Strained relations

Rising majoritarianism has inserted hostility in India-Bangladesh ties.

What till recently was a historically important piece of real estate on Dhaka’s urbanscape now lies in ruins—and buried under the rubble is a part of Bangladesh’s cultural ethos deeply linked to India. The razing of Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s house in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi neighbourhood by hordes of college and university students on February 5 and 6 achieved two purposes: It wiped out a part of the people’s liberation struggle—many key decisions related to the fight against the Pakistani army of the day were taken there—and severed a vital cultural link between Bangladesh and India.