India, the European Union and Kashmir: Containing a Postmodern Policy (original) (raw)

Why the European Parliament Group's Kashmir Visit Backfired on India

The Diplomat, 2019

Explains the ramifications of the staged visit of 27 far-right Members of European Parliament (MEP) to Kashmir, which is under a state of lockdown. Argues that the visit will damage India's secular credentials further and alienate important Western allies.

EU Parliament resolution on the EU-India FTA calls for dialogue on Kashmir

bilaterals. org, 2011

Discusses the European Union (EU) Parliament's resolutions on EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) highlighting the dispute on Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Highlights the role of political conditionality in the EU foreign trade policy, and its strength to require respect for universal human rights through trade incentives. Explores the nature and effects of a possible provision or a pre-condition in the EU-India FTA on the settlement of Kashmir dispute.

INDIA-PAKISTAN CONFRONTATION: WHAT HAS CHANGED ABOUT INDIAN- HELD KASHMIR SINCE 1947

Prologue The ideological imprudence and political short-sightedness of Indian leadership has never allowed it to win the hearts and minds of Kashmiris. Treating the Kashmiris with an iron fist would never complement Indian grand strategy in the region and beyond. The human sufferings in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) would also continue to jeopardize India's self-proclaimed world shining image. The Kashmir conflict has long begun to cease as a 'mere territorial dispute' between India and Pakistan given the strategic pattern of regional and international politics in the last few decades, large-scale western influence in the region, proxy wars, dynamics of alliances and coalitions within and beyond the region, and most importantly, the rise and spread of dissident elements in IHK with strong linkages elsewhere. Becoming well aware of these socio-political dynamics, New Delhi has lately realized the futility of any solution of Kashmir issue without taking into account the diverse political aspirations of Kashmiris living in the region. What is still missing in New Delhi's policy vision, however, is her stiffness over not allowing a trilateral dialogue to break the impasse of political negotiations and finding a win-win solution on all three fronts, i.e., India, Pakistan, and Kashmir. The nature of India-Pakistan peace parleys and the strategic issues involved in them often fail to complement whatever New Delhi and Kashmiri leadership arrives at and vice versa. The peace process on Kashmir is a broad subject to be dealt with in a single study. This paper, therefore, limits itself to socio-political and military dynamics through which IHK has been passing during the past six decades, making it vulnerable to communal wrangling just like the rest of India.

Norms in Flux: EU-India Relations on the Global Stage

EUISS Chaillot Paper, 2024

In their public statements, India and the EU both defend a rules-based order and currently describe themselves as likeminded partners. Both have also integrated this narrative into joint documents such as the ‘EU-India Strategic Partnership: A Roadmap to 2025’ and the ‘EU-India Connectivity Partnership’. The EU’s and India’s positions on the Hamas-Israel war have been similar: both initially stated that Israel had a right to self-defence but soon called for de-escalation and the need to respect international humanitarian law. However, there are substantial differences when it comes to broader normative alignment between India and the EU, as illustrated by India’s acquiescence in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Introduction: the problem of EU–India relations

The European Union and India, 2015

The European Union (EU)-India relationship has variously been characterized as a relationship 'in desperate need of some success' (EU-Asia Centre and FRIDE 2011), 'a relationship between two unequals' (EUEAPP media 'elite' respondent), 1 'a loveless arranged marriage' or a 'reluctant relationship' (Khandekar 2011). From an EU perspective, it remains 'an underexploited two-way relationship' which suffers from high tariff barriers in India as well as EU import ceilings and restrictions (interview with EU Delegation official, New Delhi, October 2011). From an Indian perspective, the relationship is 'very amicable'. It is a 'nonproblematic, feel-good relationship' (EUEAPP, political 'elite' respondents; civil society 'elite' respondent) but is also 'not very active' (EUEAPP, civil society 'elite' respondent) and lacks momentum (EUEAPP, business 'elite' respondent). An Indian climate campaigner recently described it as 'a stable relationship, not deteriorating but pretty much stagnant for the past, at least one decade or so' (EUEAPP, civil society 'elite' respondent). So why bother studying European-Indian relations? Why this book? When we embarked upon this project, we felt that the EU-India relationship was understudied and suffered from clichés that were repeated time and again from one publication to the next. One of these was that India only began to take European integration seriously in the 1990s. We thought that an in-depth study was needed to put current developments in EU-India relations in historical perspective in the hope that a better understanding of the evolution of EU-India relations might form a sounder basis for analyzing current developments. Another reason was the sheer magnitude of the economic, political and security interests at play in this relationship in the 21st century. There is enormous scope for growing investment and trade on both sides. For India, the EU remains the largest trading partner, but the percentage of Indian exports going to the EU and of India's imports from the EU has fallen significantly since the 1990s. In 1996, the EU bought 26 percent of India's exports and 30 percent of India's imports originated from the EU. By contrast, 17 percent of Indian

Changing Equations of India-Pakistan Relations: Unresolved Kashmir Dispute as a Decider Factor

Since the independence and violent partition of two South Asian countries India and Pakistan in 1947, relations between these two have been inflexible, conflictual, distrustful and very risky political stand off in global context in general and in South Asia particular. Moreover, both are closest and bordering neighbors with close literary, social and cultural bonds but remained at great distance from each other. It is doubtless that there are many reasons and factors behind such turbulence situations and unstabilized political environment but Kashmir issue remains the primary factor and problematic for the development of two nations. However, India and Pakistan have always been caught in enduring conflicts, but in recent time, there are certain changes took place due to the change in the leadership and misadventures/infiltration/proxy war in Kashmir valley as their relations seem to be bitterer than ever before which give the space to international organizations to intervene in their disputes and state of affairs. In such situation, Kashmir is being seen as decider factor to Indo-Pak relations. In such context, this paper is an attempt to touch various issues especially Kashmir dispute between these two nations including the understanding of changing nature of their relations for many years while highlighting the role of external powers which would contribute to the transitory nature of their dynamic relations to draw analytical inferences. It also tries to explore the future of Indo-Pak relations while examining attempts made in the direction to normalize their relations.

Resolving The Kashmir Dispute: "Enlightened Sovereignty" Can Be The Way Forward

Naya Daur, 2019

Conflict and cooperation are ontologically two central components of human organisation. From the Paleolithic period to modern times, human beings as well as the nation-states fight and also cooperate with each other all the time. Realism essentialise the former while cooperative components are central to neo-liberalism. The post-World War European political and diplomatic experiences might serve as a point of departure here. Nevertheless, when it comes to politics and foreign policy in South Asia, the realist approach seems to have dominated the political, and indeed military, thinking in the region that witnessed many wars; four between India and Pakistan, not counting the multiple stand-offs, continuing warfare in Afghanistan, and the civil wars in Nepal and Sri Lanka. Among the above-mentioned cases, the India-Pakistan case has assumed regional and global attention. At the heart of India-Pakistan relations lies the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). This issue has been approached, documented and analysed from a variety of perspectives and actors ranging from academics to the UN experts have attempted to do so. Academically, the literature produced can broadly be termed as pro-India, pro-Pakistan and pro-Kashmir. The pro-India work is essentially integrationist which make a case to annex princely states, including J&K, with reference to Greater India-which was partitioned by the British. Kashmir is thus termed as "atoot ang" of "Akhand Bharat". In the view of pro-India studies, Kashmir was constitutionally an integral part of the Indian Union under Article 370-which was revoked by Modi-led BJP on August 5, and an election was held to substitute the 'promised' plebiscite which is enchanted by the pro-Pakistan literature. The latter regards J&K as the unfinished agenda of partition.