Bangladesh was created amidst so-much bloodshed and acrimony. However, half a century later, life has indeed come a full circle. If the recent events are any indication, Bangladesh is all poised to become a de facto extension of Pakistan.
Perils of Ignoring the Realities of Nationhood
This was bound to happen because the very creation of the nation was unnatural and had ignored the fundamental realities of nationhood. The nation of Pakistan was formed on the basis of religion. It made historical sense as religion is a natural and potent factor in the creation and sustenance of nations; secularism, on the other hand, is an artificial construct. However, it was split essentially on the basis of language because its rulers were arrogant fools who did not handle the issue of language with the requisite sensitivity and foresight.
The duffers never realized with just three divisions of army they could not control and suppress a restive population of some 70 million, particularly when the army was isolated from its home base by 4,700 km of sea controlled by a hostile country, with little hope of reinforcements. If the rulers had been prudent, the resentment in East Pakistan could very well have been contained or, not allowed to reach that boiling point in the first place.
As blood is thicker than water, the ties of religion are stronger than the difference of language. In the end, religion might not undo history and lead to a unification a la former Germany, it is eminently capable of mending fences. That is exactly what we are witnessing today. The mighty Soviet Union had eventually disintegrated, the all-powerful Communist Party and its fearsome military machine notwithstanding, because the creation of that giant monolith had sought to override the ‘natural’ binding factors that make up a nation.
As Ernst Renan, eminent French political scientist and Orientalist, had also said so beautifully and so eloquently, “The nation, like the individual, is the outcome of a long past of efforts, sacrifices, and devotions. Shared suffering unites more than does joy. In fact, periods of mourning are worth more to national memory than triumphs because they impose duties and require a common effort…A nation is therefore a great solidarity constituted by the feeling of sacrifices made and those that one is still disposed to make.” This was very much true in respect of the creation of Pakistan.
Pakistanis do not mind plagiarizing things shamelessly. Most of us have certainly heard a stirring song from the 1954 film Jaagriti: Aao bacchon tumhein dikhayen jhaanki Hindustan kee, written and sung by Kavi Pradeep; the foot-tapping, highly inspiring music composed by none other than Hemant Kumar. Three years later, the Pakistanis copied it to the last note. The equally popular song from the Pakistani film Bedaari (1957), written by Fayyaz Hashmi and sung by Saleem Raza & Chorus eloquently describes the issue of common suffering that Ernst Renan had spoken of. The title of the song is ‘Aao bacchon sair karaayen tum ko Pakistan ki’ (Come, kids, let us take you on a trip around Pakistan). The song has the refrain ‘Jis ki khatir hum ne di qurbani lakhon jaan ki’, that is, we sacrificed millions of lives during the Partition to create this nation and they must not forget it at any cost.
Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s Strategic Blunder
“Pride, when puffed up, vainly, with many things mounts the wall, only to hurry to that fatal fall”, said the ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles. Nothing exemplifies it better than what has become of Bangladesh. Mrs. Gandhi had no sense of history or the historical examples of how nations are created and held together. The external forces that aided the split of Pakistan were driven not by strategic wisdom but sheer hubris and megalomania of one person, Mrs. Indira Gandhi.
Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s greatest folly, nay blunder, was her sheer ignorance of the history and power of communalism in East Pakistan or, in her megalomania of splitting Pakistan, her deliberately ignoring it. Not only that, she gave a complete miss to the history of the terrible pre-Partition communal riots in Bengal and the fact the Sheikh Mujib himself was an active participant in those riots, not to speak of the discrimination and oppression Hindus had been facing there all those 24 years since Partition. It was sheer naiveté to hope that the new nation of Bangladesh would suddenly drop the weight of its communal past from its collective conscience and become as secular as they romanticists love to delude themselves with.
Crashing Mrs. Gandhi’s fond hopes, Bangladesh is now hurtling inexorably toward an ominous fusion with Pakistan, its long-lost Islamist sibling, in spirit, if not as a political entity.
With the creation of Bangladesh, Mrs. Gandhi actually solved a nagging strategic problem of Pakistan. We must not forget that a fortuitous situation like the Eastern front in 1971 where our sheer numbers and resources could tilt the scale decisively in our favour is not going to present itself again. Now they have to man only one front and there the numerical disparity is not going to be as great as it was in 1971 in East Pakistan. They are no longer bothered with the concerns of provisioning an army stranded thousands of kilometres away across the seas, staring in the face of a naval blockade to boot. Now they will have to fight on only one front with the supply lines being as short as less than a couple of hundreds of kilometres. We should also not forget that on the Western front in 1971, Pakistan was able to halt India from overrunning them even as the Eastern Command had been forced to surrender.
Bangladeshi Politicians Unleash Anti-India Fury
Since the brutal ouster of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, Dhaka’s corridors of power have echoed with anti-India vitriol, fundamentalist fervour, and a brazen pivot to Islamabad. This isn’t mere diplomacy—it’s a resurrection of religious solidarity, where Islam trumps history’s scars, and Hindu-bashing serves as the violent proxy for seething resentment against India’s regional dominance. Bangladesh, long chained to Indian imports, aid, and influence, is now embracing Pakistan’s arms, rice shipments, and military brass with jihadist glee. Bangladeshi hotheads are openly fantasizing about snatching seven sisters of India’s Northeast. Time to wake up and smell the coffee: Bangladesh is morphing into Pakistan 2.0, a radicalized outpost primed for mischief.
We must not dismiss the utterances of the Bangladeshi leaders are ramblings of some extremists sore at Sheikh Hasina having been given shelter in India. Bangladeshi leaders aren’t mincing words—they’re weaponizing them. National Citizen Party firebrand Hasnat Abdullah didn’t just criticize India; on December 15, 2025, he thundered at a Dhaka rally that Bangladesh would harbour “separatists of the seven sisters” if Delhi dared meddle in its February 2026 elections. This wasn’t bluster from the fringes; it was a direct taunt to India’s might. Let us not dismiss it as stupid bluster completely oblivious of their military capabilities—the intent reeks of fantasy fuelled by Islamist rage.
Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus piled on during a September 22, 2025, New York speech, declaring Bangladesh has “problems with India.” He lambasted Delhi for harbouring Hasina and accused Indian media of painting Bangladeshi protests as Islamist uprisings. Yunus isn’t some lone wolf; his words amplify a chorus of resentment against what they perceive as India’s “hegemony”—that suffocating dependence on Indian rice, power grids, and transit routes. These statements aren’t policy papers; they’re signals revealing their subconscious, dovetailing perfectly with the surge of Islamic fundamentalists. Anti-India barbs and jihadist sermons march in lockstep, turning rhetoric into a rallying cry for the faithful.
This toxic brew simmers in a post-Hasina cauldron. Now fundamentalist outfits like Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam flex muscles, demanding Sharia-tinged governance. Their mouthpieces dominate rallies, blending Hasina hatred with Hinduphobia. It’s no coincidence: every anti-India screed nods to the ulema, the clerical overlords whose fatwas now shape street politics. Bangladesh’s youth, radicalized via madrasas and social media, lap it up, seeing Pakistan—not India—as the Ummah’s true ally.
Streets Ablaze: Anti-India Protests & Hindu Bloodbaths
Rhetoric turns to fire on Dhaka’s streets. Since Hasina’s fall, anti-India demonstrations have exploded, with mobs besieging the Indian High Commission in savage displays. December 17-19, 2025, saw “July Oikya” marches turn violent after an anti-India student leader Sharif Osman Hadi’s death, chants of “India Out” ringing as rocks flew at diplomatic outposts in Dhaka and Chittagong. India summoned Bangladesh’s envoy in fury, but these aren’t spontaneous riots—they’re orchestrated by fundamentalists channelling anti-India wrath through the prism of faith. Though in a matter like this, there is little chance of confirmation but it was suggested by a Nepali media outlet that three ISI officers were present in Dhaka. It was under their influence that the Bangladesh police did not disperse the rioters decisively from the beginning and were deliberately ‘cool’ towards the rioters.
Hand-in-hand come the Hindu pogroms, the brutal expression of this cocktail. From August 4-20, 2024, alone, some 2,010 attacks have ravaged minorities: 69 temples torched, 157 Hindu homes and shops looted or burned, five killed—including two Awami League affiliates burned alive. Prothom Alo tallied 1,068 incidents across 49 districts, 295 in Khulna. Amid anti-India protests in Bangladesh, a young Hindu man was brutally killed in a mob lynching in Bhaluka Upazila of Mymensingh district over allegations of insulting Islam. Angry protestors then set Dipu Chandra Das, 27 or 30, on fire. Speaking to NDTV, his father Ravilal Das said, “We found out about it when someone told me he was beaten badly. Half an hour later, my uncle came and told me they took my son and they tied him to a tree… Then they poured kerosene on him and set him on fire. His burned body was left outside.” A Hindu man roasted alive? Not isolated—it’s the street-level jihad against India, with Islamists cheering as Hindus are targeted.
These aren’t random hate crimes; they go pari passu with anti-India fervour. Hindus, 8% of Bangladesh, embody “Indian influence” in fundamentalist eyes—soft targets for mobs venting against the giant and powerful neighbour. Yunus’s interim regime winks at it, prioritizing “stability” over minority rights. The result? An Islamized polity where violence against Hindus signals defiance of India, paving the way for Pakistan’s embrace.
Pakistan’s Prodigal Return: Islam Binds what Language had broken
Pakistan and Bangladesh: twins sundered by the 1971 War, are now reunited by faith. The Language Divide—Bengali vs. Urdu—had shattered their union, but post-Hasina, Islam is all set to override it. Islamabad dispatches rice, ammo, and generals; Dhaka laps it up, ditching their traditional dependence on India for Ummah unity. Cargo ships from Karachi docked in Chittagong in November 2024—the first since the 1971 War. Early 2025 saw 50,000 tons of Pakistani rice flood markets.
High-level ‘pilgrimages’ seal the pact. Pakistan’s CJCSC General Sahir Shamshad Mirza met Yunus in Dhaka on October 26, 2025. Heavy Industries Taxila’s Lt. Gen. Shakir Ullah Khattak followed on November 24, schmoozing Army Chief Gen. Waqar Uz Zaman on defence ties. Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan’s August 21-24 jaunt had birthed four MoUs on trade. FM Ishaq Dar and Touhid Hossain’s May 2025 call vowed deeper bonds. Ammo deals—according to Tribune India—rolled in phased from September-December 2024. The paper reported that just three weeks after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster and the installation of the interim government, Dhaka ordered for fresh supply of artillery ammunition from Pakistan. The details of military exports to Bangladesh from Pakistan were mentioned in a letter sent from POF to Managing Directors of various divisions at Havelian, Sanjwal and Gadwal. The export is to be carried out in three shipments starting 1st week of September and ending in December. This included more than 40,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, 40 tonnes of RDX in wax consistency for explosives and projectiles of high intensity, 2900 in number.
Islam is the glue. Pakistan’s military-mullah nexus mirrors Bangladesh’s rising fundamentalists; shared Salafi dreams trump 1971’s blood. Dhaka’s Islamists hail Lahore as the sword arm of the faith, while Pakistan eyes Bangladesh as a dagger at India’s flank. Trade resumption? It’s jihadist economics—rice as bait, arms as bond. Language be damned; Islam unites them against what they perceive as the common Hindu neighbour.
Arms Bazaar Bonanza: Arming the Islamist Surge
Bangladesh’s arsenal swells, courtesy of Pakistan, Turkey, and China. Turkey’s July 2025 navy pact delivers Venom LR 30mm guns, M2 QCB machine guns; talks brew for Cypher SAMs, drone co-production, and Chittagong defence hubs. Bangladesh is modernizing its air force with plans to acquire new fighter jets like Chinese J-10CEs and potentially JF-17s, and has signed a letter of intent for Eurofighter Typhoons, with some jets expected at new or upgraded bases like Lalmonirhat and Cox’s Bazar, raising strategic concerns for India due to proximity to the Siliguri Corridor. (Interested readers may refer to a Centre for Joint Warfare Studies article ‘Bangladesh’s Potential Acquisition of New-Generation Multirole Fighter Jets from China: Security Implications for India’ for details.) The country’s “Forces Goals 2030” plan includes expanding airfields and capabilities, potentially using older WWII-era airbases, while also deepening military ties with China and Pakistan for these acquisitions and support, as seen in increased high-level meetings and joint exercises. Even Uncle Sam chips in RQ-21A Blackjack drones.
This spree cannot be dismissed as defensive—it’s offensive prep, amid fundamentalist ascendance. Islamists demand a “pure” army; these toys empower it. Pakistan’s ammo equips jihadist sympathizers; Turkey’s Ottoman revivalism resonates with Caliphate dreams.
Foreign Puppeteers: China, US Fuel the Fire
China cements dominance with Padma Bridge loans and Chattogram port grabs—Yunus begs for more FDI, Xi’s visit looms. As for the US, their mask if off—ever since they started sleeping with a dreaded terrorist Abu Mohammad al Jolani who carried a bounty of $10 million on his head, they do not even pretend to have any qualms about fundamentalists. Both China and the USA are courting the Islamists: Beijing for strings, Washington to keep India on tenterhooks.
It is widely believed that the US engineered the coup. As I wrote in an earlier article, it had all the trappings of an engineered coup. They deserve 100% marks for their professional excellence in having ‘mobilized’ such a large number of rioters, having ‘bought’ the political opponents/Islamists to add both width and sharp edge of widespread violence to it, and for having suitably ‘won over and controlled’ critical leadership of the armed forces. In order to continue projecting the image of a ‘essentially peaceful and legitimate student protest fuelled by her wrong decisions’, the army and the air force provided her the helicopter and the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft to enable her to flee. That was a dead giveaway of an engineered coup because had the army not intervened according to the pre-written script and taken her out safely, she would certainly have been lynched by the mob. Had the students been the prime movers, the agitation should have subsided after their supreme court substantially scaled back the job quota order on July 21. But, it did not subside and thus betrays the real prime movers behind them.
Yet Pakistan, at the moment, steals the show—Islam’s pull trumps dollars. Yunus juggles, but fundamentalists steer toward Lahore.
The Radical Reckoning: Bangladesh’s Islamist Destiny
Bangladesh resents India’s power and the burden of ‘discarded gratitude’—food, floods, borders, refugees—and lashes out via Hindu blood and Pakistani hugs. Fundamentalists are no longer side players; they’re the directors, their anti-India hate and Hindu pogroms are one beast with two heads. Pakistan’s return? Pure Islamic magnetism, language forgotten in faith’s fire.
Bangladesh today isn’t just an extension of Pakistan in spirit—it is history rewriting itself for those who had refused to learn from it.
An excellent article; blows out the popularly held myth that the partition of Pakistan was a major strategic win for India. Sh N C Asthana’s approach is rational and incisive as ever.
The article provides a thorough portrayal of the geopolitical and cultural aspects of India and undivided Pakistan. The sequence of events are vivid, thoughtfully supported by examples, facts and logics, which makes the narrative genuinely interesting. Keep enlightening us.
The article raises legitimate security concerns. The documented artillery rounds from Pakistan and Bangladesh’s military modernization will create a credible two-front threat requiring resource redeployment. Hindu violence and anti-India protests indicate potential destabilization vectors that could spawn proxy conflicts or refugee crises, the piece presents one plausible interpretation of recent events.