Pushpita Das replies: A combination of factors have made India a major conduit for human and drug trafficking in South Asia. As far as drug trafficking is concerned, being proximate to the ‘Golden Crescent’ (Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iran) and ‘Golden Triangle’ (Myanmar-Thailand-Laos) has made India vulnerable to the trafficking of narcotics and drugs such as heroin, hashish, including synthetic drugs produced in these areas.

Ashok Kumar Behuria replies: De-hyphenation is a policy adopted by countries to maximise their strategic returns from their diplomatic engagements/investments with two adversarial states, both of whom are of consequence to them. It insulates them in some way from the inadvertent turbulence that could result out of their possible hostile interaction and, thus, affect their relationship with both.

Ashok Kumar Behuria replies: There is an overlap between the two. However, they are different. Indian subcontinent is a subset of South Asia, as much as both are subsets of the Asian continent.

As a geographical expression, Indian subcontinent encompassed the British colonial administrative unit called India, which comprised of the present day states of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Till 1936, Burma (now Myanmar) was also part of British India, but was not considered part of the subcontinent.