An image from the entrance of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in Dhaka appeared on social media in the last week of November, quickly going viral in India. The image showed the Indian flag placed on the ground at the university gate, with students walking over it before entering the campus.
Recently, Mahfuj Alam, a special aide to Mohammad Yunus and Advisor to the Interim Government, made controversial remarks on social media about annexing parts of India’s eastern and northeastern territories. He shared a distorted map of the region with areas marked under the Bangladeshi flag, suggesting that Bangladesh should capture these Indian territories.
India’s Role in Bangladesh’s Development
Before its liberation, the Pakistani government treated Bangladesh as a second-class region. Their atrocities against the Bengalis led to a struggle for freedom, and it was with the financial aid and military assistance of India that Bangladesh gained its independence in 1971. India’s support didn’t end there.
Bangladesh still relies heavily on India for essential food items including rice, sugar, poultry, and vegetables. Without these imports, the average Bangladeshi would struggle to meet basic needs.
Bangladesh’s economic stability in recent years has been bolstered by its garment industry, which produces clothing for Western markets. A significant portion of the cotton used in these garments is imported from India at much lower rates than from other suppliers.
Additionally, many Bangladeshi women crossed the porous West Bengal-Bangladesh border in order to find work in various Indian cities such as Bangalore, Noida, and Mumbai, where they serve as domestic workers, cooks, and cleaners. Similarly, many Bangladeshi men enter India illegally to work as delivery agents, rickshaw pullers, car washers, or shop assistants. These workers are often undocumented, and Indian security forces regularly apprehend those who illegally enter the country with fake identification documents. Despite this, India has refrained from taking severe action against them.
Bangladeshis living in Europe, North America, and other parts of the Western world also run numerous restaurants and food shops operating as “Indian” establishments. This highlights the extent of Bangladeshis’ dependency on India, both on the subcontinent and beyond.
About 300,000 to 350,000 Bangladeshi citizens travel to India annually for medical treatment. Additionally, thousands of Bangladeshi students are enrolled in Indian universities. Although their visas prohibit participation in political activities, there have been instances of Bangladeshi students and medical visitors engaging in anti-government protests during their stay in India. Despite this, India has shown restraint, likely out of empathy for a country toiling with numerous internal challenges.
A Lack of Gratitude
Despite India’s massive contributions to Bangladesh’s existence and survival, its interim government and citizens have displayed a disquieting lack of gratitude. It currently owes approximately $850 million to Adani Power, an Indian company that supplies electricity. However, this amount pales in comparison to the estimated 20 million illegal Bangladeshis residing in India, straining India’s resources and economy.
The desecration of the Indian flag at BUET was not an isolated incident. Similar actions were reported from Dhaka University and Noakhali Science and Technology University. Bangladeshi Professor Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah confirmed that students at these universities defaced the Indian flag by painting it on the floor and urging others to walk over it.
Bangladesh, as a country, often fails to address fundamental issues such as flood relief. Yet, detached from reality, the jihadi youth continue to fantasize about conquering India’s northeastern states and West Bengal.
The Role of Islam in Shaping Views
One might question why, despite receiving extensive aid from India, many Bangladeshis — especially the youth — harbor such disdain for the country.
The younger generation in Bangladesh is increasingly driven by jihad sentiments, far more than in previous decades. This rise in jihadi views is so striking that it makes Pakistan’s Maulvia seem moderate in comparison.
It is disheartening to see students, especially from prestigious institutions such as engineering colleges, abandoning reason, historical facts, and logic in favor of Islamic dogma. The political instability and security vacuum in Bangladesh have only worsened under incompetent leadership, which has further fueled anti-India sentiment in order to keep the population distracted with communal rhetoric.
For Bangladesh’s Muslim majority, India’s diversity — its massive Hindu population and its religious pluralism — has become a source of bitterness. Many Bangladeshi youth view Pakistan as a more natural ally, convinced that India’s role in the partition of Pakistan hindered the possibility of its rise as a united and prosperous South Asian superpower.
Today, Bangladesh’s growing hatred toward India represents a disturbing example of Islam and jihad in its most dangerous form. Despite India’s efforts to assist Bangladesh in times of need, there seems to be no recognition or gratitude. For the jihadi elements in Bangladesh, no amount of help from a non-Muslim country can overcome their deeply entrenched communal hatred.
This lack of gratitude is not a trait shown by the religious bigots in Bangladesh only. European countries that had earlier opened their doors to refugees from the war-torn Islamic regions are now experiencing the same ingratitude. Bangladesh’s approach to India highlights the harsh reality that, for many Islamic communities, assistance from non-Muslim nations is never enough to overcome their religious biases and animosities.
Luchtpint says
I think I have mentioned this before: without the Indian military effort, Bangladesh would not exist today.
Islam is a totalitarian ideology, and totalitarian ideologies don’t teach their adherents any kind of humility. Rather, such ideologies tend to focus solely on instilling megalomania, arrogance and ingratitude.
That’s what they’re there for.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
While Ashlyn covers the ingratitude of Bangladesh (viz their muslims) towards India, a major thing she glosses over in this story is the stupidity of India over 50 years, and its blindness to both the internal anti-Hindu attitudes in that country, and the external anti-Hindu attitudes, namely the views towards India
➤ In 1971, India had no qualms about supporting the East Pakistanis who were ostensibly on a linguistic break w/ West Pakistan. Totally ignoring the fact that its leader – Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman – was an aide to Syed Hossein Suhrawardy, who was involved in a major genocide of Hindus in 1946 when he was the premier of a united Bengal towards the end of the Raj
➤ One of the issues of Bengali Hindus in East Pakistan was land grabs by the Paki junta. Despite the fact that the bulk of the genocide by Pakistan was of Hindus there, Sheikh Mujib reneged on his agreements to restore them their property, and India too turned a blind eye towards his falsified commitments
➤ Despite Bangladesh being started as a secular country, its successive juntas kept sabotaging it, and in 1989, it was declared an islamic republic. None of that seemed to bother India. As a result, the exodus of Hindus continued. They were 26% of Bangladesh’s population in 1971, and ~8% today
➤ In the meantime, Bangladeshi muslims started filing illegally into India, mainly through the Bengal borders, and different political parties in India kept encouraging it, hoping to get future voters. Pretty much like Democrats over the last 2 decaddes
➤ Since 2001, after 9/11, when jihad activities escalated in India, Bangladesh was the main vector for that activity. After all, India has a real border w/ Pakistan, and what’s more, most Indians have a hostile attitude towards Pakistan. Not so much Bangladesh. As a result, jihadis who wanted to get to India from anywhere – Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, anywhere else only had to set up shop in Bangladesh, and then slip into India
➤ In 2019, when the Indian government contemplated a law called the NRC, which would do a census and figure out how many people were in the country illegally, there was a major backlash, as that was declared to be islamophobic. The Indian government caved and withdrew that law
➤ In 2021, for the first time, Durga Puja celebrations – the #1 religious festival of Bengali Hindus – were married by violence, and thoroughly disrupted. There were no protests from India, neither from the government, nor from average Hindus, even in West Bengal.
➤ Finally, this year, there was an anti quota agitation in Bangladesh, which was even supported by local Hindus, which morphed into a mob action that saw the government quitting once the army pulled support. In the aftermath of that, it morphed into a “free-for-all” for Muslims against Hindus. India sealed its border to prevent Hindus from fleeing Bangladesh, while doing nothing about the muslims already there
➤ All these years, Indians did nothing when Bangladeshi Hindus were on the receiving end, as were Hindu temples and shrines. But suddenly, a few weeks ago, when Bangladeshi muslims started dishonoring India’s flag, all hell broke loose in India, and people started taking umbrage, boycotting Bangladesh. For me, they were some decades late to the party, and that too for the wrong reasons
So yeah, Bangladesh has been ungrateful, but even more so, Indians have been stupid. Which is why to this day, they have normal trading relations w/ that 💩🕳, despite the fact that Bangladesh is a far bigger threat to India than Pakistan
Throughout my life, I had made it a point to boycott Bangladesh every bit as much as I do Pakistan. I’d call on others here to do the same. When you shop for apparel, check the made in label. A lot of it is made in Bangladesh. If it is, just put it down and keep checking out others. These get made in a whole host of countries: it’s not like electronics, which seems to be exclusively made in China. Fortunately, there ain’t too many other areas where Bangladeshi products are common, except maybe some really niche imported foods
Also, Hindus worldwide need to start treating Bangladesh the way Jews would treat, say, Palestinians. Recognize them as the enemy, and boycott them at the very least
aum says
Infidel fair Summary.
Only slight variation I would make is Hindus need to be wary of Muslims and Islam worldwide.
Hindus have suffered over the centuries at the hands of Islam with close to 85 million being slaughtered.
Hindus have only one option under Islamic rule convert or die!
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Aum
I agree w/ you. Only reason I highlight Bangladesh is that while Hindus tend to be wary of Paki muslims elsewhere, and have no reason to really interact w/ other muslims unless they happen to live in a muslim country themselves, they for some bizarre reason have this affinity for Bangladesh muslims. They assume that since they liberated Bangladesh, the muslims of that country are eternally grateful
But as I spelled out above, there is no basis for that assumption
MD Anthony says
GOOD! Hindus have to be wary of Muslims everywhere
abu taleb says
It is pale compared to the ingratitude of muslims in Europe. Europe has accept the muslims who claim as refugees, provided huge support and what Europe receive in return? Crimes, murders and rapes, and still many of the so called refugees are still being paid by tax payers.
James Hoagland says
It is clear that Islam is at the bottom, the root of all this extreme behavior. Disregard for others not muslim is part and parcel of Islamic imperialism. At some point the sub-continent will erupt into a massive blood bath as the Hindu culture must draw a line of self-defense. Under attack from Islam but also from the CCP India must grab hold of its Vedic roots and its incredible spiritual legacy and wage a war of self-defense. Lines must be drawn and the spiritual/cultural base of their existence must become central to all its actions. Not just for Bharat to revive and survive but also for the world to recognize how vital are Bharat’s contributions to understanding life with true meaning.