The “Raja-Mandala” approach to containing Pakistan

A few days ago, I chanced upon this article by Vanni Cappelli (freelance journalist; co-founder and president of the Afghanistan Foreign Press Association) titled “Containing Pakistan: Engaging the Raja-Mandala in South-Central Asia

Vanni starts by detailing “the extent to which the Pakistani state itself fostered transnational networks of Islamist terrorists from the 1970s on in service of its own ideology of political Islam.” As he writes,

“Pakistan in fact suffers from abiding structural pathologies: its status as the first ideological Islamic state of modern times, its all-dominating military, its influential extremist religious establishment, its powerful feudal oligarchy, its hatred of India, the perpetual resort to violence to answer political questions, the inadmissibility of dissent, and its long history of using Islamic radicals as instruments of state policy and of aggression in Afghanistan, Kashmir, and beyond.”

Vanni’s solution to the crisis and instability in the region (which directly feeds global terrorism) is to apply “traditional wisdom to contemporary crises“… in particular, ““The ancient Indian geopolitical concept of the raja-mandala (‘‘ruler circle’’), which seeks to balance opposing spheres of influence and exploit the tensions between them, provides the key to containing and eventually eliminating South-Central Asian terror.”

The author first provides the backdrop to Pakistan’s evolution from a “political commitment to an ideological state” into “a strategic commitment to jihadi ideology”:

“The Soviet invasion, which followed Daud’s assassination in a Moscow-engineered coup, provided a golden opportunity to break this double threat of dismemberment and encirclement by fighting communism with U.S. support, while using U.S. and Saudi money to advance a fundamentalist agenda.”

“This quest for gaining ‘‘strategic depth’’ against India by dominating Afghanistan was inseparable from the tactic of undercutting Pashtun nationalism by supporting Islamists. It remains a foundation of Pakistan’s foreign policy to this day.

Vanni draws a parallel between Afghanistan and Kashmir and quotes Oliver Roy* in this regard:

“Pakistan’s Afghan policy was absolutely in line with its policy on Kashmir: first and foremost the use of international militias composed of Islamic volunteers; direct support for the mujahedin; the same religious network to train volunteers; the same implacable denial that they are interfering. These are often the very organizations that are found in Kashmir helping the Taliban, such as Harkat-ul-Ansar. So it was indeed a policy of aggression on all sides that Pakistan pursued.15”

“The successful conclusion of this effort with the Taliban’s September 1996 entry into Kabul, which had been almost leveled in the fighting, provided Pakistan with a friendly regime there for the first time since independence. It was now free to concentrate on India with the confidence that comes with possessing WMD.

Sadly, US Policy twoards Pakistan has been marked by ambivalence and indecisiveness even in the face of overwhelming evidence. To quote from Vanni’s article:

“Long before this event,which resulted in the imposition ofU.S. sanctions on both countries, Washington had come to the conclusion that Pakistan’s recidivist behavior threatened regional and international security. Yet it never sought a substantive confrontation with its erstwhile ally.

It never followed through on its May 1992 threat to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terror, even when the latter became the chief enabler of the Taliban and the Taliban gave shelter to Bin Laden.”

And things continue to worsen.

The latest in a long strong of recent worrying developments that have been widely reported and commented on in the media being The Sunday Times magazine cover story, “The Invisible Man” on Osama bin Laden. This quote from the story is telling:

“Fighters disappear across mountains into what the American soldiers refer to as “Paksville”. “If we could go just 10 miles the other side we could finish this,” Schultz complained.” and

“Gen Dan McNeill, the new US commander, flew to Islamabad before assuming command in February, to confront Gen Musharraf with video surveillance showing fighters openly crossing into Afghanistan in front of Pakistani border guards.”

“…But there is a more sinister possibility. Senior UN officials in Afghanistan believe that Pakistan is playing a double game: that while its military intelligence (ISI) officially co-operates with the hunt for Bin Laden, there is a shadow ISI making sure nobody gets near him…

“…The theory that Bin Laden is in a Pakistani city is something a growing number of US officials now consider possible”

Back in January, there was the story in International Herald Tribune titled, “Pakistani role seen in Taliban’s resurgence” (Jan 22, ’07, IHT, Pg2) and I suppressed the urge to yawn.

But going back to Vanni. He writes:

“Five years after 9/11, with the United States absorbed with the war in Iraq, Pakistan’s Islamist parties are growing stronger, the radical madrassas are flourishing with little government interference, a resurgent Taliban pours over the frontier to challenge the fragile new order in Afghanistan, and the persistent violence in Kashmir has aftershocks as far as Mumbai.”

and concludes tha, “Rawalpindi cannot be a U.S. ally against terrorism because it is the root cause of the problem.”

So what is the “Raja-Mandala” approach to containing Pakistan?

“The workings of the raja-mandala are elucidated in the Arthasastra of Kautilya, the Indian equivalent of Machiavelli’s Prince, written in the late fourth century BCE by the chief political advisor of King Chandragupta, the founder of the Mauryan dynasty…

“…the immediate neighbors of the axial ‘king of kings,’ those therefore within the first circle, are to be regarded as his natural enemies; those beyond them in the next circle are his potential allies; those in the third circle are his enemies’ potential allies, those in the fourth his allies’ natural allies, and so on.19

And this is how Vanni explains its relevance to the current situation, in his concluding remarks:

“In the broader realm, America has seen the wisdom of building up India as a counterbalance to China. Yet such efforts, as well as the counterterrorism fight itself, will be undermined if an uncritical attitude towards Pakistan makes the United States an unintentional partner in China’s efforts to encircle India and Pakistan’s efforts to foment extremism, sponsor terror, and pursue an expanded nuclear capacity.”

Thought provoking and worth a serious discussion…

Pakistan’s ex Foreign Secretary, Tanwir Ahmad Khan has commented on Vanni’s article in The Dawn (March 26, 2007), “Demonising Pakistan” but (in my opinion) has not offered any counter-evidence or fresh insight.

Finally, some of you may like to read a few of my earlier posts on this subject Lets pretend there is no Al-Qaeda, All roads lead to Islamabad… and All roads lead to Pakistan…(once again)

.

* Olivier Roy, ‘‘Islam and Foreign Policy’’ in Christophe Jaffrelot, A History of Pakistan and Its Origins (London: Anthem Press, 2004),  Pg. 142.

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9 Responses

  1. vatsala says:

    excellent find!
    tis’ because of these very informative pieces that you link to and the subsequent insightful analysis
    that makes me return to this blog again and again.

  2. B Shantanu says:

    Vatsala,

    Thank you for your kind words and encouragement….this is what keeps me going.

    Jai Bharat, Jai Hind.

  3. drsurya says:

    This is a very dangerous piece of information which our foolish politicians dont understand…. given a chance all clowns in delhi would bend backwards to lick the aboral end of pakistani militants…
    If the U.S. is indifferent towards pakistani arrogance we can criticise it but if our own Bharath turns a blind eye to pakistani terrorism and rolls out a red carpet to rogues and terrorists … then where do we turn toward?

  4. Chaaker Khan Rind says:

    This just shows the pathology of Indian mind and its paranoia about Pakistan. You people just cant get over it and accept the reality, apparently trauma of partition was too great for you.I would say the sooner you snap out your delusions of power, the better it would be for everyone.

  5. B Shantanu says:

    Chaaker,

    Thanks for your comment. A few points:

    1] Please read carefully. The article is NOT written by an Indian; The post quotes from a number of other articles – none of which are written by Indians
    2] As you say, Partition is a reality – that is not in question
    3] “…the sonner you snap out of your delusions of power…” – what exactly do you mean by that? If you can clarify, it will help me understand you better.

    I am very happy to have a debate around this – if you wish.

  6. Indian says:

    Mr. Chaaker Khan

    Dont be dubious like “Pakistan.” To me your comment seems threatening. Keep in mind, Pakistan will end up paying more than what it is aiming to gain. Its to remind you, only think about pathology of Pakistani mind, it would be better for your future generation.

  7. Anirban says:

    Shantanuji,

    You have turned the hole thing into a masterly analysis & have packed your post with plenty of thought provoking information & comments. It is beyond doubt that pakistan’s raison d’etre remains even today 60 years after its disastrous birth – ‘anti-Indianess, its principle & only aim of existence & perpetuation remains the disintegration of India. It is that objective which is holding the country together. The army & the west Punjab dominated ruling class are the kingpins of this whole attitutde. That the Taliban are going to regroup was quite evident right from day one because their eradication was attemtped in a halting manner. Things indeed look ominous.

    The Sanatana Dharma says that every nation has a soul, but it is becoming evident now that as pakistan was created by fraud, force & duplicity from the eternal body of Bharat it lacked a soul & a souless nation becomes gradually one of the greatest perpetrators of evil on earth. Recent events in Pakistans point towards that, are our leaders, foreign policy advisors & people in general alive to the fact?

    Thanks for shaking us out of our somnolence!

  8. B Shantanu says:

    Oliver Stuenkel, Professor of International Relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo, Brazil has a review of The First Great Realist: Kautilya and his Arthashastra by Roger Boesche:
    In sum, what is perhaps most fascinating is how many ideas Kautilya articulated that would appear in the West centuries later – while Kautilya wrote the Arthashastra briefly after Thucydides, he long preceded Machiavelli and Hobbes, which thought along similar lines. Rather than looking for “non-Western” international relations theories, then, it may be more adequate to question the supposedly “Western” origin of today’s existing theories and acknowledge the profound contributions thinkers such as Kautilya have made.
    ***
    Courtesy Varnam

  1. April 4, 2007

    […] A few days ago, I chanced upon this article by Vanni Cappelli (freelance journalist; co-founder and president of the Afghanistan Foreign Press Association) titled Containing Pakistan: Engaging the Raja-Mandala in South-Central Asia … – more – […]