Home to 1.4 billion people, vast changes can have worldwide consequences.

The Indian subcontinent is poised for a renaissance. It’s too soon for unbridled optimism, but the stars are starting to line up.

• India and Pakistan recently agreed to hold formal peace talks that will center on their decades-old dispute over Kashmir, the beautiful Himalayan territory each claims. This terribly important development could lay the foundation for generations of regional harmony.

• Afghanistan recently adopted a new constitution that has the potential to move that beleaguered nation from chaos to democracy. The price Americans paid on Sept. 11, 2001, is a reminder of why we must help this happen.

• India has just come through what some analysts call its “Golden Year,” when a great deal went right, from a booming stock market to wonderful monsoon rains that helped farmers. The problems still are huge, but Indians’ optimism about their future has rarely been higher.

• Pakistan is moving toward more stability with an agreement under which President Pervez Musharraf, the nation’s military ruler, will step down as an army general at the end of this year. In addition, Musharraf finally seems to have realized that he must strongly oppose the religious radicals – some in his own military – who provide haven and support for terrorists. He has survived two recent assassination attempts and has renewed his commitment to be an American ally in the war on terrorism.

• India and Bangladesh finally are working on ways to end decades of border conflict in which nearly 250 people have died in just the last three years.

• Bangladesh, though still desperately poor, is becoming a more important and constructive player in the region. For instance, in 2005 it will host the next gathering of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

• Tibet remains a contentious area, but even the exiled Dalai Lama recently has been urging “meaningful dialogue” with China, which rules it.

• Sri Lanka and Nepal are the area countries in which bad news currently outweighs good. Sri Lanka’s country’s government is badly divided. That has put in jeopardy a welcome truce with Tamil Tiger rebels. More than 60,000 people have died in three decades of ethnic bloodshed as the Tigers fight for a separate homeland for the Tamil minority. In Nepal, a Maoist insurgency is causing so many problems the World Bank recently warned that Nepal may fail as a state.

The subcontinent is home to more than 1.4 billion people. What happens there increasingly affects the rest of the world, including the U.S. Many Americans don’t even realize how closely connected they are to the region. When U.S. citizens dial an 800 number to get computer help or order products, for instance, the phone often rings in India, which has developed a strong and growing high-tech industry.

I have a special place in my heart for India because I lived there for two years when I was growing up, but all Americans have a stake in how things go on the subcontinent. And they should press our government to focus intently on creating good relations with the region’s people. One of the better analyses of what we should do in the area came last fall from the Independent Task Force on India and South Asia, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Asia Society. It called on the U.S. to give “sustained, high-level attention” to the region.

What would that mean? Many things, but high on the list is giving both Pakistan and India whatever diplomatic help they need in their peace talks. There are many reasons to be skeptical that these two nuclear-armed neighbors – India predominantly Hindu, and Pakistan mostly Muslim – can live in peace.

But the price the world would pay if they ever engaged in nuclear conflict or if they continue to be at each other’s throats for five more decades is unacceptably high. It will be well worth our effort to commit the resources necessary to help. In that work, we might even discover insights that could help us bring warring parties together elsewhere – especially in the Middle East.

We need to offer significant foreign aid to the region, even as we insist that the recipients work to root out terrorism. We also must expand trading opportunities with the subcontinent – not just so American companies can make profits but so those nations can be healthy parts of a global economy.

The region can have a bright future. It’s time to help it realize its hopes.

Bill Tammeus is an editorial page columnist for The Kansas City Star.

Copy the Story Link