Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had a vision for South Asia and India’s place in it. He believed that India’s destiny was intrinsically tied to its partnership with its neighbours. His convictions inspired many initiatives that fostered economic interdependence and people-to-people (P2P) connections. Examining some of his core initiatives provides a good organising framework to discuss South Asia’s economic integration, which remains a work in progress.
Much of what is termed South Asia today was historically a deeply integrated region, especially under the Mauryan Empire (321 BCE to 185 BCE), the Mughal Empire (1526-1857), and the British Raj (1858-1947). One of the most abiding symbols of the region’s linkages is the Grand Trunk Road, begun by Chandragupta Maurya in the 4th century BCE but really expanded and transformed by Sher Shah Suri in the middle of the 16th century. At its peak, the road stretched about 3655 km from Teknaf in present-day Bangladesh to Kabul in Afghanistan. The Grand Trunk Road is still known by that name in large parts of India and Pakistan. It was one of the most important land routes for trade within the Mughal Empire, and, along with the Khyber Pass, it enabled east-west trade within India and between India, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Evoking this integrated past at an industry event in 2007, Singh said: “I dream of a day when, while retaining our respective national identities, one can have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore, and dinner in Kabul. That is how my forefathers lived. That is how I want our grandchildren to live.”
How far are we today from Singh’s dream? Let us evaluate it along three dimensions related to his vision of seamless connectivity: trade in energy, trade in goods, and P2P connections.
