A Revisit to the Indian Role in the Bangladesh Liberation War

Abstract

The Liberation War of Bangladesh was seen by the Indian policy makers as a prime time to dismember Pakistan. By the creation of Bangladesh, they pondered: (a) the political enemy on both its borders would be replaced by a far weaker enemy on one side and a friend on the other; (b) secularism would be regarded as a dominant ideology for the developing countries; (c) India would emerge as an Asian superpower; (d) India would establish a subservient government in Bangladesh; (e) Bangladesh would be an extension of the Indian market; (f) India would materialize the Nehruvian vision of the Greater Indian Union.