“India’s Internal Security Challenges” 503
India’s Internal Security Challenges*
Ved Marwah
Shri N N Vohra, Shri K Santhanam, Director IDSA, Ladies and
Gentlemen:
I deem it a privilege to be invited to deliver the IDSA Foundation
Lecture. Since inception in November 1965, under the stewardship of the
late Shri Y B Chavan and the subsequent direction provided by Shri K
Subrahmanyam, former Director, the IDSA has acquired a creditable
profile. Over the years, the IDSA has played a commendable role in
enriching the security discourse and deliberations in India. It is in this
context that I propose to share my thoughts with you on a matter of concern
to all of us, namely, “India’s Internal Security Challenges”.
India was partitioned in the backdrop of large-scale communal riots,
but the partition of the country on religious lines, without taking into
consideration its multiple identities, instead of bringing the communal
tensions down, in fact, worsened the situation. The two-nation theory
created Pakistan, and it still survives on this theory. Pakistan finds it difficult
to accept the reality that India continues to be a democratic, plural, multi-
religious society and that India today has more Muslim citizens than
Pakistan. The Government of Pakistan has taken upon itself the
responsibility of not only protecting its own citizens, but also the Indian
Muslims. The power structure in theocratic Pakistan, dominated by the
army, the feudal landlords, the bureaucracy and the religious leaders has
been able to retain its hold over the levers of power by playing the anti-
India and Islamic cards. Pakistan plays the Islamic card in its foreign policy
also. It misses no opportunity to club India as an anti-Islamic country
where Muslims are not safe. The continuing tensions between India and
Pakistan have a direct bearing on the internal situation in India. They have
further complicated the internal security situation.
Strategic Analysis, Vol. 27, No. 4, Oct-Dec 2003.
© Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
* IDSA Foundation Day Lecture delivered by
Shri Ved Marwah, Governor of Jharkhand on November 11 2003.
