Blood Brothers: India, Bangladesh & the ties that bind

By Krishnan Srinivasan

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh independence, as also the birth centenary of the father of Bangladesh’s independence Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. It is therefore an appropriate time for reflection. Keeping aside bilateral problems such as river waters flowing from India to Bangladesh, the distorted trade balance overwhelmingly in favour of India, the repeated deaths on the border caused by allegedly trigger-happy Indian border guards, and outbreaks of anti-Hindu attacks in overwhelmingly Muslim Bangladesh, there are some basic features and principles which must serve as guides to future Indian action.

India’s relations with Bangladesh, which is one of the most populous Muslim countries in the world, are acutely sensitive. As our neighbour nearly surrounded on all territorial sides by India, there are inevitable bilateral problems of long duration, including the above-cited perennially favourable balance of trade for India, alternate drought and flood in the 54 trans-boundary rivers flowing from India to Bangladesh, illegal migration into India and the smuggling of goods and vulnerable human beings across the approximately 4,100 kilometer land border – a longer frontier, incidentally, than our troubled border with China.

The partitions of 1905, 1947 and 1971 cast their long and malevolent shadow. The turbulent history of East Bengal that became East Pakistan and then Bangladesh, attended by unspeakable bloodshed and violation of human rights, has left emotional wounds that will take generations to heal. In addition, there remain about three lakh ‘Biharis’ in Bangladesh who failed to be resettled in Pakistan, and the presence of militant Islamist groups such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, that have linkages and support from outside Bangladesh.

India’s historic position towards our neighbours is that it will conditionally go the extra mile in accommodating their interests – this represents the now scarcely remembered Gujral doctrine of the 1990s. In return for India’s benign attention and support, Delhi’s expectations are that our neighbour will keep India’s concerns in mind when devising and pursuing its policies, and this understanding is implemented with severity or laxity depending on the regime in Delhi. After decades of pro-Pakistani military and civilian governments following 1975, Mujibur Rahman’s daughter Hasina has been elected to office for a third consecutive term since 2008 and has consolidated her position as unquestioned leader in Bangladesh. She has maintained vigilant supervision over Muslim extremists and on Northeast Indian militant movements sheltering in Bangladesh, with the result that the pacification of India’s Northeast has been greatly facilitated. She has permitted a considerable degree of connectivity between India and its Northeast by land, river and the use of Bangladeshi ports, and Indian investments in Bangladesh, presently of value three billion dollars, have been encouraged. There are at least 100,000 Indian nationals living and working in that country. No one can seriously deny that the present Awami League government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka has taken bold steps to satisfy India over a wide spectrum of activity.

Bangladesh’s perennial dilemma is of being a small country (relatively small compared to India) adjacent to a big one, though Dhaka’s superiority in human indicators and per capita income belies any false sense of our superiority. A self-confident Bangladesh identity is growing fast and it is important for every Bangladeshi leader to parlay with India on an equal footing. It is equally important for India to enjoy good relations with the second or third largest Muslim country in the world. Like India, Bangladesh is neither united nor uniform, but divided by politics, class and identity. Both India and Bangladesh like to stress that the most amicable of relations prevail, which is good in rhetoric, but this rosy picture is often vitiated in reality both by India’s domestic politics and Bangladesh’s internal tensions. One such reality is that mutual goodwill is derailed by political manoeuvres by the ruling party, or government affiliates, or opposition parties, who have no stakes in beneficial bilateralism and this applies to both sides of the border. Bangladesh-India friendship is therefore hostage to psychological and physical impediments and the vagaries of domestic politics. Every regressive action on one side has consequential negative reactions on the other side. This has been in full view this year with demonstrations and deaths in Bangladesh relating to the Citizenship Act during Prime Minister Modi’s visit, and the more recent anti-Hindu riots in response to the scarcely hidden anti-Muslim inclinations of India’s ruling party.