Security matters and how
Himmat Singh Gill

Alternative Approaches To Security
By R.Radhakrishnan, Prafulla Ketkar, Aisha Sultanat Edited by P.R. Chari Samskriti
Pages 446. Rs 875

The publication of a large number of books in India on the subject of security is a trend that needs to be welcomed, not only by those who delve in this art directly or indirectly but also by the average reader who has so far been ignorant of the far- reaching consequences of such a potent reality.

Three researchers, under the care of P.R. Chari a Research Professor at a security analysis related institute at New Delhi, have put together this three-part book. The book covers the broad parameters of challenges to national integration, governance and security and the non-military challenges to security, in a comprehensive and readable manner. While the methodology of putting together the study cannot be faulted, it is the sum-total of the presentation that begs a closer look.

Anyone writing on the subject of national security should be clear that while a stable environment within a country facilitates better security, maximum security can only emerge once external threats are met adequately by the Army and war is carried offensively across land borders of the aggressor who has transgressed on to home soil. Internally, active and passive measures have been covered in this book but it is now common history that wars have, more often than not, been thrust upon one country or the other that was well-governed and well-administered. So most of the remedies suggested herein are at best relevant to only the internal security aspects of a country, which is just one part of the baggage of the whole game of security. Delegates, resource persons and research officers with a purely civilian background (that is non-military) are at liberty to put their papers and work together, the end result at best remains academic and theoretical in nature, since it is devoid of any practical application.

The curse of caste, ethnic conflict and regionalism have been highlighted by Radhakrishnan when it is pointed out that in South India today, "it is rare for a Dalit Christian to be appointed Bishop of an important church", or elsewhere when "attempts (are made) to do away with group identities and strengthen national integration" as witnessed in the North-East, or various "demographic invasions" as seen in Assam where Biharis have been targeted "for depriving the native population of jobs." However, some of his recommendations (providing access to village common lands, having camera proceedings in land dispute cases for the weaker sections, and economic empowerment through "Joint Forest Management"), seem pretty impractical to those (like this reviewer) who have lived in the countryside.

Maximum security can only emerge once external threats are met adequately by the Army. — Photo by Pankaj Sharma

Aisha Sultanat’s view that "enlightened concern for good governance was a result of two cataclysmic changes" internationally, that is, the break-up of the Soviet Union and globalisation, does not do justice to well-run governments in the preceding period. However, she is dead on when tabulating the problems faced in good governance in our country like corruption, unstable political order, over centralisation and the lack of a suitable mechanism for conflict resolution. She covers the marginalisation of the vulnerable sections and communalism in India adequately but leaves the question unanswered as to why should there be any vulnerable sections present in our society even 58 years after Independence. A totalitarian state can often become a failed state, she points out. Can totalitarian states be avoided where religious fundamentalism remains a deep-rooted faith. Prafulla Ketkar homes in on to terrorism, environmental degradation, the IT and cyber advancement and mass migrations as non-military challenges to security and affords some valuable suggestions on how to tackle them. He rightly suggests that in meeting non-military challenges, military should be used most sparingly, if at all.

Unfortunately, in India the Army has been misused in tasks alien to them. These days we hear of information security, social security, cyber security and economic security. A suitable title for this book could have been, "Alternative Approaches To Internal Security," but then the chapters on South Asia would have taken it out of the regional Indian context. Another study on the ominous external military threat building up on India in the coming decades and the apparatus to handle such an eventuality should be a sequel to the present work.

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