António Vieira da Cruz

Editorial que escrevi no sétimo número da revista Think South Asia: --- In this edition we will put the focus on Pakistan , a country with more than 180 million people, being the 6 th most populous country in the world. We could roughly say that the story of Pakistan was marked by two partitions: the partition of India in 1947 and its own partition in 1971. But as History is more complex than that, we are dedicating this edition of Think South Asia magazine to Pakistan . In the case of this country, etymology says a lot of its early history. The word “ Pakistan ” did not exist before 1933, when it was coined by the Muslim nationalist Mr Choudhry Rahmat Ali who, with other intellectuals, wanted to create a separate Muslim homeland in South Asia . According to scholars, the name has its origins in the acronym PAKSTAN, which results from P unjab + A fghani territories + K ashmir + S indh + Baluchi stan . An “i” was introduced amidst for reasons of pronunciation an...

“Arthashastra” This is a book of surprises. A classic of the Indian literature and thinking, “Arthashastra” was written by the Chief Adviser of two Mauryan Emperors. It could be seen as a treatise about the arts of war and economic policy, but it is much more than that. “Arthashastra” is about ethics and the duties each person is obliged to incorporate depending on its role in society. I leave you with one of his most famous passages, which is about corruption vices and solutions: Each department shall be officered by several temporary heads. Just as it is impossible not to taste the honey or the poison that finds itself at the tip of the tongue, so it is impossible for a government servant not to eat up, at least, a bit of the king's revenue. Just as fish moving under water cannot possibly be found out either as drinking or not drinking water, so government servants employed in the government work cannot be found out (while) taking money (for themselves). I...

Editorial que escrevi no sexto número da revista Think South Asia, que edito com o apoio do South Asia Democratic Forum: --- Nepal is the country we chose to focus on this time. With about 27 million people and landlocked between India and China, Nepal has in Kathmandu its capital and also the headquarters of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, also known by the acronym SAARC. It is interesting indeed to see Nepal´s recent societal changes, in the common people as in the political elites. After a very good country profile by S. M. Hasan, Dr Siegfried Wolf from Heidelberg tells us more about the possible role of Nepal in regional cooperation, making reference to a very useful survey report South Asia Democratic Forum conducted in Nepal in 2011, in partnership with Gallup Europe. As Mr Malik Saqib Ali says in his article about economic integration, South Asia has 23% of the people in the world, 5% of its soil mass, and only 3% of the world’s total GDP. But a...

Editorial que escrevi no quinto número da revista Think South Asia, que edito com o apoio do South Asia Democratic Forum, apresentando a Índia como um país de oportunidades e futuro: ---   Imagine the overall population of Europe and the Americas, all put together. Have you imagined that already? Well believe it or not South Asia, as a region, has even more people than that, which is reason enough to pay attention to its development and potentials. The western countries seem to be obsessed with the financial and economic crisis, but on the other side of the world there is a new land of opportunities asking for support and economic cooperation. Five hundred years after Vasco da Gama and seven hundred years after Marco Polo, we must peacefully rediscover the Indian Ocean and the trade opportunities within the SAARC countries that could help us in leaving the crisis behind. This time, the focus of Think South Asia is on India. It seems paradoxical to put the focus on s...

Artigo sobre a Índia publicado com o apoio do South Asia Democratic Forum no último número do Think South Asia, aqui . --- The Republic of India is a country with 3.287.590 square kilometres of area and an estimated population of 1,24 billion people. Its borders are with Pakistan to the northwest, Tibet (under the Chinese administration), Nepal and Bhutan to the north, and Bangladesh and Burma to the northeast. On the Indian Ocean, India’s neighbours are the Maldives to the southwest and Sri Lanka to the southeast. These numbers mean that India has a larger population than Europe (all countries together), or the Americas (North and South), or Africa. We can find an Indian identity, or at least a harmonic set of similar identities within India, making of it the most populous liberal democracy in the world. And, with a birth rate bigger than China, India is set to overtake its neighbour country as the world’s most populous nation by 2030, according to the latest United Na...

Em baixo o artigo que escrevi no quarto número da revista Think South Asia (19 de Novembro), que edito com o apoio do South Asia Democratic Forum. Principais países em destaque: Sri Lanka e Paquistão. Neste número fala-se também da educação como forma de combater o extremismo e o terrorismo, e temos ainda a honra de contar com Vytautas Landsbergis, o primeiro Presidente da Lituânia após o comunismo. ---   Por mares nunca de antes navegados, Passaram ainda além da Taprobana* Luís Vaz de Camões, in “Os Lusíadas” – Canto I   In this edition of Think South Asia we put the focus on Sri Lanka. With a long history and a very distinctive identity formed by a great profusion of different ethnicities and a meeting point of religions, Sri Lanka has a incredibly rich culture. Its privileged geography puts Sri Lanka in a very central and strategic situation in the Indian Ocean. As in the first stanza of his opus magum “Os Lusíadas”, the Portuguese poet C...

Em baixo publico o artigo que escrevi no terceiro número da revista Think South Asia (9 de Outubro), que edito com o apoio do South Asia Democratic Forum. Principais países em destaque: Maldivas, Bangladesh e Sri Lanka. Mas também há notícias do resto da Ásia do Sul: Índia, Paquistão, Nepal, Butão e Afeganistão. E, ainda, a China e o Myanmar, a antiga Birmânia. ---   In this edition of Think South Asia you will find plenty of details on what we are proud to present as the biggest and most important conference ever held on the topic of South Asia in Brussels, under the title, “The Merits of Regional Cooperation: The Case of South Asia” (part II). This important event will take place next 11th of October in the Hotel Sofitel Brussels at Place Jourdan, marking the legislative year of the European Institutions. This will present an amazing opportunity to discuss - with worldwide academic and political experts - and understand some of the most important issues in South Asi...