State of the Regional Integration Within South Asian Association for Regional Organisation (SAARC): Assessment of India’s Leadership

Abstract

South Asia is one of the least integrated regions in terms of trade and people-to-people contact. With the goal of promoting regionalism, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was founded in 1985 and now has eight South Asian countries as a member (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). India alone controls more than 80% of all variables, including economy, size, and population. Thus, the entire regional integration of South Asia has been and will continue to be dependent on India’s intentions regarding SAARC. As a result of several bilateral disagreements between the organisation’s member states, the SAARC has been dubbed a dysfunctional, talk-shop, and dead organisation. Having said that, this article aims to investigate the role of India as a regional leader as well as its intention and approach towards South Asian integration. Similarly, this document also assesses the effect of India’s leadership on the regional integration of South Asia. This article is based on the qualitative method of research and thus uses discourse analysis as the main methodology. As primary sources, discourse analyses in international relations often examine official speeches, declarations, legislative debates, diplomatic documents, interviews, newspapers, and editorials. Other scholarly works, novels, and conceptual histories can be analysed in addition to these.