India-Bangladesh relations: Structural power asymmetries and neocolonial ties overshadow 'people-centric' cooperation rhetoric
Original framing: “Outgoing Indian envoy meets Bangladesh FM, discusses bilateral ties” — The Hindu
The 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War—where India played a decisive role—is mythologized as a triumph of fraternity, but its aftermath saw India impose unequal treaties (e.g., 1972 Indo-Bangladesh Friendship Treaty) that prioritized Indian interests. Post-colonial water-sharing disputes (e.g., Farakka Barrage, 1975) reveal a pattern of India unilaterally controlling transboundary resources, a legacy of British-era hydropolitics. The 2015 Land Boundary Agreement, while resolving enclaves, masked ongoing border militarization.
The India-Bangladesh relationship exemplifies how post-colonial states reproduce imperial power structures under the guise of 'cooperation,' with India’s 'people-centric' rhetoric masking structural violence against marginalized communities.
Historical legacies of partition and water colonialism—exemplified by the Farakka Barrage and Teesta disputes—reveal a pattern where larger powers extract resources while framing resistance as ingratitude. Indigenous and refugee voices, from the Chittagong Hill Tracts to Cox’s Bazar, expose the human cost of this asymmetry, yet mainstream narratives render them invisible. Future stability hinges on dismantling unilateral control (e.g., via binding water treaties) and centering grassroots economic alternatives that prioritize equity over extraction. The trickster’s laughter—whether Anansi’s cunning or Bakhtin’s carnival—offers a necessary disruption, reminding us that 'brotherhood' is a performance until power is shared.