P. K. Balachandran
Since the issues involved have domestic implications, domestic politics in the two countries tend to vitiate the atmosphere and exacerbate the tension.
Relations between Bangladesh and India, which nosedived following the ouster of the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August, appears set to deteriorate further.
A sharpening of Muslim-Hindu conflict in Chittagong, the second most important part of Bangladesh after capital Dhaka, has exacerbated tension with India further.
The Hindu-Muslim conflict, which is at the root of the tension now, is embedded in the domestic politics of both Bangladesh and India. That has its own dynamics, exacerbating tension and making it doubly difficult to solve.
The port city and trading centre of Chittagong has been a hotbed of ethnic, linguistic and religious conflict for decades. Earlier, the fight was between Bengali Muslims and the indigenous Buddhist Chakma tribe in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). Now it is a fight between the Bengali Muslim majority (87%) and the Bengali Hindus (11%) in the whole of Chittagong.
While Muslims are seen by Hindus as being backed by the Bangladeshi State, the Hindus are perceived by the Muslims to be backed by Bangladesh’s neighbour and regional power, India, where an aggressive Hindu nationalism is ruling the roost.
During the violent mass movement of July-August this year which ousted Sheikh Hasina, agitators attacked numerous Hindu properties as Hindus were seen as Hasina’s support base. These attacks instilled mortal fear among the Hindus whose population had already dwindled from about 30% in 1947 to about 8% due to continuous State-backed Islamic intolerance over the years.
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