FRACTURED FOUNDATIONS: REDEFINING THE INDIA-BANGLADESH AXIS

Nineteen seventy-one stands as a rare instance of successful 20th-century interventionism, where India effectively leveraged its military and diplomatic machinery to resolve a mounting humanitarian crisis through the creation of a sovereign Bangladesh.

- SUDHIR S. RAVAL

For over five decades, the bond between the two nations was touted as a unique model of postcolonial cooperation. However, as 2024 gives way to the closing months of 2025, that ‘Special Relationship’ has fractured. The current landscape in Bangladesh represents more than a mere change in government; it signifies a systematic dismantling of bilateral trust and a direct threat to India’s internal security. The ‘Golden Chapter’ is being forcibly closed, replaced by an era of strategic hostility that threatens to return the region to the volatile dynamics of the 1990s.

A DEFINING HISTORICAL PIVOT

The fall of the Awami League government in August 2024 served as a watershed moment. While India maintained that its relationship was with the nation rather than a specific party, the aftermath of the transition suggests a deeper rift. Since the interim government took charge, a virulent strain of anti-Indian sentiment has been mainstreamed, often with the tacit approval of the new authorities. The protests of December 2025, sparked by the death of youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi, have morphed into a state-sanctioned grievance against India. For New Delhi, the crisis has transcended diplomatic friction to become a matter of urgent humanitarian concern. The brutal lynching of Dipu Chandra Das—a Hindu man killed by a mob in Mymensingh under allegations of blasphemy—ignited a firestorm of public indignation within India. This incident, widely circulated on social media, has placed immense pressure on the Indian government to address the deteriorating security of minorities. Simultaneously, targeted attacks on Indian consulates in Chittagong and Rajshahi were perceived in New Delhi not as ‘organic’ unrest, but as a systematic failure of the host state to uphold the Vienna Convention.

THE MINORITY QUESTION: A MORAL AND POLITICAL CRISIS