Making Sense of India–Bangladesh Relations

Anindya Jyoti Majumdar
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Anindya Jyoti Majumdar: Anindya Jyoti Majumdar is Professor at Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. anindyomail@rediffmail.com

India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, 2014, vol. 70, issue 4, 327-340

Abstract: India and Bangladesh are interrelated in geopolitical relations but their core objectives are different. While geopolitical compulsions introduce the never-ending challenges of proximity to the two parties, including crucial issues of security, migration and resource sharing, Bangladesh is yet to form its own identity in which the perceived image of India figures predominantly, and the attitudes and expectations they develop towards each other shape the pattern of bilateral interactions between the two countries. Solutions to a number of vexed problems remain elusive and irritants in relations out-number gestures of goodwill. While the warmth in relations has frequently fluctuated with the change of regimes, a sustained pattern of uneasiness and mistrust persists. Analysed at three levels of geopolitics, attitudinal effects and functional exchanges, India–Bangladesh relations appear as a reflection of normal big country–small country power relations where policies are formulated on the basis of the primary principle of self-help but are further shaded by the quest for transforming itself into a nation-state by Bangladesh.

Keywords: India; Bangladesh; geopolitics; border security; migration; Bangladeshi identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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