Globalization and Trans-nationalism

On 10 August 2006, The National Advisory Council for South Asian Affairs
(NACSAA) met at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, to answer several
questions: Do markets know best? Does the market really know? Are the rich
getting richer and the poor getting poorer? Does globalization mean
Westernization and/or Americanization? Are traditional societies being dissi-
pated? As there were many speakers, I will present only brief summaries.

Shabir Ahmed stated that the West uses its foreign aid to get countries
to follow its own standards and perspectives, while many members of the
elites have abandoned the traditional lifestyle. On the positive side, global-
ization solves poverty through the market. Syed Akhtar asked whether glob-
alization was the same as McDonaldization or Nikeification, or just about
cultural domination and sweatshops. He sees globalization as a win-win sit-
uation, provided that a nation has the necessary “enabling conditions”: a
highly educated workforce, the rule of law, and democratic institutions.

V. Balachandran reminded the audience that globalization also causes
problems. In India, this takes the form of increasing farmer suicides, shanty
towns, a lack of investment in the agricultural sector, a decrease in the qual-

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ity of life, and questions of who owns the country’s natural resources. James
Clad defined globalization in negative terms: It is not necessarily an across-
the-board integration of economies, a generator of an immediately improved
security environment, a trend of deepening skill sets and the development of
an industrial and an R&D culture, something new (it is a recurrent phenome-
non enabled by technological advancement), or westernization, for all cul-
tures borrow what is useful to them. 

Abdul Mommen claimed that the South Asian diaspora can help root out
terrorism. Currently, South Asia is facing higher levels of terrorism; in
America and western Europe, these levels are actually declining or increas-
ing only marginally. Bangladesh, despite being a liberal Muslim state, is see-
ing its level of terrorism, as well as the number of fatalities, grow even faster
than has been the case in the Middle East since 9/11. Vijay Sazawal spoke
on self-governance and trans-nationalism in Kashmir. He pointed out that
while Pakistan calls for more self-rule in Indian Kashmir, it provides almost
none to its own Kashmiri citizens. He concluded that “the line of control
(LOC) is more or less a pretty clean division between various ethnic entities
that make up the old princely state and that the current boundary can sustain
regional stability even when its political future is questioned.” 

Ashraf Haidari, representing the ambassador of Afghanistan, spoke of
how globalization transformed Afghanistan into the site of a proxy war
(twice) and its abandonment to the drug lords, warlords, and al-Qaeda. On the
bright side, the country is making some progress in economic, political, and
legal reforms; is open for regional and international business and investment;
and has joined SAARC and SAFTA. Shamser Mobin Choudhury, the ambas-
sador of Bangladesh, said that trans-nationalism has led to decolonization and
the universalization of human rights; the globalization of capitalism with its
destabilizing effects on less developed countries; a technological revolution
in transportation and communication; and the expansion of social networks
that facilitate the reproduction of trans-national migration, economic organi-
zation, and politics. 

Maryam Qudrat, an Afghani-American, analyzed how the Taliban
crushed independent thought by using memorization to defeat the people's
analytical ability, how they twisted education and private judgment to serve
their own interests, used the five daily prayers to indoctrinate the people, cited
Ibn Taymiyyah to justify their attacks on other Muslims, and punished peo-
ple in public to “teach.” Jacob English said that Afghan nationalism is in a
development phase. Although Karzai is encouraging the refugees to return,
there is no stable infrastructure and a 30-55 percent unemployment rate.
These and other negative factors explain, in part, the Taliban's resurgence.

152 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 23:4



Conference, Symposium, and Panel Reports 153

Many people do not care who wins as long as the fighting stops. Govern-
ment support of the drug lords and warlords might lower the people’s respect
for the government, but who else is there, he asked? The international com-
munity’s priorities should be paying teachers, police, and members of civil
society in a consistent manner; build and staff infrastructure and schools,
protect human rights, and provide security in the south.

Steve Cohen, the father of South Asian studies in America and now at
Brookings, maintained that the “border” for the clash of civilizations runs
within Pakistan, that Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are going
“very badly,” and that Afghanistan is “teetering on the edge of catastrophe.”
He expects radical Islam to follow the path of communism: a movement that
wanted to build a just world but quickly lost its unity and ultimately col-
lapsed due to its own internal inconsistencies. In closing, he said that Amer-
ica is giving Pakistan a free ride because of the war on terror and that the
Bush administration clearly has no long-term vision.

Faizan Haq, general secretary of the Pakistan-American Conference,
claimed that the media is promoting ultra-nationalism, a policy that engen-
ders the victimhood that enflames tension. Unfortunately, the “war on terror”
is an open-ended war to which the other side has not responded. Therefore,
no alternatives are provided and everyone is using the same words. Yusuf
Salahuddin said that Huntington’s claim that future wars will be over religion,
not economic or politics, has been partially correct: Bangladesh faces rising
Islamic militancy; Afghanistan and Pakistan face ethnic and religious frag-
mentation; and India faces poverty, friction between traditional and modern
values, and the rise of Hindu “fanaticism.” Since Hinduism has failed to
“reform” the caste system and stop high caste persecution of low castes, the
disenfranchised lower castes are listening to different ideas. 

The two lively and informative question and answer sessions dealt with
many of the same issues, as well as how they were affecting Sri Lanka,
Nepal, and the smaller South Asian countries.

Jay Willoughby
AJISS Managing Editor

Herndon, Virginia