Editor-DN
The scenes in Bangladesh are disturbing, and the anger on the streets is palpable. They are reminiscent of the scenes in Colombo just two years ago when the presidential palace was vandalized following the flight of then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa from Sri Lanka.
According to an NDTV report, “Protesters on Monday set fire to a temporary shed at the residence of the (now former) Prime Minister of Bangladesh. They also ransacked Sheikh Hasina’s official residence in Dhaka and vandalized, smashing a statue of his father Mujibur Rahman with hammers, and burning down his party offices as he celebrated his departure as prime minister.”
Such scenes have been widely circulated and analyzed by commentators over the past two days. I will refrain from commenting on whether Bangladesh is falling into the hands of radical Islamic groups or whether there was foreign intervention in Monday’s change of government.
My focus here is different. I want to explore the range of emotions that an average Indian has about a country that has mostly been a good neighbour. The term ‘Ghspathiye’ (which gained prominence after 1947 with the influx of immigrants from the then undivided Pakistan) and the emotions it evokes include sympathy, pain, common heritage, and common love. is a combination of For Rabindran Sangeet – experienced in all different degrees and different times.
The spirit of ‘stealing’
For people living in Assam, Tripura, and the border districts of West Bengal and Bihar, mass migration from what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) between 1948 and 1965 significantly affected the local population. In 1971, the arrivals increased after the troubles surrounding the birth of Bangladesh. According to reliable estimates, there are about two million Bangladeshis in India, half of whom live in Assam and West Bengal alone.
Since then, the term ‘Ghspathiye’, or ‘illegal immigrant’, has become ingrained in the Indian psyche, particularly in the context of Bangladesh. Treatment of these immigrants has often been humiliating, mainly due to class bias. They are considered poor, persecuted, and deprived of few resources. Still, they are not hated, possibly because of another powerful emotion for Bangladeshis: empathy.
We played a role in their freedom.
This sense of sympathy stems from India’s active role in the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan after a bloody struggle. The partition of Pakistan was also seen by many Indians as a confirmation of the belief that creating a nation-state based on religion was a false concept – a belief that led to the partition of India in 1947. This sentiment persists, and occasionally. Anti-India protests in Bangladesh are seen as minor deviations from an otherwise well-behaved neighbor and are therefore largely ignored.
Pain across the border
Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, my generation was exposed to frequent news about the wrath of nature and its devastating losses in Bangladesh. Reports on the November 1970 cyclone, the deadliest on record, indicate that around 5,00,000 lives were lost in what was then East Pakistan. Another typhoon in 1985 killed 11,000 people, and another in 1991 killed nearly 150,000 people.
These reports of widespread destruction often saddened us, and there was a sense of shared pain. Together with empathy, this is an important part of our positive feeling towards Bangladesh.
He also loves his Rabindran Sangeet.
A strong Bengali identity played an important role in the transition of East Pakistan to Bangladesh. After independence, Rabindranath Tagore’s Amar Sonar Bangla, written in 1905, became the country’s new national anthem. Rabindra Sangeet is as popular in West Bengal as it is across the border in Bangladesh. The beautiful Padma River that separates the two geographies has done nothing to diminish this shared legacy.
As relations between India and Bangladesh have remained warm throughout the journey to Bangladesh, the feelings and emotions described above remain. Hence the sense of loss now that we are witnessing widespread vandalism on the streets of Bangladesh.
As the Indian government considers its position and options amid the current turmoil in Bangladesh, it must be mindful of the shared heritage and common sentiments of people across the border. So it should try to ensure that Bangladesh remains a good neighbor for years to come. Given the long history of friendship between the two countries, there is no long question.
(Mayank Mishra is Consulting Editor at NDTV)
Disclaimer: These are the personal views of the author.
