G20

• Any Canadian diplomats in India past Oct. 10 are expected to lose their immunity.
• The high-profile diplomatic crisis has confirmed rumours of longstanding tensions between the two countries over the issue of Sikh separatism in the Indian state of Punjab.

The facts so far

• Nijjar, a Canadian citizen wanted in India for alleged terrorist acts, was part of the Khalistan movement calling for a Sikh homeland separate from India’s Punjab state.
• The movement is controversial because of its organized violence against Indian officials and terrorism-motivated tactics.
• India and Canada have each expelled diplomats from their respective countries, and India has suspended visas for Canadians as the diplomatic crisis deepens.

Still to be revealed

• Trudeau has yet to reveal the “credible evidence” provided by Five Eyes linking India to the crime.
• The FBI has warned American-Sikh activists that their lives are in danger, while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on India to co-operate with Canada and ensure “accountability” over the killing.
• But that doesn’t necessarily mean the Indian government had a hand in Nijjar’s murder.

Fraught history

• India has a painful history with separatism after it gained independence from British colonialism in 1947.
• Shortly after that, diplomatic and later militaristic crisis over Jammu and Kashmir unfolded, which culminated in two wars between India and Pakistan and several armed engagements.
• The parallel rise of Naga nationalism in neighbouring Nagaland is also a thorny issue for Indian authorities.

Existential crisis

• On the other hand, India’s secessionist movements represent an existential crisis threatening everything India has worked towards for the past 76 years.
• Nijjar’s murder, however, is also a matter of grave importance for Canada.
• But both Canada and India will need to calculate the risks and repercussions of such a high-profile diplomatic rift in a highly globalized world.

• But often western reactions to a Chinese decision can come from a lack of understanding of Beijing’s motivations.
• With this in mind, here are five things that the west often gets wrong about Chinese foreign policy.

1. It’s not a grand scheme

• In the western media, Chinese foreign policy has often been seen as a grand scheme to secure world leadership.
• However, Chinese policy is not quite the labyrinthine plot that it has often been presented as.
• Chinese foreign policy has largely been devised in response to recent developments rather than being a long-term scheme for domination.

2. China deals with democracies

• The Chinese model of economic development has racheted up fears of China attempting to spread its political system beyond its national borders.
• But, some of the biggest advocates of the China model have been the political elites in developing nations, many of whom have a colonial history, and who appreciate that China offers an alternative to the west in attracting investment.

3. China’s role in the world order

• One of the most common depictions of China in recent years has been of it as a revisionist power that seeks to overthrow the liberal rules-based world order and international bodies.
• Such an image was popularised by Graham Allison’s 2017 book Destined for War, which warned of a China seeking to overthrow US domination.

4. China’s historical experience

• But China draws on a different history, one that includes its own dominant position internationally, but also its defeat and occupation.
• Beijing references this past when talking of the “Century of Humiliation” (1839-1949), a period when China was dominated and occupied by colonial powers.
• The Silk Road refers to an historical network of highly lucrative trade routes linking a powerful China to the rest of the world, and used to sell its products for centuries.

5. The appeal of Chinese aid

• China’s financial aid and investment projects in developing countries are sometimes portrayed as simply bribing corrupt states or ensnaring them with “debt trap diplomacy”.
• While these images have been popular in western media coverage of Chinese foreign policy, they overlook the role of the country receiving aid to choose to accept Chinese finance and how this also appeals as an alternative to western aid packages which traditionally come with many conditions relating to governance.

• The word “India” is, after all, an exonym – a placename given by outsiders.
• Alongside English, Hindi is one of two languages used in the Indian Constitution, with versions written in each language.
• But the use of “Bharat” has elicited outcry from the political opposition, some Muslims, and Hindu conservatives in the south, reflecting ongoing tensions in India between language, religion and politics.

Two different language families

• My book with fellow linguist Julie Tetel Andresen, “Languages in the World: How History, Culture, and Politics Shape Language,” covers the language history and politics of India.
• Hindi is the most-spoken language in India, but its use is largely relegated to a part of the country that linguists refer to as “the Hindi belt,” a massive region in northern, central and eastern India where Hindi is the official or primary language.
• Around 1500 B.C.E., a group of outsiders from Central Asia – known now as the Indo-Aryans – began migrating and settling in what is now northern India.
• They spoke a language that would eventually become Sanskrit.

Dravidians spurn Hindi

• But after independence, opposition to Hindi grew in the Dravidian-speaking south, where English was the favored lingua franca.
• For Tamils and other Dravidian groups, Hindi was associated with the Brahmin caste, whom many felt marginalized Dravidian languages and culture.
• For many people in the south, Hindi came to be seen as a language as foreign as English.

Nationalists push for one official language

• In India, Hindus make up about 80% of the population, while Muslims make up about 14% – more than 200 million people.
• One such policy is the promotion of Hindi as the sole official language of India.
• Speaking in 2022 at a Parliamentary Official Language Committee meeting, BJP Home Minister Amit Shah said, “When citizens of states speak other languages, communicate with each other, it should be in the language of India.” To Shah, the “language of India” and Hindi were one and the same.

Suppressing Urdu

• Although Urdu and Hindi are remarkably similar, their differences take on outsized religious and national significance.
• Whereas Hindi draws on Sanskrit for new words, Urdu draws on Persian and Arabic, again emphasizing associations to Islam.
• And whereas Hindi predominates in India, Urdu is the official language of Pakistan, along with English.

• A publication 'Ideas, Innovation, Implementation: India's Journey Towards the SDGs' that brought this message to life was released during the discussions.
• The book, a joint initiative by Reliance Foundation, Observer Research Foundation and the UN India office, highlights 17 lighthouse initiatives across 17 SDGs undertaken by not-for-profit organisations and communities.
• The publication highlights how implementation of the ideas could hasten the journey to the SDGs while providing a foundation for a post-2030 agenda.
• Mr Shombi Sharp, UN Resident Coordinator, India, spoke about public, private and multi-stakeholder conversations towards the SDGs.