South Asia politics during Cold War.

 While the early Cold War year rivalry between Soviet Union and the United States intersected the deep divide between India and Pakistan on almost similar lines during the later years it became more intensified and directly started shaping politics between the two countries. While India adopted a policy of Non Alignment from the 1960s, its ideological proximity was evident with the Soviet Union given its 1971 Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Security. Pakistan on the other hand, by joining the South East Asian Treaty Organization and Central Treaty Organization in the 1950s made its intentions clear. Despite the fact that both the countries became members of Non Aligned Movement (NAM) later, it did nothing to shift or alter their respective affinity to the two major powers. The fact that this dichotomy became all the more evident during the 1971 war showed that Cold war shadow in the subcontinent was likely to remain. It saw a further manifestation with the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (on which India did not take a public position) and Pakistan becoming a proxy in facilitating the American CIA support to the Afghan Mujahidin against the Soviets.

South Asia has been a region of great importance to the industrialized democracies -and specifically the United States. The region has always been an arena where great power competition has been played and managed. It is, of course, possible to argue that the primary significance of the states of South Asia lies in their role in the competition between the United States, the Soviet Union and China for global and regional influence. The region has been recognized as a geographical area of major strategic significance through, which the routes connecting Europe, Africa and Asia. The region of South Asia is important because of its connection with the vital sea-lines of communication in the Indian Ocean and is sandwiched between two politically volatile and economically critical regions i.e., the Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia.2 Thus, South Asia forms an integral part of Mackinder’s “World Island,” that is, the Euro-African-Asiatic land mass, the most important single geographical unit in the world.3 Moreover, the major actors of the region, India and Pakistan, were divided in terms of polarisation between the United States, the Soviet Union and China. In this context, India has functioned as an important ally of the Soviet Union and Pakistan has functioned as a broker for the West in relation to moderate Muslim countries in the Middle East and the Gulf areas and in relation to China.

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