INTRODUCTION
South Asia usually includes the following countries Bangladesh , Bhutan , Nepal , Pakistan , India and Sri Lanka and Maldives.
South Asia stands for diversity in every sense and yet constitutes one geo political sense.
Despite many problems and limitations, Sri Lanka and India have successfully operated a democratic system since their independence from the British.
Pakistan and Bangladesh have experience both civilians and military rulers , with Bangladesh remaining a democracy in the post cold war period.
Pakistan began the post cold war period with successive democratic government under Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif respectively.
It suffered a military coup in 1999 and has been run by a military regime since then.
Till 2006, Nepal a successful popular uprising led to the Restoration of democracy after constitutional monarchy.
Bhutan is still a monarchy but the king has initiated plans for its transition to multiparty democracy.
The Maldives (Island nation) was a sultanate till 1968 when it was transformed into a republic with a presidential form of Government.
 the Maldivian democratic party (MDP), now it has multi party system dominates the political affairs of the island.
The Military And Democracy In Pakistan
(A) General Ayub Khan (1958)
Took over the administration of country
Elected himself
Gave up office where there was dissatisfaction
Again his own rule.
(B.)Generally Yahya Khan
(military take over once again in 1977)
during his time, Pakistan faced Bangladesh crisis 1971.
(C) Elected GovernmentÂ
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1971 - 77)
(D) general Zia - ul haq
Faced pro-democracy movement (from1982).
(E) elected government in 1988
 Benazir Bhutto
(F) during this time Pakistan politics centered aroundÂ
Pakistan peoples party and the Muslim league
Army step in again in 1999.
(G) general Pervez Musharraf
Remove PM Nawaz SharifÂ
in 2001 elected himself as president
Factors contributing to failure of democracy in Pakistan.
Social dominance of military , clergy and landholding aristocracy.
Pakistan conflict with India has made the pro military groups more powerful.
Thus , Democracy has not been successful in Pakistan
Lack of genuine international support for democratic rule in Pakistan.
example :- US and other Western countries have increased the military rule for their own reasons ( global Islamic terrorism).
Military regime in Pak has been seen as the protector of Western interest in West Asia and South Asia
Democracy in Bangladesh
Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan from 1947 to 1971 consisted areas of Bengal and Assam.
Reasons of separation from Pakistan
Domination of Western Pakistan
Imposition of Urdu language
Unfair representation in administration.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Led the popular struggle against west Pakistan domination.
In 1970 election, awami league led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won all seats in East Pakistan.
Proposed constituent assembly for the whole of Pakistan.
West Pakistan leadership refused to convene the assembly
Mujib was arrested.
Thousands were killed by Pakistan army and this year to the war, in 1971 between Pakistan and India that ended in the surrender of Pakistani forces in east Pakistan.
 and formation of Bangladesh as an independent country.
Nepal
Nepal was a Hindu Kingdom in the past but later changed into a constitutional monarchy for many years.
The king accepted the demand for a new democratic constitution in 1992 after strong pro-democracy movement.
There was a conflict among the democrats, Maoists and monarchists forces which led to the abolition of parliament and dismissal of government in 2002 by the king.
After a Pro democratic movement , again in 2006 , the king was forced to restore the house of representatives.
Sri Lanka
The democratic setup of Sri Lanka was disturbed by the ethnic conflict among the Sinhalese and Tamil origin people.
Sinhalese believe the region of Ceylon belong to Sinhala people only and not to the Tamils (origin is India).
This led to the formation of liberation tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) , a militant organization.
The Government of India signed an Accord with Sri Lanka and sent troops to stabilize relations between the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil.
Eventually the Indian army got into a fight with the LTTE later on the Indian peace keeping force IPKF was called out of Sri Lanka in 1989 without achieving it seems.
In spite of the ethnic conflict, the economy of Sri Lankan has always been high.
India And Its Other Neighbors
Neighboring countries of India are Bangladesh, Nepal , Sri Lanka, Pakistan , Bhutan and Maldives.
conflicts between India and Bangladesh include sharing of Ganga and Brahmaputra river water and illegal immigration to India etc.
 both India and Bangladesh share a cordial relation with each other. Economic relations between the two have improved considerably.
 Nepal and India shares a friendly relation with each other but certain issues like warm relation of Nepal with China , Maoists movements in Nepal have disturbed the relation.
But still both the countries are together on trade, scientific, cooperation, electric generation and inter locking water management.
India enjoys a very special relationship with Bhutan too and does not have any major conflict with the Bhutanese government.
Peace and cooperation
There are certain issues of conflicts among the South Asian countries.
The South Asian countries initiated the establishment of South Asian Association for regional cooperation ( SAARC) in 1985 to evolve cooperation among each other.
The SAFTA was signed in 2004 by the South Asian countries to allow free trade across the borders.Â
SAFTA aims at lowering trade tariffs by 20%Â
By 2007.
However, there has been issues between India and Pakistan, measures were being taken to bring cordial changes between the countries.
China and USA remain key players in South Asia politics. Thus, there are also on outside power which influence the region.