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Unlike the other regional players, particularly Pakistan that has been eager to keep the reigns of the Afghan peace process from slipping from its hands, the stance assumed by India towards the Afghan peace process is far from being as decisive and clear as that of these other actors. Apart from desiring the peace negotiations to be “Afghan-led, owner and controlled” and that Afghanistan retains its existing semblance as a democratic republic at the end of this long-due process, there is no decisive clarity in the Indian approach vis-a-vis this process. At best, it is too broad and at worst it is too vague to translate into bold actions and goals. The need of the hours is for India to play a proactive role in the impending negotiations, shedding not its cautious pragmatism but its glacial slowness towards embracing policy and practical change.

Geopolitical Canvass, India and Afghanistan 

The Indian role in post-2001 Afghanistan has been critical at many levels. India has been the largest South Asian donor country and the fifth largest in the world, having made a total contribution of USD 3 billion to Afghanistan so far. Ranging from small, short-term projects to those of enduring and infrastructural relevance, the Indian assistance to the post-conflict reconstruction of Afghanistan has essentially sought to bolster the service delivery mechanisms and the institutional capacity organically without any external interference. In this regard, it must be mentioned here that despite being the world’s most populous, functioning democracy, India has not sought to “export” its democratic practices despite their socio-political relevance. Unlike the US, for instance, India has followed a hands-off approach vis-a-vis the domestic functionings of Afghanistan, assisting the administrative and governing institutions through the means of training and capacity-building from distance. The absence of apparent interference is, perhaps, one of the significant reasons to have contributed to the cultural mileage that India enjoys amongst the popular and political classes of Afghanistan.

If the Indian assistance to Afghanistan was of significance for the country itself, it also had critical implications for the region both in terms of the actual expanse of South Asia as well as the discourses concerning it. It is known that India had been instrumental in getting Afghanistan a seat in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) as a member-state in 2007. What was dubbed as the first-ever expansion of SAARC, the inclusion of Afghanistan in this regional body altered the geopolitical canvass of the South Asian region on the whole. It is interesting to note here that the region of South Asia was as much a foreign construct as the (dispute-generating) borders that exist in this part of the world. Hence, the inclusion of Afghanistan within the South Asian fold, and rightly so, can be interpreted as an indigenous act of geopolitical re-imagination of this region. In a way then, the entry of Afghanistan marked an attempt on the part of the member-states of South Asia to re-fashion the imagery and the reality of South Asia both in and on their own terms. 

Setbacks and the Way Forward

While the said expansion could have resurrected the geostrategic relevance of Afghanistan as a “land-bridge” between the Central Asian and South Asian states, it was adversely affected by the systemic-level features of South Asia and the shortcomings of its regional organisation. On the one hand, the persisting tension between India and Pakistan was only exacerbated as the latter accused the former of using Afghanistan as a base for meddling in its domestic affairs. The accusations levelled by Pakistan are, however,difficult to verify and the claims regarding the playing-out of a regional “proxy war” are, according to the former Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan, Amar Sinha, “a smokescreen to justify Pakistan’s behaviour, which has not been (of) a friendly neighbour”. On the other hand, the inclusion of Afghanistan in SAARC further “contributed to the conflict (in the) relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan, further constraining SAARC processes and agendas”. Hence, what could have been a historic moment of indigenisation of South Asia by the (existing) South Asian states was dampened as the inclusion of Afghanistan in SAARC ran into structural troubles at the get-go.   

The regional troubles have also come in the way of getting India its due credit internationally.  On many occasions, India's help to Afghanistan was not received with the sort of encouragement that was expected. Not only was India denied a deserving role that in the post-war reconstruction of Afghanistan, but its importance was also displaced by its regional rival, Pakistan that was declared a front-line ally of the US in the latter’s war on terror. Indifferent, and at times ignorant of the Indian contribution to Afghanistan, the international benefactors, particularly the US, have done little in earnest to bolster India’s genuine bid to assist this war-torn country on the path to stability and progress. Perhaps, it was for this very international dismissal of the Indian role that President Ashraf Ghani relegated India to the outermost orbit of his “five circles foreign policy” during his first tenure as Afghanistan’s political head. In the recent months, however, there has been a palpable shift in the international orientation towards the Indian role particularly to get it on the same page as the other regional actors regarding the peace negotiations in Afghanistan. 

The increase in the Indian prominence in the international eyes may have, perhaps, been a result of India’s unwavering support to the legitimate governments of Afghanistan. Seen this way, the patience of the Indian state in the face of frustrating setbacks may have paid off to the effect that today it is seen as a country that the peace process in Afghanistan should not do without. But it takes very little for the celebrated virtue of patience to become a perilous speed breaker in the eyes of others and India can ill-afford this transition. Hence, to save itself from transforming from a country that should not be done without to a country that can not be done without, the latter implying the status of a necessary evil, India must put aside its reluctance to change its policies and practices in the changing circumstances.

As Afghanistan gears for the impending peace negotiations, it is vital for India to reflect on its evolving role and position in the entire process more critically. The Indian interest in and of the Afghan peace process include, amongst other things, a desire to see Afghanistan emerge as a stable, democratic republic. This will not only be of benefit to India, which will find a lasting and credible partner in the region, but most importantly for Afghanistan itself whose political security will reap social and economic dividends. 

Chayanika Saxena is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore (Singapore). She was formerly at RSIS, Singapore as a Student Research Assistant and Post Graduate Student of International Relations.

Views in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect CGS policy.

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