SAARC : challenges and opportunities

The people of South Asia, after a heroic struggle for independence, ultimately were able to loosen the two centuries old colonial stronghold and the three states of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka came into being in 1947-48. A quarter of century later, Bangladesh was born following the bifurcation of Pakistan. This family of states along with two land-locked sub-Himalayan neighbours-Nepal and Bhutan-which man aged to retain their nominal independence during the imperialistic subjugation of the region and the tiny archipelago of Maldives in the Indian Ocean, which was the last of South Asian states to gain freedom in 1966, share the problems of poverty and under development. Nonetheless, in spite of the glaring similarity of their difficulties, it took almost four decades for them to recognize the need for coordinated efforts to tackle their common problems. As a consequence of this belated realization, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was set up in 1985 at Dhaka during a summit level meeting of seven South Asian States (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) with the aim of achieving an accelerated rate of economic growth and social progress through mutual cooperation in planning and concerted action in execution.

In this context, the study presented in this book will be a useful and timely contribution to the ongoing and lively debate on the politics of SAARC process and the diverse and complex problems inhibiting the evolution of SAARC and the consolidation of the gains it has made so far. To the academic community and students and researchers interested in regional cooperation and inter national relations, this work, indeed, can be a useful source.