SADF NEWSLETTER 1 – India and Bangladesh Relations

On 8.12.24, SADF held a podcast with SADF Director Paulo Casaca and Barrister Tania Amir, moderated by Dr. Rayhan Rashid, about current India-Bangladesh relations. These are very strained at the moment, with symbolic actions on both sides; SADF gathered a few points before the podcast. How are we, in the words of Barrister Tania Amir, to ‘connect the dots’ amongst all the happenings?

Paulo Casaca started by pointing out the timing of the first aggressive moves against India, which seem to have occurred as Moody’s published damming reports on Bangladesh’s economy and downgraded its credit. But that is just the start. In his view, current developments in Bangladesh amount to nothing less than an all-out attack on democratic values in South Asia and beyond. The animosity against India, the world’s largest democracy, is natural. Mr. Casaca believes we are witnessing a regression into self-destructive extremism. A shocking example is the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), an organization that spread the word ‘Hare Krishna’ worldwide at the time of the 1971 genocide (George Harrison’s guide) and a proponent of peace and tolerance for decades, which is now being violently attacked, named as a fundamentalist organization by government officials, and under consideration to be banned from Bangladesh.

Barrister Tania Amir believes the Bangladesh-India tensions are fueled by fringe extremists on the streets, on social media and in the print and electronic media, but are not representative of the bulk of the population or of either government. India and Bangladesh’s historical and cultural ties are too strong; their common border too important for both countries – they cannot become enemies. The challenge now is for governments not to respond to provocations by fringe members of society and figure out how to surpass these obstacles. That being said, Ms. Amir is most concerned with the Bangladeshi’s government ‘unwillingness or inability’ to bring those who spread violence to justice. For instance, the events prior to the 5 August coup gave rise to all sorts of random (and very sloppy) criminal accusations against lawyers, judges, progressive public figures and other personalities – Tania Amir herself is currently ‘accused of murder’. By contrast, immunity is granted to all protester actions after 5 August – with the endless violence these involved. Is the Bangladeshi government just overwhelmed by mob violence and other ‘fringe-generated events’ by forces it knows it needs to stay in power or is it actively hunting down progressive figures and benefiting anti-democracy extremists?  The government has released several extremists, such as the Holy Artisan extremists. Equally worrying in this respect is the government’s end of security checks for Pakistanis needing a visa to enter Bangladesh. Given Pakistan’s multiple, world-famous terrorist groups and arms supplies (not to mention religious fanatics), the move is risky to say the least. Such risks are likely to impact India as well.

Madalena Casaca

Madalena Casaca is SADF’s Editor and part-time Researcher for the Democracy Research Programme. Ms Casaca is a graduate in European Studies (graduated 2008) from the University of Lisbon, where she explored with high productivity not only European and Western Social Sciences but also African Studies, Russian Studies, and Anthropology. Ms Casaca also completed a yearly Documentary Programme in Prague in 2012/2013 and attended the Film School of the University of Wales in Newport in 2011/2012, where all the basics of visual communication were explored and developed. Less

A one-year investment was made in Moscow studying the Russian language, of which she holds the B2 degree. Madalena began a Master’s degree in World History at the Moscow State University, where she completed the first semester, receiving the highest marks in all courses. She had to return to Portugal for personal reasons and now raises her young daughters in Lisbon. She is transforming her Masters’ Diploma on World History into a non-academic book.

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