The visuals from Bangladesh are disturbing and the anger of the people on the streets is palpable. These scenes are reminiscent of the scenes in Colombo two years ago when the Presidential Palace was ransacked after the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka.
According to a report NDTV According to the report, “On Monday, protesters set fire to a temporary shed at the residence of the (now former) Bangladesh Prime Minister. They also looted and vandalised Sheikh Hasina’s official residence in Dhaka, smashed a statue of her father Mujibur Rahman with hammers and set fire to her party offices, celebrating her departure as prime minister.”
Such scenes have been widely broadcast and analysed by commentators over the past two days. I will refrain from commenting on whether Bangladesh is falling into the hands of radical Islamist groups or whether there was foreign involvement in the regime change that took place on Monday.
My focus here is different. I want to explore the range of feelings that an average Indian has for a country that has largely been a good neighbour.intruders‘ (which became notorious with the arrival of immigrants from the then undivided Pakistan after 1947) and the diversity of emotions it evokes, a mix of empathy, pain, shared heritage and a common love for Rabindra Sangeet – all experienced in varying degrees at different times.
,intruders‘ Emotion
For those living in Assam, Tripura and parts of border districts of West Bengal and Bihar, mass migration from the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) between 1948 and 1965 significantly affected local demographics. This flow increased after the unrest surrounding the birth of Bangladesh in 1971. According to reliable estimates, there are about 20 million Bangladeshis in India, half of whom are settled in Assam and West Bengal alone.
Since then, the term ‘intruders’, or ‘illegal immigrant’, has become ingrained in the Indian psyche, especially in the context of Bangladesh. Attitudes towards these immigrants have often been disdainful, driven primarily by class prejudice. They are seen as poor, persecuted and a burden on limited resources. Yet, they are not hated, possibly because of another powerful feeling towards Bangladeshis: sympathy.
We played a role in their liberation
This feeling of sympathy derives from India’s active role in the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan after a bloody conflict. The partition of Pakistan was also seen by many Indians as confirmation of the belief that creating a nation-state based on religion was a flawed concept – a belief that had led to the partition of India in 1947. This sentiment persists, and the occasional anti-India protests in Bangladesh are seen as minor aberrations rather than good neighbourliness and are therefore mostly ignored.
The pain across the border
Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, my generation was frequently exposed to news about nature’s fury and its devastating effects in Bangladesh. Reports of the November 1970 cyclone, one of the deadliest ever recorded, indicated that about 500,000 people lost their lives in the then East Pakistan. Another cyclone in 1985 killed 11,000 people, and another in 1991 killed about 150,000 people.
These reports of widespread destruction often saddened us, and we all shared the pain. Combined with empathy, this was an important part of our positive sentiment towards Bangladesh.
He also loves Rabindra Sangeet
Bengali identity played a key role in the transformation of East Pakistan into Bangladesh. After liberation, Rabindranath Tagore’s Amar Sonar Bangla, written in 1905, became the national anthem of the new country. Rabindra sangeet is as popular in West Bengal as it is across the border in Bangladesh. The beautiful Padma river that separates the two geographical regions has left no stone unturned in diluting this shared heritage.
Since relations between India and Bangladesh have been cordial, during my visit to Bangladesh, the feelings and sentiments described above remained. So now that we are witnessing large-scale vandalism on the streets of Bangladesh, we feel a sense of loss.
As the Indian government considers its stance and options amid the current turmoil in Bangladesh, it should take into account the shared heritage and common sentiments of the people across the border. Therefore, it should try to ensure that Bangladesh remains a good neighbour in the years to come. This is no big deal, given the long history of cordiality between the two countries.
(Mayank Mishra is a consulting editor at NDTV)
Disclaimer: These are the personal views of the author