India and Bangladesh: A relationship adrift

Abstract

India and Bangladesh are historically, geographically, and culturally tied to each other to an extent that try as they might they cannot escape this reality and so have to inevitably deal with each other. India's role in the establishment of an independent Bangladesh in 1971 meant that for few years India enjoyed a privileged relationship with the new state. India's assistance to the refugees from East Pakistan as well as its relief and reconstruction aid went a long way in establishing the foundations of a new state. India, not surprisingly, was also the first state to grant recognition to Bangladesh; by pulling its troops out of Bangladesh soon after the end of the war it also acknowledged the new state's sovereignty.¹ In 1972, the two states even signed a “Treaty of Friendship and Peace” for a term of twenty-five years, declaring that each side would respect the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the other, and also refrain from interfering in each other's internal affairs.

Citation

Pant, H.V. (2008), "India and Bangladesh: A relationship adrift", Chatterji, M. and Jain, B.M. (Ed.) Conflict and Peace in South Asia (Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Vol. 5), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 231-247. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1572-8323(08)05015-7