The Enemy Of Our Own: India’s Bangladesh Conundrum – OpEd

Bangladesh was an entity diverted from Pakistan, created by East-Pakistani Bengalis, and supported by India. As the youngest South Asian country, the history of Bangladesh can never erase the contribution of India, despite political variations.

The famous 1971 war between India and Pakistan paved the creation of a country with exclusive Bengali-speaking people trying to grab self-determination against an oppressive regime. Since its establishment, India has been supporting indiscriminately, knowing that the boundary and water disputes are yet to be settled. Moreover, the most important concern for India, from the beginning, has been the peaceful existence of the Bangladeshi Hindus, the Indian Hindus partitioned in 1947 and formally settled in Bangladesh. This short article intends to highlight the issues raised recently after the fleeing of Bangladeshi President Shaikh Hasina and subsequent atrocities against Hindus.   

Following the agony of the common Bangladeshi citizens against the reservation system made by the Hasina government to extend support for the family members of the freedom fighters of Bangladesh, a widespread protest took the major streets of the country, showing dissent against the provision of reservation. Within a week, the protesters started attacking the Hindus, as usually happens in Bangladesh, where a sensitive political issue turns into communal extremism. In particular, many Hindu temples were and have been vandalised by the extremists, burning the assets and deities. In such an anarchical situation, the lives of innocent Hindus seem to be threatened by intolerance, as they are denied their religious practices and social security.     

Recently, many Hindu monks affiliated with ISKON were taken into custody without any judicious grounds. In the recent past, the newly appointed leader of the interim government of Bangladesh, Mohammad Yunus, urged the people to mitigate the communal violence. In contrast, the violence against Hindus is rising day by day without any urgency from the side of the interim government to produce a security environment for the Hindu minorities. In addition, a petition was filed before the Dhaka High Court challenging the existence of ISKON in Bangladesh as illegal and seeking the direction of the High Court for its complete abolition. Eventually, the court refused to pass a direction for the abolition of the ISKON and restored the minority rights of freedom to practise personal religious faith and protect the institutions. 

The current scenario suggests the urgency of self-retrospection in Bangladesh and emerging dynamics in India. Bangladesh and its population, except the top leaders, were and have never been so grateful to India, remembering the vitality of India’s interference in creating a new state for Bengalis. Unlike Pakistan, Bangladesh dreamt of becoming a secular state with mutual harmony among the communities. Still, in every forum, the Bangladeshi population have a tendency to be pro-Pakistan, i.e. cricket, politics and development. As an elder brother, India has never failed to convince Bangladesh that the Bengali population should refrain from being indulged by anti-India forces. There are many instances of cooperation and confidence-building measures from the Indian side to establish stable and time-tested relations between the countries, ranging from financial aid and infrastructural development to regional balance of power and institutional mechanisms. 

Moreover, unlike China, which uses Pakistan as a buffer state against India, Bangladesh has been fortunate enough not to perform that function in favour of India. Geopolitically, Bangladesh would not be a buffer state against Pakistan because of its geographical detachment. This geopolitical argument reflects India’s intention behind the creation of Bangladesh, which is neither a buffer state nor a trusted friend of India. Despite major disputes, India has been supporting Bangladesh for decades, knowing that the price of friendship is very high. India has also been facing illegal cross-border migration and arms circulation from the Bangladesh border, which imposes internal security threats. 

After 55 years, Indian policymakers and geopolitical analysts are supposed to interrogate the reality of Indo-Bangladesh relations referencing the present developments. As Dr Jaishankar, India’s external affairs minister, pointed out, the guiding principle of India’s foreign policy has been India’s national interest. Therefore, the question arises: what kind of interest does Bangladesh serve for India? Does India need to follow the principle of non-reciprocity for its neighbours? These questions have to be answered with Indian experiences in the context of Bangladesh. From a geopolitical perspective, Bangladesh serves no significant interest of India; rather, this country has been the second frontier for India to be dealt with. The problem of constant cross-border migration, drug trafficking, and armed movements has been pushing India to arrange the security apparatus, which seems to be a burden for India. On the one hand, India has a life-long belligerent neighbour, Pakistan; on the other, India, by herself, created a neighbour, Bangladesh. Comparatively, Pakistan has been the natural enemy, but Bangladesh has been India’s enemy of her own making. Coming to the second question, the principle of non-reciprocity would serve India’s interests when the price of threats is less than the price of security. Afghanistan, for instance, receives non-reciprocal help from India, confirming that it would never hamper India’s security structure. Based on this argument, India’s non-reciprocal involvement with Bangladesh would never help India achieve security. 

India’s Bangladesh has been a frontier of insecurity. By partitioning East Pakistan in 1971, India made its territorial boundary more volatile and fragile. India could have dealt with Pakistan with a single mindset, but today, India has doubled its security architecture to deal with Bangladesh. The identity of Bangladesh, as differentiated from Pakistan, has not only degraded its own existence as an independent state and failed to protect its own citizens but rather made India more insecure. In one way or another, the performance of Bangladesh towards its religious Hindu minorities has been the same as that of Pakistan. India should deal with such issues without lying on the fantasy of morality and ethics but with realism and pragmatism. Moreover, the international community and media should not backstep in criticising the atrocities against the Hindu minorities. This is probably the time for India and its policymakers to investigate India’s achievements in creating Bangladesh.       

• The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the Author.