EXPLORING THE RIGHT TO SECESSION: THE SOUTH ASIAN CONTEXT

One of the most intractable problems confronting South Asian states and societies has been the presence of secessionist movements and insistent demands for a state of one's own. Though societies and states tend to react violently when faced with such demands, many serious issues are embedded in secessionist demands, as well as in the responses to these demands, above all issues of justice and injustice. The present article seeks to trace out the key issues involved in demands for secession, exploring reasons for why and when such demands arise in the first place. Examined within the wider context of international law, specific scenarios in South Asia are considered to propel a debate about whether secession can be argued to be a right, and in what circumstances. It is proposed that the concept of secession has, in effect, to be extricated from narrow agendas of national security, war against terror, and military strategy, and placed within the wider domain of normative political theory, which can indeed find justifications for demanding secession.