Abstract

Bangladesh, born in 1971, endured her very first setback in 1975 when a bloody military coup took place, which killed the father of the nation, and subsequently, the army seized power. From then to 1990, two military dictators ruled the country for a short time as a military dictator and the rest of the time under the veil of the democratically elected President. With the fall of the Mujib government, a new diplomatic stance had taken up; from a socialist, liberal, secular, and democratic state, Bangladesh crawled down to a capitalist, conservative, Islamist and authoritarian form of state. It appears from the policy of the dictators that they had tried to satiate the people through the amendments in the constitution to shape it as an Islamist country and to satisfy the capitalist class, they replaced the moderate socialist economy into a capitalist one. An identical procedure that was implemented by the Pakistani military ruler in the pre-independence era, had been ensued by the military dictators in independent Bangladesh.

The two military dictators and an elected government of the time discussed in this study tried to draw the attention of world leaders who were holding the same ideologies and interests that ran here by them. Consequently, the friendly and warm diplomatic relations with India came to an end and the foreign dependency of Bangladesh became dependent on Pakistan and pro-Pakistan friendly nations for the protection and support of the military government. China and the USA, who vigorously opposed our liberation war, became the key friends of Bangladesh in the diplomatic arena and our largest neighbor country without her help; we couldn't possibly have our independence, became an ultimate scapegoat of our newly adopted foreign policy. A new trait in politics had been intentionally indoctrinated that was the anti-Indian sentiment. From then to now, this trait has been nurtured by most of the political parties who are now out of mainstream politics. In this study, we will try to investigate the transitions, bilateral disputes, and legacies of Bangladesh's diplomatic relations with India from 1975 to 1996.