Area Studies Vol.2 (1), 2008

AREA STUDIES
A Journal of International Studies and Analyses

Volume 2 Number 1
January June 2008

CONTENTS
Editorial
1.
Influence of Ramayana in Indonesian Art

V. Suryanarayan
2.
Social Anthropology and Area Studies

Swatahsiddha Sarkar
15
3.
Sino-Indian Economic Relations: Competition

and Partnership
Gautam Murthy
37
4.
Geo-Strategic Significance of the Indian Ocean:

A Perspective of Indian Foreign Policy
Raj Kumar Kothari
52
5.
Israels Counter Terrorism Strategies - A

Retrospect
T. V. Gopala Chari
75
6 . Tourisms Role in Southeast Asian Economies

M. Prayaga & G. Vijay Kumar Reddy
101
Profile of an Area Study Centre
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 Director
Centre for Southeast Asian & Pacific Studies
Sri Venkateswara University,
Tirupati 517 502
Andhra Pradesh, India.
areastudies.jr@gmail.com
Technical Assistance: M. Prayaga, Assistant Professor
Editorial
At the outset, I feel morally obliged to acknowledge with
deep gratitude the receipt of the sanction of the financial
assistance from the University Grants Commission which
enables our Centre to aim with redoubled energies, at continuing
this journal, the very first of its kind in India.
Coming to the details of this issue, six erudite and highly
informative articles focusing on various aspects of several areas
evidently form the contents of this issue. The article on the
immense vogue enjoyed by Ramayana in Indonesia depicts
Ramayana as an integral part of Indonesian life and art as much
as it is in India. Another article throws light on the importance
of Social Anthropology by virtue of its affinities with and its
considerable role in the Area Studies. Yet another article on
the Sino-Indian Economic relations describes in detail, the
burgeoning trade between India and China that led to economic
partnership between the two nations. The article on Indian
Ocean lays due emphasis on its geo-strategic significance to
India. A paper on Israels counter terrorism, having described
the strategies adopted by Israel, endorses and advocates them
as effective ones in containing terrorism. The article on the
role of Tourism in Southeast Asia provides fairly detailed
information about tourism industry and credits it with the
fulfillment of two-fold aims of providing jobs to many
Southeast Asians, and earning lucrative revenues for the
respective countries. The contributors, to repeat, are
responsible for the individual views, expressed in their articles.
In fine, a profile of the Centre for SAARC Studies located
at the Andhra University in Vasakhapatnam, figures as an item
under regular feature in this issue.
Editor
Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

V. SURYANARAYAN*
In a dim distant unrecorded age
we had met, thou and I
when my speech became tangled in thine
and my life in thy life ...
From the heavens spoke to me two mighty voices
the one that sung of Ramas glory of sorrow
and the other Arjunas triumphant arm
urging me to bear along the waves
this epic lines to the eastern islands;
and the heart of my land murmured to me its hope
that it might build its nest of love
in a far away land of its dream.
Rabindranath Tagore,
To Java, August 21, 1927
The spread of Indias cultural influence is a fascinating

chapter in the history of Southeast Asia. Even a casual visitor
is struck by the deep and abiding influence India has left not
only in the field of religion, polity, art and literature, but even
in day-to-day life of the people there. Indianised kingdoms
like Funan, Sri Kshetra, Pagan, Khmer, Sri Vijaya, Sailendra.
and Majapahit, the familiar Indo-Sanskritic vocabulary in Thai
and Bahasa Indonesia, the architectural monuments like
Angkor, Pagan, Borobudur and Lara Djonggrong, the literary
masterpieces like Ramkien, Amaramala; Arjuna Vivaha and
Bharata Yuddha; the Wajang Kulit based on the Ramayana
and Mahabharata themes; the living Indian traditions in the
*
Prof. V. Suryanarayan, Former Director, Centre for South and

Southeast Asian Studies, University of Madras, Chennai.
island of Bali - all these bear testimony to the courage and

zeal of Indian princes, priests, poets, merchants and artisans
and to the accommodative and assimilating qualities of the
peoples of Southeast Asian countries. The greatest of
Indonesian nationalist leaders, President Sukarno, wrote in a
special article in The Hindu on 4 January 1946:
In the veins of every one of my people flows the blood of
Indian ancestors and the culture that we possess is steeped
through and through with Indian influences. Two thousand
years ago, people from your country came to Jawadvipa and
Suvarnadvipa in the spirit of brotherly love. They gave the
initiatives to found powerful kingdoms such as those of Sri
Vijaya, Mataram, and Majapahit. We then learnt to worship
the very Gods that you now worship still and we fashioned a
culture that even today is largely identical with your own. Later
we turned to Islam; but that religion too was brought by people
coming from both sides of the Indus.
Ramayana is not only the epic of India, bu also the national
epic of Indonesia. It had been a perennial source of inspiration
in the past and continues to exercise its charm and fascination
even today. The simple story of Rama and Sita has been told
and retold a million times in innumerable ways in different
parts of the archipelago. No doubt, in the process of diffusion
and transplantation, the Ramakatha has undergone variations
and adaptations. The immense vitality of the Ramayana
tradition in Indonesia is a proof, if a proof is necessary, to the
aptness of Brahmas assurance to Valmiki: And O Great Sage,
so long as the mountains stand and rivers flow, so long will
this story of Ramas heroic deeds be told and cherished on
earth. 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 the
people of Southeast Asia influencing their hearts and thoughts,
inspiring their artistic creations and forming the mainspring
of their cultural life. To them the hero and heroine of the
Ramayana 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 Ministry
of Information and Culture organized the First International
Ramayana Festival in Jakarta in August-September 1971.
Scholars and artists from India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Burma,
Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia participated in this unique seminar, whose objective
was to promote deeper cultural understanding among nations.
Four years later, in 1975, New Delhi picked up the threads
and on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Tulsidass
Ramcharitamanas, the Sahitya Akademi convened an
international seminar on Asian Variations in Ramayana in
January 1981. These and subsequent seminars and published
proceedings are significant milestones in our understanding
of the splendidly multifaceted Ramayana heritage.
Vitality of Ramayana
In 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 influence
on the life and thought of a people as the Ramayana. The
well known journalist, N.S. Jagannathan suggests a trivial, but
significant, example. The Chennai telephone directory contains
over 21,000 entries of Rama and its variations like Raman,
Ramaswamy and Rarnachandran. This does not include
Raghava 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 is
impossible to keep count of the Ramakathas of the world.
Prof. Romila Thapar has given an interesting explanation
for the prevalence of many Ramayanas. According to Prof.
Romila Thapar, The Ramayana does not belong to any one
moment in history, for it has its own history, which lies
embedded in the many versions which were woven around the
theme at different times and places. Not only do diverse
Ramayanas exist but each Ramayana text reflects the genius

of the people and the place where they lived. Here, it may not
be out of place to quote a story which A.K. Ramanujan has
written: One day, when Rama was sitting on the throne, his
ring fell down. When it touched the earth, it made a hole and
disappeared into it. Rama asked Hanuman, his trusted disciple,
to find the ring. Hanuman immediately transformed himself
into a tiny creature, went down the hole and entered the
netherworld. The women in the netherworld caught him and
took him to their king. All the while Hanuman was repeating
the name of Rama. The King, having learnt that it was
Hanuman, asked him as to what made him enter the
netherworld. Hanuman answered that since Ramas ring fell
into a hole he wanted to take it back to Rama. The King then
ordered for a platter to be brought in which, there were
thousands of rings. The King asked Hanuman to pick up
Ramas ring. All of them looked alike. Hanuman looked at
the platter and pleaded his inability to identify Ramas ring.
The King then told Hanuman: There have been as many
Ramas 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 down
and I collect it and keep it. Now you can go. So Hanuman
left. Ramanujan tells this story to drive home the point that
for every such Rama, there is a Ramayana. The number of
Ramayanas and the range of their influence in India and
Southeast Asia are astonishing. Naturally, these Ramayanas
differ from one another.
I am tempted to refer to two versions of Ramayana. In
Adyatma Ramayana, a later day Ramayana composed in the
16th century, there is an interesting story. When Rama is exiled
to the forest, he does not want Sita to accompany him to the
forest. Sita argues with him. At first, she uses the usual
argument in the capacity of his wife, she should share the
husbands sorrow and suffering, and thus she too should be in
exile, along with her husband. When Rama still resists the
idea, Sita becomes furious and bursts into tears. Countless

Ramayanas have been composed before this. According to one
Ramayana Sita does not go with Rama to the forest.
Many writers have reconstructed the story of Ramayana
and some of them are really moving and appealing. The Tamil
writer, Puthumai Piththan, has written an absorbing and a
moving short story, Shapa Vimochanam (Release from the
curse). The story is in the form of a conversation between
Sita, who has been exiled, and living in Valmikis hermitage
and Ahalya, years after her emancipation. They discuss the
ethics of Ramas conduct, While Ahalya begins berating Rama,
Sita starts defending him. The story ends with Ahalyas
statement as her eyes start blazing: I do not want the life
given to me by a man of this kind and expresses her will that
she should turn back into a stone.
Ramayana in Indonesia
Ramayana and other Indian epics spread in Indonesia
alongside the Brahmin priests, merchants, kshatriyas, artisans
and the poets. An Indonesian inscription in Sanskrit refers to
Raghava in AD 732, while the old Javanese inscriptions refer
to 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 written
version of Ramayana was Ramayana Kakawain by Yogiswara
in the 10th century. With the passage of time, numerous other
versions appeared. According to one scholar, there are nearly
1200 versions of Ramayana in East Java alone. One of the
Javanese versions, the Serat Kanda, begins with an account
of Adam in Mecca and ends with a description of the cremation
of Rama and Sita.
How does one account for the dynamic vitality of the
Ramayana tradition in Indonesia? Does it not conflict with
the tenets of Islam, the religion which 95 per cent of the
Indonesians adhere to?
The explanation is to be sought in the Indonesian attitude
towards life. The Indonesian mind believes in synthesis and is

accustomed to an intermingling of diverse and apparently
contradictory elements. The average Indonesian finds no
dichotomy in his moral obligations as a Moslem and his
continued 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 of
customary rituals surrounding the main stages of life, the resort
to magical practices in curing illness may all be accepted by
the same person, who is ready to observe the Moslem law in
marriage, to accept the Moslem ritual of circumcision, or to
follow the daily pattern of prayer, the weekly community
worship and the annual month of fasting.
The first great religion to arrive in Indonesia was Hinduism
and it was followed by the Mahayana form of Buddhism.
Before the Hindus arrived, the people of the islands were
animists. The new religions did not vye with each other for
mustering peoples support but on the other hand, they got
blended with the native animism and thus assumed new shapes.
Accordingly, Siva merged with the Buddha and the Siva
Buddha cult came into existence. In many parts of Indonesia,
the Banyan tree is still considered as sacred and is never cut
down. Similarly, at the time of harvest, each stalk of paddy
has to be cut in a different fashion and also as quietly as
possible, to avoid disturbing Devi Sri, the guardian spirit of
fertility. The belief in magic is common and the Kris, the short
ceremonial dagger, is endowed with magical powers and is
worshipped every day.
Islam came to Indonesia in the 16th century and began
spreading throughout the archipelago in the course of the next
three hundred years. It was brought by the merchants of
Gujarat, Kerala and the Coromandel Coast and had already
undergone changes in the direction of mysticism which
facilitated 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
10
Mecca and Cairo, vegetated, another meandering tropical

growth on an already overcrowded religious landscape.
Buddhist mystic practices got Arabic names, Hindu Rajas
suffered a change of title to become Moslem Sultans, and the
common people called some of their wood spirits Jinns; but
little else changed.
However, it must be pointed out that the impact of Islam
was felt in different ways in different strata of society. As the
isolation of Islam broke down with the establishment of contact
with centres of Islamic orthodoxy in the Middle East, new
groups began to emerge and occasional tensions arose between
the more faithful and the less faithful. Broadly, these
groups could be divided into three categories: 1) The Santri,
the devout Moslems, who consider themselves as the true
followers of Islam, mainly belong to the trading community;
2) The Abangan, the nominal Moslems, who in their daily
lives, lay greater stress on the animistic aspects of Indonesian
syncretic religion, belong mainly to the peasant masses and 3)
The Prijaji, who stress the Hindu aspects and belong to the
aristocracy in the towns. Numerically, it is the Abangan, who
dominates the Indonesian scene and has added colour and
richness to the religious landscape. They patronize the Wajang
Kulit, while the Prijaji folks are responsible for the enrichment
of the more refined dance-drama traditions.
Wajang Kulit
The Ramayana, along with Mahabharata, provides the base
and has contributed to the efflorescence of Wajang Kulit (the
shadow or leather puppet theatre), known throughout
Indonesia, especially in Central and Eastern Java. The Wajang
is not merely a form of popular entertainment but an
inseparable part of Indonesian life and reflects the social order
with all its complexities. Both physical and moral attributes
are identified with different characters and in the final analysis,
the Wajang represents the triumph of virtue over evil. Even
the orthodox Moslem Ulemahs, could not deny its complelling
11
appeal and came to terms with it by declaring that Wajang was

the invention of no less a person than Sunan Kalijaga, an
honoured Islamic saint. Though the main themes are derived
from Indian epics, the local genius has introduced many
additions, deletions and interpolations in the stories. In the
process, the influence of Wajang has not decreased, but
continues to be ever growing.
The stories can be divided into three groups - 1) Carita
Pokok - Pokok means the trunk of a tree. The stories, therefore,
are made to revolve around the main characters of Ramayana
like Rama, Sita, Hanuman etc. 2) Carita Carang Dinapur Carang means branch, which implies that the stories centre
round the secondary characters like Vibhishana, Bali etc and
3) Carita Carangan - Carangan means a twig. In other words,
the stories are far removed from the main theme and are mere
figments of the poets imagination. The Wajang season begins
after the harvest and extends to the beginning of the rainy
season. The manipulation of the puppets movements, the
control of the orchestra, and the delivery of the dialogue - all
are done by the Dalang, who is at once the composer,
improviser, producer, orator, singer, choir master, dance master
and stage manager. A good Dalang identifies himself
completely with the characters and is able to communicate
the nobility of the story to the audience. Keeping within the
bounds of Ramayana, the Dalang varies the mode of
presentation to suit the audience and mixes the narration with
some earthly wit and humour. So important is Dalangs role,
that the Indonesian classic Navaruci attributes divine qualities
to him. To quote the relevant passage, We are just like the
Wajang puppets, all our movements are brought out by the
dalang, the world is the stage. The Wajang Kulit performance
is accompanied by a Gamelan orchestra. The performance
generally lasts throughout the night, although in urban areas
nowadays it is generally reduced to three or four hours. A Malay
scholar on Ramayana has testified to the fact that a good
Dalang can still draw a larger audience than a local open air
12
cinema showing the best in Hollywood Coca Cola culture.

Ramayana in Prambanan
The very first rendering of Ramayana in Indonesia
appeared in Central Java in the language of the stone. It was
sculptured into the balustrades of two temples, Chandi Siva
and Chandi Brahma. They stand in the courtyard of a complex
of temples, known locally as Lara Jonggrang. In Chandi
Vishnu, the last of the three temples, there are reliefs, which
tell the story of Krishna, another incarnation of Vishnu.
The village of Prambanan has lent its name to this
sprawling group of Hindu temples. According to Lokesh
Chandra, Prambanan is derived from param brahma or
universal soul. Lara Jonggrang means slender maiden, the
daughter of Ratu Baka, the king, who was killed by her suitor,
a sorcerers son. The town nearest to the temple is called
Yogyakarta, which in old Javanese language is equivalent to
Ayodhya, the legendary birth place of Rama.
In Lara Jonggrang, we have a complete pictorial
representation of Ramayana, from Balakanda to Uttarakanda.
Perhaps there is no sculptural depiction of the epic elsewhere
in the world during this period, from mid-ninth to mid-tenth
centuries. Thanks to the pioneering work done by Indonesian
and Dutch archaeologists, the temples have been restored to
their original splendour. There is controversy as to who built
them, when they were built and for what purpose. It is possible
that the construction of these Hindu temples was undertaken
in a sort of competition with the Mahayana Buddhist monument
of Borobudur. However, it is obvious that the co-existence of
Saivism and Tantrayana Buddhism was the order of the day.
The Ramayana in Prambanan opens with a magnificent
relief depicting Vishnu reposing on the coils of the serpent
Ananta, afloat on the cosmic ocean. The scene is a
representation of the Gods approaching Vishnu for help against
Ravana. It is followed by sage Visvamithras visit to King
Dasarathas court, the killing of Tataka by Lord Rama, Rama
13
defending the hermitage of Visvamitra against Maricha and

Subahu, Rama winning the hand of Sita, Ramas confrontation
with Parasurama, Kaikeyis demand that her son Bharata alone
should be consecrated as Yuva Raja, Rama, Sita and
Lakshmana leaving for the forest, Bharata receiving Ramas
sandals, the cremation of Dasaratha, the killing of Viradha,
the Shurpanakha episode, Rama killing Maricha, Ravanas
seizure of Sita, Jatayus valiant efforts to protect Sita, Jatayu.
giving Sitas ring to Rama, Rama killing Kabandha, Rama
meeting Sabhari, Ramas meeting with Hanuman, meeting with
Sugriva, Sugrivas duel with Vali, the killing of Vali, Sugriva
regaining the throne, Hanumans search for Sita, Hanuman
meeting Sita, the burning of Lanka by Hanuman, return of
Hanuman and meeting with Rama, the construction of the Sethu
the causeway and the arrival of Rama and the Vanaras in Lanka.
The narration ends in Chandi Siva with the building of the
bridge across the ocean.
The story continues in Chandi Brahma. It begins with
Vibhishanas defection to Ramas camp, Ramas envoy Angada
goes to Ravanas palace, monkeys on the march, preparation
for war, Indrajit attacks Rama and Lakshmana with Nagapasha,
the battle between Rama and Ravana, the awakening of
Kumbakarna, the death of Kumbakarna, queen Mandodari and
Sita being informed of Ravanas death, Rama and Sita reunited,
Rama enthroned in Ayodhya, scandalous gossip concerning
Sita, Lakshmana escorts Sita to the forest, Sita arrives in
Valmikis hermitage, Sita gives birth to Lava and Kusha, Rama
meets his sons, Lava and Kusha sing the story of Rama, Valmiki
recounts to Rama all that had happened, and finally a scene of
celebration with sages feasting in a ceremonial banquet.
The three temples in Prambanan are held in great
veneration by local population. They are the best examples of
Indo-Javanese art and represent the apotheosis of Saivism in
the archipelago. The Indonesian Government, in recent years,
has been sponsoring dance-drama performances in the
backdrop of these temples during June-October. During the
14
rule of the Majapahit dynasty, which represented the final phase

of Hindu hegemony in Java, scenes from the Ramayana,
especially from the Yuddhakanda, were depicted in the temple
at Panataran in East Java. Though the figures are stylized and
sophisticated, they are not very natural and do not have the
artistic excellence and visual appeal of those in Prambanan.
Conclusion
Over the centuries, Ramayana has inspired and influenced
people in different parts of the world. Dr. V. Raghavan, the
distinguished authority on Ramayana, has remarked, It is true
many stories and episodes have been added in different versions
of Ramayana, especially in Southeast Asia, and in some of
them some of the major deviations from the central Ramayana
plot of Valmiki occur. But Rama is always the central figure,
around whom all the other characters revolve and his story
illustrates the message of the triumph of good over evil
This essay is partly based on my earlier writings.
15

SWATAHSIDDHA SARKAR*
Evans-Pritchard had made an interesting observation that
even well-read laymen have noticed a good deal of haziness
in the discipline of social anthropology.1 In fact, one can come
across great deal of vagueness, obscurity and misconceptions
in all disciplines, Area Studies being no exception. This need
not prevent anyone from thinking in terms of some kind of
relationship or the other between any two disciplines like social
anthropology and area studies. Moreover, while anthropology,
the study of mankind, considered in its widest science,
approximates almost to a universal science today, social
anthropology, one of its many branches, deals with man as a
herd animal, the questions of marriage, inheritance, intertribal
relations besides tribal cohesion, war, trade, religion and so
forth. These facts and the fact that anthropology as a whole is
brought into close relation with history by migrations often
resulting in the intermingling of the races and culture contact
as well as other anthropological terms like ethnography and
ethnology, have inspired me to make this humble attempt at
postulating a kinship between social anthropology and area
studies on the basis of the origin, development, growth of the
subject matter, and the evolution of the methodologies of both
these disciplines.
The phrase social anthropology has very recently
come into use. The subject, however, has been taught under
the names of anthropology or ethnology, since 1884, 1900 and
1908 at Oxford, Cambridge, and London, respectively, but the
first university chair which bore the title of social anthropology
*
Swatahsiddha Sarkar , Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University

of North Bengal.
16
was the honorary professorship held by Sir James Frazer

at Liverpool in 1908.
From 1940s onwards, the subject has been receiving wider
recognition and social anthropology is now taught under that
very name in a number of universities in Great Britain and in
the Dominions.2 On the other hand, the stimulus to area studies,
was meaningfully provided by the USA in the post- World
War II situation in which the US, having emerged as a major
power had started playing its big brotherly role with the
societies that lay beyond her normal sphere of national concern.
Great Britain and other European powers followed suit and
infused their already existing institutions of Oriental Studies
with a primarily geo-political interest in Area Studies.3
Anthropology etymologically means science (logos) of
man (anthropos) and has three distinct sub-branches viz.,
physical anthropology (that studies physical aspects of man),
palaeontology / palaeo anthropology (that swots up the fossil
man) and cultural or social anthropology (that deals with
human 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 even
career on a common platform (called anthropology), unless
they needed to be specified and earmarked separately. Thus, it
needs to be made clear at the outset, that whenever the term
anthropology is used in the present paper, it is intended to
mean the social or cultural anthropology and not the other
specialised branches of the discipline. Area studies programme
on the other hand, is not the sub-branch of any other discipline.
Almost all the branches of social sciences have, in a certain
sense, produced a vast array of concepts, theories, or fresh
interpretations regarding one specific area or many. Perhaps
the uniqueness of the area studies programme lies in the fact
that it includes all the research activities in the social sciences
and humanities, given that a great deal of such research works
deals with real people in their humane context. Thus, by area
17
studies programs, we mean those programs which had attained

maturity during the main period of the historical decolonization
(the 1950s and 1960s) and then provided the framework for
the U.S. studies of non-European cultures. The Committee on
World Area Research of the Social Science Research Council
during 1950s, pointed out the most desirable features of the
area study programmes in the US, like: i) an intensive language
instruction, including the control of teaching by a linguistic
scientist and a specific descriptive analysis of the language in
question; ii) joint seminars, with a participation of more than
one faculty member; iii) group research; iv) combined study
in humanities and social sciences; v) availability of specialised
materials including news papers, official records, maps and
other sources; vi) provision for the participation of foreign
students and faculty members.4
Social anthropology studies social behaviour generally in
institutionalized forms such as the family, kinship system,
political institutions5; and it studies them in simple societies
or historic societies.6 John Beattie has provided a very succinct
and relevant view point in this regard that the study of other
culture is of elemental interest for the social anthropoligists7.
Social anthropology studies societies as a whole i.e. it studies
their ecologies, their economies, their legal and political
institutions, their family and kinship organizations, their
religions, their technologies, their arts, etc. as parts of general
social systems. Those who are engaged in area studies, need
to have an intense concern about the relevance of their work
in terms of generating practical policy perspectives for the
nation state concerned. Moreover, Area Studies work when it
is funded, generally aims at explaining the practical issues of
concern like the actual happenings or the lessons to be drawn
in the course of inquiry but certainly not the wild conjectures
concerning the events in the state of being imminent. In other
words, area studies envisages a social scientific investigation
with the overall aim of knowing ones enemy, friends and
neighbours in the international arena. It is basically a pragmatic
18
involvement of several social science disciplines to understand

the various facets of society, polity and economy of a particular
area with the aim of preserving ones own interests.8 Thus,
area studies basically means foreign area studies which cannot
afford to be spontaneous, being a designed academic exercise
determined by the global political economy at large. Hence,
the subject matter of area studies or for that matter the very
decision to choose a particular area that needs to be studied, is
circumscribed by the politico-military and economic interests
of the nation state concerned .
Another area of our inquiry is to find out why both these
branches of study are paying all attention to studying the alien
areas rather than their own. In the case of social anthropology,
the simple societies have attracted the attention of the
anthropologists since the nineteenth century because, it was
believed that they provided important clues in a search for the
origins of institutions. In subsequent periods too, anthropologists
continued to be interested in the simple societies because, it
was held that they displayed institutions in their simple forms.
Moreover, it is a fruitfully sound method to proceed from an
examination of the more simple to an examination of the more
complex, in which what has been learnt from a study of the
more simple, would be an aid.9 Perhaps for this reason, the
functionalists developed their respective models of argument
by primarily working in simple societies. Another valid reason
for social anthropologists studying simple or historical societies,
even at the present time is that these societies are rapidly being
transformed and so must be studied at the earliest opportunity.
Area study on the other hand, as said earlier, is a post-War
phenomenon. It was the US and other European countries which
had felt the urgency of such a branch of study in order to maintain
their control over the political economy of a decolonised world
order. The post-World War international politics was
characterised by the division of the world order practically into
two ideologically mutually antagonistic blocs. The First World
consisted of the industrially developed capitalist countries, led
19
mainly by the big brother USA. The Second World on the other
hand, was the bloc of the socialist countries, headed chiefly by
the (erstwhile) USSR. The nations falling in between the
capitalist and the socialist blocs, had weak and developing
economies and fell under the banner of Third World and lived
more as buffer zones amidst the two ideologically hostile group
of nations characterised by the Cold War than as independent
ones. Up to late 1980s, the main theme of the international
politics was the balance of power and dtente. The nations
throughout the globe, have been either showing inclination to
join the capitalist bloc or the socialist bloc as if to perpetuate
the so-called Cold War between the two regimes. Although area
studies programme was initiated in the US, the necessity to know
ones friends and foes, particularly within the bi-polar world
order, had been well appreciated by both the polar countries
and also by those who remained in-between. With the formation
of NAM (Non-Alignment Movement) and other regional
cooperative movements / initiatives/ forums (like SAARC,
ASEAN, SAPTA, etc.) organised by the third World countries
to minimize the gap between them (the South) and the industrial
North, the spread of area studies programmes even in the socalled third world countries gathered momentum and received
an institutional support base. Thus, the study of the alien nation
states or for that matter the discipline called area studies no
longer remained to be the prerogative of the developed countries
alone. Since the early 1990s, the world scenario has received a
serious jolt with the breakdown of the socialist regime. The
relevance of NAM was severely questioned and the so-called
bi-polar world order was gradually transformed into a uni-polar
one. Several neo-imperialist forces like globalization, market
economy along with the rapid growth of the nuclear power game
and global terrorism, have radically altered the global polity
since the 1990s. The entire gamut of the international political
order has shifted from balance of power to balance of terror.
Within the changed global political scenario, the necessity for
any nation state to study foreign areas, (regardless of their having
20
already been developed or not), has multiplied by many more

times than earlier. Like anthropology, area studies do also
generate a specialised social scientific knowledge base regarding
particular areas, which help the nation state concerned, to adopt
fresh policies, programmes and attitudes towards alien nation
states.
It appears from the foregoing analysis, that the area studies
programme is of recent origin but has emerged mostly as an
academic exercise necessitated by the post-World War II global
political compulsions. Some may uphold the view that it is the
only discipline constrained by the territoriality of a nation state
concerned and at the same time its scope is delimited by the
goal that the specific academic exercise designed at the behest
of the host country or the donor agency. Still, some others might
hold the view that the origin and development of the area studies
programme has been neither spontaneous nor is devoted entirely
to the cause of the generation of knowledge. Area study by virtue
of its own nature, is a part of practical intelligence or what may
also be categorically referred to as phronesis but it hardly
contributes, in any meaningful sense, to the generation of
knowledge or episteme.10 Thus, on the basis of the phronesisepisteme causation, area study may be differentiated from
anthropology, which has been an already established academic
discipline supposedly dedicated to the cause of generating
episteme. If the analysis of the relationship between area study
and anthropology is extended any further on the basis of the
above said dichotomous logistics of phronesis vs. episteme,
one would be struck by the similitude of both the disciplines (in
terms of their objectives, approaches, and even the contents of
their study) since anthropology, as would be shown in the
following analysis, throughout its early development, had
remained far more close, much like area study, to the domain of
phronesis. It is an oft-quoted assertion that, describing distant
societies and cultures in foreign lands has been a major concern
in anthropology, particularly in social and cultural
anthropology.11 This also holds true for those who are engaged
21
in the area studies programme. In fact, a proper analysis of the

growth of the discipline of anthropology would indicate that it
would not be very wise to stick to the distinction between
anthropology, a discipline primarily devoted to the cause of
knowledge, and area study- a separate branch of study inspired
by the practical needs. In order to arrive at such an inference
that, much like area studies, anthropology is also a part of
phronesis, it is necessary to peep into the early origin and
development of the discipline.
The history of anthropology is traced to the Greeks, with
Herodotus as the father of anthropology as well as of history.
A second view is that, anthropology developed out of the
Renaissance and the concurrent voyages of discovery, which
rendered more information about human cultural, racial and
linguistic diversity available. Thirdly, there are those who
choose to restrict the label anthropology to the developments
beginning with the founding of professional societies in the
mid-nineteenth century. Each of these views is, in some sense
or the other, correct. Herodotus did perform some of the tasks
of an anthropologist in the course of his observations and
travels. The voyages of discovery did result in a consideration
of anthropological issues as Europe turned more and more to
studying the world around it. Yet none of these starting points
alone are sufficient. The history of a discipline such as
anthropology, may be conceived in two ways. The first
approach is chronological and depends on the succession and
interrelationship of events from some more or less arbitrary
starting point in the past to the present. From such a perspective,
Herodotus would belong to the history of anthropology had
his works influenced the later anthropologists in a direct
continuity to the present time. An alternative approach
suggests, that anthropological inquiry, regardless of its position
in time, has a structure that is of concern to the discipline we
now label as anthropology. The inquiry is illustrative rather
than chronological.12 Keeping in view these arguments, I have
made an attempt in the following pages to trace the history of
22
anthropology with a focus on the individual manifestation of

episteme or phronesis that figured in the early narratives.
Classical Antiquity
There had been no continuity in the anthropological tradition
of comparative studies in the classical antiquity and in the middle
ages. In both the periods of time, there were, however, a number
of individual attempts by writers who had displayed some interest
in the cultural differences. The essence of the anthropological
point of view is that, in order to understand ourselves, we need
to study others. In contrast, the ancient Greeks for the most part
held, that the way to understand ourselves is to study ourselves
while the ways of others become irrelevant. This was the view
expressed by such influential thinkers as Thucydides and
Socrates. In this context of general indifference, a few writers
of classical antiquity, who took an interest in the anthropological
comparison, are eye-catching exceptions. The earliest and the
most important of such writers is Herodotus, whose History
was written in about the middle of the Fifth century B.C.
Herodotus displayed as much interest in the customs of the
Egyptians, Scythians, and other barbarian (i.e. the non-Greeks)
peoples as he did in the Greek and Persian political history, and
on 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 a
theoretician in the field concerned, and therefore, his work was
not aimed at generating the episteme, in the truest sense of the
term.
The description of India and its peoples written in the Third
Century B.C. by Megasthenes appears to embody the closest
approach to an anthropological study in Greek only after
Herodotus. Megasthenes was the ambassador (at the court of
Chandragupta) of the Greek ruler of Western Asia Seleucus
Nicator, where he had excellent opportunities to observe
keenly, the Indian life at first hand and to seek answers for his
pertinent questions from the informants. Megasthenes
23
weakness was not mendacity but an innocent inability to

distinguish the circumstantial narratives of the Indian
mythology from the actual reports of areas he could not visit
personally.14 Thus, in Megasthenes account, we find no
systematic attempt to generate episteme but a serious exercise
on the part of an ambassador who had noted down the sociocultural life processes of people during Gupta period in India
or, in other words Megasthenes contribution was basically in
terms of a response to phronesis.
In Latin literature, the only works of classical antiquity
which resemble ethnographic reports, there is a treatise entitled
On the Origin, location, customs and peoples of the Germans,
written by Cornelius Tacitus15 in A.D. 98. At the time he wrote
his essay on the Germans, the Roman emperor Trajan was on
the left bank of the Rhine, and the timing suggests that Tacitus
was motivated by a desire to persuade the emperor to undertake
an invasion of Germany. The Germania (as the treatise is
shortly termed), certainly reads like a monograph of the sort
written by the political commentators of today, to explain the
background of the current events and perhaps would influence
the public policy at the same time.16 In fact, Tacitus work was
more systematized than the earlier accounts. It is worth noting,
that anthropology began its systematic march (especially
through Germania) not as a detailed ethnographic account,
but as a political narrative which had furthered the
consolidation of the Roman Empire. Thus, in a certain sense,
Tacitus account can be situated more within the purview of
the area studies than anthropology.
Renaissance Foundations
All the classical accounts had little effect on any ones
thinking until after its rediscovery in the Renaissance, when a
new tradition of interest in cultural differences had developed
on a different basis. In this new context, the earlier accounts
were read with great deal of enthusiasm and meticulous
attention for the ethnographic material and the practical
24
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 compellingly
attracted to the Mongols, a strange people from the eastern
end of the world about whom the European literary tradition
had provided no information. Jengniz Khan defeated Russians
at the Kalka River in 1223; Batu overran Russia between 1237
and 1240, and in 1241 he destroyed the armies of Poland and
Hungary, supported by French and German contingents. In
1259, Berke invaded Poland again and defeated a crusade
against him from the West. Here were the barbarians (i.e. the
non-Greeks) whom the Europeans obviously could not afford
to ignore. Many emissaries were sent to the new rulers of Asia
with orders to collect information in the course of conducting
their official business. Respect for the military power of the
Mongols led to some sober and factual reporting.17
The most informative of the European envoys to the
Mongol Courts was the Franciscan friars Giovanni da Pian
del Carpini, who had travelled in Asia between 1245 and 1247,
and Willem van Rubrock, who had made his trips in 1253 and
1254. These men wrote accounts of their experiences among
the Mongols which were intended primarily as military
intelligence reports but included a certain amount of
information 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 imperial
administration. He returned to Italy with many marvellous tales
to tell. Marco Polos narrative is, in a sense, a panegyric, a tribute
to Kublai Khan, whom Marco Polo had served loyally and
admired ardently; it also reflects a personal interest in the cultural
differences which Marco says, he had learned from the Great
Khan himself.19 However, the ethnographic information in
Marco Polos book is neither very extensive nor very accurate
but is definitely a dedication to Mongol suzerainty.
The importance of the Renaissance point of view in making
25
men sensitive to cultural differences, is clearly seen in the records

of the early Portuguese and Spanish explorations in Africa and
the Atlantic. The accounts of most of the early explorers are
limited to relating their own adventures, discussion of the
problems of migration, and description of the physical
characteristics of the new race and the availability of the
opportunities for trade. The rare writers who devoted some
attention to the natives and their customs in the early days of
the great voyages of discovery, were all either educated Italians
or men who had been exposed to Italian Renaissance influence.20
The first great programme of the western voyages was
that of Prince Henry, the navigator of Portugal and it took place
in the Fifteenth century and was contemporaneous with the
first flowering of the Renaissance scholarship in Italy. After
sending ships to explore Maderia and the Azores, Prince Henry
turned his attention in 1434 to the west of Africa, looking for
slaves and gold. In 1441, his captains reached the Senegal at
the northern edge of black Africa, and the Europeans stood at
the threshold of their first contemporary new world. Thereafter,
voyages along the West African coast for trade and further
explorations became frequent.21
In Renaissance period, we find several studies directly
connected with the practical intelligence. In the name of
overseas odysseys, those studies were conducted mainly to
find out the resources (viz., of gold, slaves etc.) and also the
prospect of trade and commerce. If anthropology is the search
for episteme and area studies is a part of phronesis, then it
can fairly be argued that the accounts of the Renaissance period
delineated anthropology very much like area studies. Moreover,
the travellers, who were the torch bearers of anthropology at
that point of time, saw only what they were prepared to see
and therefore did not dedicate themselves to the generation of
episteme.
Voyages and Philosophers
During the Middle Ages, men had depended on stereotypes
26
handed down from the ancients in which the imaginary reports

of travels were not easily to be distinguished from the real
reports, such as those of Herodotus. As voyages became more
and more common, the European public became sensitive to
the emergence of cross cultural insights. The early explorers
had sufficient practical motivation to observe accurately
because of their commitment towards developing trade and
commerce.22 There were also some clever forgeries of travel
narratives in the name of a genre that had developed over
several centuries of exploration and colonization; but now they
are closer to ethnographic reality.
In each area of the world, the process of gaining and
utilizing information about the cultural similarities and
differences proceeded with slight differences. Attitudes toward
native peoples always depended simultaneously on the
character of the people contacted and on the motives and
political fortunes of the contact. For example, Curtin described
the British attitude toward Africa;23 Bearce dealt with the
British 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 an
enlarged intellectual context within which the contact was
pursued, maintained and rationalized.
This tradition continued in other works too. For example,
Samuel Hearne, a sailor by profession, worked for the Hudsons
Bay Company. Hearnes writings about his explorations in
northern Canada were popular, partly because of the British
need for a Northwest Passage, which would open a trade route
in the northern part of the continent. Gonzalo Fernander de
Oviedo wrote the official Spanish history of the New World,
published in 1526. His primary concern was realistic one, that
some of the aborigines were belligerent and needed to be
approached with caution.27 Thus, as it happened in the case of
the French and the British colonists of further north the political
and anthropological questions were not isolated from each
other. As a result of the voyages of discovery and the reports
27
thereof, the everyday life of the primitive men came to be

known, but everywhere such endeavours were some way or
the other backed and influenced by some political or economic
interests, and the entire exercise was led towards phronesis.
Thus, we find that the origin and development of
anthropology can never be traced merely by specifying any date
except by finding out the early accounts which had dealt with
other cultures. Moreover, in the light of the aforesaid historicity
of the discipline, anthropology can hardly claim that the
discipline had always aimed at generating episteme. Each
course of its history is guided, and even moulded by crude
practical intelligence. Although any attempt to differentiate area
studies from anthropology, only on the ground that while the
former is a part of phronesis the latter aims at generating
episteme would amount to mere oversimplification, the fact
remains that both the disciplines have been orienting themselves
towards joining the realm of practical intelligence. Moreover,
the phronesis part in anthropology was so prominent during
the peak days of colonialism that the discipline sometimes was
branded as colonial intellectuality. Perhaps, this aspect prompted
the former socialist countries like the USSR not to promote
anthropology courses in any of its academic institutions. All
these versions of anthropology undoubtedly make it closer to
that branch of academics, which we now label as area studies.
Professor Andre Beteille, a renowned social anthropologist, has
also maintained a similar observation when he remarked that,
in South Asian countries, anthropology and area studies have
had similar origins and displayed similar patterns of growth.28
Professionalization of Anthropology
By about the middle of the nineteenth century,
anthropology had developed into a discrete subject of inquiry.
The existence of a number of traditions of anthropological
study per se led to no profession. Institutions for the study of
the human cultural diversity were established and for the first
time, an individual scholar could earn his living by the practice
28
of anthropology. Turning now to the professionalization of the

British anthropology, we find that anthropology had a slightly
different though overlapping set of culture heroes like E. B.
Tylor, Sir James Frazer, and Bronislaw Kaspar Malinowski,
among others. The field-work tradition developed largely
through Malinowski, who, by virtue of his interest in Australia
during the First World War, devoted considerable time to the
study of the inhabitants of the Trobriand Islands. The course
of development stresses the relatively brief period in which
anthropology could emerge as a discipline. No longer did
anthropology remain as a mere tradition as academic status
was conferred on it.
The interest in the customs and appearance of the
inhabitants of any distant land is, of olden times. The
descriptions of Herodotus show that even among the notions
of antiquity that had nourished a self-centred civilization,
this kind of an interest had not taken a back seat. The
travellers of the Middle Ages aroused the curiosity of their
contemporaries by the recital of their experiences. The
literature of the Spanish conquest of America is replete with
remarks on the customs of the natives of the New World
though there is hardly any indication of the thought that these
observations might be made the subject of scientific
treatment. They were destined to remain in a state of mere
curiosities for the other culture.29
Professionalization of anthropology has furthered the
growth of the discipline towards the development of a sound
theoretical basis through the works of some renowned
anthropologists belonging to the British, American, and
German traditions. Evolutionism, diffusionism, functionalism
thus reigned supreme in those days. In fact, with the move in
professionalism, anthropology seems to have attained its right
to claim for being a part of episteme. However,
anthropologys status of being a part of phronesis had not
been totally withdrawn. Once more, this had been reflected in
the applied perspective of the discipline.
29
Applied Anthropology
Applied perspective of anthropology generally starts with
the question: What is the use of knowledge of primitive
societies? An answer to this question may be arrived at through
the discussion of its use for the primitive peoples themselves
and for those who are responsible for their welfare, and a
discussion of its value to the men who study it, namely the
anthropologists themselves.
The value of social anthropology for purposes of
administration, has been generally recognized from the
beginning of the twentieth century and both the colonial office
and colonial governments have shown an increasing interest
in the teaching of and prosecution of research in anthropology.
For a good number of years, past colonial cadets, before taking
up their appointments, had received among other courses of
instruction, certain required instructions in social anthropology
in Oxford, Cambridge and London.30 Several important studies
have been produced in this way, the most remarkable being,
the research work embodied in the series of volumes by Rattary
on the Ashanti of the Gold Coast.31 Valuable works of the same
genre 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 these
administrators cum anthropologists, seldom satisfy the
professional scholars.
In any case, the rapid progress of the applied anthropology
reminded one, of an old adage that says: the proof of the
pudding is in eating. Thus, the use of anthropology, particularly
for the process of governance, led the governments in the
British Commonwealth, the United States and elsewhere, to
make good use of the trained social anthropologists in various
ways. First, the governments sometimes took the trained social
anthropologists on their permanent establishments and each
of them performed the dual role of an anthropologist, on one
hand and a civil servant on the other. This had led to the
emergence of a host of administrators cum anthropologists in
30
the colonial administrative systems throughout the globe. The

primary business of these administrators cum anthropologists
was to deal with practical problems, on which they could bring
to bear the techniques and special knowledge with which they
have been equipped by their professional training.33
A second way in which a government could make a
practical use of social anthropology is to employ a professional
on contract for a period of a year or two, to carry out a specific
piece of research. An anthropologist who has made a special
study of the religious institutions, might be taken on contract
to investigate the emergence of the communal movement in a
particular area; or, an expert in political organization might be
engaged to make a study of a community for which major
administrative changes are to be proposed. The Sudan
Government employed the anthropologists like EvansPritchard,34 Nadel,35 and Seligman36 in this way, before the
World War II.
Moreover, many individual missionaries have taken deep
interest in anthropology and have realized its value for their
own work. Their attitude is well expressed by Pasteur Junod,
the author of one of the finest anthropological monographs
ever written. He declared without much hesitation, that his
aim in collecting the information embodied in his book was
partly scientific and partly to help the administrative officers
and 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, has
been directly connected with the political economy of the
respective regimes and therefore, forms a part of phronesis.
However, it would be erroneous to presuppose, that in the wake
of this political and administrative patronage, the
anthropologists have produced only that much which the
authorities have demanded from them. In reality, the
anthropologists had shown a great deal of resentment against
the increasing governmentality of the discipline, which is
best expressed in Mary Kingsleys comment : In colonial rule
31
goodwill is no substitute for knowledge which will act in the

direction of preventing us from engineering our good intentions
in such a manner as to make them appear tyrannies and hateful
to those whom we wish to benefit by them.38 The point is
that, the applied domain of anthropology by definition, did
not inspire the scholars to devote themselves entirely to
knowledge but demanded that the practitioners of anthropology
should 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 much
different from the area studies.
Methodology
The attempt to analyse the relationship between area study
and anthropology in matters of their methodologies, is no less
appealing particularly, when one starts with the issue that since
anthropology, mostly becomes a part of phronesis, the
question arises if both the disciplines employ similar type of
methodology in their respective fields of study. If not, does
each discipline have a distinct methodology of its own?
As in other sciences, whose subject matter is the actual
distribution of phenomena and causal relation, we find in
anthropology two distinct methods of research and aims of
investigation. The first one is the historical method which
endeavours to reconstruct the actual history of mankind; the
other one is the generalizing method, which attempts to
establish the laws of its development. According to the personal
inclination of the investigator, the one or the other method
prevails in research.39 Principal tools of the data collection
used in the researches in anthropology, are participants
observation, interview, genealogy, pedigree, case-history,
content analysis and the like. By making use of these
techniques, the anthropologists attempt to arrive at thick
descriptions regarding the people and their culture of any
society, other than their own.
On the other hand, area study, the youngest one in the
32
family of social sciences, is basically a multi disciplinary

programme of study. Hence, it employs the methods and
techniques of other disciplines including those of anthropology.
Initially, area study had relied on several simple approaches
like subjective opinion, non-methodical observation, or simply
the description of the unfamiliar. But by adopting the strategy
of pragmatic borrowing of the different methods used in other
social sciences, area study has enriched itself methodologically
over the years. However, this act of borrowing as pursued by
area study programmes, is not simply because of the fact that
the discipline has yet to develop for itself its own methodology
but because area study seeks to gain a more detailed multidisciplinary command over a particular area which can not be
arrived at, by the disciplinary singularity of the discipline
alone. The uniqueness of area studies lies not only in its
collection, but also in the use of diverse methods and
techniques of various disciplines in such a balanced manner
that all these would help one to gain a proper, in-depth
understanding of a particular area, and thus tend to gratify
ones own interest. Methodologically, area study may remain
in the state of becoming, but in view of the applicability of
various methods on the one hand and the significance of its
research findings on the other, one may state that area study
has received no less credibility than social anthropology as a
branch of social scientific investigation. Moreover, in the light
of the present day comparative academic discourses, which
have a widely acknowledged multi-disciplinary scholarship
in preference to a distinct discipline with a defined body of
theory and methodology to explicate a vast array of sociopolitico-economic issues all at once, one can foresee promising
prospects for the discipline of area study.
Conclusion
The analysis makes it crystal clear, that there is no such
hard and fast difference between area study and social
anthropology as far as their subject matter, and initial
33
developments are concerned. More often than not, both the

disciplines, by definition, focus on the foreign areas or other
cultures; methodologically, both use more or less the same
techniques. Hence, it would not be an exaggeration to argue
that, an anthropologist can profitably conduct and continue
his research in the field of area studies and the research findings
of area studies can also be fruitfully used in anthropological
researches and vice-versa. A scholar, irrespective of his
disciplinary orientation, faces the same challenges when he
starts 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 of
anthropology and area studies as water tight compartments.
Before concluding the whole exercise, it would be pertinent
to refer to the message which is implicitly embodied in the
life and works of a distinguished American anthropologist Ruth
Benedict, whose contribution particularly during the last years
of her career (she died in 1948), is a by-product of her conduct
of a series of culture at a distance study by the use of
anthropological techniques and by working with cultural
wholes and living informants in addition to the cultural
products - like films, plays, novels, works of history,
journalistic write-ups and so on all to produce cultural
descriptions relevant to the prosecution of the War criminals
and, later, the formulation of conditions of peace. After making
preliminary studies on Rumania, Netherlands, and Germany
(all of which, had not been published at all), Benedict produced
her treatise on Japan that brought her its posthumous fame. In
1945, when the war was over, she wrote The Chrysanthemum
and the Sword 40 as a contribution to an understanding of the
cultural potentialities of Japan as part of a peaceful and
cooperative world. The spirit of cultural appreciation and the
humane understanding is rhetorically and symbolically
represented in the very title of her book; Chrysanthemum, the
national flower of Japan which denotes the cultural
potentialities of Japan that were at stake particularly after the
34
World War II. The word Sword had been used both as an
innuendo against the baneful, war effects, that had plagued
Japan during the 1940s and also as an advocate of the humane
dimension of the entire process of war and peace that pervades
this book and makes it the most acceptable of all the wartime
contributions to the credit of the anthropologists though it in
fact, enriches that branch of knowledge we now label as area
study and thus makes it the real beneficiary. In fine, it may be
suggested that both anthropology and area study share not only
similar kinds of goal as academic disciplines but many a time
substantially contribute to each others fields of inquiry. The
life and works of very many scholars like Ruth Benedict, amply
reflect anthropology more as the area study and Benedicts
Chrysanthemum and the Sword may be treated merely as the
tip of the iceberg, in this regard. However, the research findings,
both the disciplines have been cultivating, are not very similar
to each other, nor are they being used even for accomplishing
similar types of ends, academic or otherwise.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Notes & References

E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Social Anthropology, (Universal Book
Stall, New Delhi, 1996 reprinted), p. 1.
Ibid. p. 3.
B.P. Mishra, Area Studies: Policy and Methodology,
Occasional Paper No. X, Centre for Himalayan Studies, NBU,
1996, p. 10.
Wendell Benett, Area Studies in American Universities, Social
Science Research Council, (New York, 1951).
Evans-Pritchard, n.1, p. 5.
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 ethnocentric
attitudes, even though we use these terms in anthropological
literatures as somewhat given concepts. On this very issue say,
ethnocentrism among anthropological concepts, a good deal of
debate can be initiated, which is, however, not the aim of the
present exercise.
John Beattie has written a very commendable introductory book
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
35
on social anthropology where he provided such a view.

Interestingly, without any ifs and buts, he used the phrase Other
Culture as the title of his book. For details vide, John Beattie,
Other Culture, (Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London and
Hinley, 1977 reprinted).
Mishra, n.3, p. 1.
Evans-Pritchard, n.1, p. 8.
These two Greek terms (episteme and phronesis) are
borrowed from Mishras paper (Mishra, n.3), which he used to
justify the claim of area studies to be a part and parcel of social
science, but in the present paper, the same is used to analyse to
what extent it would be feasible to distinguish area studies
programme from the discipline of anthropology, by
characterising the former as phronesis and the later as
episteme.
N.C. Chowdhury, Area Studies: Some Anthropological
Observations, paper delivered in National Seminar on Area
Studies, CHS, NBU, held in 17-18 March 1984.
Regna Durnell (ed.), Readings in the History of Anthropology,
(Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1974), p. 12.
It was Cicero who called Herodotus the father of history (vide,
Arnaldo Momigliao, The Place of Herodotus in the history of
historiography, in Secondo Contributo Alla Storia Degli Studi
Classici, Storia e Letteratura Vol. 77, 1960, p.29, as quoted in
Darnell, n.12) and J.L. Myres who called him the father of
anthropology (vide, J.L. Myres, Herodotus and Anthropology,
in R.R. Marett (ed.), Anthropology and the Classics, (Claredon
Press, London, 1908), p. 125.
John Howland Rowe, The Renaissance Foundations of
Anthropology, in Regna Darnell (ed.) Readings in the History
of Anthropology, n.12, p. 65.
Cornelius Tacitus, De Origine et Situ Germanorum, Edited by
J.G.C. Anderson, (Claredon Press, Oxford, 1938).
J.H. Rowe, n.14, p. 65.
Ibid, p. 67.
Ibid.
Marco Polo, The Description of the World, A.C. Moule and
Paul Pelliot (eds.), (Routledge, London, 2 Vols., 1938).
J.H. Rowe, n.14, p. 73.
Ibid, pp. 73-74.
36
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 Symbol
and 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).
Sino-Indian Economic Relations: Competition and...
37
Sino-Indian Economic Relations:

Competition and Partnership
GAUTAM MURTHY*
India has been universally acknowledged as one with a
vibrant democracy despite vast religious, caste and economic
diversities. Chinas per capita income began to exceed Indias
only in the 1990s, though forty years earlier, Indias was above
that of China. India had avoided the pitfalls of the Great Leap
Forward and the Cultural Revolution, though after the reforms
of Deng Xiao Ping since 1978, China has been way ahead of
India in all the economic and social parameters. In 1991, the
Indian government initiated the economic reforms. Indias
market-oriented liberalization and removal of industrial
licensing and controls resulted in an acceleration of GDP to
about 6 per cent a year since 1991, the fastest for any nation
but considerably lower than the Chinese pace of about 9 per
cent in the corresponding period.
Chinas amazing economic success has been stunning the
entire world, as if China alone knows how to move with the
times and how to swim with the current. Its aim has been to
be a middle-level developed country in the mid-twenty-first
century. Today, China is the worlds most competitive nation,
and the seventh largest exporter. China desires to get
modernised rapidly by attracting more foreign investment.
However, it must be remembered that the share of FDI in total
investment in China is less than 8 per cent, reflecting the extent
of capital formation in the economy. The entry of China into
the WTO will make China a more transparent and less
subsidised economy, meaning the availability of more market
*
Dr. Gautam Murthy, Associate Professor of Economics, Centre for

Indian Ocean Studies, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.
38
access opportunity in the domestic markets of China. India

was described until recently as a traditional mixed economy
with a large public sector, but also with lot of private
entrepreneurship.
China by contrast, has been for the most part, credited
with a command economy, which until recently, had a small
private sector, having only recognised the legal possibility of
home-grown capitalists, a few years ago. The Chinese economy
has grown at an average annual rate of 9.8 per cent for twoand-half decades, while Indias economy has grown at around
5-6 per cent per year over the same period. The Chinese growth
has been relatively volatile around this time, reflecting stopgo-cycles of state response to inflation through an aggregate
credit management. The higher growth in China essentially
occurs 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 25
years, compared to 20 per cent and 26 per cent in India. In
fact, 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, compared
to 2 per cent in India, over the 1990s. China has far more
impressive achievements in the social sector than India, as
shown in the Table-1.
39
Table-1 : Social Sector IndicatorsA Comparison of India and China -2005
DESCRIPTION
Gross enrolment
ratio in primary
schools (%)
Adult Literacy (%)
Labour cost per
worker in
manufacturing ($ per
year)
Education
expenditure (% of
central govt.
expenditure)
Physicians (per
1,000 population)
Health expenditure
(% of GDP)
Health expenditure
per capita ($)
Contraceptive
prevalence rate (%)
Human
Development Index
(HDI)
INDIA
CHINA
99
114
65
91
1,192
729
13
13 (Excluding
dropouts
reenrolling)
0.4
24
49
52
83
0.602 (HDI
Value)
127 (Rank) Year 2003
0.755 (HDI
Value)
85 (Rank)Year 2003
Source: TATA Economic Services and Tenth Five Year Plan,

Government of India.
The mantra of China is shar ply focused on becoming an

economic superpower and hence everything else followsforeign policy begins and ends with economic policy. China
40
is creating a national economy, and the result is a massive and

painful restructuring of industry and society. Competition
across provincial boundaries is becoming a reality. As a result,
the country is experiencing deflation, a continual decline in
prices and as prices fall, the economy stagnates.
Chinese export growth has been much more rapid,
involving aggressive increases on world market shares. This
export growth has been based on a relocative capital that has
been attracted not only by cheap labour but also by excellent
and heavily subsidised infrastructure, resulting from the high
rate of infrastructure investment. In addition, since the Chinese
state has also been keen on provision of basic goods in terms
of housing, food and cheap transport facilities, this has played
an important role in reducing the labour costs for employers.
In India, the cheap labour has been available because of low
absolute wages rather than public provision and underwriting
of labour costs, and infrastructure development which has been
minimal. So it is not surprising that it has not really been an
attractive location for export oriented investment, its rate of
export growth has been much lower, and exports have not
become an engine of growth.
In terms of inequality, in both economies, the recent pattern
of growth has been inequitable. In China, the spatial
inequalities across regions have been the sharpest. In India,
vertical inequalities and rural-urban divide have become much
more marked. In China recently, as a response to this, there
have been some top-down measures to reduce inequality, for
example, through changes in tax rates, greater public
investment in western and interior regions and improved social
security benefits. In India, it is political change that has forced
greater attention to redressing inequalities, though the process
is still very incipient.
In terms of the future prospects, surprisingly, both
economies end up with very similar issues despite these major
differences. There are clear questions of sustainability of the
current pattern of economic expansion in China, based on high
41
export-accumulation model that requires the constantly

increasing shares of the world markets and very high
investment rates. Similarly, the hope in some policy quarters
in India that the information technology-enabled services can
become the engine of growth is the one, which raises the
problems of sustainability.
The most important problems in the two economies are
also of similar nature being mainly the agrarian crisis and the
need to generate more employment. In both economies, the
social sectors have been neglected recently by public
intervention. In both the countries, the policy message appears
to be the same in driving home that the most basic issues are
those that require to be addressed first so that and if so, the
other areas of expansion will probably look after or take care
of themselves. Undoubtedly, India has individual liberty,
political pluralism, and the institutional framework to take
advantage of globalization. Still, it is constrained by mass
poverty, lackadaisical government, growing fiscal problems,
and a poor physical infrastructure. China has much less
degrading poverty than India though the latter has more trade
and investment links, while the Chinese have a superior
physical infrastructure. It is rapidly conforming to the global
behaviour patterns, and creating an internationally accepted
legal system. However it too has fiscal problems to encounter,
hidden in the banking system, and the political risk.
Chinas industrial strength and infrastructure, and its vast
pool of skilled labour, make it a natural choice for the
manufacturing sector. India, on the other hand, with a booming
information technology sector and huge reserves of Englishspeaking graduates, is a better option for outsourced service
and technology development facilities. China has been
favoured heavily by multinational corporations (MNCs) for
manufacturing, with only limited business process outsourcing
(BPO) activity coming in from Japanese and Korean firms.
As opposed to the concentrated outsourced services and R&D
facilities found in India, China has become the hub of
42
manufacturing.
As the WTO and TRIPS agreements progress, the export
orientation of each country may cross into the present domain
of the other, due to drops in garment quota requirements and
strengthening of the IPR culture.
The key strategies of Chinese reforms were to effect a
massive increase in incomes in the rural areas first and then
meet the demand for consumer goods by encouraging the
growth of VTEs (Village and Town Enterprises). The VTEs
met the demand for basic consumer goods in the rural areas
itself. There was continuous decentralisation and a system of
profit taking with punishment for default. In India, the
agricultural sector still accounts for about 70 per cent of
employment, but its share in GDP is down to 25 per cent. In
other words, the relative per capita income of the agricultural
worker must be going down. China can assist India in her
globalization efforts, by allowing to cheaper imports from
China itself to be used, to produce low cost products in India
itself 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 to
the level of competition, can be Indias policy for the future.
India must emulate China by taking advantage of its cheap,
hardworking and skilled workers to leverage better in the world
markets. To compete effectively, India needs to expand its
primary and secondary education, and give more emphasis to
vocational education and training.
China is in fact to be viewed as many small markets,
rather than the worlds biggest market. China today has good
infrastructure - railways, roads and airports - so there is for
the first time substantial inter-city and inter-provincial
commerce, as one city can compete against backward
manufacturers in another. Consequently, there is the rise of
national domestic brands.
At the political level, the Communist Party of China,
though corrupt to the core, still survives. A day will come when
43
new attitudes will brush aside the corruption of the old, and a
new China will emerge. Beijing strikes hard against recalcitrant
elements and dissidents not realizing for a moment that it can
muzzle on the dissidents but not on their ideas.
Since 1978, when the great modernizer, Deng Xiao Ping
had begun Chinas reforms, and later in the nineties consequent
on the former President Jiang Zemins vision, China has moved
rapidly in its growth rates. However, the new Chinese
leadership needs to move ahead faster in political reforms. To
recall, Chairman Maos words it takes only one spark to start
a prairie fire. The next spark should not cause any dramatic
upheavals.
The share of manufacturing in Chinas GDP is 49 per cent,
and the Services constitute 33 per cent of GDP. The biggest
current draw for international investors is the Western
Development Project (headquarters in Chonqing), initiating
grandiose plans for Xinjiang and Tibet.
At the geo-political level, Sino-Indian relations should rise
above the present border disputes, and past tilts. Relations
should be non-hyphenated, and stand-alone, not guided by any
third country. India occupies a special place, as the land of the
Buddha in China.There is also admiration in India for Chinas
economic achievements. India has an edge over China in terms
of intellectual capital for the future knowledge economy.
Some of the general strengths and weaknesses of India
and 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.
44
Small-scale imitator of well-known brands, giving better

quality for a lesser price, not the original branded
manufacturer. Chinese under design products to make
them affordable to poorer households. Those who can
afford to pay more for superior quality do so. In India,
established manufacturers are unlike the Chinese; they are
conditioned by MNCs, whose practices are evolved in the
markets that can afford high prices for superior products,
and that suited an economy where capacities were
restricted by license. China dominates the export of labourintensive products world-wide and India does not, except
in gems and jewellery. Chinese manufactured goods
exports as a per cent of GDP was 18 per cent as against 4
per cent for India (1999-2000).
China has a system of incentives and disincentives at
central, state and town level- for performance and nonperformance.
Foreign investment in China is in land, buildings, plant
and machinery. Of the comparatively small foreign
investment in India, a high proportion is in portfolio
investment, 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 to
8 P.M.They are not allowed to form their own associations
at national or regional level. This advantage may not last
long, as workers become conscious of their rights. Even
45
though labour issues are not raised at WTO, such unsound

procedures and practices could come under attack.
Chinas entry into WTO will call for a fresh look at its
global interaction and domestic re-structuring.
Corporate governance too is not of a high quality as
transactions are not wholly transparent. Managers of State
Enterprises indulge in various irregularities-like siphoning
of funds offshore, which in many cases comes back
disguised as FDI.
Chinese capital markets too are underdeveloped and
regulations are not in tune with free-market earnings.
Foreign investors can invest in B-group shares-only at
Shanghai and Shenzen-and cannot indulge in A-group
shares-meant strictly for locals.
Strengths of India
A stable and vibrant democracy. Indias greatest
achievement is sustaining a democracy in exceptionally
difficult 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 and
contract enforcement.
A growing and sizable middle-class estimated at 200
million.
Indian culture encourages risk without reward and as its
defence forces have shown, Indians can be extremely
disciplined 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
46
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 economic
relations enhances Indias security, power and influence.
The similarities are striking. China and India are amongst

the five biggest countries in the world in terms of area,
geographical diversity, population, market-size and economy
measured in terms of purchasing power parity. Both the
countries were economically exploited by western powers, and
attained liberation within a few years of each other in the mid
twentieth century. They both pursued socialist models of
development before opening up gradually, China from 1978,
and India from 1991.China and India are presently the fastest
growing major economies of the world, although the majority
of the population continues to be dependent on agriculture.
The state sector continues to dominate economic activity in
both the countries, with the role of private enterprise expanding
fast. In both China and India rapid economic growth has
widened the regional economic disparities.
Both China and India face serious fiscal problems and
ballooning domestic debt and contingent liabilities, needing
major public sector adjustments in the foreseeable future.
However, much of Indias public sector deficit has been
absorbed directly by the government, whereas China has relied
more heavily on the banking system to fund the deficit.
Therefore, while India has higher fiscal deficits, Chinas
banking system has more non-performing assets.
Corruption is endemic in both China and India.However, in
China it is more centralized around the entrenched communist
party, which practically guarantees quick action. In India,
corruption is more dispersed, and outcomes less certain. Because
corruption in India is subject to legislative, media and judicial
oversight, it is less of a systemic risk than in China.
47
China has shown far grater urgency in privatizing and

closing a large number of state enterprises, while Indias
privatization progamme has floundered. While China has
effectively lowered trade barriers, with customs tariff
collections comprising only about 3 per cent ad valorem, Indian
tariffs are still amongst the worlds highest. Economic
decentralization has proceeded at a much faster pace in China,
with local governments in China having effective economic
strengths and decision-making powers; wheras Indias
centralized economic control is relaxing its grip only gradually.
While China is a closed society run by a tightly knit
communist party, India is an open democratic society, with an
independent judiciary and press. With political dissent not aired
in the public domain, China has overt political stability,
arguably difficult to sustain during a severe economic
downswing.
Both China and India face major future developmental
threats: for India the threats centre on policies to enhance
savings and growth rates to remove poverty within a targeted
time frame; for China the threats are more institutional with
institutions, especially financial, legal and political, not in sync
with the needs of a market economy.
The areas of convergence of interest between China and
India and the time-frame in which they start influencing the
decision making are given in the Table-2.
48
Table-2: Areas of Convergence of Interest

between China and India
Area of
Convergence
Himalayan
environment
When Became
Apparent
First decade of
the 21st Century
Further Eastward
or Southward
expansion of
NATO
Any Further
Weakening of
Russia
Increasing US
military presence
in Central Russia
Asian Stability
First decade of
the 21st Century
Global Multi-Polar
Stability
Anytime in future
Joint
Approach
Joint ecorestoration in
border areas
and Tibet
Commonality of
interest with
Russia
Immediate
Several
Possibilities
Immediate
Commonality of
interest with
Russia
Several
Possibilities
In concert with
UN
Immediate
Source: Dealing with China in the 21st Century, in Vinod Saighal,

Restructuring South Asian Security.
China could overtake India as the next Information

Technology (IT) power and business-outsourcing hub for
countries like the US, despite its lack of experience. Chinas
offshore services will mature within the next five years, and
companies should begin looking at the country as a potential
source for IT-enabled services. Lower costs (roughly 1/6th of
US counterparts), political stability, strong GDP growth (7.9
per cent in 2001) the country offers the kind of environment
needed by interested global companies.
India-China bilateral trade has now crossed the $12 billion
mark. However, the top five exports to China comprise mainly
49
primary or low value addition products -iron- ore, plastic and

linoleum, ores and minerals, marine products and drugs and
pharmaceuticals. Her imports from China are electronic goods,
coal, coke, and organic chemicals, silk, medicinal and
pharmaceutical products. India should move up the value chain,
and export more IT-related products and pharmaceuticals, as
it has been doing recently.
However, despite Chinas better image abroad, the image
of Indians abroad is very high in complete contrast the image
of India is poor-but improving. The Indian diaspora has gained
considerable salience abroad, a number of Indian $ billionaires
live in the US and are highly rated. Despite loud proclamations,
foreign investors consider everything unfriendly about Indiathe government, the bureaucracy and the infrastructure. We
have to change the mind-set and working of the Indian
institutions.
Indias trade with China was set to grow to $20 billion by
2007.During 2005-06, the trade between the two countries was
expected to be around $15 billion. Trade and economic cooperation hold the key to strengthening the overall bilateral
relationship. During 2000-01, India-China trade volume was
just $2 billion, but rose sharply to $11.3 billion in 2004-05.
However, the trade basket needs diversification from raw
materials and products of natural resource-based industries. If
the trade and economic linkages are to expand exponentially,
it is imperative that the diversification takes place in the
commodity-mix. China and India between themselves
producing practically everything, cheaply and with high
quality.With high export growth rates-India and China have
been galloping, but they must also gallop in tandem.
A recent study by Goldman Sachs shows that India will
take a long time to catch up with China-may not keep pace
even by 2050. This is because, China has a much larger base
in GDP than in India; therefore, even smaller relative increases
in income for China would mean a higher absolute increase
than India. This is evident from Table-3.
50
TABLE-3: What will it mean for India to catch up with China?
India
Year
To catch up China by
2050
Growth Rate
(%)
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
Source: Will India Catch-up with China?, Mohan Guruswamy (et

al), Centre for Policy Alternatives, New Delhi.
China is today the worlds manufacturing hub. India should

emerge as the worlds technology and IT (Information
Technology) hub, if it follows pro-active policies. India and
China thus have a lot to learn from each others experience,
and can be dynamic partners, rather than competitors in the
globalised world.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
References
Chang, Gordon G., The Coming Collapse of China, Random
House, (New York, 2001).
Gary S.Baker, Chug Along with China, (ET, 2003).
Jayati Ghosh, Divergent Development Models, Frontline, 9
September 2005.
Tony Nash, China or India? -Its China & India, Economic
Times, 11 May 2005.
Shroff, Minoo R, Chinas Remarkable Economic Growth-Some
Lessons, Forum of Free Enterprise, (Mumbai, 2000).
Wadhva, Charan D, Geo-Economic Positioning of Indias Trade
and Allied Relations: Perspectives on Indias Experience with
Regional Integration, in V. A Pai Panandiker and Ashis Nandy,
7.
8.
9.
51
Contemporary India, (Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company

Ltd. New Delhi).
Saighal, Vinod, Re-structuring South Asian Security, (Manas
Publications, New Delhi, 2000).
Mohan Guruswamy et al, Will India Catch-up with China?,
Centre for Policy Alternatives, (New Delhi, 2005).
Yasheng Huang and Tarun Khanna, Can India Overtake
China?, Foreign Policy, July-August, 2003.
52
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., the
Indian Ocean is the third largest ocean in the world, only after
the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. It is less than half
of the Pacific Ocean and smaller than the Atlantic. The Indian
Ocean extends from Africa on the west to Australia and
Indonesia in the east. Asia lies in the north and Antarctica in
the south. The Indian Ocean is surrounded by about 56
countries of Asia and Africa with great diversity in almost
every respect shape, size, people, resources, economy, polity,
culture etc. (Ramakrishna 2006: 19-20) The Ocean includes
the littoral states, the landlocked countries and the island states.
Significantly, it is the only ocean in the world being called
after the name of a country, i.e. India. Indian Ocean includes
the Red Sea, oil rich Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, the Andaman
Sea and the Bay of Bengal.1
Indian Ocean serves as a great link between the countries
lying on its coasts and even further beyond. One can reach
West Asia, Africa and Europe from the west coast and South
East Asia, Far East and Oceania from the eastern coast. The
Indian Ocean thus bridges a gap between east and west. The
ocean provides the most direct shipping route between Europe
and Far East. It thus carries over 70 percent of the worlds
mercantile traffic. The great importance of the Indian Ocean
Region (IOR) is clearly reflected in its industrial potential.
*
Dr. Raj Kumar Kothari, Sr. Lecturer in Political Science, Vidyasagar

University West Bengal, India. Revised version of this paper has been
presented at the 17th Annual World History Association Conference at
Queen Mary, University of London on June 25-29, 2008. Email:
kothari65@hotmail.com
Geo-strategic Significance of the Indian Ocean...
53
The natural resources of critical importance found in IOR are

now used by industrial countries worldwide. Huge oil reserves
are located in the region. Mineral resources like tin, titanium
and phosphorus are found in the region. It is needless to
overemphasize the economic importance of these resources. 2
The Indian Ocean is the only ocean which has witnessed
the regional interaction since the dawn of civilization.3 The
only other comparable maritime region, the Mediterranean, is
a small landlocked sea, which, in a way, has also been closely
interlinked with the Indian Ocean in matters of trade and
cultural interaction. The Indian Ocean has also interacted with
the Pacific. Thus over a period of time, it has evolved not only
as a zone of bilateral and multilateral interaction among its
widespread littoral, hinterland and island groups but also as a
major link in the chain of south-south interaction extending
from the Mediterranean in the West to the Pacific in the East.
(Singh 2005: 342)
India occupies a significant position in the Indian Ocean
region. The landlocked nature of the Indian Ocean enables
India to be in a commanding position in the region. From the
Eastern coast of Africa and the shores of the Persian Gulf to
the Straits of Malacca, Indian domination is obvious. The
Indian Ocean has limited outlets. The Red Sea and the Persian
Gulf are the narrow outlets in the West, while in the east there
are Straits of Malacca, Sunda, Timore and the Arafura Sea.
Entry into and exit from the Indian Ocean can be blocked at
any time by controlling these outlets. The geo-strategic location
compels India to play a pivotal role in shaping the maritime
order in the Indian Ocean. (Ramakrishna 2006: 19-20 also see
Singh 2004: 3) Therefore, the geo-strategic importance of the
Ocean can never be underestimated from Indias point of view.
This paper aims to underline the geo-strategic significance of
the Indian Ocean from the perspective of Indian foreign policy
within the framework of neo-realism. While doing so, the paper
aims to study the importance of the structural factors that
compel India to maintain its hegemonic presence in the Indian
54
Ocean in recent years.

Post World War II Structural Developments
Regional and global environments underwent structural
readjustments after World War II. On the one hand, the
development of cold war led to the emergence of superpower
politics that disturbed the existing security position in the
Indian Ocean; on the other hand, the changes ushered in the
process of decolonization in Asia and Africa provided an
opportunity for the newly liberated people to try and forge the
South-South linkages.
In the changed situation, maintaining the environment of
peace in the Indian Ocean became very important because
almost all the countries surrounding the ocean were in the
developing stage. These countries entered into the process of
economic restructuring and political modernization. They
could not afford confrontation and war in the region and thus
wanted to maintain peace at any cost. This apart, majority of
these countries were members of the Non-aligned movement
and did not want any external interference in the affairs
concerning Indian Ocean.
The Non-aligned countries strongly felt that the socioeconomic prosperity in the region was possible only if there
was economic cooperation and coordination among the richly
endowed littoral states. This could happen only if the external
powers were not allowed to make their presence in the Indian
Ocean and were prevented from influencing the littoral states.
For example, during the 1960s, the NAM members sought to
contain the growing superpower military presence in the Indian
Ocean by stating that the Indian Ocean be declared as a peace
zone. The move was initiated by Bandarnaike of Sri Lanka in
the Cairo Conference in October 1964. Then the conference
of the Heads of Non-aligned states held at Lusaka in 1970
called upon all states to identify the Indian Ocean as a zone of
peace utterly free from nuclear weapons. Finally, efforts of
the NAM led to the passing of the General Assembly resolution
55
(A/2832) of 16 December 1971 that called for the establishment

of 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 NAM
would result in strengthening cooperation and in promoting
an understanding among its members. But the effort towards
regional cooperation suffered a setback because although the
Afro-Asian littoral states voted for the United Nations
resolution, they were directly or indirectly part of one or the
other military alliances formed by the two superpowers to get
their sphere of influence extended. The newly independent
states of the Indian Ocean region either joined the new alliance
systems or sought to be patrons in the alternative Non-aligned
movement (NAM).
The decades of 1970s and 1980s also witnessed
intraregional tensions and conflicts. Various sub-regional
groups developed political and strategic linkages and as a result,
the Indian Ocean was further divided into exclusive subsystems
like the ASEAN, SAARC, GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council)
etc. The emergence of regional blocs further hindered the scope
for south-south unity.
The presence of external and regional powers in the Indian
Ocean on a large scale was also a major factor that largely
shaped the Indian Ocean environment. Among the external
powers USA and Soviet Union apart from the French presence
in the region, was no less significant. Among the regional
powers, the presence of Japan, China, Australia and the Southeastern states had been of immense significance. The presence
of these powers during and after the cold war compelled India
to maintain its hegemonic position in the Indian Ocean in order
to get its maritime interests protected. India had to confront
multidimensional challenges to sustain its powerful presence
in the region. However, before we turn to India we ought to
view critically the kind of various regional and external powers
presence in the region.
56
Chinese Presence: In recent years, China has assumed a

greater and an assertive presence in both the Indian Ocean
and the East China Sea. China, in the post Soviet era, took full
advantage of the situation through strengthening its presence
in the IOR and ultimately assumed leadership of the AfroAsian world.
Because of its growing energy needs, China has enhanced
its presence in South China Sea through which vital oil supplies
are navigated. It has increased its military profile in the South
China Sea. Several reports suggest that China has sought
strategic agreements with several South and South East Asian
countries. In recent years, she has conducted several rounds
of strategic dialogue with countries like Russia, US, France,
Britain, Germany, India etc. (Sharma 2006: 46) Many of the
countries in the region have remained suspicious of the Chinese
maritime activity in the region. The fact of the military forces
of China being modernized has been raising lot of concern
among others in the region. (Vasan 2006: 80-81) Therefore,
the might of China is all worrisome to India and need effective
counters at all levels.
Long ago, Panikkar and Vaidya had warned us against the
perilously potential maritime strength and the consequent threat
from China. The links established by China around the Indian
Ocean form a string of pearls, which Beijing had established
across the Indian Ocean, from Myanmar, through Bangladesh
to Pakistan. (Mohan 2005) Chinas growing links with Iran
and Yemen have become noticeable. This of course, is
concerned with Chinas ever increasing energy security drive.
(Scott 2006: 19-20)
Australia: Australia shares a long western coastline with
the Indian Ocean. Its possession of Christmas and Coco islands,
south of Sumatra, gives Australia a territorial presence in the
eastern part of the Indian Ocean. In the southeastern region
also its presence is felt because of its possession of Heard
Island in the sub-Antarctica. (Scott 2006: 16) However, the
presence of Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in the region, cannot
57
be ignored by the Indian Ocean powers.

France: Frances role in the Indian Ocean is somewhat
different from that of Australia. France retained some scattered
possessions around the Indian Ocean. The small republic of
Djibouti continues to give France the military facilities at the
vital gateway between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.
Besides, the French presence also continues in the southwest
of the Indian Ocean. There are the French island possessions
in the far southern reaches of the Indian Ocean, viz, Kerguelen,
Amsterdam, and Crozet islands. France has also set up bases
in Diego Suareg and Reunion Island. (Scott 2006: 16-17)
Japan: In recent years, Japans maritime reach has been
steadily growing which has been indicated through its support
during the Gulf and Afghanistan crises. At the bilateral level,
Japanese-Indian security and defence convergence is equally
evident. Japanese navy carried out joint operations with the
Indian Navy off the coast of Chennai in May 2001, while the
Indian Navy too moved eastwards into East Asia to get engaged
with the Japanese navy. (Scott 2006: 17) While both share
common security concerns over the growing menace of piracy,
their shared worry about China too is to be taken cognizance
of.
US Presence: Most of the former British colonies became
independent countries after the World War II, which resulted
in the shrinking of the British Empire and diminution in its
influence in the Indian Ocean. By mid 1960s, it had lost almost
all the colonies so that serious economic strains were
experienced in Britain. Consequently, Britain started
withdrawing its military forces from the Indian Ocean region
which created a power vacuum, thus making it congenial for
the onset of the super power rivalry. The USA immediately
jumped into the fray and made efforts to fill the power vacuum
created by the withdrawal of the British forces. The USA
obtained Diego Garcia Island from Britain on lease, to build a
military base there. The base is fully equipped with nuclear
weapons and provides decisive advantage for the USA to
58
command the areas of the Middle East, South Asia, Central

Asia, Russia and China. In addition to Diego Garcia, USA has
set up military bases near Asmara (Ethiopia), Bahrain, Mahe,
Woomera and at Harsld E. Holt (Australia). The military bases
at Vacaaos (Mauritius), Gana Island, Masirah Island,
Simonstown (South Africa) and Port Louis (Seychelles) are
jointly owned by the US and UK. (Ramakrishna 2006: 25)
A major hindrance to cooperative framework in Asia is
the preponderance of US power. The US military presence in
Asia particularly in Asia Pacific is organized around the US
Pacific Command and the US Central Command. The Indian
Ocean is in fact reemerging as a strategic area of concern. The
US Pacific Command has at its disposal, a fairly large naval
and air force component. The new American grand strategy,
particularly after 9/11, based on muscular dominance, has
become 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 the
American interests. The United States has a huge military
presence in several regions of Asia. Its overall foreign policy
objective has been to set up a system of global governance
and force other nations into compliance. (Sharma 2006: 4647)
Today, the US presence in the region remains
unquestioned. On the other hand, the debate centers round the
issue of the required and desirable extent of the US presence.
There are several countries in Asia, which regard the US as a
stabilizing force though the degrees to which nations hold this
view vary. This view has been put across by Japan, Korea,
Philippines, etc. Thus, the obvious salient issue is not whether
the US should maintain its presence in Asia, but in what way
and at what level, and on what conditions should the
maintenance of the US presence continue. (Sharma 2006: 47)
While the security of the Asian region essentially depends upon
the close cooperation between the Asian nations, major global
powers have to be involved and hence the absence of any room
59
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 India
and the countries bordering the Indian Ocean. Moscow had
entered into bilateral treaties with several countries of the
region such as India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Iraq, Egypt,
Mauritius, Somalia, Seychelles, etc. Soviet Union maintained
military bases at Berbera, Masira, Umakas, Dahalak islands.
It constructed naval radio stations and ammunition depots at
the Red Sea, and also obtained access to port facilities in
Somalia, Mauritius and Singapore. In the post Soviet years,
Russia withdrew its presence from the Indian Ocean. Recent
report however indicates Russias renewed interest in the Indian
Ocean. (Ramakrishna 2006: 25-26) Russia has been desperately
trying to gain a foothold in the oil rich countries of the Middle
East.
Indias Position
Indias position in the Indian Ocean is to be viewed against
the backdrop of the powerful presence of the various external
and regional powers. As stated earlier, India occupies a special
position in the Indian Ocean region. For centuries together,
Indians have used the Indian Ocean to further their economic
and strategic interests. In fact, the Indian Ocean has been a
powerful medium of trade, defense, colonization and diffusion
of Indian culture particularly in Southeast Asia. The Mauryan
kings had established ports on the Bay of Bengal in the fourth
century B.C. Kautilya made a mention of a separate
administrative division of overseas maritime activities in his
famous Arthsastra. Large naval kingdoms of the Cholas and
Chalukyas were set up in South India. Sri Vijaya Empire, set
up by the South Indian rulers in Southeast Asia from eighth to
eleven centuries, maintained strong cultural and commercial
ties with South India through the Indian Ocean. The Arab
explorers and traders increased their activities in the Arabian
60
Sea from the middle of the Thirteenth century to the beginning

of the Sixteenth century. However, they could not exercise
much control on this ocean. (Ramakrishna, 2006: 24)
The European influence on the Indian Ocean started after
the landing of Vasco da Gama on the western coast of India in
1498. Major European powers were eventually drawn into a
long and bloody struggle for power on the Indian Ocean. Out
of all the European powers, Britain was in possession of the
best kind of naval force and had eventually gained supremacy
over the Indian Ocean and the Indian sub-continent.
(Ramakrishna, 2006: 24) During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
centuries, sea ports like Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, were
developed to see that the sea trade and maritime activities
received a boost. Consequently, on the eve of independence,
there were 3 major ports. By 2002, 12 major ports and 184
intermediate 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 initial
years after independence, New Delhi did not evince much
interest in the Indian Ocean except for economic reasons. The
British were reluctant to pass on their maritime expertise to
India. India continued to depend upon Britain for the warships,
training and naval experts. Till 1957, the Chief of Naval Staff
of India was a British. Indian Navy was treated as an adjunct
of the Commonwealth navy. However, over the years, Indias
presence in the Indian Ocean became obvious. According to
K. R. Singh, certain developments during the 1960s contributed
towards making the impact of Indias powerful presence in
the Indian Ocean felt by one and all. (Singh 2006: 66) These
were: (i) the British decision to concentrate upon NATO
commitment in the Atlantic and in the North Sea, as well as its
another decision to withdraw from east of Suez: (ii) the
willingness of the USSR to transfer modern weapons in large
number on easy financial terms to India; and (iii) the Indian
Navys lackluster performance during the Indo-Pak conflicts
of 1965. Since the early 1970s, India started developing its
61
Navy by using the British and the Soviet equipment that helped
to reorient its maritime naval perspective on the Indian Ocean.
Post Cold War Years
The end of cold war and the demise of the Soviet Union
resulted in some basic restructuring in the international order
that had significant bearing upon the Indian Ocean region
states. The onset of globalisation has brought in structural
changes in the global political and economic system which
compelled the nations to radically redefine their political and
economic policy regimes. Many of the states had to open up
their economy under pressure from the West. The withdrawal
of the Soviet navy from the IOR, the emergence of the newly
independent republics in the Central Asia, the Gulf war, and
the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa were some of
the major developments which forced the IOR states to reorient
their foreign and security policies.
For almost till the late 1980s, Indias presence in the IOR
was viewed through Soviet prism only. This perception
changed after the end of the cold war and the disintegration of
the USSR and subsequent removal of the Soviet Navy from
the region. Major Powers began to evaluate India as a major
regional power in its own right. This development provided
the necessary input to India for improving bilateral ties with
big powers and build structures of maritime cooperation at
the regional level.
Options before Indian foreign policy makers became wide
in this changed situation. India could get out of its pro-Soviet
image which helped to rehabilitate New Delhi in Southeast
Asia. India also got its economic policy reoriented and its new
political elite were willing to liberate the countrys economy
from the age-old impediments to progress. These developments
in the 1990s enabled India to see that its policies dovetailed
with the individual policies of the members of the ASEAN
and SADC (South African Development Community). (Singh
2005: 345)
62
The Indian Ocean Rim Initiative: The Indian Ocean Rim

Initiative was launched in March 1995 at Port Louis by seven
littorals of the Indian Ocean - Australia, India, Kenya,
Mauritius, Oman, Singapore and South Africa.4 It emphasized
the economic cooperation among a few like-minded states of
the Indian Ocean region with the sole objective of stimulating
intra-regional trade and investment. Thus, the focus was
primarily on the economic matters. Political and strategic issues
were consciously excluded (Singh 2005: 346-347).
A working group composed of members of all the seven
sponsoring states, was constituted to formulate a charter, and
chalk out a future work program as well as the composition of
future membership. The working group met at Port Louis
during 15-17 August 1995. Among other things, it
recommended that the membership be extended from seven to
fourteen countries. The proposed list of new members was
Indonesia and Malaysia from Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka from
South Asia, Yemen from Southwest Asia, and Tanzania,
Madagascar and Mozambique from Southern Africa. The
working group in its meeting on 9 September 1996, finalized
the details which were then discussed in the intergovernmental
meeting held at Mauritius during 10-11 September 1996. All
the fourteen states participated in it. The Charter was also
finalized and recommended for formal approval. The details
were formally adopted when the foreign ministers of fourteen
states met in Mauritius during 5-7 March 1997. (Singh 2005:
348-349) A new regional program for economic cooperation
was formally launched on the Indian Ocean. The IOR-ARC
became a reality. 5
Another parallel initiative to forge the IOR countries into
a wider political and economic forum was mooted by Australia.
The Perth meeting was held in June 1995 in which the delegates
from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in South Asia,
all the M-7 members, and the participants from other rim
countries, took part. However, the Australian plan became dead
for different reasons. (Rao 2005: 363-365)
63
India has a substantial trade with IOR-ARC members that

amounted to about $ 7.342 billion in 1995-96. India had also
attracted investments from these states to the tune of $ 2.29
billion, till 1995. There remains a vast scope for India to
promote joint ventures in the IOR-ARC countries by virtue of
its technological expertise and financial base. (Singh 2005:
351)
Indian financial institutions like the FICCI (Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries) have been
evincing a deep interest in the activities of the IOR-ARC. The
initiatives undertaken by FICCI would facilitate the trade and
investment opportunities in the IOR-ARC. This apart, the
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade has been coordinating a
project with IOR-ARC. The project is an Indo-Mauritius
initiative, but is kept open for others to join. The Confederation
of Indian Industries has already formulated a proposal for an
IOR Trade Fair to be organized once in every two years. The
national Council for Applied Economic Research and CII has
also been jointly coordinating the project dealing with
investment facilitation and promotion. (Singh 2005: 352)
Thus, India has been deeply involved in promoting the
newly created IOR-ARC. However, the IOR-ARC does not
signify the completion of Indias policy on the Indian Ocean
region. Rather it can only be one of the several means towards
the end. K. R. Singh has argued that further research and study
concerning Indias interests in the IOR-ARC would reveal
some new areas of cooperation. (Singh 2005: 352)
Indias strategic engagement: Over the years, India has
increased its strategic engagement with several countries in
the region. It has signed military oriented agreements with
several countries including Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.
Recently, India conducted joint naval and military exercises
with China, US, Japan, Russia and some other Asian
neighbours. Its greater economic, military and naval presence
has been more or less unanimously acknowledged by all major
players in the regions. (Sharma 2006: 46)
64
It is interesting to note that the South Eastern countries in

particular, have not been critical of the growth in the maritime
power of India. Rather many view this development as
something that would provide the much required balance in
the region. The Navies and the Coast Guards of Malaysia,
Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Korea and
even China, have been exercising together in different parts
of the ocean by way of trying to learn something or the other,
from each other. (Vasan 2006: 81) This has enhanced Indias
regional profile to a greater extent. At the same time, it has
also strengthened the cooperative regional security framework
in the Indian Ocean.
Since the early 1990s, New Delhi had started expanding
its economic activities and military presence in the Indian
Ocean. Top ranking leaders have emphasized the importance
of the Indian Ocean in Indias foreign policy from time to time.
In 2003, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee told the
annual Combined Service Conference that the strategic
frontiers of todays India, grown in international Stature, have
expanded well beyond confines of South AsiaOur security
environment ranges from the Persian Gulf to Straits of Malacca
across the Indian Oceanand South-East Asia. Our strategic
thinking has also to extend to these horizons. (www.saag.org/
papers9/paper832.htm) In October 2004, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh stated: Our strategic footprint covers the
region bounded by the Horn of Africa, West AsiaSouth-East
Asia and beyond, to the far reaches of the Indian Ocean.
Awareness of this reality should inform and animate our
strategic thinking and defence planning. (Singh 2004)
In 2006, Indian Foreign Minister stated: geography
imparts a unique position to India in the geo-politics of the
Asian continent, with our footprint reaching well beyond South
Asiafrom the Persian Gulf to the Straits of Malacca. (as
quoted in Scott 2006: 2) Keeping in mind Indias varied
maritime interests, chief of naval staff, Arun Prakash stated:
no one can stop India from becoming a maritime powerour
65
maritime interests are now all over, anything that happens

between the east coast of Africa and the Malacca Straits is of
immediate concern to India. We have the business to know
what is happening in this part of the Indian Ocean. (as quoted
in Scott 2006: 2. for detail see Prakash 2006)
In recent years, the successive BJP and the Congress
governments undertook serious building and purchasing
program to strengthen Indian Navy. A brown water fleet is
being transformed into a long range ocean-going blue water
fleet. Thus, Indian Navy has acquired weapons of vast range
and its naval forces are deployed across vast distances from
the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal and the farthest reaches
of the Indian Ocean. (Prakash 2005. also see Scott 2006: 7)
Noted scholar C. Raja Mohan has also emphasized the need
to protect Indian maritime interests with utmost care and
urgency. (Mohan 2003)
Indias Ministry of Defence Annual Report articulates the
objective of its foreign policy: Indias parameters of security
clearly extend well beyond the confines of its conventional
geographical land borders. Given its size, location, trade links
and extensive Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), Indias
security environment extends from the Persian Gulf in the west
to the Straits of Malacca in the eastto the Equator in the
south. Indias links with most nations in this region are
traditional and civilisational, supported by centuries of
maritime trade and migration of people. (as quoted in Scott
2006: 7)
In order to strengthen Indias naval reach, defence
capability is being modernized. The purchase of IL-78 aircraft
tanker in 2003 has enriched the Indian Air Force units to a
significant level. (India in the Indian Ocean 2006: 58-59)
This apart, Indias TU-142M and IL-38 maritime surveillance
aircraft have been upgraded. The navy is also raising three
squadrons of Israeli-built Heron II unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs), which enables it to set up an Indian Naval Squadron
INAS 342 at Kochi. Besides, India has been engaged in
66
negotiating the purchase of PC 3 Orion long range surveillance

planes from the United States. (Scott 2006: 8)
India is thus busily engaged in projecting its power across
the breadth of Indian Ocean in an unprecedented way. David
Scott has made some significant study of the changes to which
Indias Indian Ocean policy has been subjected over the years
since the time of Nehru. The post cold war years have seen the
reversal of Nehrus post independence maritime discourse.
Writing in 1954, Nehru said: we have no intention of sending
expeditionary forces to other countries or to have any
operations, military, naval or air, far from our country...this
means that our Navy will at no time be charged with protecting
the sea routes to and from India, and that this also leads to
the conclusion that we do not normally require big ships...Long
distance submarines are not a necessity for us. This applies to
an aircraft carrier also. (Kumar & Prasad 1999: 307) Today,
half a century later, it is seen that distant places are visited by
the Indian Navy projecting itself eastwards, westwards and
southwards, in defence of sea routes around the Indian Ocean.
(Scott 2006: 8)
K. R. Singh has argued that Indian foreign policy in the
Indian Ocean since 1990s, has been directed towards resource
enhancement, resource utilization and the promotion of a new
framework of regional peace and security. (Singh 2005: 354355) New Delhi has been cooperating with other regional
powers in the Indian Ocean in sharing whatever expertise it
has acquired in various fields including technology. India has
engaged itself in various capacities with other players in the
region. For example, India has concluded bilateral agreements
with Indonesia and Thailand for conducting joint patrols from
2001 to 2005 along with the maritime boundaries. (Vasan 2006:
82)
India currently trains the military and the police personnel
from the Maldives. It has provided military equipments and
trained Maldivian paratroopers in regard to the counter
insurgency operations. Indian naval vessels patrol along the
67
archipelagos many coastlines and watch over its sea lanes. In

2006, India provided a fast attack craft to Maldives which has
a range of 3600 kms. This development, according to S.
Dikshit, is to be viewed as part of the countrys overall strategy,
to strengthen maritime and security ties with other countries.
(Dikshit 2006. also see Scott 2006: 5)
Similarly, there is excellent coordination between the
maritime forces of India and Sri Lanka. Indias strategic
interests in Sri Lanka were clearly obvious in its military
intervention during 1987-90. The Indo-Sri Lankan Agreement
of 1987 gave India a substantial voice in Sri Lankan military
affairs. (Scott 2006: 5-6)
Regular annual naval intercourse with the central Indian
Ocean islands has been the Indian Navys recourse. The central
Indian Ocean republic of Mauritius is Indias strategic outpost
for its naval power projection and presence. Geopolitically,
Mauritius is very important from Indian foreign policy point
of view. Mauritius serves as a springboard for Indian naval
operations to be effective along the East African coastline and
to jump into the central Indian Ocean. (Scott 2006: 11) In the
years 2003 and 2005, Mauritius sought surveillance of its
Exclusive Economic Zone by the Indian warships, INS Sharda
and then INS Suvarna. The importance India attaches to
Mauritius is evident from the fact that the Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh chose the island nation for his first official
visit to a country. Visiting in March 2005, Singh declared:
We see Mauritius as friendly gateway to the African continent
and an invaluable partner. (Visit of Dr. Manmohan Singh to
Mauritius 2005, also see Scott 2006: 12)
Indias naval presence in Mauritius has been particularly
evident in recent years. Ten Indian Air Force planes transited
through Mauritius to participate in the Air Defence Exercise
in South Africa in September 2004. Indian warships have
regularly visited the island, four ships in August 2002, with
the destroyers INS Delhi and INS Ranvijay, conducting joint
exercises with Mauritian ships off Port Louis. INS Savitri
68
visited Mauritius in September 2004, as did INS Tabar in July

2004, the INS Sharda in April 2005. These visits signified the
nature of defence and security cooperation between India and
Mauritius. This apart, the present deployment of the Indian
fleet of ships to South Africa, Seychelles, Kenya, Mauritius,
Comoros and the Reunion Island is an endeavour to further
strengthen the bonds of friendship and harmony with Indias
neighbours in the Indian Ocean. (High Commissioner of India
to Mauritius 2005. also refer Scott 2006: 11)
This apart, Russian links with India in the post Soviet years,
have also served New Delhis maritime interests. Russia has
supplied an aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and various
advanced stealth frigates. In 2005, Russia sent a substantial
fleet through the Mediterranean and down the Red Sea, to
conduct joint maneuvers with the Indian Navy in the Gulf of
Aden. (Scott 2006: 18)
Joint naval exercises with the United States which began
in the 1990s, have been continuing till date with full potential.
The two countries have been conducting joint naval exercises
in the Arabian Sea involving their aircraft carriers, USS Nimitz
and INS Viraat for the first time. As Indias defence minister
put it: India and the United States have committed themselves
to comprehensive cooperation in ensuring a secure maritime
domain in and around the Indian Ocean. (Mukherjee 2006)
In the wake of Indias nuclear explosion in 1998, USA
suspended its joint naval exercise for some time but resumed
the same after 2002. Indias nuclear explosions were criticized
by USA, China, Australia and some other powers. Barring this
development, Indo-US strategic relationship has become closer,
as both share common concerns about the Chinese
expansionism, and the Islamic terrorism in the Indian Ocean.
It may be added that during 1980s, India had opposed and
criticized the US military presence in the Indian Ocean.
Conclusion
It has been driven home in the paper, that in recent years,
69
Indias naval presence in the Indian Ocean in terms of range

and power has been very significant. Indias presence in a big
way is to be viewed against the backdrop of various regional
and external powers presence. Viewed from neo-liberal
perspective, Indias hegemonic presence in the Indian Ocean
is largely the outcome of the structural factors. However, what
is important to note is that barring a few stray incidents, Indias
hegemonic presence in the Indian Ocean has been accepted
and welcomed by other powers from within and outside the
region.
India has an important leadership role in the Indian Ocean.
The increasing trade and economic relations with other Asian
economies demand that India adopts a proactive maritime
policy both in terms of maritime trade and security. However,
it is a known fact that effective management of overall security
issue in the Indian Ocean region is a challenging and daunting
task. The threat of Islamic terrorism, the environmental
pollution and the threat to maritime security demand India and
other powers in the Indian Ocean to come closer. Therefore,
India in its own interest must continue to make greater effort
to strengthen its presence in the Indian Ocean, while taking
other powers into confidence.
Finally, the pivotal role that India assumed in the IOR in
the postcolonial age, either in the Non-aligned Movement, the
North-South dialogue, the disarmament crusade or in the
regions peace zone movement, qualifies its active involvement
in the regions affairs in the present situation as well. In fact,
given the shift in world power structure from military to
economic strength and the shift of global attention towards
the Indian Ocean, it is natural and imperative for a country of
Indias size and potential, to respond actively to the rapidly
altering scenario.
Notes
1. The International Hydrographic Organisation has
recognized the coast of Antarctica as the southern extreme
70
of the Indian Ocean. The average depth of the Indian Ocean

is 3873 m. (Ramakrishna 2006: 19)
2. The Indian Ocean is endowed with rich variety of natural
resources of which mineral and power resources as well
as 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 gas
producing areas of the oceans are confined to the continental
shelf, but oil wells in much deeper seas have been dug in the
recent past. At present, half of the worlds total output of oil
and gas comes from offshore wells and over 75 countries are
engaged in offshore drilling. In the Indian Ocean, the major
players in offshore oil and gas exploration, drilling and
production, are India, countries surrounding the Persian Gulf
and the Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.
Coastal areas of Australia (Western Australia) also have
offshore oil reserves. India has 3.2 lakh sq. km offshore areas
of sedimentary deposits on the continental shelf. Mumbai High
is the largest oil producer of India. Significant gas reserves
have been found in the Krishna-Godavari basin off the coast
of Andhra Pradesh.
Oil and gas reserves of the Persian Gulf are remarkably
amazing. But these reserves remained unexploited for a long
time because, the gulf has land based reserves also which were
to be exploited first. The offshore potential is very important,
especially for smaller states which have restricted land areas.
Aggregates: Marine aggregates comprise sand, gravel or
shell deposits etc. used primarily in the construction industry.
They are mainly found in the continental shelves. These are
used for manufacturing cement.
Placers: Placer deposits are concentrations of heavy,
resilient and chemically resistant minerals eroded from the
existing ore bodies by mechanical weathering. Such deposits
include native gold, native platinum, tin, titanium, magnetite
(iron), zirconium, monazite (thorium) and gemstones. In the
71
Indian Ocean, such placers are found along the coasts of Sri
Lanka, India, Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia. Sri Lanka,
India and Australia have titanium sands, whereas Malaysia
and Indonesia have tin deposits. Indonesia is one of the main
areas in the world where offshore placers are mined.
Polymetallic Nodules: Polymetallic nodules are those
which contain several metals, the important metals being
manganese, copper, nickel, cobalt, etc. They occur in many
shapes, sizes and forms and are generally friable. India has
obtained the technology of exploiting these mineral nodules
from the ocean beds. The United Nations has granted
permission to India to exploit the polymetallic nodules over
an area of 1, 50,000 sq km in the Indian Ocean. India is the
first country to obtain such a right as it obtained Pioneer
Investor status under UNCLOS III. The National Institute of
Oceanography in Goa is to be credited with playing a leading
role 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 traditional
route and rounded Africa via the Atlantic Ocean to establish
a direct sea route between South and Southeast Asia and
the Atlantic littoral of Europe. By the first half of the
nineteenth century, the Europeans had not only dominated
trade and commerce in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific
regions but were also beginning to impose their political
and military hegemony. It resulted in the political
dominance of the Europeans in the region. Consequently,
the entire fabric of the socioeconomic system of the region
was disturbed. The North-South linkages replaced the
traditional South-South linkages. (Singh 2005: 342-343)
4. The idea of bringing the IOR countries together in a new
economic framework was first publicly stated by
Mauritius. (The Hindu, 8 August 1992) The Indian Ocean
Rim initiative after 1993 was not the first initiative of the
kind. Earlier in the 1980s, such initiatives were undertaken
on two occasions. In 1983, France took the first initiative
72
when its headquarters were in Mauritius. It was however

confined to a few states of the western Indian Ocean. The
second initiative the Indian Ocean Maritime Affairs
Cooperation (IOMAC) was largely the result of an
Australian initiative, formally launched from Colombo in
1987. It had wider participation and included members
from even beyond the Indian Ocean. Both these initiatives
were not successful against the cold war background. India
too had kept itself aloof from both the initiatives because
of its diplomatic isolation in the region at that time and
also because it did not wish to join what it considered to
be largely western initiatives. (Singh 2005: 346)
5. The IOR-ARC is just an inter-governmental agency in
which decisions are taken by consensus. It has not been
conceived either as a closed trade bloc or as a preferential
trade area. The charter defines the scope of the activities
of the IOR-ARC. Economic cooperation is accorded
primacy. The charter enables member states to reach
beyond the narrow confines of sub-regional groups to
interact with other states in the Indian Ocean region. Thus
India can fruitfully interact with Indonesia, Malaysia and
Singapore without being a member of the ASEAN. It thus
gives New Delhi an opportunity to enlarge its field of
economic interaction.
References
Dikshit, S, India Transfers Naval Ship to Maldives, Hindustan
Times, 17 April 2006.
Editorial, Indian Ocean Survey, Vol. 2, No. 2, July-December
2006.
High Commissioner of India to Mauritius, Visit of Indian Naval
Ships 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.
73
59, No. 2, 2006, pp. 58-59.

Mohan, C. Raja, Theres a New Game in Asia: India, Indian
Ocean and Chinas String of Pearls, Indian Express, 31 May
2005.
Mohan, C. Raja, Crossing the Rubicon. The Shaping of Indias
New Foreign Policy, (New Delhi, Viking, 2003), pp. 204-236.
Mukherjee, Pranab, India a Rising Global Player, 3 June
2006, http://www.iiss.org/ conferences/the-shangri-la-dialogue/
2006-plenary-session-speeches/second-plenary-session-pranabmukherjee.
Nehru, Jawaharlal, Naval Policy, 12 May 1954, in R. Kumar
and H. Prasad (eds.), Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru
(Second Series), Vol. 25, Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, New
Delhi, 1999.
Prakash, A, Shaping Indias Maritime Strategy Opportunities
and Challenges, November 2005, http://indiannavy.nic.in/
cns_add2.htm
Prakash, A, interview in Sainik Samachar, (Ministry of
Defence), Vol. 53, No. 13, 2006.
Ramakrishna, S & Baladishan, A, Geopolitics of the Indian
Ocean, 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 in
Rajen Harshe and K. M. Seethi (ed.), Engaging with the World:
Critical Reflections on Indias Foreign Policy (New Delhi,
Orient Longman, 2005), pp. 356-376.
Sakhuja, Vijay, Container Transportation Security in South and
Southeast Asia, Indian Ocean Digest, Vol. 21, No. 1, Issue:
41, January June 2006, pp. 1-8.
Scott, David, Indian footprints in the India Ocean: Power
Projection 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
74
India Ocean Region in V. D. Chopra (ed.), Indias Foreign

Policy 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 Maritime
Cooperation, International Studies, Vol. 41, No. 2, 2004, pp.
195-218, 205.
Singh, K. R., India and the Indian Ocean in V. D. Chopra (ed.),
Indias Foreign Policy in the 21st Century (Delhi, Kalpaz
Publications, 2006), pp. 65-68.
Singh, K. R, The Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional
Cooperation: Regional Cooperation in the Indian Ocean, in
Rajen Harshe and K. M. Seethi (ed.), Engaging with the World:
Critical Reflections on Indias Foreign Policy, (New Delhi,
Orient Longman, 2005), pp. 342-355.
Singh, M, PMs Address at the Combined Conference, 24
October 2004, http://pmindia.nic.in/speech/content.asp?id=37
Srivatsan, V, Continental Shelf Delimitation: An India-Centric
SWOT Analysis, Indian Ocean Survey, Vol. 2, No. 2, JulyDecember 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 (Osmania
University, Hyderabad), Vol. 21, No. 2, Issue 42, July-December,
2006, pp. 79-93.
Visit of Dr. Manmohan Singh to Mauritius Statement on
Departure from New Delhi, 30 March 2005, http://
meaindia.nic.in/speech/2005/03/30ss01.htm.
www.saag.org/papers9/paper832.htm
Israels Counter Terrorism Strategies: A Retrospect
75
Israels Counter Terrorism Strategies:

A Retrospect
T. V. GOPALA CHARI*
Introduction
Ever since the inception of its formation in 1948, the state
of Israel has been facing the threat of terror attacks from
organizations such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, 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 attempt
to subvert the national will. Terrorist violence aims to
undermine the personal security of civilians, to sow fear and
trepidation, and to sap public morale in order to exert pressure
on the decision makers to make political concessions.1
Over the past five and a half decades, the Israeli
government has developed a variety of measures to prevent
terrorist attacks or to mitigate their pernicious effects. Israel
has also made a virtue of the necessity by creating a cuttingedge security industry that markets counterterrorism
technologies, products, and services throughout the world. The
primary goals of Israeli counterterrorism strategy are to prevent
terrorists from influencing the national agenda and to preserve
the psychological resilience of the civilian population. Besides,
the governments campaign against terrorism involves a
striking back against terrorist cells to protect the homeland,
by expanding the campaign against terrorist organizations and
their state sponsors, and by delegitimatiging terrorism
internationally. However, it has not been successfully creating
an atmosphere where common citizens are excluded from this
*
Dr. T. V. Gopala Chari, Associate Professor, Centre for Indian Ocean

Studies, Osmania University, Hyderabad.
76
ongoing Anti-terror process.2

Consequently, most of the innocent people have been are
victimized by the terrorist attacks for all their non-involvement.
The counter terrorist warfare by the Israeli government has
also often been responsible for the public insecurity. This kind
of a situation posed a psychological threat to the common
residents of Israel. Before examining further, whether Israel
counter terrorist policies and practices are adhered to, in its
set goals, it is appropriate here to examine the globally accepted
counterterrorism policies which are mostly endorsed by the
experts in the field.
Counterterrorism Parameters
An analysis of the experience of other countries, and the
existing literature on the worldwide counter-terrorism policies,
yields several parameters that together support a corresponding
classification of the counter-terrorist policies of different
countries. The approach that each country adopted can be
classified as rigid, flexible or somewhere in between, based
on national attitudes toward the parameters described
hereunder (counter-terrorism parameters). The main
parameters likely to emerge in different situations are as
follows: This information, it was felt, will be useful to analyze
Israels case in the present context.
Willingness to negotiate with terrorists: A consideration
of the conditions under which the government is willing
to negotiate with terrorists, be it during a hostage event or
as part of any other scenario entails the question: Are
negotiations with terrorists seen as a taboo or once the
hostages are involved, does the government feel that the
negotiations should not be ruled out even if this means
that the state must be ready to surrender to the terrorists
demands?
Attitude toward states sponsors of terrorism: Should
diplomatic, economic, and even military sanctions be
imposed on states that sponsor terrorism? Or is it better to
77
maintain economic and diplomatic ties and use them in

order to convince the country involved, to reduce or
abandon its support of terrorism?
How terrorism is perceived: Is terrorism regarded as a
military conflict between a regular and an irregular army,
requiring the development of appropriate weapons and
tactics; or is terrorism regarded as first and foremost a
socio-political issue that must be solved with sociopolitical tools? In this context, what portion of the countrys
counter-terrorism policy is dominated by the military
option?
The terrorist organizations rationality and motivation:
How far rational, is the adversary terrorist organization
in the eyes of the government in question? How far
significant are the cost-effectiveness considerations in the
terrorist organizations decision-making process, and to
what extent does that organization direct its activities
toward the accomplishment of the defined goals?
The objective of the counter-terrorist warfare: which
one of the most distinctive parameters that distinguishes
one from the other of different counter-terrorist policies,
is their ultimate objective? Does the government in
question aim to annihilate terrorism, to reduce its impact,
or to resolve the underlying issues?
The resources invested in combating terrorism: This
parameter quantifies counter-terrorism policy: what
portion of the resources at its disposal does the state invest
in handling terrorism?
Timing: Should counter-terrorist policies involve routine
or proactive strikes, or should the state limit its actions to
strictly defensive preemptive measures? Alternately,
should the government adopt a policy of retaliation, and
respond forcefully to any terrorist attack against the
state?
Deterrence as part of counter-terrorist warfare: An
assessment of whether it is possible to exact such a high
78
price by the terrorist organization that the latter will

perceive the exorbitant cost as something exceeding the
benefits to be gained?
The boomerang effect: Are serious strikes against the
terrorist organizations likely to escalate the situation? In
other words, do counter-terrorist attacks have a boomerang
effect, or is this idea groundless?
The states stance on the democratic dilemma: Should
the most effective counter-terrorist activity be implemented
at all costs, even at the price of eroding liberal-democratic
values; or should these values be upheld at all times, even
if this means compromising on the efficacy of counterterrorist activity? In this context, is emergency legislation
absolutely necessary in order to fight terrorism, or should
it be viewed as a substantial threat to democracy, and thus
not to be considered? A similar conundrum arises in
connection with collective punishment is it imperative
in order to isolate the terrorist from within, or does it
instead, weaken the efficacy of counter-terrorist warfare
as it broadens the resentment and hatred toward the state
and enhances the popularity of the terrorist organization?
Publicizing the governments counter-terrorist policy:
Finally, if a government has an accepted counter-terrorism
policy, should this policy be made public, and its specifics
be announced and adhered to consistently, in order to deter
the terrorists? Or will such publicity limit the options at
the disposal of the decision-makers, and thus stand in the
way 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 anywhere
on the continuum between rigidity and flexibility; there is thus
a wide array of combined policies that any government can
adopt. History and professional literature show that changing
circumstances have caused governments to alter their policies.
It must therefore be noted that any classification of a counter-
79
terrorist policy is time- and place-dependent, and could change

from one period to the next provided a new government takes
power, when a substantial change takes place in the country,
or when there is a change in the scope and attributes of
terrorism. 3
Israels Experience
The parameters outlined above serve to categorize the
trajectory of Israels counter-terrorist policies over the two and
half decades on a continuum between rigidity and flexibility,
stressing the differences between the changing governments.
The following methodological issues are pertinent to be
addressed. 4
Did Israeli decision-makers perceive terrorism as a tactical,
strategic or existential threat?
What were the objectives of Israels counter-terrorist
activities during the last two and a half decades?
What tools and methods of operation were selected to
promote these goals, and to what extent did they succeed?
How did Israels decision-makers address the democratic
dilemma 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 countermeasures
block one avenue of attack, terrorists improvise some new
means of inflicting damage often by taking a detour. For
instance, after a series of aircraft hijackings forced Israel to
improve the aviation security, terrorists began to target Israeli
embassies overseas. When security at embassies was
strengthened, terrorists responded by attacking markets, buses,
and pedestrians in Israeli cities.5 Accordingly, counter terrorism
strategies have evolved and continually adapted as per the
ground requirements.
Palestinian terrorism against Israel has escalated
dramatically especially against Jewish settlements and military
bases in the Gaza Strip. Particularly damaging to the morale
80
of the Israeli population, has been a wave of suicide bombings

by Palestinian terrorists in crowded buses, markets, restaurants,
and nightclubs. These attacks, which occur essentially at
random, pose a serious threat to the psychological and
economic well-being of the Israeli society. 6
Given the high motivation of suicide bombers and the
relative simplicity and low cost of the explosives they use,
deterrence is impossible and prevention is far from being
certain.
Although Israeli counterterrorism authorities interdicted
the attempted suicide attacks to the maximum extent, the small
number of bombers who penetrate the security net can still
wreak considerable death and destruction. Israeli
counterterrorism strategy basically comprises the following
elements: 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 Intelligence
The vigilance of the Israeli public plays a key role in
preventing terrorism. It is a known fact that the average Israeli
is highly aware of suspicious packages, individuals, and actions
that could pose a threat to the public safety and does not hesitate
to notify the police of it. As a result, ordinary citizens foil the
considerable number of attempted terrorist attacks in Israel,
including time bombs left by terrorists. Israeli experts contend
that beyond a vigilant citizenry, intelligence is the essential
foundation of any systematic effort to combat terrorism. The
first priority must be placed on intelligence, then on counter
terrorism operations, and finally on defense and protection.
To support its war on terrorism, Israel has developed a highly
81
coordinated and efficient intelligence apparatus. Drawing on

human and technical means, Israeli government agencies work
continually to identify terrorist operatives and cells. Threats
are categorized into those that appear imminent and require
immediate attention and those that are less probable but could
emerge later on, and those that are unlikely to befall but still
possible.
Israeli foreign and domestic intelligence agencies
cooperate well in collecting and sharing terrorism-related
information. The Israel Security Agency known as Shin Bet,
reports directly to the Prime Minister and is responsible for
domestic intelligence, counterespionage, internal security, and
the prevention of terrorist acts. The Arab Affairs Division of
Shin Bet conducts political subversion and surveillance of Arab
terrorists, while the Protection and Security Division
safeguards Israeli government buildings and embassies,
defense contractors, scientific installations, key industrial
plants, and the national airline El Al. Israel also has a foreign
intelligence agency, Mossad ( institute), and a military
intelligence service, Aman. Shin Bet works closely with Mossad
and Aman to prepare an annual terrorism threat assessment
for the Prime Minister. Israeli government agencies gather
human intelligence on terrorism by deploying undercover
agents in the Palestinian-controlled areas and by recruiting
local informants inside or close to terrorist organizations. Israel
also engages in frequent police operations in which large
numbers of suspected Palestinian militants are rounded up and
interrogated. However, only rarely do such operations yield
tactical warning of an imminent terrorist attack and the
apparent tips obtained during interrogation may amount to
misinformation designed to deflect attention from the real
target.
In addition to human intelligence, Israel has developed
sophisticated technologies for detecting explosives and arms
at a distance, electronic eavesdropping and signals intelligence,
and visual intelligence with unmanned aerial vehicles.
82
Nevertheless, Israeli intelligence agencies give priority to

human intelligence over high-tech methods.
Military & Paramilitary Operations
Israeli counter terrorism operations are designed to disrupt
the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza by
attacking bomb factories and safe houses, gathering
intelligence, and by arresting or killing key terrorist leaders
and bombmakers. A major focus of Israeli counter terrorism
operations is to prevent Palestinian terrorists from the West
Bank from infiltrating Israel to stage attacks. Several
organizations and units are involved in such operations. Shin
Bet detachments work with Aman undercover units to counter
Palestinian terrorists. In addition, an elite IDF commando unit
called Sayeret Matkal is Israels premier counter terrorism
organization and is involved in almost every major counter
terrorist operation, as well as in hostage rescue operations
conducted by Israel. The IDF and the Frontier Police, a military
organization under police control, have created counter
terrorism units, including Duvdevan and Shimshon. The Israeli
Police Forces Yamam, a professional anti terror unit,
specializes in hostage rescue taking advantage of the long
experience and training, whereas the members of Sayeret
Matkal and other IDF counter terrorism units before their entry
into the real operations, provide basic training for commandos.
Israel has sought to prevent suicide operations by disrupting
them at the organizational, training, and planning stages, before
the shahid (martyr), is more or less on his way to the target.
IDF operations to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure, are
directed against the activists who recruit and train the suicide
bombers, manufacture the explosive belts, gather operational
intelligence, drive the shahid to the target, and otherwise
provide logistical and moral support. Because terror
organizations continually recruit new operatives and require a
large network of supporters, aggressive counter terrorism
campaigns can weaken the morale of the terrorists, hamper
83
enlistment efforts, and deter collaborators. Military operations

against terrorism also reassure the Israeli public that the
initiative in the war against terror is on the side of the
government. 8
Aviation Security
Israels expertise in aviation security is legendary, and this
area remains a top priority because the stakes are enviably
high. Large passenger aircrafts are attractive targets for
terrorists because once in the air, they become extremely
vulnerable. A small explosion that might kill only a few people
on 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 Israeli
national airline, covering Ben Gurion International Airport near
Tel Aviv and other airliners of the country. Terminal security
which has been a major concern for Israel and Ben Gurion
airport, is protected by a defense in depth that begins with a
checkpoint on the single access road, where armed guards
examine vehicles and question suspicious-looking drivers or
passengers. Additional plain clothed security officials monitor
the entrances to the terminal, continually scan the crowds
inside, and frequently check wastebaskets for explosive
devices.
El Als passenger screening system relies on psychological
profiling techniques backed up with high-technology
equipment which has been highly effective. The airport security
system has been largely confined to screen the baggage rather
than people, but Israels security model aims at ferreting out
individuals with terrorist intentions as well as the luggage
regardless of its kinds. This profiling process relies on an access
to intelligence and careful observation of would-be passengers
besides personal interviews. The main reason for Israels
primary emphasis on human factors is that advances in
explosives technology have made it increasingly difficult to
84
find bombs hidden in luggage. For instance, plastic explosives

can now be disguised in almost every conceivable form,
including shoe soles, toys, cell phones, and clothing.
Despite its strengths, the El Al profiling system has
potential pitfalls, including human error. Personal rapport
between the interviewer and a charming passenger can have a
blinding effect, so that the interviewer does not detect
suspicious signs. In addition, because of co-sharing agreements
between El Al and other carriers, some transiting passengers
(mainly business people) arrive at Ben Gurion International
Airport only an hour before next flight. This brief layover does
not provide enough time for profilers to verify passengers
stories before takeoffs. Fortunately for them, only a few
international passengers transit through Ben Gurion airport.
Second-tier measures include luggage conciliation
(matching bags to passengers who board an aircraft) and the
processing of baggage and cargo through explosives-detection
devices such as InVision scanners and chemical sniffers.
Screened luggage that appears suspicious, is diverted to an
on-site laboratory at Ben Gurion airport for detailed chemical
sampling and analysis. In addition, a compression chamber is
used to check bags for bombs that have air-pressure fuzes. As
a third line of defense, El Al employs on-aircraft protective
measures, including at least one armed sky marshal per flight,
reinforced and bulletproof cockpit doors, and explosionresistant cargo holds. Another threat to Israeli aviation derives
from the possible terrorist use of shoulder-fired ground-to-air
missiles, such as Stingers. Since Ben Gurion airport is situated
only at a few miles from the West Bank, the threat of a missile
attack is real. Because installing antimissile countermeasures
on every plane would be prohibitively costly, Israel relies on
enhanced perimeter security. Ground services such as cleaning,
catering, and refueling also present potential vulnerabilities
and necessitate the careful vetting of the personnel. Shin Bet
strives to remain one step ahead of the terrorist enemy, who
may devise new tactics to circumvent the existing security
85
systems. To this end, Israeli security specialists continually

analyze possible ways of action for attacking passenger
aircraft, collect operational information, and try to spot and
correct weak links in the Aviation security system.
Defense against Chemical and Biological Attacks
Another area of terrorism prevention in which Israel is a
world leader, is passive defenses against the military or terrorist
use of chemical and biological weapons. Israeli civilians face
a direct threat of chemical or biological attack from countries
such as Syria, Iraq, and Iran, besides Palestinian terrorists who
have begun showing a growing interest in these weapons.
Though the chemical warfare capabilities of Hamas are still
rudimentary, Israeli security officials are concerned that the
terrorist groups appear as though they are determined to acquire
or to produce more advanced chemical agents. In view of this
threat, Israel has implemented the worlds most sophisticated
civil defense program against chemical and biological attacks.
The Israeli government began to provide each citizen with a
free kit consisting of an individually fitted gas mask and an
auto-injector containing nerve-agent antidotes. Special masks
are issued to infants, children, and individuals with respiratory
problems. The IDFs Home Front Command (Pekood ha-Orref)
operates a nationwide network of distribution centers,
including a computerized record of everyone who has received
a kit and the date of issue. Notices are often mailed out
reminding the citizens of getting the mask, air filter, and autoinjector replaced when even the equipments operational life
has expired. The IDF developed the doctrine of a sealed body
in a sealed room. Each household was instructed to prepare a
special shelter against chemical or biological attack: an interior
room that has few, if any windows and can be sealed with
plastic sheeting and tape to render it airtight. In response to
air-raid sirens, warnings broadcast on radio and TV, or the
sound of a nearby explosion, Israeli citizens were asked to
enter the special room, to seal the door with tape or cloth, put
86
on their gas masks (creating the sealed body), and to keep

them on until the all clear announcement was given. 9
The government of Israel has required all newly
constructed public buildings, apartment complexes, and singlefamily homes, to incorporate a protective room that is both
bomb-resistant and is capable of being sealed airtight. Most
protective rooms are equipped with electricity and a telephone
hookup; the more elaborate ones have water, a bathroom, and
a TV connection. Another lesson of the Gulf War was that not
everyone could hear the air-raid sirens. To address this problem,
Israeli citizens were asked to turn on the radio before going to
sleep and to tune it to a special station that broadcast only airraid warnings. In the event of a chemical attack, the station
would commence a live broadcast to wake people and to urge
them to enter the sealed room. Israeli public health authorities
are also aware of the threat of bioterrorism and have stockpiled
vaccines and antibiotics.
Managing hostage situations
Another pillar in Israels counter-terrorist warfare is its
policy with regard to negotiating with terrorists in hostage
situations. Israels image as a country that does not concede to
the demands of terrorists was exposed to be unfounded in the
case of many incidents. Unlike other facets of counter-terrorist
warfare, this is one aspect on which Israel had a well-publicized
policy, albeit not a written one. This policy stipulates that as
long as the option of defeating the terrorists by military means
is still viable, this is the favored option. In the absence of such
an alternative, the government will negotiate with the terrorists
and will be ready to accept some of their terms in return for
the release of the hostages. This was indeed the guideline
followed by Israels governments for many years. Hostage
situations present one of the most difficult dilemmas for
decision-makers. Such situations test their leadership, since
they are required to adopt decisions under a very tight timetable
and under extremely strenuous circumstances.
87
Strengthening Psychological Coping Skills

The Israeli government has made a deliberate effort to
counter the demoralizing effects of terrorism by strengthening
the psychological coping skills of ordinary citizens. Terrorists
seek to invoke a pervasive fear in the civilian population by
personalizing the threat so that everyone feels vulnerable,
regardless of the statistical probability that a given individual
will be affected. In an effort to counter this form of
psychological warfare, Israeli terrorism experts from the
International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism visit the
schools throughout the country and provide educational
programs tailored enough to conform to the students of
different age groups. These lectures describe the motives and
operational strategy of terrorists, with the aim of immunizing
the students against the personalization of terror. Thus,
Education particularly among the children and younger
generation directed towards familiarity with the phenomenon
[of terrorism], in all its aspects, will lower the level of anxiety
and foil one of the terrorists principal aims: to instill fear and
undermine the personal security of civilians. 10
With these policy perceptions on Counter- Terrorism, the
Israeli Governments have evolved and adopted many Counter
Terrorism strategies as discussed hereunder, particularly during
the time span of the last Two and a Half Decades ( 1980-2005)
which is considered to be the most crucial period in the political
history of Israel .
Period One: 1980-1992
Counter-terrorist strategies adopted by the governments
led by Yitzhak Shamir and the extent to which these policies
accomplished their goals, were described by prime minister
Shamir himself as below:
we came very close to annihilating terrorism. In my
opinionand Im not the only one who think soit is
practically a fact that in 1992, the PLO was on the brink of
destruction. Arab terrorism was on the brink of destruction as
88
a whole because they lost faith in it. Demoralization decimated

all the terrorists ranksThe General Security Service and
the Israel Defense Forces showed incredible capabilities and
durability, learned the lessons from every clash, the morale of
our fighters was high and we were truly close to victory.
Undoubtedly, the challenges faced by Shamir and the Unity
governments to answer the Palestinian violence and terrorism
were immenseat times unprecedented in Israels history.
These governments scored quite a few points in facing these
challenges, but Shamirs analysis of the facts is nevertheless a
subjective one made in retrospect, and does not necessarily
reflect things as they really were. Both the governments came
to power after PLOs military forces in Lebanon had been
defeated and dispersed to various countries. At the same time,
these governments had to deal with rising Shiite terrorism in
Lebanon and fundamentalist-Islamic terrorism in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. Contrary to Shamirs perception of the
facts, the IDF was unable to handle the Intifada (Popular
Uprising) properly and scored only limited success in Lebanon.
Other cabinet members, such as Shimon Peres and Yitzhak
Rabin, maintained that concurrently with military action
against the Palestinian organizations, Israel must push forward
political 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 offensive
strategies involving heavy money and human resources and
defensive strategies as well. These activities were carried out
both routinely and as preventive and retaliatory measures. In
hostage situations, these governments continued the policies
of their predecessors, having learnt the lesson that when a
military solution was not viable, they were ready to make the
needed concessions to the terroristsas it was shown by the
Jibril Deal of May 20, 1985, concluded by the Shimon Peres
government when three Israeli soldiers held by the PFLP-GC
since the Lebanon war were exchanged for 1,150 prisoners,
held in Israel. The number of terrorists who were released from
89
prison, the severity of the crimes they had committed, and the
governments willingness to allow them to return to the
territories controlled by Israel, were all unparalleled. However,
in terms of political negotiations with Palestinian terrorist
organizations, Shamirs government and the Unity government
upheld and even radicalized their predecessors hard line: a
blunt refusal to negotiate with terrorist organizations. This
philosophy was even put down in a law that forbade any
communication with PLO representatives. During this period,
several high profile scandals surfaced involving attempts by
the General Security Service to make addends for misdeeds.
Most prominent was the Bus 300 Affair, in which two
Palestinian terrorists who had hijacked a bus, were captured
alive and killed by the GSS, which tried to conceal the matter.
This scandal, along with the discovery of a Jewish
underground, and the need for mass punishments during the
Intifada, illustrate the ethical dilemmas faced by these
governments in combating terrorism in the most effective way
on the one hand, as well as in minimizing the injury to liberaldemocratic values on the other. Often such dilemmas were
resolved by courts. 12
Period Two: 1992-1996
The Oslo Accords and the establishment of the autonomous
Palestinian Authority made it necessary for Yitzhak Rabin to
formulate a new counter-terrorist infrastructure. His
governments policy was in terms of a split between the peace
process and reactions to terrorist attacks against Israel. In other
words, the peace process continued even after mass-casualty
attacks in Israel, and the counter-terrorist activity persisted
regardless of the formal and informal restrictions imposed by
the peace process. However, this disjunction between the peace
process and counter-terrorist activities served as a counterincentive for the Palestinian Authority to destroy the Hamas
infrastructure, or even to pressure the organization to refrain
from carrying out attacks on Israeli soil. In the absence of such
90
an incentive, and as long as the movements military

infrastructure remained intact, Hamas could perpetrate as many
attacks of whatever kind it saw fit in protest of the peace
process utterly devoid of the Palestinian national interests.
There were occasions when the Palestinian Authority
manipulated this situation, promising Israel to prevent
fundamentalist Islamic terrorist attacks as a means of scoring
political gains.
Even after Rabin had implored and warned Arafat to act
decisively against terrorism, terrorist attacks in Israel
continued. Despite Rabins policy which was hinting that
terrorism could harm the peace process, apparently there was
no change in the overall situation. But these hints were never
backed up with action, and a ritual following mass-casualty
attacks evolved: closure was imposed on the territories and
harsh measures were threatening, including a suspension of
the peace talks. However, the policy followed by Israel during
this period failed spectacularly. Counter-terrorist warfare was
subjected to a long list of restrictions some of which were
imposed by agreements signed with the Palestinians, while
others were the result of self-restraint, so as not to jeopardize
the peace process. Moreover, even the attempt to move ahead
with the peace process regardless of terrorism, proved a failure
because, the public could not accept this strategy and demanded
that the Palestinians meet expectations, comply with their
undertakings, and thwart terrorism. The loudest expression of
this public sentiment was in the elections at the end of Rabins
period, which led to a political power-shift in Israel, primarily
due to the sense that personal safety had been seriously
compromised. 13
On the operative level, Israeli government under Rabin
continued to launch attacks against terrorist organizations,
particularly against leaders and prominent operatives. Special
attempts were made to reinforce security, in order to balance
the loss of intelligence sources after Israel had withdrawn from
urban areas in the Territories. It was during this period that the
91
Jewish terrorism reached its climax with the first political

assassination of an Israeli Prime Minister by a Jewish extremist.
It was also during this period that terrorisms effect on public
morale in Israel was at its peak, and influenced political views
and processes in Israel both directly and indirectly. One of the
changes prompted in this way was the attitude of decisionmakers in Israel toward terrorism as a strategic problem, rather
than as a merely tactical one. 14
Period Three: 1996-2000 and After
Counter terrorist attacks in the Netanyahu period markedly
came down. As Meir Dagan, the head of Israels counterterrorism bureau observed in 1999, compared to 21 suicide
bombings under the previous government, only three such
attacks took place during Netanyahus term; the number of
shooting incidents, hand grenades and bombs, dropped from
around 1,000 during Rabin and Peres governments to 250
under Netanyahu; the number of Israelis who were killed in
terrorist attacks fell from 245 to 70. Dagan attributed the
improved results to heightened motivation on the part of the
Palestinian Authority to curb terrorism, which included a
demand for reciprocity, threats of economic sanctions, and a
threat to take away political accomplishments of the PA. The
prime minister concluded: The difference between 1996 and
2000 is overwhelming. It is the outcome of the right policy,
correct implementation and an uncompromising stance vis-vis the Palestinians according to which victims of peace are
a concept that we shall not tolerate. 15
Prime Minister Netanyahu attributes the reduced scope of
attacks to his governments demonstrated persistence, to the
linkage that was created between a continuation of the peace
process and military calm, and to Israels military operations.
This begs the question of whether Netanyahu was correct in
claiming all the credit for reducing the levels of terrorism.
Netanyahus detractors maintain that this reduction was not
the outcome of any successful Netanyahu policy, but simply
92
of a lack of motivation on the part of fundamentalist Islamic

organizations to carry out attacks during this time. These groups
realized that the peace process was in any case heading for
deadlock, and felt no need to waste resources on terror attacks
to impede a process that was already effectively bogged-down.
Unlike his predecessors Rabin and Peres, who advocated
separation between the political avenue and counter-terrorist
warfare, Netanyahu not only stressed that the two were
intertwined, but also tried to use the political channel as an
operative lever to prevent terrorism in Israel. However, despite
the hard line that Netanyahu says he practised against terrorism,
it seems that when he was in power he found at times that the
complexities of real life made it impossible to put into practice
all that he had preached. Thus, after Palestinian violence
against Israel, Netanyahu found himself adopting political
resolutions to which he had been adamantly opposed in times
of calm. Thus the Hebron Agreement was signed only after
the Hasmonean Tunnel Incident, while Israel withdrew from
13% of the West Bank under the Wye Agreement after violence
erupted over Israeli construction at Har Homa. While analyzing
whether 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 was
to make it clear to the Palestinians that terrorism would have a
boomerang effect. If they feel that terrorism promotes their
interests and that Jews have no endurance, then terrorism will
proliferateIn various writings and speeches before he
became Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu explained how
he thought terrorism should be fought, in line with his general
hard-line policies. In keeping with the accepted principles, and
in stressing the need for offensive attacks, most Israeli decisionmakers and leaders of the defense establishment in this period,
supported the individual targeting of terrorist leaders, although
with some hedges. 16
As Prime Minister, Netanyahu did not introduce significant
legislative changes relating to counter-terrorism policy.
93
Moreover, the leeway that General Security Service

interrogators were given to in questioning terrorists, was
narrowed and the government refrained from passing a law
that would regulate this issue. Compared to this void in counterterrorism legislation, Netanyahus government made extensive
use of various punitive and preventive measures, like closure,
deportation, administrative arrests, and razing and sealing-off
of homes leading the list. Netanyahu emphasized the
psychological impact of terrorism on public morale and spoke
of the need to neutralize these harmful effects. His critics, on
the other hand argue that he manipulated peoples fears in order
to make political gains and to defeat Shimon Peres in the 1996
elections.
The Democratic Dilemma: Values Vs Strategies
Israels counter-terrorism policy created a sort of
democratic dilemma as there was always a kind of conflict
between Israels counter-terrorist measures during the periods
in question, and the countrys liberal-democratic values. The
list of measures taken by Israel includes intelligence, offensive
attacks, defensive measures, counter-terrorist legislation,
prosecution of suspected terrorists, punitive measures, political
concessions, and public relations and education.
Predominately, terrorism is a form of psychological warfare
against the public morale, whereby terrorist organizations,
through indiscriminate attacks, attempt to change the political
agenda of the targeted population. The objective is to lead the
civilian population to see the cessation of terrorist attacks as
the single most important goal, outweighing any other national,
social, economic, or other objectives. By convincing the
targeted population that terrorist attacks can be stopped only
by the appeasement of the terrorist organizations, the terrorists
hope to win concessions to their demands. The greatest danger
presented by terrorism is thus, not necessarily the direct
physical damage that it inflicts, but rather the injury to the
public morale and the impact on the way policy makers
94
perceive and respond. 17

Since terrorism targets the public morale, any effective
answer to terrorism must also address the issue of the public
morale. Countries routinely faced with terrorism, work hard
to get the sense of security and confidence of their own people
reinforced, and at the same time strive to undermine the security
and confidence of the terrorist organizations and their
supporters. Consequently, while weighing the pros and cons
of different counter-terrorist measures, the implications of these
measures on the public morale should also be taken into
account. The fact that Israel suffers a relatively high rate of
terrorist attacks and draws its counter responses, constantly
subjects the leadership to democratic dilemma. Most counterterrorism literature defines intelligence as the key factor of
counter-terrorist warfare. The pivotal role that intelligence
plays in Israels counter-terrorist strategies, is considered by
all governments as one of the important measures designed in
a tactful manner. Even in case where the necessary intelligence
operations are not outright illegal, they can still be injurious
to liberal-democratic values. One of the most controversial
issues in this context is the interrogation of suspected terrorists.
The nature of interrogation methods epitomizes Israels
democratic dilemma. The possible violation of the rights of a
suspected terrorist to the extent of torture and physical injury,
is juxtaposed with the prospect of obtaining critical information
that would enable the thwarting of the terrorist attacks and
saving many lives. This issue was the one that all the Israeli
governments between 1980 and 2005 had to face, and it
illustrates the sensitive and problematic relationship that the
government and the Executive in general (primarily the military
establishment and the Security Services) have with the
legislative and the judicial branches of the government. Israels
governments have traditionally backed the mode of operation
of the General Security Services; legislators refrained from
passing laws requiring the General Security Services to stick
to the methods of operation recommended by the various
95
investigative commissions that looked into the matter, while

the courts allowed the General Security Services to continue
with traditional methods of operation, albeit with repeated
expressions of disdain in the absence of legislation. However,
during the last two and a half decades, the freedom that General
Security Services had in questioning the terrorists, was
continually diminishing to the point where they were
completely prohibited from applying any physical pressure
including what the Landau Commission had dubbed as
moderate physical pressure.
But, the democratic dilemma inherent in intelligence
gathering goes beyond interrogation methods. It is also evident
in issues such as surveillance, wiretaps and agent running, to
mention just a few. In the case of the use of human sources,
the question is, how far intelligence agents may go in order to
establish themselves and their credibility within the terrorist
organization? May they, for example, be granted permission
to take part in the organizations illegal activities, or even
initiate such activities? The democratic dilemma is thus one
of the main dilemmas in the counter-terrorism policy,
implemented by any democracy. Terrorist organizations are
well aware of the ethical dilemmas involved in an exercise of
the counter-terrorist measures, and try to leverage this in order
to undermine the legitimacy of the government against which
they are fighting. The key question, as mentioned above, is
whether an effective war can be waged against such
organizations without allowing substantial injury to affect the
liberal-democratic values. The answer appears to be positive,
although it is not an easy feat. 18
Public Morale and Terrorist Warfare
Terrorism in modern times is usually designed to score
political gains by generating public pressures. On a national
scale, the physical damage caused by modern terrorism is
relatively small, in comparison with other causes of death such
as road accidents and disease. Even if direct financial damages
96
caused by terrorist attacks are taken into account, the physical

damage caused by terrorism still does not exceed that of a
tactical threat, with the exception of some kinds of nonconventional terror attacks. However, in Israel, there is a
consensus transcending the political differences that terrorism
is nevertheless a strategic threat (although not an existential
one), to the civilian morale. The erosion of the personal and
national security leads to a heightened anxiety and influences
the political stances and moves. In retrospect, it can be said
that this strategy of terror indeed does accomplish some of its
goals in swaying the public opinion in Israel. Two types of
fear can be distinguished in this context: rational fear and
irrational anxiety. Since terrorism can cause death, physical
injury 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 to
augment irrational anxiety, namely, anxiety that transcends
the actual objective threat by far. For this purpose, terrorist
organizations mobilize mass media, internet and various
methods of psychological warfare, designed to amplify the
impact of terrorist attacks. One of the ways in which this is
accomplished, is by personalizing the attacksconvincing
the civilians in the targeted population that it is only by chance
that they themselves or members of their family were not hit
this time, and that they will probably not similarly be lucky
next time. Since terrorism is strategically designed to erode
the public morale, and since it is the injury to the public morale
that presents the strategic danger on a national level, counterterrorism strategies must address the psychological factor as
well. Counter-terrorist warfare must therefore define the
psychological targets of its own that wouldto the extent
possibleneutralize the impact of terrorism domestically and
injure the morale of the terrorists and their supporters
concurrently. Naturally, all counter-terrorist measures should
be designed to thwart attacks before they occur, since
successful measures of this kind would reduce the physical
97
damage caused by terrorist attacks and thus also reduce the

subsequent disintegration of the public morale. However, the
proposed steps should also have direct influence on the public
morale. Effective counter-terrorist warfare should strengthen
the peoples endurance, counterbalance the terrorists
manipulation of public opinion, reduce the levels of fear and
anxiety, while at the same time deal a blow to the terrorists
morale, by influencing the mood in their domestic environment
and by swaying international public opinion. Without effective
actions to reduce the psychological damage to public morale
caused by terrorism, a country may well win the battle, but
lose the war. The prevention of any specific terrorist attack
a central goal in counter-terrorist strategyis the equivalent
of winning a battle. Yet, if at the same time, tourists refrain
from visiting and the civilians are afraid to use the public
transport or to send their children on school trips, this means
that the terrorists have in fact won the war. Ironically, terrorists
could win even without shooting a single bullet or detonating
a single car bomb. It is enough for them to create an atmosphere
of terror through threats, public statements and demonstrated
capabilities in order to accomplish the psychological effect
they desire. Alongside the crucial need to devote attention to
defensive, offensive and punitive counter-terrorist warfare,
specific proactive activities that could reduce the damage to
public morale should also be considered. The most important
facet of Israels psychological counter-terrorist warfare is the
public education that changes peoples attitude toward
terrorism, reduces the levels of irrational anxiety and boosts
the public morale and the sense of personal security in the
face of the terrorist threat. Good public education would
prevent the countrys routine from being disrupted and would
reduce the impact that terrorism has on political views and
thus on political processes. To quote Rabin: The Israeli public
should become its old self again, a fighting people, a people
with perseverance, because this conflict will be won by the
party that does not yield. 19
98
Conclusion
In assessing the efficacy of Israels counter-terrorist
warfare, ones experience reveals that no comprehensive
achievements can be singled out for praise although one can
enumerate certain accomplishments of which Israel can
certainly be proud of. It is true that Israel could not annihilate
terrorism altogether but the military establishment led by the
intelligence community, was successful in preventing hundreds
of terrorist attacks over the years and in protecting the countrys
strategic assets. The most flagrant failure of Israels counterterrorist warfare was that it did not perceive terrorism as a
psychological war over national morale. As a result, Israel did
not develop tools to neutralize, or at least to minimize, the
injury that terrorism had caused to the public morale, and hardly
took cognizance of these factors while choosing its counterterrorist tactics. Moreover, the issue of public morale was
rejected from the outset as political populism and the fear of a
possible boomerang effect.
To conclude, in order to tackle terrorism, which impacts
all realms of life military, social, political, economic and
psychological all nations must adopt a long-term strategic
perspective. One of the objects of terrorism is to injure the
targeted countrys long-term interests and hinder its progress
towards its goals. Thus, any decision on the mode of responding
to terrorism, and the measures and policies to be implemented
military or political, rigid or flexible must take into
account not only the immediate needs but also the assessment
as to how such measures would influence the countrys
interests in the long-term. A country should have a written
document, explaining the anti-terrorist policy or persistence
strategy in combating the terror incidents. Israel never forged
a written, systematic and coherent counter terrorist doctrine.
Notwithstanding this fact, some of the decision makers felt
that over the years, several guidelines have evolved, reflecting
the philosophies of contemporary policymakers. Indeed, it is
obvious that all the governments during the last two and half
99
decades, implemented the same counter-terrorist measures, in

terms of offense, defense and punitive measures, although at
times there were differences in scope, timing, emphases and
the publicity that these governments displayed in their counterterrorist activities. The cumulative experience in counterterrorist warfare gained by Israel since its inception, is
sufficient to set forth principles for such warfare. Although
rigid adherence to these principles may not eliminate terrorism
altogether, it would enable the state to tackle the problem more
efficiently if the anti-terror strategies are designed to furnish
the decision-makers with a sufficient flexibility to cope with
the challenge of the modern terrorism without compromising
the democratic values and without injuring the public morale.
References / Notes
Boaz Ganor, A New Strategy against the New Terror, Policy
View, (Shalem Center, National Policy Institute), No. 10, January
1995.
2. Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan, Chairman of the Israel National Security
Council, briefing on Strategic Planning for Dealing With the
Threat of Terror, Tel Aviv, 5 February 2002.
3. Cris Dishman, How to Define Terrorism; Studies in conflict
and terrorism, (1999).
4. Charles D. Smith, Palestine and Arab Israeli Conflict, (New
York, 1988).
5. Ina Friedman, Strategies for a Long and Bitter War, Jerusalem
Report, 5 November 2001, p. 14.
6. Joshua Sinai, Aggressive Measures: Assessing the Effectiveness
of Israels Combating-Terrorism Campaign, Armed Forces
Journal International, May 2002, p. 80.
7. Boaz Ganor, BackgroundThe Components of CounterTerrorism , International Policy Center for CounterTerrorism, 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. 4142.
10. Tucker J.B, Combating Terrorism in Israel, (2003).
1.
100
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
The Asian Age, 5 April 2002.

The Hindu, 9 April 2002.
The Asian Age, 20 June 2002.
The Hindu , 21 June 2002.
Boaz Ganor, Suicide Attacks in Israel, in International Policy
Institute for Counter-Terrorism, February 2000 (Herzliyya,
Israel: ICT, 2000).
The Telegraph, 4 December 2001.
Eqbal Ahmed, Beyond Mutual Destruction, (1997).
The Hindu, 5 December 2001.
Ibid, 15 December 2001.
The Author wishes to thank Prof. P.V. Rao, Director, Centre for Indian
Ocean Studies, Osmania University, Hyderabad, for his valuable
suggestions in making this Paper.
Tourisms Role in Southeast Asias Economies
101
Tourisms Role in Southeast Asian Economies

M. PRAYAGA & G.VIJAY KUMAR REDDY*
Tourism has been playing a vital role in the economic
development of each and every country, regardless of a country
being a developed one or developing one or the least developed
one. Each and every nation has been vying with each other to
benefit to the hilt from promoting this lucratively potential
industry of tourism. Undoubtedly, tourism can help to generate
job opportunities to several millions of people all over the
world thereby to reduce poverty and to attract foreign currency.
Tourism is a powerful tool by which tourism generating
countries as well as the destination countries benefit. The
Southeast 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 various
kinds of religious faiths. Southeast Asia is well connected to
the international sea and air routes as it lies between Indian
and Pacific Oceans. This region, relatively backward and
undeveloped under the European colonialism started to rise to
the level of one of the most important and economically vibrant
regions in the post-Second World War period. It is also
endowed with lust green tropical rain forests, and wide variety
of the flora and fauna. It is an area of myriad hues setting
forth exotic varieties of wild life, enchanting beaches, number
of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) acclaimed locations and a fascinating
legacy 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.
102
marked with amazing abilities through exploitation of

resources, in varying degrees and improvement of technology,
transportation and communications. The Southeast Asian
governments recognized the importance of tourism in
economic growth. This paper analyses the significance of
tourism at global level and the benefits accruing from tourism
in Southeast Asian countries and also the India-ASEAN
tourism cooperation.
Tourism at Global level
If tourism has been regarded as one of the vital industries
for developed and many developing countries, it is because of
the income generated by the consumption of goods and the
services utilized by tourists, the taxes levied on businesses in
the tourism industry and the employment in the service
industries associated with tourism. The opening of new trade
avenues, globalization and the advent of modern infrastructure
collectively offer an incentive to tourism sector to advance
further at global level. The tourism sector is the worlds largest
industry and the creator of jobs across national and regional
economies. The World Travel and Tourism Councils (WTTC)
research revealed in 1999, that Tourism generates, directly or
indirectly, 11.7 per cent of GDP and 200 million jobs in the
world-wide economy and gave a forecast of total 11.7 per cent
and 255 million by 2010. 1
Tourism spread across many arenas of economy
encompassing
construction,
manufacturing,
telecommunications,
transportation,
catering,
accommodations, recreation and services to travellers. As an
effective 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, parttime and full-time works and wide variety of opportunities.
In tourism industry, hospitality and recreation sectors alone
there are 50 categories of employment and approximately 200
103
classifications of occupations.2 The latest World Tourism

Barometer released by United Nations World Tourism
Organization (UNWTO) indicates the international arrivals
between 880 to 900 million by the end of 2007. 3 Thus, tourism
became the third largest economic activity in the world,
surpassed only by oil and motor vehicles. 4
The potentials of revenues obtained by the host countries
in economic, social and cultural areas bring the benefits from
local level to national level and to world at large. Tourism
revenues can provide an additional stimulus to the national
economy. They have a multiplier effect from local level to
the community development and on being invested, result in
increase in economic activity. Besides, it contributes to the
sustainable development of economy, ecology and society.
Hence the WTTC chose to describe the travel and tourism
together 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 being
deserve protection;
can play a positive part in consumer commitment to
sustainable development principles through its
unparalleled consumer distribution channels; and
provides an economic incentive to conserve natural
environments and habitats thereby to maintain biodiversity.5
Though there has been considerable debate over the
positive and negative impact of tourism sector, the foremost
view of the experts on tourism is a non-polluting industry,
and a long-life industry. Tourism can attract investments
and connect the dispersed and isolated communities to the
outside world. It can help to change local peoples social habits
and perspective, broadening local horizons. It also can
mobilize the foreign exchange that the local people need badly
104
diversify the local economic activities and provide employment

for the large supplies of local labour. Since it can offer
uncountable benefits, many people emphasize the positive
aspects of tourism as a source of foreign exchange, a way to
balance the foreign trade, an industry without chimney in
short, manna from heaven. 6 Tourism is basically, an export
industry that conveys domestic services and the experiences
of domestic resources to foreign consumers in return for foreign
currencies. 7 Besides, the multiplier effect of tourism generates
a high revenue-capital ratio and indirect employment in the
form of revival of traditional arts and crafts, development of
communication and hotels. The expansion of tourism in a
country will require a concomitant expansion through support
industries, such as foreign exchange, transportation,
accommodation and security. Some developing countries have
improved their domestic infrastructure by using foreign
exchange generated by tourist inflows. Tourism can expand
and succeed only if an adequate infrastructure is in place, or
grows with the industry.
For some developed European nations such as Switzerland,
Austria and France the profitable tourism receipts are used for
the viable development of social and economic welfare of the
respective countries. According to the UNWTO, many Small
island developing states (SIDS) have developed tourism
monocultures, with tourism receipts constituting upto 90 per
cent of services exports in Bahamas, the Dominican Republic;
in Antigua and Barbuda, tourism contributes directly and
indirectly to over 75 per cent of the GDP. 8 According to WTTC
estimates for 2006, the contribution of tourism in Maldives
was 66.6 per cent of GDP and accounted for 65.9 per cent of
the exports. In Vanuatu, the tourism sector contributed 47 per
cent to GDP and 73.7 per cent to the total export earnings.9
Maldives is one of five countries in Asia and Pacific where
tourism is the top contributor to GDP and creating 57 per cent
of total employment, or 1 in every 1.7 jobs.10 The world in
last decade had witnessed a steady growth in the international
105
receipts from US $ 450.4 billion in 1997 to US $ 735 billion

in 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 in

1996, to 846 millions in 2006. During the decade of 19962006, international tourist arrivals worldwide grew at an
average annual rate of about 4.0 per cent. (Table-1). Though
Europe continues to remain top tourist destination both in
tourist arrivals and receipts, Asia-Pacific, too improved its
position in the table of international tourist arrivals. Describing
this transformation, Prof. Erik Cohen said:
Western domination of the tourist system is in the
contemporary world increasingly challenged under
the impact of a growing number of travelers from
non-Western countries. These come principally
from the wealthy Middle East, and from Asia,
where the new middle classes of Japan, China,
India, South Korea and Thailand developed a taste
for international travel. 11
106
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 the
Asia-pacific just the way its political and economic power is
moving away to Asia. 12
Table 1: International tourist arrivals by region
and sub-region, 1996- 2006
Arrivals
Market share
(millions of
(percentage)
people)
1996
2006
1996
2006
22.2
40.
3.9
4.8
114.5
135. 19.9
16.1
Africa
Americas
Asia-Pacific
Average
annual growth
rate
1996-2006
6.0
1.8
90.4
167.
15.7
19.8
6.7
North-East Asia
47.6
94.
8.3
11.1
7.8
South-East Asia
29.8
53.
5.2
6.4
5.5
South Asia
4.5
8.
0.8
1.0
6.6
Oceania
8.5
10.
1.4
1.2
2.6
332.1
460.
57.8
54.4
3.3
Middle East
15.8
41.
2.7
4.9
10.4
World
575.0
100.0
100.0
Europe
Source:
846.0
4.0
UNWTO, Tourism Market Trends: East Asia & Pacific

(Madrid:, 2000). UNWTO, Tourism Highlights, 2006.
UNWTO, Tourism Highlights 2007 www.unescap.org/
ttdw/Publications/TPTS_pubs/pub_2478/
pub_2478_ch1.pdf
107
Table 2: International tourism receipts by region,

1996-2006
Receipts (US$
billion)
1996
2006
Average
annual
growth
rate (%)
1996-2006
9.2
24.3
Americas
110.6
Asia-Pacific
Market share
(percentage)
1996
2006
10.6
2.1
3.3
154.0
4.1
25.3
21.0
86.2
152.6
6.6
19.7
20.8
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
222.3
374.5
5.5
51
51.1
8.2
27.3
14.4
1.9
3.7
436.5
733.0
5.5
100.0
100.0
Africa
of which : North-East Asia
Europe
Middle East
World
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 Edition
www.unescap.org/ttdw/Publications/TPTS_pubs/
pub_2478/pub_2478_ch1.pdf
The governments emphatically advocate tourism as a

driving force for economic development. Its promotion of high
growth rate, inflow of foreign currency, infrastructure
development eventually contribute to the social and economic
development as a whole. On some occasions the potential
opportunities associated with tourism, have been perceived as
an alternative to slow agriculture growth and industrial
108
outcome. Besides, the developing nations believed they had a

comparative advantage over the industrial countries as they
have innumerable tourist resources and appeals, like sunlight
weather, attractive beaches, magnificent flora and fauna of the
tropical forests, and exotic cultures. Taking these into
consideration, Prof. Ghimire felt, undeniably, in the 1950s
and 1960s, newly-self-governing nations in Asia and Africa
recurrently surmised tourism development to be a way of
resource conveyance from the North to the South.13 The visits
of tourists and their contribution to the national economy
development are well supported by diverse subdivisions of
tourism industry, such as hospitality, catering, food and
entertainment industry, transport, souvenir manufacturing and
sale which accounted for unlocking enormous openings for
employment and profits to varied populations.14
Tourism in Southeast Asia
The Tourism boom in Southeast Asia during the last
decade (1996-2006) is a classic example of maximization and
promotion of new policies and practices by the respective
countries in the region. Southeast Asia, consisting of ten
countries Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
started a vogue for an exploitation of tourism as one of the
few sectors with promising benefits. The physical
infrastructural facilities such as transport and
telecommunications prompted the tourism industry which
made Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore, Thailand,
Malaysia and Indonesia, an attractive destination. A study
commissioned by the U.S. Department of Commerce estimated
that some 200,000 tourists visited Southeast Asia in 1958,
which was equivalent to the number of tourists who visited
Cambodia alone in 1996. 15 This is an indication of an influx
of tourist arrivals to this part of the world. According to the
WTO accounts, Southeast Asia, registered 5.2 per cent of the
world total tourist arrivals in 1996. The region is also
109
accounted for 7.35 per cent of the worlds total tourism receipts
and enjoyed a healthy growth rate of 4 to 7 per cent in the past
two decades. 16
The governments sponsored programmes to attract tourists
have been enormously successful. During the last decade,
receipts from tourism to Southeast Asia have tripled; in some
countries like Thailand, tourism has become the primary source
of foreign exchange. The governments programmes to attract
tourists such as Visit Thailand Programme in 1987, Visit
Malaysia Year 1990, Visit Vietnam Year 1990, Visit Indonesia
Year 1991 and Visit Myanmar Year 1996 have been successful.
A few other Southeast Asian countries have pursued tourism
to the extent of influencing countryside as part of the regional
development. In Thailand, for instance, tourism has spread to
Chiang Mai in north and to Phuket, Ko Mai and other islands
in the south. On Phuket island, tourism provided an economic
alternative to tin mining and rubber. In Malaysia, the coastal
areas of Kelantan, Trengganu, the offshore islands of Pulau
Langkawi and others have been immensely benefited from
tourism development. 17 The effects of tourism percolated
from the urban centres to far-flung country areas. Tourism
revenues in Bali Island, culturally a preeminent area in
Indonesia, surpassed the income from rice agriculture. That
the Tourism has been part of Balinese culture since 1920s, is
better understood from a remark that, some Balinese have
never lived in a culture without experiencing a daily influx of
foreign tourists. 18
Asian countries, as can be noted from Tables 1 and 2, have
been experiencing a boom in both foreign and domestic
tourism, particularly in the newly industrializing countries of
Southeast AsiaSingapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand,
and the Philippines, in East Asia and South Asia , Hong Kong,
Japan, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, and India. The considerable growth
in Southeast Asia was attributed to the full recovery of
Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia from the impact of the 2004
tsunami. The tourism arrivals share has improved from 5.2
110
per cent in 1996 to 6.4 per cent in 2006. The tourism receipts
have also registered a considerable increase from US $ 30.5
billions in 1996 to US $ 40.6 billions in 2006 with an average
growth of 4.1 per cent. The reasons for this expanding tourist
interests in Asia are obvious : rising levels of financial
resources; abiding passion for spending leisure time; the
increasing availability of affordable international travel; the
efficient and effective organization of tourism both
domestically and internationally in infrastructure, coordination
and marketing and the move towards regional promotional
strategies by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and
the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA); the positive
support and national importance accorded by the governments
to tourism development; and the search by tour companies
and tourists for alternative exciting and exotic destinations
away from the over crowded resorts of the west. 19 The other
factors that contributed to the strong performance of AsiaPacific region include: rising levels of disposable income and
improvements in transportation. Moreover, the creation of
new market avenues such as cultural tourism, ecotourism and
adventure tourism has made the tourism industry more
diversified. 20
Regional Tourisms
The international tourism, the intra-regional travel have
become increasingly important in Northeast Asia and Southeast
Asia, particularly between China and Hong Kong, and between
Singapore and Malaysia. This accounted for 85 per cent of
arrivals in Northeast Asia and 77 per cent in Southeast Asia in
2003. 21 Domestic tourism has also emerged as a significant
player for the developing countries of the region to become
more rich. In India, the ratio of the International to domestic
tourists (1:100) is exceedingly higher than the ratios in the
case of Indonesia (1:6), Thailand (1:7) and Vietnam (1:5)
(Table -3). Intra-regional travel provides the desired
111
opportunities for wealth redistribution and economic

development besides contributing to the greater awareness
about the environment in ones own country. 22
Table 3: International and domestic tourist
arrivals in selected Asian and Pacific countries
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
Source:
UNWTO, Tourism Highlights, 2006 www.unescap.org/

ttdw/Publications/TPTS_pubs/pub_2478/pub_2478_
ch1.pdf
Challenges to Tourism growth

Southeast Asia registered incessant tourist arrivals growth
as well as receipts thereof. However, Southeast Asia faced
some severe socio-economic and epidemic problems. The
financial crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 when the
government was forced to devalue its currency and call on the
International Monetary Fund for aid. Consequently, some of
the Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and
Singapore, too plunged into severe economic recession. The
serious social problems and political changes that entailed
economic crisis, impinged on the prospects of Tourism industry.
Hotels, transport companies, tour operators and travel agents
112
lost business because of economic downturn. 23 Other

untoward problems like El-Nino driven forest fires in 1997,
resulting in haze in Indonesia, had a spillover effect on
Malaysia and Singapore. Political turmoil in Malaysia and
Indonesia and heinous terrorist attacks in Bali in 2002 and
similar assaults in the Philippines, resulted in the drop of tourist
arrivals and receipts. The outbreak of exogenous shock was
an avian flu pandemic, commonly known as bird flu in the
countries of Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam,
which suffered casualties of altogether 71 people, including
42 in Vietnam. 24 The tsunami, the seaquake, in 2004 devastated
the coastline of Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and
Malaysia killed more than 200,000 and rendered innumerable
number homeless and left its disastrous impact, felt in the
aftermath.
The aforesaid setbacks affected the primary economic
sector of exports, consumption and industrial production. The
secondary effects affected tourism. But, tourism industry in
this region, proved to be quite resilient. The governments
reconstruction programmes launched in association with
international agencies were commendable. By the end of 2005,
tourism industry had almost fully recovered. 25
Promotion of Tourism in ASEAN
As the tourism industry becomes increasingly effective,
alliances between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) members have sought to work in tandem for mutual
benefits among them. ASEAN, as part of its own institutional
structure for regional cooperation, formalized in 1976 the
ASEAN Committee on Trade and Tourism, to deal with
marketing and research, that led to the establishment of ASEAN
Tourism Forum (ATF) in 1981. ATF became an important largescale activity among ASEAN members in the tourism
cooperation in turning the ASEAN into a united travel
destination. Since then, the regular annual ATF meetings
highlighted the image of tourism sector. 26 Visit ASEAN
113
Year was launched in 1992 to commemorate the 25

anniversary of the foundation of ASEAN. To foster the growth
of tourism in the region, ASEAN Tourism Organizations
became active in formulating national and regional tourism
promotion strategies and action plans. The Action Plan,
formulated at its Sixth meeting in Singapore in 1997, identified
the 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 and
market approaches, the regional tourism has become
successful. Rodolfo Severino, the then ASEAN Secretary
General, elucidated the potentials of ASEAN to excel in this
area thus:
The region certainly has what it takes to attract a
wide variety of visitors. Most of its beaches, seas
and innumerable islands can be enjoyed all year
round. It has some of the most diverse ecologies
on earth. It has rich and dynamic cultures. Its
diving spots are some of the best in the world.
There are the corals, exotic birds and animals, caves
and mountains. The shopping is great. Everything
that tourists want except skiing, although there are
a couple of snow-capped mountains. 28
At the inaugural ATF meeting in Cebu in 1998 ASEAN
Tourism Ministers endorsed the Plan of Action for ASEAN
Cooperation in Tourism, besides resolving to hold annual
meetings of ASEAN National Tourism Organizations in
conjunction with the ATF. The ASEAN Tourism Ministers
second meeting, held in 1999 in Singapore, agreed to initiate
new Visit ASEAN campaign in closer cooperation with
private sector. The Philippines was made as the coordinator
114
and Brunei Darussalam as marketing coordinator of the

campaign programme. Tourism Ministers in a joint statement
called for faster liberalization of air services to promote travel
within ASEAN. 29 The third meeting held in Bangkok in 2000,
decided to step up liberalizing tourism services. They also
agreed to exchange information on negative activities that
could damage ASEANs image such as child prostitution,
human smuggling and drug trafficking. At the fourth meeting
held in Bandar Seri Begawan in 2001, in deference to the earlier
decision, His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah launched
the Visit ASEAN Campaign that emphasized the promotion
of intra-ASEAN travel coordinating regional bodies in the
areas of immigration and consular services. At its fifth
meeting held in historic place, Yogyakarta in 2002, ASEAN
ministers endorsed the initiative for historic ASEAN Tourism
Agreement as reaffirmation at the highest political levels of
the importance of the travel and tourism sector for ASEAN
economic integration and in the greater mutual understanding
and solidarity amongst the peoples of ASEAN. 30 It also
became the venue for inaugural meeting with Tourism
Ministers from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea under
the 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 Tourism
The intra-regional tourism among ASEAN members
has got the much needed fillip on account of improved
accessibility, liberal visa restrictions, cheaper transportation,
liberal air regulations, improvement in communication systems
particularly the sensational success of internet in making tourist
and accommodation reservations, and credit card facilities.
The induction of Low Cost Carriers (LCC) for the transport
of the international travellers as well as intra-ASEAN tourists,
has sown as an additional stimulant for the growth of tourism.
ASEANs liberalized air policies have generated a spurt in the
115
number of budget airlines across the world such as Dragonair

(Hong Kong); Ryanaair, Jet Blue, Virgin Atlantic (Europe
and Australia); Sahara, Jet Airways, Air Deccan, Kingfisher
(India). Silkair, Valueair, Tiger Air (Singapore), Sempati
(Indonesia), Air Asia (Malaysia) are serving the same purpose
in Southeast Asia region. 31 Launching of new routes to
secondary destinations in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand,
Malaysia and fairly liberalized visa regulations for all
nationalities from ASEAN region (e.g., the relaxation of visa
policy by the Philippines; Malaysias visa exemption for
travellers from ASEAN countries) have caused sharp increase
in the number of tourists of ASEAN nationals. 32
149.0
3,099.2
2,936 7
330 4
22,307.6
2,291.4
8,375.1
11,737.4
2,927.9
49,055.3
ASEAN
26,747.7
5,275.9
8,800.7
2,597.5
2,142.3
871.8
2,746.2
256.1
3,421.1
595.0
41.2
ExtraASEAN
84.6
363.3
1,320.7
1,054.5
14,164.3
53.0
235.6
3,692.1
2,471.7
661.2
24,101.0
1,762.0
4,110.5
1,321.8
18,381.4
248.3
3,092.0
10,176.8
10,405.5
4,149.5
53,826.3
IntraASEAN
178.5
Total
2007
29,752.2
6,484.6
7,933.9
3,488.3
2,856.4
1,398.7
2,789.7
267.3
4,217.1
195.3
93.9
ExtraASEAN
307.2
IntraASEAN
211,083.7
37,245.9
47,482.0
14,128.7
10,694.4
95,059.6
13,688.6
12,064.3
2,033.1
766.9
1,094.7
5,938.9
19,278.3 8,214.4
4,527.0 3,379.1
68,987.6 53,287.9
2,218.3
223.4
582.6
Total
2004-2007
116,024.1
23,557.3
35,417.7
12,095.6
9,927.5
4,844.2
11,063.9
1.148.0
15,699.7
1,994.9
275.5
ExtraASEAN
(in thousands)
ASEAN Tourism Database (complied from the ASEAN Tourism statistics) http://www.aseansec.org/Stat/
Table28.pdf
183.4
2,548.2
638.7
12;282.3
61.9
1, 055.2
5,294.4
894.8
15.703.4
656.9
Source:
77.7
IntraASEAN
118.9
Total
Brunei
Darussalam
Cambodia
Indonesia
Lao PDR
Malaysia
Myanmar
The
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
Viet Nam
Country
2004
Table 4: Tourist Arrivals in ASEAN
116
117
ASEAN as a group, is mature enough to follow the

cooperative mechanism in tourism promotion which augured
well. ASEANs cooperative system yielded apparent and
significant turnout in tourist arrivals during 2004-2007 (Table
4). ASEAN in 2004 received over 49 million tourists, including
Intra and Extra ASEAN region, that climbed over to 53 million
tourists in 2007. During the period of 2004-2007, ASEAN
received 211 million tourists. ASEAN seems to have given
credence to the message prosper thy neighbor, floated by
Mahathir Mohamad, the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, at
the World Bank Conference in 1997. The message simply
connotes that if you help your neighbour to prosper you will
prosper, along with it. Tunku Iskandar, former President of
Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents, rightly observed
that in the ASEAN region, the prosper thy neighbor policy
being consciously practiced by the governments, has resulted
in member countries that had hitherto been destination
countries, to now become tourist-generating countries. 33
Negative Effects of Tourism
The tourism industry could leave some negative impacts
on the ecology and environment. The unregulated exploitation
of nature and human resources for the development of tourism
would cause erosion of culture and traditional values and play
havoc on land, marine ecosystems and biodiversity. Therefore,
respective governments need to protect and nurture the system
with caution. As regards the adverse consequences of tourism,
Rodolfo Severino advised that the ASEAN members ought
to step up their cooperation in protecting the environment and
conserving the cultural heritage. The environment and culture,
after all, are the goose that lays the golden tourism egg. They
must not be damaged. 34
Tourism in Southeast Asian Countries
The issue of alliance among the Southeast Asian countries
for promotion of tourism industry, has gained prominence due
118
to ASEAN arrangement and global economic changes. Besides

the collective efforts of the members (developing and least
developed countries) of ASEAN to attract tourists to this region
by showcasing the variety of tourist destinations, each member
country followed different strategies and campaigns for
accruing innumerable benefits of tourism segment.
Brunei Darussalam
Brunei, thriving well on oil revenues, began recognizing
the role of contemporary tourism in its economic growth.
Brunei designed its fist national tourism master plan focusing
its unique heritage of the Kampong Ayer (the water villages),
recorded by the early European visitor in 1521. Brunei with
70 per cent of area under tropical forest cover, has become
natural destination and has attracted about 170,000 tourists in
2007. Sheikh Jamaluddin Sheigh Mohammed, Chief Executive
Officer, Brunei Tourism, Ministry of Industry and Primary
Resources, declared, We are very selective and proud of our
Islamic heritage and added that for tourists who like partying
and alcohol, Brunei is not a good destination in this regard. 35
Cambodia
Cambodia, which was one of the popular tourist
destinations in Southeast Asia before 1960s, was virtually
isolated for more than two decades due to political turmoil.
Cambodia too having recognized tourism as one of the income
generators for its reconstruction programme, opened its doors
for tourists to enjoy the grandeur of its archaeological sites
including Angkor Wat, one of the top World Heritage sites in
Southeast Asia and wonderful sculptural embellishments of
Angkor Thom and Bayon Temple. Tourist arrivals increased
dramatically from 25,012 in 1991 to 1 million in 2004, and
then to 5 millions in 2007 (Table-4). Tourism stood second to
the garment manufacturing as the largest source of revenue
with US $ 1.1 billion in 2005. 36
119
Indonesia
Indonesia, 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 described
Indonesia as the most attractive country in the entire PATA
region. As an archipelago of over 17,000 islands, Indonesia is a
place of numerous sites and monuments of great historic interest.
Bali has dominated the tourism industry in terms of visitor arrivals
until terrorist attacks in 2002. The other areas of attraction include
Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Kalimantan. Tourism sector emerged
as the biggest foreign exchange earner after oil & gas and textiles.
In 1995, the tourism receipts stood at US $ 5.23 billion contributing
4 per cent of the GDP.37
Indonesia has been one of the economies most adversely
affected by political and economic crisis in 1997-98, forest
fires, avian flu, Bali terrorist attacks and the natures fury of
tsunami. These crises have adversely affected not only the
economy, but also tourism industry. Economic crisis resulted
in the drop of arrivals from 5.6 million in 1996 to 5.2 million
in 1997 and a 15.6 per cent drop in tourism earnings. 38 After
Bali bombings, visa restrictions were reintroduced and this
led to further drop of tourists from the Western countries. In
2005, Indonesia received US $ 5,092 millions comparatively
lower than the earning of US $ 5,226 in 2004. 39
Laos
Laos placed great emphasis on the tourist receipts for the
development of its economy since 1990. Besides, Luang
Prabang, royal capital of Laos in Fourteenth century which is
designated as World Heritage Site, there are other historic
temples, such as Wat Xieng Thong, Wat Mai, Wat That Luang,
Wat Sene and Wat Wisunalat house for ancient wooden
Buddhist statutes. 40 Though the outbreak of epidemic, Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) triggered negative
growth in tourist arrivals in 2003, around 900,000 tourists
visited Laos in 2004 and about 1.1 million in 2005, whose
120
revenue contribution totaled up to the US $ 119 millions in

2004 and to US $ 146 million in 2005. Laos, the famous land
for Buddhist pagodas, has much to offer for tourists, but the
country is constrained by shortage of hotel accommodation.41
Malaysia
Traditionally, 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 Visit
Malaysia Year 1990, the success of which led to launch a similar
campaign in 1994, resulting in an increase of 12 per cent in
tourist arrivals. Visit Perak Year, Visit Selangor Year
campaigns were launched for expanding domestic tourism.
Though tourism was not placed high in the governments list of
priorities, the Asian economic crisis forced Malaysia to depend
on tourism for foreign exchange. With its share of 2.1 per cent
in the world tourist arrivals, tourism became the second largest
foreign exchange earner. 42 Over a decade, 1997-2007, the
number of tourist arrivals further increased from 7.2 million to
8.9 million. Malaysia became a preferred destination for
ASEAN tourists, accounting for 76.8 per cent of the total tourists
who visited Malaysia in 2005. Tourist arrivals from outside the
country is mainly from India (34.6 per cent) and China (32.4
per cent)43 Introduction of budget airlines, AirAsia Sdn Bhd, is
another factor for a spurt of tourist arrivals. Malaysia has also
become a centre for Health tourism in Southeast Asia, attracting
most patients from Indonesia, Japan and Europe.44 Malaysia
topped the list of large number of tourists to the region, followed
by Thailand and Singapore in 2007.
Myanmar
Myanmar is the land of Pagodas. Its volatile political
system under military junta government in Myanmar, is one
of the causes for its remaining over years as less important
tourist destination in Southeast Asia. Myanmar earned US $
121
116 million in 2004. Over 60 per cent of its visitors are from
Asian countries particularly from Thailand. For the
development of tourism, new beach resorts have been built in
the Mergui archipelagASo and theme parks have been opened
in Yangon. Due to political unrest, pro-democracy
campaigners gave a call to the international travellers, to
boycott the country.45
The Philippines
The Philippines has tourists of more than 2 million in 2004
and more than 3 million tourists in 2007. In 1989, Philippine
Fiesta Island Year campaign was launched to show that
Philippines has been a safe place for tourists. During 20042007, over 10 million tourists visited the country. The receipts
from tourism reached US $1,821 million in 2003 to US $2,620
million in 2005.46
Singapore
Singapores strategic location, large inflows of FDIs and
massive industrialization allow Singapores economy to
flourish as the eighteenth wealthiest in the world and one of
the Four Asian Tigers. Singapore as an entrepot city, is one of
the business ports and the worlds fourth largest foreign
exchange trading Centre. As tourism contributes massively to
the success of the economy, Singapore offers exotic Asian
cultural attractions, such as China town, Little India and Arab
Street. Its arrivals (ranked fifth in Asia) grew by 2.3 per cent
in 1996; Singapores tourism receipts (ranked third in Asia)
grew by 14.6 per cent over 1995 to US $ 9.4 billion. 47 The
Singapore Tourism Board (STB) was proud of its tourism
performance in 2007 with the estimated S $13.8 billion in
tourism receipts, an increase of 11.3 per cent over 2006.
Singapore also hit a new high of 10.3 million visitors in 2007.48
Thailand
Thailand, like other developing countries, pursued tourism
122
on a fast track for its economic growth. With its ubiquitous Land
of Smiles advertisement in 1990s, Thailand has become one of
the best known, and the most sought after international tourist
destinations. The country ranked fourth in the category of excellent
cuisine, after France, Italy and Hong Kong.49 The volume of
Tourists coming to Thailand has steadily grown with more than
47 millions visiting the country during 2004-2007 (Table-4). By
comparison, Thailand ranks second next only to Malaysia in
ASEAN. Thailand which promoted its own Visit Thailand
Year in 1987, still holds comparative advantage in a number of
realms. The Sukhothai region has been declared as World Heritage
site. The world famous Emerald Buddha temple in Bangkok is
capable of attracting many Buddhists from Asia. In 1997, Thailand
launched Amazing Thailand campaign to focus on the variety
of its food, shopping, health resources and culture.50 Thailand
tourism industry is well supplemented by hospitality industry.
Regionally, in terms of the number of hotel rooms, Thailand is
ranked second to Japan, but the room rates in Thailand are the
cheapest in Southeast Asia. 51 Tourism has made some remote
areas as the famous destinations. For example, Pattaya, originally
small fishing village, tuned into an internationally well- known
seaside resort in the short span of twenty years and figured second
only to Bangkok in the tourist arrivals. 52
However, Thailands reputation was deeply affected by
the widespread incidence of the AIDS/HIV medical cases and
the stigma of being the sex capital of the world.
Vietnam
Vietnamese governments introduction of doi moi or
renovation in 1986 to revive its economy, opened its doors for
tourism which became a major contributor to the socioeconomic development in the country. The scale of revenues
has developed beyond the expectation of many. The number
of visitor arrivals in the country went up stunningly from
250,000 in 1990 to nearly 2.13 million in 2000 and earned US
4 1.2 billion in receipts. 53
123
On the whole, tourism in Southeast Asia played a role

which is contributory to the wellbeing of economies.
India and ASEAN Tourism Cooperation
Indias relations with Southeast Asian countries date back
to ancient historical times and the dissemination of the formers
culture and civilization survives in its deep presence in many
parts of the latters region.
India perceived tourism as a catalyst to create better
understanding with ASEAN a vibrant regional organization
formed in 1967 to represent all the countries of the Southeast
Asian region, and to improve people-to-people contacts in the
region. India, after becoming sectoral dialogue partner, ASEANIndia Joint Sectoral Cooperation Committee (AIJSCC) setup in
March 1993 identified tourism as one of the prime areas for
mutual cooperation. In successive efforts, ASEAN and Indian
Ministers established Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) to
outline the intensified cooperation in tourism and other fields.
The first JCC held in New Delhi in 1996 felt, that the scope for
ASEAN-India cooperation in tourism was considerable and that
continuation of familiarization tours and tourism seminars,
including upgradation of tourism infrastructure were important
areas of cooperation. 54 Emphasizing the need for developing
India-ASEAN tourism, the then Indian External Affairs Minister,
Yashwant Sinha said in Brunei, in 2002: We should promote
and 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 where
we have achieved little concrete progress. 55
ASEAN India: Air and Road connectivity
Steps were taken to improve infrastructural connectivity
between these two regions which is vital for the movement of
people. India and ASEAN Action Plan, prompted the two sides
to sign Open Skies Agreement at the Bali Summit. On the
growth of two-way traffic Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh,
124
said: Today there are 215 direct and indirect flights every
week between India and Singapore, 115 flights with Thailand
and 50 with Malaysia. 56
Similar steps were taken to improve the road connectivity
to Southeast Asia from Indias northeastern region.
Accordingly, the trilateral India-Myanmar-Thailand Highway
agreement was reached in 2002 for the 1,360km Moreh-BaganMao Sot Highway to lay new roads, towards repairing of the
old ones as well as the restoration of the missing links on the
existing routes. 57 In this direction, the India-ASEAN Car Rally,
a non competitive event, flagged off in November 2004 by
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was aimed to draw the
attention to tremendous potential for trade and for tourism in
the region. One of the key objectives of the Rally was to
enhance trade, investment, tourism and people to people links
between India and the ASEAN countries. 58 As there is
tremendous scope for expansion of tourism between IndiaASEAN, two parties agreed to setup a Working group to
develop mutual cooperation. The first ASEAN-India Tourism
Working Group meeting was held in July 2006 in Chiang Mai.
The cooperation covered the following areas:
a) Development and maintenance of an ASEAN tourism
website
b) Tourism marketing
c) Joint investment / promotion projects
d) Combined ASEAN-India Tourism packages; and
e) Tourism manpower 59
India attached great importance to tourism in improving
people to people contact with ASEAN nations. Regarding that
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Fifth ASEAN India
Summit in 2007 in Cebu said: This dimension has been given
a renewed thrust with the impressive growth of connectivity
and the ever-increasing flows of tourism between India and
ASEAN. This should, I believe, remain a priority area of
cooperation and, in fact, be given even further impetus.60
125
In sustaining the tourism relations a milestone was the

formation of India-ASEAN Tourism Ministers meeting.
Ambika Soni, Indian Tourism Minister, at the First Meeting
of India-ASEAN Tourism Ministers meeting said: Tourism
is an important activity between our two regions as it helps,
above all, to connect our people together. She also said, the
outbound tourism from India crossed 8 million in 2007; the
ASEAN region is one of the prime beneficiaries of this
outbound traffic from India.61 India which introduced long
during visas on a pilot basis desired to extend the same facility
to ASEAN tourists. India wants to follow ASEAN model of
visa on arrival where many ASEAN states have been reaping
benefits. India also opened its Hotel and Tourism industry for
100 per cent direct investments focused to attract tourism
investments from ASEAN states.
Other areas of tourism cooperation
With the Indian film industry choosing Southeast Asia
particularly Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia for
its film shooting the scope of tourism has been enhanced.
Besides, Star-nites of the Indian cine celebrities started
becoming frequent cultural event in this region. On the
influence of this aspect, P.V. Rao felt, Imperceptibly the
cultural influence cast by Indian films and music is promoting
Indias soft power in the region. 62
The Indian tourism authorities focused attention on the
Buddhist centres of Rajhir, Nalanda and Bodh Gaya. The
Government of India sought to develop a Buddhist circuit
covering the major Buddhist cultural centres in India and also
inaugurated special rail connectivity to the Buddhist circuit
for South Asian Buddhist tourists. It could be an attractive
agenda for Buddhist followers in Southeast Asia to visit the
consecrated place of Buddhism. Ishwaran, the Minster of Trade
and Industry, Singapore, met Ambika Soni in 2007 and
discussed the relevance of the Buddhist Circuit, logistics to
apply for joint marketing and also discussed the challenging
126
issue of reviving the glory of Nalanda. 63

In order to effect an increase in the awareness and tourist
arrivals, India in cooperation with Singapore Tourism Board,
opened an office in Singapore. Malaysia with the joint association
of Singapore, promoted campaigns to attract Indian visitors to
ASEAN. India also signed separate tourism agreements with subregional groups such as Mekong-Ganga Cooperation and
BIMSTEC, which include Southeast Asian and South Asian
members. All the promotional campaigns of both sides at different
levels, resulted in the increased volume of tourist arrivals. The
total number of visitors from India to ASEAN has increased from
410,447 (1991) to 763,033 in 2001. From 2001 onwards there
was a phenomenal growth of Indian tourist arrivals to ASEAN.
The number reached 1,240,295 in 2005 64 and further swelled to
two million in 2007. Singapore attracted most Indians who were
followed by Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. According to
ASEAN Secretariat, India ranked among the tenth largest visitor
generating market for ASEAN. 65 In contrast, 280,000 ASEAN
tourists visited India in 2007. The volume of Indian tourists
coming to ASEAN countries had been enormous though the
reverse has not been happening in a similar way. India which is to
host Commonwealth Games in 2010, has set out with the aim of
attracting one million tourists from ASEAN states and hence, the
need for India, to launch proactive programmes, to attract ASEAN
tourists.
The burgeoning of tourism industry further needs the joint
promotion and alliances which will increase arrivals and
enhance tourism growth for both the regions development.
This will also provide the growth of trade and investment
between them. Strong economic growth will stimulate tourism
industry to multiply investments.
Conclusion
Tourism industry turned out to be a boon to those countries
pestered with the unemployment problem as it began offering
hundreds of thousands of jobs which would go a long way to
127
mitigate the chronic problem of unemployment. Malaysia,

Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore have developed considerable
expertise in tourism and the least developed countries (Myanmar,
Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) in this region are also developing
tourism destinations to attract visitors. Southeast Asia is
fortunate enough to have a solid economic and social foundation,
that enabled it to weather the varied crises effectively during
the last decade. The potentials of tourism in Southeast Asia could
again be in the forefront of economic development of the region.
The bright prospects of the industry would lie invariably in the
ability of the host country to manage the inflows of tourists as
well as to maintain the ecological balance by preventing it from
getting reduced to a mere perilously precarious one.
Notes
The Global Importance of Tourism, World Travel and Tourism
Organization and International Hotel and Restaurant
Association, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, (1930 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 Cuban
Workers, 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.
1.
128
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 Economic
Cooperation, 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 of
Social 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 in
Tourism, 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 Asian
Economies: A Year of Exogenous Shocks, Ibid, p.21.
26. www.mfaic.gov.kh/8thaseansummit_bg_tourism.php. ATF
meetings were hosted by ASEAN members so far (5 times in
Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines; 4 times in Thailand; 1 time
each in Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia and Laos). Vietnam will
host 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.htm
29. www.mfaic.gov.kh, n.26.
30. Ibid.
129
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 Iskandars %20key%20note%20
speech.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.296
38. 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, Thailands 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, TRDI
Quarterly Review, Vol.18, No.2, June 2003, p. 12.
52. Ibid.
53. Nguyen Thuy Khanh Doan, Sustainable Tourism Development
130
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
in Vietnam, www.apo-tokyo.org/gp/e_publi/gplinkeco32
chapter30.pdf.
Joint Press Release The First ASEAN-India Joint Cooperation
Committee Meeting New Delhi, 14-16 November 1996, http://
www.aseansec.org/5736.htm
www.meaindia.nic.in/speech/2002/08/01spc01.htm.
Ashok Malik, PM talks business at ASEAN, The Pioneer, 22
November 2007.
P.V. Rao, n. 12, p.24.
www.meaindia.nic.in/onuse/ASEAN%20.India.pdf.
www.budpar.go.id/page.ph.?ic=663&id=1326.
PMs address at the 5th India-ASEAN Summit, http://
www.carnegieendowment.org/ newsletters/SAP/pdf/feb07/
pm_speech%20_asean.pdf
http://pibhyd.ap.nic.in/er22010801.pdf.
P.V. Rao, n.12, p.20
http://pibhyd.ap.nic.in/er22010801.pdf
http://www.aseansec.org/tour_statTotal%20ASEAN%20
Yearly.htm
Rahul Sen, Mukul G. Asher and Ramkishen S. Rajan, ASEANIndia Economic Relations: Current Status and Future
Prospects, RIS-DP# 73/2004, May 2004, p.17. India registered
5 million visitors, with US $ 11.96 billion foreign exchange
earnings in 2007. In terms of rupees terms, the earnings from
tourists were 49,413 crores in the same year. A study report of
the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER)
stated that, tourism at present is one of the fast growing economic
sectors of India contributing 5.9 per cent towards GDP and 8.78
per cent towards employment. Incredible India draws 5 million
t 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 and
Dhurjati Mukherjee, High growth potential in Tourism,
www.partivad.com/ articles_2.htm.
131
Profile of the Area Study Centre

Centre for SAARC Studies
The Centre for SAARC Studies, formerly the Centre for
Studies on Cooperative Possibilities in South Asia, was
established in Andhra University in May 1987 and started
functioning from 1988 with the financial assistance of the UGC
under the Area Study Programme. The Centre has been
undertaking research studies on economic, political, and social
aspects related to South Asia. The Centre is distinct from the
other Area Studies Centres in India, i.e., it has been pursuing
research on SAARC countries viz. Afghanistan, Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as a
subject of study. The Centre is now under the fourth phase
(2004- 2009) and is striving to establish a strong research base
on 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 Indias relations with
these 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 the
research activity, the Centre has been collaborating with some
of the reputed research and funding organizations.
132
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 international
networking.
Since its inception, the Centre is making efforts to
undertake in-depth studies on the identified thrust areas. The
thrust areas of the current phase are economic cooperation,
political security, gender, and ethnic issues.
The Centre is successful in achieving the academic and
research targets and is moving ahead by bringing out a good
number of books, monographs and research papers. The
research output of the Centre includes eleven books, six reports
and about 95 research papers. The Centre has been organizing
Seminars/ Conferences/Symposia periodically. The Centre is
publishing a bi-annual journal entitled Journal of South Asian
Affairs and released the first issue in March 2008.

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AREA STUDIES

A Journal of International Studies and Analyses

January June 2008

Influence of Ramayana in Indonesian Art

Social Anthropology and Area Studies

Sino-Indian Economic Relations: Competition

Geo-Strategic Significance of the Indian Ocean:

Israels Counter Terrorism Strategies - A

6 . Tourisms Role in Southeast Asian Economies

Profile of an Area Study Centre

The Editor invites original articles on various aspects

Address for contributors and correspondence:

Technical Assistance: M. Prayaga, Assistant Professor

Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

Influence of Ramayana in Indonesian Art

The spread of Indias cultural influence is a fascinating

Prof. V. Suryanarayan, Former Director, Centre for South and

Influence of Ramayana in Indonesian Art

island of Bali - all these bear testimony to the courage and

Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

faithfulness, characters of great spiritual beauty.

Influence of Ramayana in Indonesian Art

Ramayanas exist but each Ramayana text reflects the genius

Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

idea, Sita becomes furious and bursts into tears. Countless

Influence of Ramayana in Indonesian Art

towards life. The Indonesian mind believes in synthesis and is

Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

Mecca and Cairo, vegetated, another meandering tropical

Influence of Ramayana in Indonesian Art

appeal and came to terms with it by declaring that Wajang was

Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

cinema showing the best in Hollywood Coca Cola culture.

Influence of Ramayana in Indonesian Art

defending the hermitage of Visvamitra against Maricha and

Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

rule of the Majapahit dynasty, which represented the final phase

This essay is partly based on my earlier writings.

Social Anthropology and Area Studies

Social Anthropology and Area Studies

Swatahsiddha Sarkar , Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University

Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

was the honorary professorship held by Sir James Frazer

Social Anthropology and Area Studies

studies programs, we mean those programs which had attained

Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

involvement of several social science disciplines to understand

Social Anthropology and Area Studies

Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

already been developed or not), has multiplied by many more

Social Anthropology and Area Studies

in the area studies programme. In fact, a proper analysis of the

Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

anthropology with a focus on the individual manifestation of

Social Anthropology and Area Studies

weakness was not mendacity but an innocent inability to

Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

concerns they had contained.

Social Anthropology and Area Studies

men sensitive to cultural differences, is clearly seen in the records

Area Studies: A Journal of International Studies & Analyses

handed down from the ancients in which the imaginary reports

Social Anthropology and Area Studies