As two wars continue to destabilise Asia and Europe, and its reverberations are felt across the global economy, India has also had to face trouble closer to home.
With the old structures and perspectives that have long defined South Asia fading away, New Delhi’s neighbourhood has been grappling with domestic political and economic churn.
None, perhaps, hit India harder than the downfall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government in Dhaka, which exacerbates the crisis in India’s near east that, in recent times, began with the civil war in Myanmar. With echoes of the rapid turn of events in Kabul in 2021, India now has to navigate the uncertainties of a new regime in Dhaka–one that is seemingly poised to test India’s comfort in its own neighbourhood. Few are better placed to illuminate these complexities than Dr. Avinash Paliwal, whose latest book, India’s Near East: A New History, a masterly survey of how domestic happenings, both within India, and its Eastern neighbourhood shaped their bilateral interactions, was published just before Hasina’s sudden ejection from Dhaka.
“You can ask me absolutely anything,” assured Avinash warmly as he sat with Sukanya Sharma and Bashir Ali Abbas on November 4, 2024, at the Council for Strategic and Defence Research (CSDR) office in New Delhi, India. Dr. Paliwal kept his word as we explored Bangladesh’s complex and changing political dynamics and the impact such changes could have on India in this intriguing and insightful conversation.
