(This article is part of the View From India newsletter curated by The Hindu’s foreign affairs experts. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Monday, subscribe here.)
South Asia doesn’t have to look far for crucial lessons in politics. From the coup in Myanmar, the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in 2021, to the political ouster of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, by a people’s uprising, in 2022, to the more recent fall of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina following a formidable students’ protest, there are many to reflect on, as Suhasini Haidar writes in this analysis of the tumult in the region.
While a stable and prosperous neighbourhood is in India’s best interest, the changes in the region cannot be seen through the lens of Indian interests alone. Each development has meant notable changes for the people of that country and the common lessons are significant in that respect.
Our political establishments tend to separate economic progress and democracy when the two, in fact, reinforce each other. It is democracy that determines the nature of economic progress and whom that benefits, and it is equitable economic development that safeguards political stability. “The old dictum that if you want to ‘raise crop for one year, plant corn…If you want to plant a crop for eternities, raise democracies’ holds true for India and its ties in the neighbourhood,” as Suhasini Haidar points out.
Furthermore, power ultimately rests with the people of our countries, not just the elected leader of the day, as history has repeatedly shown us. It is in this spirit that we closely track developments in Bangladesh since Ms. Hasina’s ouster. What do the evolving changes mean for the people of the country? How is the interim administration shaping up? What consequences do provocative statements and actions have?
Did Ms. Hasina, who described the student protesters as ‘razakars’, succeed in containing the anti-liberation forces that were most effectively represented by the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh? Kallol Bhattacherjee examines
Depending on how things unfold in the coming months as the interim government takes the reins of power, South Asia’s rising star is facing one of its biggest challenges to achieve a pluralistic society based on democratic principles, rule of law, good governance, inclusive growth, and human rights, writes Syed Munir Khasru.
Amid reports of attacks on Bangladesh’s religious minorities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with the Chief Adviser of the new interim government of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, and reiterated his call for safety and security of the “Hindus and all other minority communities” in Bangladesh, even as some, including Hindus, within Bangladesh urged Indian media not to sensationalise reports of such attacks.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka is preparing for its first national election after citizens booted out Mr. Gotabaya, in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis in 2022. The Hindu Editorial noted: “A functional democracy is the first step to fixing the economy.”
Top 5 stories we are reading this week:
1. In a troubling reminder of Israel’s ongoing, brutal offensive the health ministry in Gaza has said at least 40,099 people have been killed in the last 10 months
2. Neighbourhood troubles: On India and instability in the region
3. Choppy waters: On India’s shrinking exports
4. Global South Summit 2024: Speak as one on global governance, Modi tells developing world
5. Covering a mass uprising in real time
