Policy Options for India in Bangladesh

This brief explores future policy options for India in Bangladesh. India and Bangladesh share historical, geographical and cultural bonds. Bangladesh has ‘Bengali’ a lingual and cultural attachment with West Bengal, a province of India. This linkage has, however, not given Bangladesh an impetus in maintaining enduring warm relations with India. Rather, these linkages have been turned into a fear factor called the ‘India factor’ that has been playing a pivotal role (as either a positive or a negative connotation) in India-Bangladesh relations.Bangladesh’s policies towards India have not been uniform. The post-independent ruling elites of Bangladesh have shaped the two distinct nationalistic political discourses within the ‘liberal-secular-linguistic’ (closer to India) and ‘religious nationalistic tendency with ‘Islam its core’ (distancing India). These two distinct national political leanings have shaped India-Bangladesh relations over the last four decades.