Abhijit Bhattacharyya | The Delhi-Dhaka saga: Past, present & future

The narrative is tricky, tortuous and fraught with controversy, especially as it comes from a Hindu Bengali refugee scion whose forefathers belonged to Dhaka, then in India and now Bangladesh’s capital.

Consider the evolved psyche of a Bangladeshi senior citizen born on August 1, 1947, in British India. If he had been in India, his passport, Aadhaar and PAN today would call him an Indian, even if born in Dhaka, Chittagong or Barisal. But on August 14, 1947, when 13 days old, he became a Pakistani national. Just 24 years later, in 1971, his nationality again changed to the new country of Bangladesh, then secular, liberal and egalitarian, led by an enlightened Bengal Renaissance-type figure who protested against atrocities by his overbearing, abusive co-religionists. That citizen, born Indian, who became a citizen of Urdu-speaking Pakistan, got a new identity as a Bengali first, Muslim second, in a country founded on its language identity. Bangladesh was South Asia’s first “linguistic” nation in 1971, unlike Pakistan and Nepal, the former an Islamic republic, the latter a Hindu monarchy.

This change of identity from religion to language, however, became an irritant to some religious bigots who didn’t see merit in a Bengali-speaking nation. Bangladesh couldn’t stabilise mainly because of this endless tussle between the majority who were mostly secular and minority religious fundamentalists. Pakistan’s culture of an exclusive religious identity had seeped into the minds of a sizeable chunk of Bengalis on the political fringe and a few Army officers. It didn’t, therefore, take long for Dhaka to emulate its senior Pakistani partner’s coup-happy habits to assassinate Sheikh Mujib in a bloody power grab in August 1975.

From then, until now, the Dhaka-Delhi relationship has been in a rise-fall mode. There’s nothing to show that this fluctuating fortune of love-hate could be any different in future. Whether one likes it or not, Dhaka is a happening city and hence closest to India through the Bengali language. That was always a matter of concern even in 1970-1971 when India, under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, went all out to support the freedom movement leaders of then-East Pakistan, defying all odds and ignoring the bullying of the United States and China’s hostility towards Delhi and Dhaka amidst the atrocities ordered by Pakistan’s military dictator Gen. Yahya Khan and his henchman Tikka Khan, the “Butcher of Bangladesh”.

Fast forward to 2024. Several events stand out, particularly the role played in the background by Communist China. Beijing was the last major nation to recognise the sovereignty of independent Bangladesh, on August 31, 1975, sixteen days after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Dhaka by a Pakistani Army mole in Bangladesh garrison. Indira Gandhi’s India, which was extremely close to Mujib, was left stunned, while both Islamabad and Beijing celebrated.

Today, China reigns supreme in Bangladesh, penetrating its defence sector, as seen from military hardware inventories, training and doctrine. The Belt and Road Initiative has also gone through Bangladesh’s ports, with Chinese workers “operating deep” inside India’s strategic neighbour. Fishing in Bangladeshi waters is a priority for Communist China, which once vehemently opposed Bangladesh’s liberation. Pakistan, on other hand, has to play surreptitiously and lie low due to the flickering and rankling psyche of Bengalis, mainly pertaining to 1971 atrocities and mass killings.

Where does India figure today? The internal polity of both New Delhi and Dhaka play up, for or against each other, in accordance with the insensitive utterances and actions of their respective political leaders. It’s an irony that this is the legacy of the 1947 Partition of India, which on India’s eastern front still remains an unfinished process for some, which creates seasonal complications with potential adverse bilateral consequences at the diplomatic table. Both sides at times make it a political issue, especially in election season, by using unparliamentary semantics to vitiate the atmosphere and gain votes.

This recurring problem traditionally got aggravated because while the Partition in Punjab saw virtually a 1-1 population exchange and killings, which ceased within six months of August 15, 1947, the Bengal vivisection was a hopeless one-way traffic from Dhaka to Kolkata and to other Indian states close to the then East Pakistan (Bangladesh). This adverse situation was made worse by some motormouth Indian leaders when they confusingly call derogatory names for anything or everything, referring to the word “Bangladeshi” even while addressing the Bengalis of India.

Catastrophic long-term seeds can be sown because while the Bengalis of Dhaka silently resented being referred to as “ghuspetia” (infiltrators or illegal migrants) in India, the stamp embossed rampantly on genuine Bengali citizens of India too creates a problem, thus affecting their morale and resulting in retribution on election voting day. In short, even at the best of times, it is unclear when the fair-weather vane will change direction due to some extremely harsh words, when a common linguistic bond strides across borders.

In this context, let us not forget that major nations across the West are now on fire over race, religion and colour issues. The United States is simmering over racial identity issues, as recent remarks by a presidential candidate showed. In Britain, rioting and violent clashes triggered by the far-right, with Muslims and others targeted, have left the new Labour government shaken.

It's still a fluid situation in Dhaka. The East can be beautiful and versatile, as well as brutal and violent if mishandled, irrespective of whether by their own rulers or foreigners. The geographical proximity and commonality of language make India and Bangladesh “one people, two countries” in South Asia. For India, therefore, the best, and only, option now is to wait and watch.

However, one thing must be eschewed at all costs. No Indian border guard or security forces should fire a single shot on unarmed civilians, Indian or Bangladeshi, at the frontier. One bullet can bring in untold misery, unanticipated fire and unpredictable misfortune to both New Delhi and Dhaka. Also, provocative words are best avoided. The humanitarian problems of needs and aspirations must be tackled with brains, not through brawn or bullets. The allegations against the deposed Sheikh Hasina reveal recurring blunders born out of catastrophic errors of judgment over years. One expects India’s diplomats to take up the challenge afresh, despite the present fiasco.