India Must Lose Its Blinkers: Bangladesh's Politics Reflects A 1947 Reality, Not 1971

The rose-tinted view of 1971 is a liability.

A Bangladeshi writer has written a post-election analysis focusing on what is happening inside his country, and how India must wake up to the new realities there. A Times of India article, written by Shahab Enam Khan, a professor of International Relations at Jahangirnagar University and executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Indo-Pacific Affairs, is blunt in its analysis of India-Bangladesh relations going forward. It is necessary for India to take note.

Indian foreign policy tends to take a rose-tinted view of what happened in 1971, but the new (i.e., post-2024) Bangladesh wants to put that behind it and de-emphasise India's role in that liberation struggle. The author puts the message sharply: "Forget shared history. That's over." Khan wants...