoward problems like El-Nino driven forest fires in 1997,resulting in haze in Indonesia, had a spillover effect onMalaysia and Singapore. Political turmoil in Malaysia andIndonesia and heinous terrorist attacks in Bali in 2002 andsimilar assaults in the Philippines, resulted in the drop of touristarrivals and receipts. The outbreak of exogenous shock wasan avian flu pandemic, commonly known as bird flu in thecountries of Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam,which suffered casualties of altogether 71 people, including42 in Vietnam. 24 The tsunami, the seaquake, in 2004 devastatedthe coastline of Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka andMalaysia killed more than 200,000 and rendered innumerablenumber homeless and left its disastrous impact, felt in theaftermath.

The aforesaid setbacks affected the primary economicsector of exports, consumption and industrial production. Thesecondary effects affected tourism. But, tourism industry inthis region, proved to be quite resilient. The governments’reconstruction programmes launched in association withinternational agencies were commendable. By the end of 2005,tourism industry had almost fully recovered. 25

Promotion of Tourism in ASEANAs the tourism industry becomes increasingly effective,

alliances between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) members have sought to work in tandem for mutualbenefits among them. ASEAN, as part of its own institutionalstructure for regional cooperation, formalized in 1976 theASEAN Committee on Trade and Tourism, to deal withmarketing and research, that led to the establishment of ASEANTourism Forum (ATF) in 1981. ATF became an important large-scale activity among ASEAN members in the tourismcooperation in turning the ASEAN into a united traveldestination. Since then, the regular annual ATF meetingshighlighted the image of tourism sector. 26 ‘Visit ASEAN


Year’ was launched in 1992 to commemorate the 25anniversary of the foundation of ASEAN. To foster the growthof tourism in the region, ASEAN Tourism Organizationsbecame active in formulating national and regional tourismpromotion strategies and action plans. The Action Plan,formulated at its Sixth meeting in Singapore in 1997, identifiedthe following themes:• Marketing ASEAN as a single tourism destination;• Encouraging more tourism investments;• Promoting environmentally sustainable tourism; and• Facilitating seamless intra-ASEAN travel. 27

Thanks to the ATF strategies, economic potentialities andmarket approaches, the regional tourism has becomesuccessful. Rodolfo Severino, the then ASEAN SecretaryGeneral, elucidated the potentials of ASEAN to excel in thisarea thus:

The region certainly has what it takes to attract awide variety of visitors. Most of its beaches, seasand innumerable islands can be enjoyed all yearround. It has some of the most diverse ecologieson earth. It has rich and dynamic cultures. Itsdiving spots are some of the best in the world.There are the corals, exotic birds and animals, cavesand mountains. The shopping is great. Everythingthat tourists want except skiing, although there area couple of snow-capped mountains. 28

At the inaugural ATF meeting in Cebu in 1998 ASEANTourism Ministers endorsed the Plan of Action for ASEANCooperation in Tourism, besides resolving to hold annualmeetings of ASEAN National Tourism Organizations inconjunction with the ATF. The ASEAN Tourism Ministerssecond meeting, held in 1999 in Singapore, agreed to initiatenew ‘Visit ASEAN’ campaign in closer cooperation withprivate sector. The Philippines was made as the coordinator


and Brunei Darussalam as marketing coordinator of thecampaign programme. Tourism Ministers in a joint statementcalled for “faster liberalization of air services to promote travelwithin ASEAN.” 29 The third meeting held in Bangkok in 2000,decided to step up liberalizing tourism services. They alsoagreed to exchange information on negative activities thatcould damage ASEAN’s image such as child prostitution,human smuggling and drug trafficking. At the fourth meetingheld in Bandar Seri Begawan in 2001, in deference to the earlierdecision, His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah launchedthe ‘Visit ASEAN Campaign’ that emphasized the promotionof intra-ASEAN travel coordinating regional bodies in theareas of immigration and consular services. At its fifthmeeting held in historic place, Yogyakarta in 2002, ASEANministers endorsed the initiative for historic ‘ASEAN TourismAgreement’ as “reaffirmation at the highest political levels ofthe importance of the travel and tourism sector for ASEANeconomic integration and in the greater mutual understandingand solidarity amongst the peoples of ASEAN.” 30 It alsobecame the venue for inaugural meeting with TourismMinisters from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea underthe ASEAN+3 process to increase the declined travel inflow,following the air-borne terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the U.S.ASEAN held similar kind of talks with India and Russia.

Boost to Intra-regional TourismThe intra-regional tourism among ASEAN members

has got the much needed fillip on account of improvedaccessibility, liberal visa restrictions, cheaper transportation,liberal air regulations, improvement in communication systemsparticularly the sensational success of internet in making touristand accommodation reservations, and credit card facilities.The induction of Low Cost Carriers (LCC) for the transportof the international travellers as well as intra-ASEAN tourists,has sown as an additional stimulant for the growth of tourism.ASEAN’s liberalized air policies have generated a spurt in the


number of budget airlines across the world such as Dragonair(Hong Kong); Ryanaair, Jet Blue, Virgin Atlantic (Europeand Australia); Sahara, Jet Airways, Air Deccan, Kingfisher(India). Silkair, Valueair, Tiger Air (Singapore), Sempati(Indonesia), Air Asia (Malaysia) are serving the same purposein Southeast Asia region.31 Launching of new routes tosecondary destinations in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand,Malaysia and fairly liberalized visa regulations for allnationalities from ASEAN region (e.g., the relaxation of visapolicy by the Philippines; Malaysia’s visa exemption fortravellers from ASEAN countries) have caused sharp increasein the number of tourists of ASEAN nationals. 32


2004

20

07

2004

-200

7

Cou

ntry

To

tal

Intr

a-A

SEA

N

Ext

ra-

ASE

AN

To

tal

Intr

a-A

SEA

N

Ext

ra-

ASE

AN

To

tal

Intr

a-A

SEA

N

Ext

ra-

ASE

AN

Bru

nei

Dar

ussa

lam

118.

9 77

.7

4

1.2

178.

5

84.

6 93

.9

582

.6

307.

2 27

5.5

Cam

bodi

a 1,

055

.2

183.

4 87

1.8

1,76

2.0

363.

3 1,

398.

7 5,

938.

9 1,

094.

7 4,

844.

2 In

done

sia

5,29

4.4

2,54

8.2

2

,746

.2

4,11

0.5

1,32

0.7

2,78

9.7

19,2

78.3

8,21

4.4

11,0

63.9

Lao

PD

R

894.

8 63

8.7

256

.1

1,32

1.8

1,0

54.5

267.

3 4,

527.

0 3,

379.

1

1

.148

.0 M

alay

sia

15.7

03.4

12

;282

.3

3

,421

.1 18

,381

.4

14,1

64.3

4,21

7.1

68,9

87.6

53

,287

.9

1

5,69

9.7

Mya

nmar

65

6.9

6

1.9

595

.0

248.

3 53

.0

195.

3 2,

218.

3 22

3.4

1,99

4.9

The

Ph

ilipp

ines

2,29

1.4

149.

0

2,1

42.3

3,

092.

0 23

5.6

2,85

6.4

10,6

94.4

76

6.9

9,92

7.5

Sing

apor

e 8,

375.

1 3,

099.

2

5,2

75.9

10

,176

.8

3,69

2.1

6,48

4.6

37,2

45.9

13

,688

.6

23,5

57.3

Tha

iland

11

,737

.4

2,93

6 7

8

,800

.7

10,4

05.5

2,

471.

7 7,

933.

9 47

,482

.0

12,0

64.3

35

,417

.7 V

iet N

am

2,92

7.9

33

0 4

2

,597

.5

4,14

9.5

661.

2 3,

488.

3 14

,128

.7

2,03

3.1

12,0

95.6

ASE

AN

49

,055

.3

22,3

07.6

26,7

47.7

53

,826

.3

24,1

01.0

29,7

52.2

21

1,08

3.7

95,0

59.6

116,

024.

1

Tabl

e –

4: T

ouri

st A

rriv

als

in A

SEA

N(i

n th

ousa

nds)

Sour

ce:

ASE

AN

Tou

rism

Dat

abas

e (c

ompl

ied

from

the

ASE

AN

Tou

rism

sta

tist

ics)

http

://w

ww

.ase

anse

c.or

g/St

at/

Tabl

e28.

pdf


ASEAN as a group, is mature enough to follow thecooperative mechanism in tourism promotion which auguredwell. ASEAN’s cooperative system yielded apparent andsignificant turnout in tourist arrivals during 2004-2007 (Table –4). ASEAN in 2004 received over 49 million tourists, includingIntra and Extra ASEAN region, that climbed over to 53 milliontourists in 2007. During the period of 2004-2007, ASEANreceived 211 million tourists. ASEAN seems to have givencredence to the message “prosper thy neighbor”, floated byMahathir Mohamad, the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, atthe World Bank Conference in 1997. The message simplyconnotes that if you help your neighbour to prosper you willprosper, along with it. Tunku Iskandar, former President ofMalaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents, rightly observedthat “in the ASEAN region, the ‘prosper thy neighbor’ policybeing consciously practiced by the governments, has resultedin member countries that had hitherto been ‘destination’countries, to now become tourist-generating countries.” 33

Negative Effects of TourismThe tourism industry could leave some negative impacts

on the ecology and environment. The unregulated exploitationof nature and human resources for the development of tourismwould cause erosion of culture and traditional values and playhavoc on land, marine ecosystems and biodiversity. Therefore,respective governments need to protect and nurture the systemwith caution. As regards the adverse consequences of tourism,Rodolfo Severino advised that the “ASEAN members oughtto step up their cooperation in protecting the environment andconserving the cultural heritage. The environment and culture,after all, are the goose that lays the golden tourism egg. Theymust not be damaged.” 34

Tourism in Southeast Asian CountriesThe issue of alliance among the Southeast Asian countries

for promotion of tourism industry, has gained prominence due


to ASEAN arrangement and global economic changes. Besidesthe collective efforts of the members (developing and leastdeveloped countries) of ASEAN to attract tourists to this regionby showcasing the variety of tourist destinations, each membercountry followed different strategies and campaigns foraccruing innumerable benefits of tourism segment.

Brunei DarussalamBrunei, thriving well on oil revenues, began recognizing

the role of contemporary tourism in its economic growth.Brunei designed its fist national tourism master plan focusingits unique heritage of the Kampong Ayer (the water villages),recorded by the early European visitor in 1521. Brunei with70 per cent of area under tropical forest cover, has becomenatural destination and has attracted about 170,000 tourists in2007. Sheikh Jamaluddin Sheigh Mohammed, Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Brunei Tourism, Ministry of Industry and PrimaryResources, declared, “We are very selective and proud of ourIslamic heritage” and added that “for tourists who like partyingand alcohol, Brunei is not a good destination in this regard.” 35

CambodiaCambodia, which was one of the popular tourist

destinations in Southeast Asia before 1960s, was virtuallyisolated for more than two decades due to political turmoil.Cambodia too having recognized tourism as one of the incomegenerators for its reconstruction programme, opened its doorsfor tourists to enjoy the grandeur of its archaeological sitesincluding Angkor Wat, one of the top World Heritage sites inSoutheast Asia and wonderful sculptural embellishments ofAngkor Thom and Bayon Temple. Tourist arrivals increaseddramatically from 25,012 in 1991 to 1 million in 2004, andthen to 5 millions in 2007 (Table-4). Tourism stood second tothe garment manufacturing as the largest source of revenuewith US $ 1.1 billion in 2005. 36


IndonesiaIndonesia, the largest country in Southeast Asia, is considered

as a destination for a variety of attractions including resort, cultural,nature, cruise and tourist holidays. In 1994, PATA describedIndonesia as ‘the most attractive country in the entire PATAregion’. As an archipelago of over 17,000 islands, Indonesia is aplace of numerous sites and monuments of great historic interest.Bali has dominated the tourism industry in terms of visitor arrivalsuntil terrorist attacks in 2002. The other areas of attraction includeJava, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Kalimantan. Tourism sector emergedas the biggest foreign exchange earner after oil & gas and textiles.In 1995, the tourism receipts stood at US $ 5.23 billion contributing4 per cent of the GDP.37

Indonesia has been one of the economies most adverselyaffected by political and economic crisis in 1997-98, forestfires, avian flu, Bali terrorist attacks and the nature’s fury oftsunami. These crises have adversely affected not only theeconomy, but also tourism industry. Economic crisis resultedin the drop of arrivals from 5.6 million in 1996 to 5.2 millionin 1997 and a 15.6 per cent drop in tourism earnings. 38 AfterBali bombings, visa restrictions were reintroduced and thisled to further drop of tourists from the Western countries. In2005, Indonesia received US $ 5,092 millions comparativelylower than the earning of US $ 5,226 in 2004. 39

LaosLaos placed great emphasis on the tourist receipts for the

development of its economy since 1990. Besides, LuangPrabang, royal capital of Laos in Fourteenth century which isdesignated as World Heritage Site, there are other historictemples, such as Wat Xieng Thong, Wat Mai, Wat That Luang,Wat Sene and Wat Wisunalat house for ancient woodenBuddhist statutes. 40 Though the outbreak of epidemic, SevereAcute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) triggered negativegrowth in tourist arrivals in 2003, around 900,000 touristsvisited Laos in 2004 and about 1.1 million in 2005, whose


revenue contribution totaled up to the US $ 119 millions in2004 and to US $ 146 million in 2005. Laos, the famous landfor Buddhist pagodas, has much to offer for tourists, but thecountry is constrained by shortage of hotel accommodation.41

MalaysiaTraditionally, Malaysia has relied on the rubber, tin, palm

oil and petroleum & gas industries for economic growth. Later,tourism sector was chosen to keep Malaysia moving forward.In addition to ‘Visit ASEAN’ campaign, it sponsored ‘VisitMalaysia Year 1990’, the success of which led to launch a similarcampaign in 1994, resulting in an increase of 12 per cent intourist arrivals. ‘Visit Perak Year’, ‘Visit Selangor Year’campaigns were launched for expanding domestic tourism.Though tourism was not placed high in the government’s list ofpriorities, the Asian economic crisis forced Malaysia to dependon tourism for foreign exchange. With its share of 2.1 per centin the world tourist arrivals, tourism became the second largestforeign exchange earner. 42 Over a decade, 1997-2007, thenumber of tourist arrivals further increased from 7.2 million to8.9 million. Malaysia became a preferred destination forASEAN tourists, accounting for 76.8 per cent of the total touristswho visited Malaysia in 2005. Tourist arrivals from outside thecountry is mainly from India (34.6 per cent) and China (32.4per cent)43 Introduction of budget airlines, AirAsia Sdn Bhd, isanother factor for a spurt of tourist arrivals. Malaysia has alsobecome a centre for Health tourism in Southeast Asia, attractingmost patients from Indonesia, Japan and Europe.44 Malaysiatopped the list of large number of tourists to the region, followedby Thailand and Singapore in 2007.

MyanmarMyanmar is the land of Pagodas. Its volatile political

system under military junta government in Myanmar, is oneof the causes for its remaining over years as less importanttourist destination in Southeast Asia. Myanmar earned US $


116 million in 2004. Over 60 per cent of its visitors are fromAsian countries particularly from Thailand. For thedevelopment of tourism, new beach resorts have been built inthe Mergui archipelagASo and theme parks have been openedin Yangon. Due to political unrest, pro-democracycampaigners gave a call to the international travellers, toboycott the country.45

The PhilippinesThe Philippines has tourists of more than 2 million in 2004

and more than 3 million tourists in 2007. In 1989, “PhilippineFiesta Island Year” campaign was launched to show thatPhilippines has been a safe place for tourists. During 2004-2007, over 10 million tourists visited the country. The receiptsfrom tourism reached US $1,821 million in 2003 to US $2,620million in 2005.46

SingaporeSingapore’s strategic location, large inflows of FDIs and

massive industrialization allow Singapore’s economy toflourish as the eighteenth wealthiest in the world and one ofthe Four Asian Tigers. Singapore as an entrepot city, is one ofthe business ports and the world’s fourth largest foreignexchange trading Centre. As tourism contributes massively tothe success of the economy, Singapore offers exotic Asiancultural attractions, such as China town, Little India and ArabStreet. Its arrivals (ranked fifth in Asia) grew by 2.3 per centin 1996; Singapore’s tourism receipts (ranked third in Asia)grew by 14.6 per cent over 1995 to US $ 9.4 billion. 47 TheSingapore Tourism Board (STB) was proud of its tourismperformance in 2007 with the estimated S $13.8 billion intourism receipts, an increase of 11.3 per cent over 2006.Singapore also hit a new high of 10.3 million visitors in 2007.48

ThailandThailand, like other developing countries, pursued tourism


on a fast track for its economic growth. With its ubiquitous “Landof Smiles” advertisement in 1990s, Thailand has become one ofthe best known, and the most sought after international touristdestinations. The country ranked fourth in the category of excellentcuisine, after France, Italy and Hong Kong.49 The volume ofTourists coming to Thailand has steadily grown with more than47 millions visiting the country during 2004-2007 (Table-4). Bycomparison, Thailand ranks second next only to Malaysia inASEAN. Thailand which promoted its own “Visit ThailandYear” in 1987, still holds comparative advantage in a number ofrealms. The Sukhothai region has been declared as World Heritagesite. The world famous Emerald Buddha temple in Bangkok iscapable of attracting many Buddhists from Asia. In 1997, Thailandlaunched ‘Amazing Thailand’ campaign to focus on the varietyof its food, shopping, health resources and culture.50 Thailandtourism industry is well supplemented by hospitality industry.Regionally, in terms of the number of hotel rooms, Thailand isranked second to Japan, but the room rates in Thailand are thecheapest in Southeast Asia. 51 Tourism has made some remoteareas as the famous destinations. For example, Pattaya, originallysmall fishing village, tuned into an internationally well- knownseaside resort in the short span of twenty years and figured secondonly to Bangkok in the tourist arrivals. 52

However, Thailand’s reputation was deeply affected bythe widespread incidence of the AIDS/HIV medical cases andthe stigma of being the “sex capital” of the world.

VietnamVietnamese government’s introduction of doi moi or

renovation in 1986 to revive its economy, opened its doors fortourism which became a major contributor to the socio-economic development in the country. The scale of revenueshas developed beyond the expectation of many. The numberof visitor arrivals in the country went up stunningly from250,000 in 1990 to nearly 2.13 million in 2000 and earned US4 1.2 billion in receipts. 53


On the whole, tourism in Southeast Asia played a rolewhich is contributory to the wellbeing of economies.

India and ASEAN Tourism CooperationIndia’s relations with Southeast Asian countries date back

to ancient historical times and the dissemination of the former’sculture and civilization survives in its deep presence in manyparts of the latter’s region.

India perceived tourism as a catalyst to create betterunderstanding with ASEAN a vibrant regional organizationformed in 1967 to represent all the countries of the SoutheastAsian region, and to improve people-to-people contacts in theregion. India, after becoming sectoral dialogue partner, ‘ASEAN-India Joint Sectoral Cooperation Committee (AIJSCC) setup inMarch 1993 identified tourism as one of the prime areas formutual cooperation. In successive efforts, ASEAN and IndianMinisters established Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) tooutline the intensified cooperation in tourism and other fields.The first JCC held in New Delhi in 1996 felt, that the scope forASEAN-India cooperation in tourism was considerable and “thatcontinuation of familiarization tours and tourism seminars,including upgradation of tourism infrastructure were importantareas of cooperation.” 54 Emphasizing the need for developingIndia-ASEAN tourism, the then Indian External Affairs Minister,Yashwant Sinha said in Brunei, in 2002: “We should promoteand facilitate the travel of our businessmen, academics, students,in other words of common people from different walks of life.India-ASEAN tourism is a theme much commended, but wherewe have achieved little concrete progress.” 55

ASEAN – India: Air and Road connectivitySteps were taken to improve infrastructural connectivity

between these two regions which is vital for the movement ofpeople. India and ASEAN Action Plan, prompted the two sidesto sign ‘Open Skies Agreement’ at the Bali Summit. On thegrowth of two-way traffic Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh,


said: “Today there are 215 direct and indirect flights everyweek between India and Singapore, 115 flights with Thailandand 50 with Malaysia.” 56

Similar steps were taken to improve the road connectivityto Southeast Asia from India’s northeastern region.Accordingly, the trilateral India-Myanmar-Thailand Highwayagreement was reached in 2002 for the 1,360km Moreh-Bagan-Mao Sot Highway to lay new roads, towards repairing of theold ones as well as the restoration of the missing links on theexisting routes. 57 In this direction, the India-ASEAN Car Rally,a non competitive event, flagged off in November 2004 byPrime Minister Manmohan Singh, was aimed to draw theattention to tremendous potential for trade and for tourism inthe region. One of the key objectives of the Rally was toenhance trade, investment, tourism and people to people linksbetween India and the ASEAN countries.58 As there istremendous scope for expansion of tourism between India-ASEAN, two parties agreed to setup a Working group todevelop mutual cooperation. The first ASEAN-India TourismWorking Group meeting was held in July 2006 in Chiang Mai.The cooperation covered the following areas:a) Development and maintenance of an ASEAN tourism

websiteb) Tourism marketingc) Joint investment / promotion projectsd) Combined ASEAN-India Tourism packages; ande) Tourism manpower 59

India attached great importance to tourism in improvingpeople to people contact with ASEAN nations. Regarding thatPrime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Fifth ASEAN –IndiaSummit in 2007 in Cebu said: “ This dimension has been givena renewed thrust with the impressive growth of connectivityand the ever-increasing flows of tourism between India andASEAN. This should, I believe, remain a priority area ofcooperation and, in fact, be given even further impetus.”60


In sustaining the tourism relations a milestone was theformation of India-ASEAN Tourism Ministers’ meeting.Ambika Soni, Indian Tourism Minister, at the First Meetingof India-ASEAN Tourism Ministers meeting said: “Tourismis an important activity between our two regions as it helps,above all, to connect our people together.” She also said, theoutbound tourism from India crossed 8 million in 2007; theASEAN region is one of the prime beneficiaries of thisoutbound traffic from India.61 India which introduced ‘longduring visas’ on a pilot basis desired to extend the same facilityto ASEAN tourists. India wants to follow ASEAN model of‘visa on arrival’ where many ASEAN states have been reapingbenefits. India also opened its Hotel and Tourism industry for100 per cent direct investments focused to attract tourisminvestments from ASEAN states.

Other areas of tourism cooperationWith the Indian film industry choosing Southeast Asia

particularly Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia forits film shooting the scope of tourism has been enhanced.Besides, Star-nites of the Indian cine celebrities startedbecoming frequent cultural event in this region. On theinfluence of this aspect, P.V. Rao felt, “Imperceptibly thecultural influence cast by Indian films and music is promotingIndia’s soft power in the region.” 62

The Indian tourism authorities focused attention on theBuddhist centres of Rajhir, Nalanda and Bodh Gaya. TheGovernment of India sought to develop a ‘Buddhist circuit’covering the major Buddhist cultural centres in India and alsoinaugurated special rail connectivity to the ‘Buddhist circuit’for South Asian Buddhist tourists. It could be an attractiveagenda for Buddhist followers in Southeast Asia to visit theconsecrated place of Buddhism. Ishwaran, the Minster of Tradeand Industry, Singapore, met Ambika Soni in 2007 anddiscussed the relevance of the ‘Buddhist Circuit’, logistics toapply for joint marketing and also discussed the challenging


issue of reviving the glory of Nalanda. 63

In order to effect an increase in the awareness and touristarrivals, India in cooperation with Singapore Tourism Board,opened an office in Singapore. Malaysia with the joint associationof Singapore, promoted campaigns to attract Indian visitors toASEAN. India also signed separate tourism agreements with sub-regional groups such as Mekong-Ganga Cooperation andBIMSTEC, which include Southeast Asian and South Asianmembers. All the promotional campaigns of both sides at differentlevels, resulted in the increased volume of tourist arrivals. Thetotal number of visitors from India to ASEAN has increased from410,447 (1991) to 763,033 in 2001. From 2001 onwards therewas a phenomenal growth of Indian tourist arrivals to ASEAN.The number reached 1,240,295 in 2005 64 and further swelled totwo million in 2007. Singapore attracted most Indians who werefollowed by Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. According toASEAN Secretariat, “India ranked among the tenth largest visitorgenerating market for ASEAN.” 65 In contrast, 280,000 ASEANtourists visited India in 2007. The volume of Indian touristscoming to ASEAN countries had been enormous though thereverse has not been happening in a similar way. India which is tohost Commonwealth Games in 2010, has set out with the aim ofattracting one million tourists from ASEAN states and hence, theneed for India, to launch proactive programmes, to attract ASEANtourists.

The burgeoning of tourism industry further needs the jointpromotion and alliances which will increase arrivals andenhance tourism growth for both the regions’ development.This will also provide the growth of trade and investmentbetween them. Strong economic growth will stimulate tourismindustry to multiply investments.

ConclusionTourism industry turned out to be a boon to those countries

pestered with the unemployment problem as it began offeringhundreds of thousands of jobs which would go a long way to


mitigate the chronic problem of unemployment. Malaysia,Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore have developed considerableexpertise in tourism and the least developed countries (Myanmar,Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) in this region are also developingtourism destinations to attract visitors. Southeast Asia isfortunate enough to have a solid economic and social foundation,that enabled it to weather the varied crises effectively duringthe last decade. The potentials of tourism in Southeast Asia couldagain be in the forefront of economic development of the region.The bright prospects of the industry would lie invariably in theability of the host country to manage the inflows of tourists aswell as to maintain the ecological balance by preventing it fromgetting reduced to a mere perilously precarious one.

Notes1. “The Global Importance of Tourism,” World Travel and Tourism

Organization and International Hotel and RestaurantAssociation, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, (19-30 April 1999, New York). http://www.gdrc.org/uem/eco-tour/wttc.pdf.

2. www.frasercoastholidays.info/memmbership/ membership/benefits-of-tourism.cfm.

3. www.twnside.org.sg/title2/resurgence/twr207.208.htm.4. Sinclair, M. Thea, “Tourism and Economic Development: A

Survey,” Journal of Development Studies, 34:5, June 1998, p.4.5. “The Global Importance of Tourism”, n.1.6. Batir Mirbabayev and Malika Shagazatoa, “The Economic and

Social Impact of Tourism,” www.gips.ac.jp/alumni/uzbekistantourism(2).pdf.

7. Joseph M. Perry, Jeffrey W. Steagall and Louis A. Woods,“Cuban Tourism, Econmic Growth, and the Welfare of the CubanWorkers,” Cuba in Transition, ASCE, 1997, p.141.

8. Anita Pleumarom, “Does Tourism benefit the Third World?”,www.twnside.org.sg/title2/resurgence/twr207-208.htm

9. www.uncsap.org/Hdw/publications/TPTS_pubs/pub_2478/pub_2478_ch.pdf.

10. Ibid.11. Erik Cohen, “The Changing Faces of Contemporary Tourism,”

http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.


12. P.V. Rao, “India and ASEAN: Summit Partnership,” in P.V. Rao(ed.), India and ASEAN: Partners at Summit, (New Delhi,2008), p. 19.

13. K.B. Ghimire, “Regional Tourism and South-South EconomicCooperation,” The Geographical Journal, Vol.167, No.2, 2001,p.99.

14. Ibid.15. Wong Poh Poh , “Tourism Development in Southeast Asia:

Patterns, Issues, and Prospects,” in Chia Lin Sien (ed.),Southeast Asia Transformed: A Geography of Change,(Singapore, 2003), p.413.

16. Ibid.17. Ibid, p.425.18. Review Article by Edward M. Bruner, American Ethnologist,

Vol.22, No.2, (May 1995), p.432.19. Review Article, Victor T. King, “ Tourism in Asia: A Review of

the Achievements and Challenges,” SOJOURN: Journal ofSocial Issues in Southeast Asia, Vol.23, No.1, 2008, p.107.

20. www.uncsap.org, n.9.21. Ibid.22. Ibid.23. Joan C. Henderson, “Southeast Asian Tourism and the Financial

Crisis: Indonesia and Thailand Compared,” Current Issues inTourism, Vol.2, No.4, 1999, p.299; See also Wong Poh Poh,n.15.

24. Danny Wong Tze Ken, “Vietnam: Laying the Path for the 10th

National Congress,” Southeast Asian Affairs 2006, (Singapore,2006), p.357.

25. Cassey Lee, Boon-Huat Quah, and Marc Foo, “ Southeast AsianEconomies: A Year of Exogenous Shocks,” Ibid, p.21.

26. www.mfaic.gov.kh/8thaseansummit_bg_tourism.php. ATFmeetings were hosted by ASEAN members so far (5 times inMalaysia, Singapore, Philippines; 4 times in Thailand; 1 timeeach in Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia and Laos). Vietnam willhost TAF meeting in January 2009. www.atf2009vietnam.com/index.phh?category=01&page=1&itemid=1204.

27. Ibid.28. Rodolfo C. Severino, “ASEAN Boosts Tourism,”

www.aseansec.org/2843.htm29. www.mfaic.gov.kh, n.26.30. Ibid.


31. Sunil Sharma, “Focusing on Regional Tourism Markets:Prospects and Challenge for Nepal,” www.mof.gov.np/econom_policy/pdf/Focusing_Regional.pdf.

32. Ibid, see also Rodolfo C. Severino, n.28.33. Tunku Iskandar, “Tourism: Prosperity for Prosperity,”

www.natta.org.np/Tunku%20 Iskandar’s %20key%20note%20speech.doc.

34. Rodolfo C. Severino, n.28.35. www.tatnews.org/latest_update/detail.asp?id=3671.36. Fen-Chi Cheng, “The Important Factors of Hotel Products and

Services as Perceived by Leisure Travelers Visiting Angkor Wat,”www.sbaer.uca.edu/research/acme/ 2008/ACME%202008%%20proceedings.pdf.

37. Joan C. Henderson, n.23. p.29638. Ibid, p.298.39. ASEAN NTOs Ready to Capitalize on Tourism Growth,”

www.tatnanews.org ,n. 35. And Far East and Australasia 2008,p.420.

40. Harlan Hague, “World Heritage Sites of Southeast Asia,”www.softadventure.net/SEAsia%20 web.htm.

41. Far East and Australasia 2008, (London, 2008), p.696.42. Tunku Iskandar, n.33.43. Far East and Australasia 2008, n.41, p.719.44. Ibid.45. Ibid, p.824.46. Ibid, p.1113.47. Alan A. Lew, “Tourism and the Southeast Asian Crisis of 1997

and 1998: A View from Singapore,” Current Issues in Tourism,Vol.2, No.4, 1999, p.305.

48. “ASEAN too Ready to Capitalize on Tourism Growth,”www.tatnews.org/latest_update/ detail.asp?id=3671.

49. Mingsarm Santikarn Kaosa-ard, “ Thailand’s Tourism Industry– What Do We Gain and Lose?, TDRI Quarterly Review, Vol.9,No.3, September 1994, pp.23-26. www.info.tdri.org.th/ library/quarterly/text/tourism.htm

50. Joan C. Henderson, n. 23.51. Apichat Pongsirirushakun, Kiratipong Naewmalee, “An

Analysis of Foreign Tourist Expenditure in Thailand,” TRDIQuarterly Review, Vol.18, No.2, June 2003, p. 12.

52. Ibid.53. Nguyen Thuy Khanh Doan, “Sustainable Tourism Development


in Vietnam,” www.apo-tokyo.org/gp/e_publi/gplinkeco32chapter30.pdf.

54. Joint Press Release The First ASEAN-India Joint CooperationCommittee Meeting New Delhi, 14-16 November 1996, http://www.aseansec.org/5736.htm

55. www.meaindia.nic.in/speech/2002/08/01spc01.htm.56. Ashok Malik, “PM talks business at ASEAN,” The Pioneer, 22

November 2007.57. P.V. Rao, n. 12, p.24.58. www.meaindia.nic.in/onuse/ASEAN%20.India.pdf.59. www.budpar.go.id/page.ph.?ic=663&id=1326.60. PM’s address at the 5th India-ASEAN Summit, http://

www.carnegieendowment.org/ newsletters/SAP/pdf/feb07/pm_speech%20_asean.pdf

61. http://pibhyd.ap.nic.in/er22010801.pdf.62. P.V. Rao, n.12, p.2063. http://pibhyd.ap.nic.in/er22010801.pdf64. http://www.aseansec.org/tour_statTotal%20ASEAN%20

Yearly.htm65. Rahul Sen, Mukul G. Asher and Ramkishen S. Rajan, ASEAN-

India Economic Relations: Current Status and FutureProspects, RIS-DP# 73/2004, May 2004, p.17. India registered5 million visitors, with US $ 11.96 billion foreign exchangeearnings in 2007. In terms of rupees terms, the earnings fromtourists were 49,413 crores in the same year. A study report ofthe National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER)stated that, tourism at present is one of the fast growing economicsectors of India contributing 5.9 per cent towards GDP and 8.78per cent towards employment. “Incredible India draws 5 milliont o u r i s t s , ” w w w. b u s i n e s s - s t a n d a r d . c o m / c o m m o n /storypage_c_online.php?bkeyFlag=IN& autono=32404 andDhurjati Mukherjee, “High growth potential in Tourism,”www.partivad.com/ articles_2.htm.


Profile of the Area Study Centre

Centre for SAARC Studies

The Centre for SAARC Studies, formerly the Centre forStudies on Cooperative Possibilities in South Asia, wasestablished in Andhra University in May 1987 and startedfunctioning from 1988 with the financial assistance of the UGCunder the Area Study Programme. The Centre has beenundertaking research studies on economic, political, and socialaspects related to South Asia. The Centre is distinct from theother Area Studies Centres in India, i.e., it has been pursuingresearch on SAARC countries viz. Afghanistan, Bangladesh,Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as asubject of study. The Centre is now under the fourth phase(2004- 2009) and is striving to establish a strong research baseon South Asian studies.

Major Objectives:• To deepen the understanding of the economic, political,

and social aspects of South Asian countries;• To work for the acceleration/progress of South Asian

Regional Cooperation;• To advance the study of contemporary issues of South Asia/

SAARC countries which have special relevance to India;• To study the Southeast Asia/ ASEAN and the other regional

blocs in Asia with particular focus on India’s relations withthese countries/regions; and

• To interact with the other like-minded Institutes/Centres,engaged in promoting South Asian Regional Cooperation.

To attain the above objectives and to strengthen theresearch activity, the Centre has been collaborating with someof the reputed research and funding organizations.


Research Activity:The Centre has envisaged mainly two kinds of research

programmes under its auspices - (i) in-house research activities,and (ii) inter-departmental collaborative research programmes,besides making efforts for national and internationalnetworking.

Since its inception, the Centre is making efforts toundertake in-depth studies on the identified thrust areas. Thethrust areas of the current phase are economic cooperation,political security, gender, and ethnic issues.

The Centre is successful in achieving the academic andresearch targets and is moving ahead by bringing out a goodnumber of books, monographs and research papers. Theresearch output of the Centre includes eleven books, six reportsand about 95 research papers. The Centre has been organizingSeminars/ Conferences/Symposia periodically. The Centre ispublishing a bi-annual journal entitled Journal of South AsianAffairs and released the first issue in March 2008.

area studies vol.2(1), 2008

Documents

editor4 area studies

andhra university

saarc studies locatedat

university of madras

indian ocean

influence of ramayana

indonesian artv

southeast asian economiesm