Wednesday
23
October 2024
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM IST
Location
Room 331, School of Arts and Sciences
Central Campus
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India & Bangladesh: The meltdown, the fallout, and the recalibration
Social Sciences Divisional Seminar Series
Sudeep Chakravarti
Professor of Practice
School of Arts and Sciences
Chair, Communication Programme
Speaker
Seismic changes in Bangladesh over July and August 2024, which led to the flight of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India, also highlighted the fraught relationship between India and Bangladesh. India’s staunchest ally in the subcontinent is now in the danger of slipping its moorings. A part of that responsibility lies with India. Over the past decade or so, and in particular since 2022, India’s focus has remained the building of strong ties with Bangladesh to shore up India’s geo-strategic security in northeastern India with a view to curb China, increase trade and investment connectivity, and reduce risks of migration along the vast 4,096 km-long India-Bangladesh border, among other things. With that coming undone on 5th August 2024 with the deposing of Sheikh Hasina, India is now in the eye of a storm. For many Bangladeshis, India was complicit in fostering a despotic, kleptocratic—and ultimately—hammer-fist government. As Bangladesh now struggles to pull back from chaos, and reinvent and rebuild itself, India will need to comprehensively recalibrate its foreign policy attitude and practice towards Bangladesh.
Speaker
Sudeep Chakravarti
Sudeep Chakravarti is a Professor of Practice at the School of Arts and Sciences at Ahmedabad University; and Chair of the Communication Programme. Until August 2024 he was Director of the Center for South Asian Studies at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, where he also taught conflict studies, South Asian literature, ethics, and journalism. He is the author of ten books that encompass history, ethnography, conflict and conflict resolution, geopolitics, geo-economics, and the intersection of business and human rights. These include The Eastern Gate: War and Peace in Nagaland, Manipur and India’s Far East (Simon and Schuster, 2022); Plassey: The Battle that Changed the Course of Indian History (Aleph, 2020); The Bengalis: A Portrait of a Community (Aleph, 2017); Highway 39 (Fourth Estate, 2012); and Red Sun (Viking/Penguin, 2008/2009). His latest book is Fallen City (Aleph, August 2024). An extensively published columnist with wide experience in Indian and global media, he has for three decades advocated conflict resolution and enhanced connectivity in South Asia in general and Eastern South Asia in particular.
