When working in Saudi Arabia, as you may well imagine, I had no dearth of Pakistani and Bangladeshi colleagues.
Given our history, there was a constant undercurrent of hostility between Indians and Pakistanis. We had to be careful because of strict office rules, so this animosity took the form of passive aggressive behavior, non-cooperation with each other and deliberate push-back causing wanton delay of each other’s project deadlines. The nuclear tests of 1998 and the Kargil War were tense but interesting times. In a way, I am thankful to the tough environment in Saudi Arabia and their ruthless attitude towards law and order, otherwise it would have been difficult to keep these jingoistic idiots off each other’s jugulars at the time!
We had and have no such history with Bangladesh. We assisted them in their fight for independence in 1971, albeit for our own interests. I don’t think we had any major international diplomatic or political incident between our countries in the decades following that war, leave alone any extended armed conflict. I am sure we have a lot of Bangladeshi immigrants in the northeast, legal and otherwise. Just as India and Pakistan share many commonalities in appearance, culture, food and language, so do the Bengalis of India and those of Bangladesh.
And yet, for some reason, the hostility, suspicion and resentment that I have felt from the Bangladeshis in Saudi Arabia was sometimes even worse than what I got from the Pakistanis. It was difficult to get cooperation from them even on simple tasks, and oftentimes we had to subtly involve a local to resolve the impasse. You could literally sense the hostility in their body language as they bristled at every interaction.
This was true even in America, where this is a sizeable Bangladeshi presence in the food and grocery store industries. Indian buyers far outnumber their own, so of course, most of them have a ‘Indo-Bangla’ name board just as Pakistani stores have ‘Indo-Pak’ ones! But that didn’t necessarily translate to better customer service. The brusque answers and ‘don’t give a damn’ customer service is common. It was not advisable to talk to Bangladeshis about any ongoing cricket match with India! Emotions run very high at such times. I once got a full-throated earful about cheating when I ventured to ask about the possible fate of a critical world cup match! We have seen the on-field celebrations by the Bangladeshi players when they defeated India and won the under-19 World Cup a few years back.
The curiosity quotient is higher in this case because it defies rational explanation. Why should there be so much resentment when nothing egregiously bad has happened? Yes, periodically there has been tension over the treatment of minorities in both countries and some border disputes, but usually the leadership guys have managed to work them out quite quickly and peaceably.
Our relationships with Pakistan and Bangladesh have been a bit paradoxical – the Pakistani populace have been quite friendly with Indians, but their government was always hostile. On the other hand, the Bangladeshi government was on good terms with India, but their people more or less hated us. It’s not as if Pakistan and Bangladesh have been the best of friends always. Their relationship, even in cricket has been acrimonious and bitter.
Of course, all that has changed now. There has been open hostility between the two countries and its peoples too, caused by issues that could have been settled amicably, but have been used to stir up trouble by politicians on both sides. With Pakistan playing a Shakuni-isque role, these issues have now come to boiling point. Pakistan is using Bangladesh as a pawn in their permanent chess game against India. They are still smarting from the 1971 war and want Bangladesh back in their fold.
On this front, I am afraid India has dropped the ball too. Issues have been allowed to fester and come to a head. We cannot afford to have an enemy on the eastern front. That would defeat the purpose and the sacrifices made to befriend them in 1971.
I hope the leadership of both countries takes a leaf out of the past and work towards a lasting peace. However, unfortunately, at the moment, that doesn’t seem to be the direction they are taking.