ISAS Working Papers

The past is always an important ‘input’ as a determinant of the present in international relations. This is no different in the case of the shaping of ti es between two major South Asian countries, Bangladesh and India. An examination of India’s role in the emergence of Bangladesh as a sovereign entity in the global scene provides a significant key to the understanding of their mutual behavio u r - pattern in c ontemporary times. This paper will seek to demonstrate that while a large majority of Bangladeshis, with ample reason, were overtly grateful to India for the support rendered during the war of 1971, without which it is broadly agreed the independence of Ba ngladesh could not have been achieved, at least within that limited time - frame of nine months, yet ironically developments linked to such a role also contained elements that would render the future relationship between the two countries full of complexities