On Thursday, 28 March, the South Asia Centre of the London School of Economics (LSE) organised a roundtable discussion that debated the concept of “South Asia” as taught in universities, and schools.
The discussion was held in the presence of lecturers, historians, journalists, students and other members who discussed the role of diaspora communities and perceptions towards them. Religion, immigration, political governments, intra-regional trade and border security concerns were the dominant themes that formed the heart of the discussion.
“Part of the problem stems from how UK's history is often taught in schools as a British history,” said David Arnold Emeritus Professor in History, University of Warwick.
The professor spoke about the need for “de-colonising” history and most importantly emphasizing on the history of boundaries and how they emerged to have an understanding of the conflict between the neighbouring countries. The conversation also included dispelling the perception about South Asia being India-centric and pre-dominantly Hindu focussed.
An Afghan born and Delhi based photo-journalist who had earlier held an exhibition in London about the Kabuliwalas of Kolkata was also present at the conference. Speaking about her experience of being an immigrant travelling with an Afghan passport, Moska Najib said-
“I walk into an immigration centre and my I wish I could say that my identity is South Asian. Nobody asks me if I was born in Afghanistan pre-partition or post-partition,” said Moska Najib, photojournalist.
But while immigration forms the forefront of public discussion in the UK, trade and regional co-operation in the South Asian block is hardly discussed. And Naufel Vilcassim highlighted how intra-regional trade is hampered due to border security issues. This is an obstruction specially in the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) as opposed to the European Union (EU) where trade continues to flourish despite Brexit.
“South Asia has a huge population of 1.7 billion with a very young demographic and yet, the intra-regional trade is only 5% in comparison to the 26% in South-east Asia and 67% in the EU,” said Naufel Vilcassim, Professor of Marketing and Head of Department, Management, LSE.
But, Avinash Paliwal, lecturer in Diplomacy and Public Policy at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) disagreed with the trade perspective wherein he emphasized that the colonial histories were vastly different for each of these regional organisations.
“For a long time now, India has used SAARC as a political platform to isolate Pakistan and although the border security concerns cannot be warded off, it has had impact on trade as well where India talks about joining BIMSTEC instead,” said Paliwal.
The discussion was followed by members of the diaspora communities and students who had their own concerns with regards to the “war-like” atmosphere back in the Indian subcontinent and continuing racism and hostility they face here in the UK. Perhaps, some members of the South Asian diaspora are still lookin for the answer to Moska's question- “where is home?”.
