PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · South Asia: Regionalism, SAARC & BIMSTEC
What are the reasons for lack of ‘regionness’ in South Asia?
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
R1 regionness is a degree, not a fact of geography (Hettne- Soderbaum) → the level can fall as well as rise — South Asia: a region's material, not its politics R2 the material is shared, the politics is not – because the founding act of these states was separation
Body flow
separation as the founding act (Partition, 1971, their wars) > national identity becomes a claim against a neighbour — Muni: non-Indian identity converting into anti-India sentiment > Pakistan: a working SAARC undoes partition —- asymmetry (75% GDP, 70% people) — integration reads as dominance -—> institutional design (consensus rule + bilateral disputes excluded) — one quarrel halts the rest > no summit since 2014, trade near 9% —> the level still falling (IWT in abeyance since April 2025; Dhaka asking for SAARC at a BIMSTEC table, July 2026)
Counter-view
the region does work where politics permits — Nepal’s power to Bangladesh across the Indian grid, season after season — the deficit is political, not natural
Conclusion routes
R1 displaced, not absent — these states draw legitimacy from Standing apart R2 the region moves wherever politics allows it to — what is missing is a decision, not a basis
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
