Abstract
This chapter concentrates on a brief period in the history of Indo-Bangladesh relations, but it is a period which reveals more than has been acknowledged regarding the conduct and character of those relations. Analyses of relations between Bangladesh and India during the regime of Ziaur Rahman rarely vary from the common theme that the difficulties which have dogged relations between the two states have usually been generated wittingly, or unwittingly, by Bangladesh. This chapter examines the period from 1982 to 1984, providing evidence to show that Indo-Bangladesh relations underwent both subtle and obvious changes due to pressures emanating not just from within Bangladesh but from the interaction between a variety of internal and external forces.
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Notes and References
S. Mansingh, India’s Search For Power: Indira Gandhi’s Foreign Policy 1966–1982, New Delhi, 1984, p. 262.
S. Tharoor, Reasons of State: Political Development and India’s Foreign Policy Under Indira Gandhi, 1966–1977, New Delhi, 1982, pp. 361–2.
J. Manor (ed.), Nehru to the Nineties: The Changing Office of Prime Minister in India, London, 1994, p. 8.
N. Chakravartty, ‘Bangladesh’, in U.S. Bajpai (ed.), India and Its Neighbourhood, New Delhi, 1986, p. 294.
For example, see N. Chakravartty, ‘Bangladesh’, p. 294, and C.J. Gulati, Bangladesh: Liberation to Fundamentalism (A Study of Volatile Indo Bangladesh Relations), New Delhi, 1988, p. 78.
See P.S. Ghosh, Cooperation and Conflict in South Asia, New Delhi, 1989, p. 96 and Gulati, Bangladesh, p. 85. According to analyst William Richter, Ershad was less antagonistic to India than Zia was, but ‘considerably less pro-India than Mujib’.
W.L. Richter, ‘Mrs. Gandhi’s Neighborhood: Indian Foreign Policy Toward Neighboring Countries’, Journal of Asian and African Studies, vol. XXII, nos. 3–4, 1987, p. 254.
L. Ziring, Bangladesh: From Mujib to Ershad, An Interpretive Study, Oxford, 1992, p. 153.
R.L. Hardgrave, ‘India in 1984: Confrontation, Assassination, and Succession’, Asian Survey, vol. 25, no. 2, 1985, p. 131.
The reason for this was that the 1977 agreement was, after all, a temporary, nonbinding one and could be revoked upon its expiry–as Khurshida Begum has pointed out. K. Begum, Tension over the Farakka Barrage: A Techno-Political Tangle in South Asia, Stuttgart, 1988, pp. 184–5.
These proposals had been put forward in 1974, but more formally in 1978, in response to the need for long-term planning outlined in the 1977 Agreement. See K. Begum, Tension, p. 192, and B. Crow et al., Sharing the Ganges: The Politics and Technology of River Development, New Delhi, 1995, p. 106.
See Lok Sabha debates, vol. 17, no. 16, 7 August 1978, pp. 86–7, and The Bangladesh Observer (Dhaka), 31 May 1979. See also B.M. Abbas, The Ganges Waters Dispute, New Delhi, 1982, pp. 118–24. Begum, Tension, pp. 197–8. The rejection of each other’s option continued throughout the remainder of Zia’s regime. See Asian Recorder, 19 February 1981, p. 15891.
Pro-canal arguments were boosted by the World Bank’s unperturbed approval of the scheme, describing it as ‘practical and reasonable’. S.S. Bindra, Indo-Bangladesh Relations, New Delhi, 1982, p. 120.
S.D. Muni, Pangs of Proximity: India and Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Crisis, New Delhi, 1993, p. 21.
P.J. Bertocci, ‘Bangladesh in 1984: A Year of Protracted Turmoil’, Asian Survey, vol. 25, no. 2, 1985, pp. 155–68. For details of the trade agreement renewal which went a little further to redress the trade imbalance against Bangladesh, see Asian Recorder, 4–10 November 1984, p. 18017.
W.H. Morris-Jones, ‘India — More Questions Than Answers’, Asian Survey, vol. 24, no. 8, 1984, p. 811.
R.L. Hardgrave, ‘India in 1983: New Challenges, Lost Opportunities’, Asian Survey, vol. 24, no. 2, 1984, p. 209.
See R.L. Hardgrave, India Under Pressure, Boulder, 1984, p. 4, and W.H. Morris-Jones, ’India’, pp. 813–14.
M. Weiner, Sons of the Soil: Migration and Ethnic Conflict in India, New Jersey, 1978, p. 80.
L.R. Baral, ‘SARC, But No ‘Shark’: South Asian Regional Cooperation in Perspective’, Pacific Affairs, vol. 58, no. 3, 1985, p. 412.
According to official data, communal incidents and the number of persons killed in India has risen ‘alarmingly’ since the mid-1980s. For example, in 1975, 205 incidents were recorded, while in 1985 there were 525. See S.D. Muni, ‘Ethnic Conflicts, Federalism and Democracy in India’, in S.D. Muni (ed.), Understanding South Asia: Essays in the Memory of Late Professor (Mrs) Urmila Phadnis, New Delhi, 1994, p. 149.
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© 2000 Kathryn Jacques
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Jacques, K. (2000). 1982–4: A New Beginning or the Darkest Hour?. In: Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333982488_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333982488_3
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