Gandhi had vehemently opposed partition of India since the Hindu and Muslim communities are deeply interwoven in the social fabric of the sub-continent. The leaders ignored Gandhi. Today, India has more Muslims than Pakistan. The people of South Asia are suffering the fallout of partition. The common people from the same stock living across the border are confused till today why partition was needed and are suffering a crisis of identity.

India and Pakistan have now joined the nuclear club. This will be both a deterrent to war and a threat to global peace. A danger is that nuclear devices may enter the arms market.

The people and governments of the nations in South Asia need to launch three major missions, namely,
(1) Creating a self-reliant South Asia, (2) Democratising China, and (3) Resolving the Kashmir and Tibet discords.

The social, economic and environmental degradation plaguing South Asia cannot be arrested so long as the nations in the region stick to exploitative colonial institutions and practices. They need to institute a true democracy in which power flows upwards from the people as advocated by Gandhi. Significantly, such a system of governance has great similarity with the best democracies of the world, notably the Swiss.

Nation-states should realise that they derive sovereignty from the common people, not from any group of persons including elected representatives. All major decisions should therefore require the approval of the people through referendum.

The Prime Minister of UK, discarding archaic traditions, is instituting major reforms through referendum. The Congress, the main opposition party in India, has already made public statements asserting that basic constitutional reforms can only be through referendum.

The BJP led Indian Government has taken a laudable decision to set up an independent commission for constitutional reforms. The reforms proposed by the commission are however likely to get politicised and their approval may get scuttled for decades by vested interests.

The commission should have the authority to direct referendum on reform proposed by it along with following local, state and national elections. Justice MN Venkatachaliah, Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission of India, has commended this as a legitimate, non-violent process for transforming the society.
Shri C Subramaniam, Member of the erstwhile Constituent Assembly has supported reforms through referendum.

All nations in South Asia (in fact, all developed and developing nations) should set up such commissions authorised to direct referendum on issues which they feel are of concern to the people. This will lead to proper empowerment of local communities and resolve various discords including those in Sindh, Baluch and tribal regions of Punjab dominated Pakistan, north-eastern tribal states of India and Tamil regions of Sri Lanka.

China is now the only large nation which is totalitarian. It is indulging in serious human rights violations on its people, especially those in Tibet whose spirit is being destroyed.

A totalitarian regime with nuclear capability is a major threat to global peace. The global community should impose sanctions on China for clandestinely transferring nuclear technology to Pakistan. Such a conduct can lead to access of nuclear devices by irresponsible dictators. Instead of facing sanctions, India should be rewarded for exposing such misdemeanour.

The nations which constituted the erstwhile Soviet Union have now taken to democracy. China too one day will have to shed its one party rule and embrace democracy. The global community should persuade China to forthwith set up a commission for democratic reforms through referendum. If it fails to do so, additional stringent sanctions including disarming its nuclear devices, should be imposed on it. The global community should support the people of China to liberate themselves from totalitarian subjugation. The tension between India and China and the subjugation of the people of Tibet can then be resolved through a dialogue between the people ratified through referendum.

A portion of Kashmir is occupied by Pakistan while the main valley is with India. Treating the Line of Actual Control dividing the two parts as the de facto international border is not a legitimate solution as it divides the people of Kashmir and perpetuates discord. Pakistan cannot be deterred from continuing its proxy wars through fomenting insurgency in Kashmir and terrorism in India. As a result, hundreds of thousands Kashmiris have migrated to India as refugees. A more stable and permanent solution needs to be evolved.

For ensuring lasting peace, stability and harmony in the region, one possible solution for the Kashmir discord can be that unified Kashmir may be given autonomy under the joint suzerainty of India and Pakistan provided the minority communities vote in its favour. Kashmir, not allowed its own military, will be provided security cover jointly by India and Pakistan. Such joint ownership will generate lasting brotherhood between the two nations. Jammu and Ladakh, presently linked with Kashmir, can remain with India or their people given an option through referendum to join Kashmir.

As a result of oppression by China, a large number of Tibetans have migrated to India as refugees. The global community should persuade China give autonomy on local matters to Tibet as in the USA and other mature democracies. In view of the close links of the people of Tibet with India, a superior arrangement will be autonomy to Tibet under the joint suzerainty of India and China.

There can be shortcomings in every solution. The people of South Asia and China, especially those from Kashmir and Tibet, should organise public consultations inviting alternative solutions so that a solution acceptable to the concerned people and nations may emerge.

Such a dialogue will generate all round goodwill leading to solutions for lasting peace and prosperity in the region.

Democracy is now clearly the only vehicle for realising global peace and sustainability. Unfortunately, political science has failed to provide a precise definition of democracy which can help in deriving its basic structure. A valid definition of democracy is how the common people would like to be governed. Given the choice, the common people would institute local governments which control adequate resources to handle all local matters. They would devolve remaining resources to the state and national governments for meeting their higher level needs. They would institute effective transparency laws to ensure that their representatives do not abuse authority.

The above constitutes the basic structure of democracy. There can be no true democracy without recognising referendum as the supreme right of the sovereign people and providing for its processing through an independent constitutional authority called "Sovereign Rights Commission".

The global community should treat any type of centralisation, be it through dictatorship, theocracy, socialism or democracy, as an abuse of the people and issue sanctions against it similar to those issued against apartheid.  q