#India-Bangladesh Border

[lyricsolution-com]

Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri Shares BTS Pictures From His Research For ‘The Delhi Files’ At The India-Bangladesh Border | Movies News

Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri is deep into the research for his highly anticipated upcoming film, ‘The Delhi Files.’ Known for his thorough approach, Agnihotri is once again diving into every intricate detail to bring authentic narratives to the screen. Recently, the filmmaker visited the India-Bangladesh border as part of his research and shared some behind-the-scenes (BTS) pictures from his…

[mapsontheweb]

Both India and Bangladesh claimed sovereignty of this island of New Moore. Dispute was resolved after it disappeared due to sea-level rise

[0ystercatcher]

help so for the entirety of the past two days of reading about the iran pakistan stuff ive, for some reason, been thinking pakistan is where bangladesh is. so i was so fucking confused when they mentioned borders. i was fully swapping these two countries geographically, for some insane reason. ive SEEN graphs and maps about this less than 24 hours ago. i just never processed it fully thats NOT where either of those thangs is. and like, i KNOW where iran is. am i going senile...?? at 26...??

[nepalenergyforum]

Private Power Producers Call for Policy Reforms to Capitalize on Cross-Border Electricity Trade

KATHMANDU, Oct 6: Private sector power producers have demanded the government to address the issues related to the procedural delay along with promoting the construction of transmission lines to capitalize the benefit from electricity exports. While welcoming the recent tripartite agreement among Nepal, India and Bangladesh for the cross-border electricity trade, the Independent Power Producers’…

[beenasarwar]

When we meet: A cross-border journalism program provides a lifeline for regional collaboration

How the East-West Center in faraway Hawaii has enabled cross-border journalism that combines regional narratives with worldwide developments.

The East-West Center in faraway Hawaii has long enabled cross-border journalism that combines regional narratives with worldwide developments. By Lubna Jerar Naqvi and Laxmi Devi Aere “I have never met a Pakistani before!” an Indian journalist had exclaimed when he met a group of Pakistani colleagues in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 2022.  Such people-to-people encounters are all too rare, particularly…

[blogie2705]

Bangladesh: Will there be another Pakistan on India’s western border?

There  is more, which is not meeting the eye in the border state. Bangladesh is experiencing significant unrest once more, with nearly 100 fatalities reported on Sunday as demonstrators demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina engaged in confrontations with security personnel and supporters of the ruling party. In the previous month, violence instigated by student organizations opposing reserved quotas in government employment resulted in at least 150 deaths and thousands of injuries. Below are the details regarding the recent protests and their historical context. The well planned and executed plan with possible help from two neighbouring nations, situation provides them with several entry points into India for various activities. Their objective is to see the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) attain power and extend support to another nation. Hasina endeavoured to maintain a balanced relationship with both Neighbouring nation and India; however, her neutral position did not sit well with another capital city. "Notably, several prominent members of the Islamic student organization successfully engaged with Western-affiliated NGOs by employing the language of democracy and rights," was articulated as part of the strategic planning.

What does the spies reported?

Following the deepening relationship between the Indian and Bangladeshi administrations, the Jamaat-e-Islami, which is supported by the ISI, reportedly obtained considerable financial resources earlier this year aimed at undermining the government of Sheikh Hasina. An intelligence official informed TOI that a notable share of this funding is thought to have come from Chinese organizations based in neighbouring nation

The ICS, recognized for its opposition to India and its jihadist objectives, has been monitored by Indian intelligence for a considerable period due to its operations in areas neigh boring Bangladesh and its connections with the ISI-supported Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI). There is substantial evidence indicating that members of the ICS have received training in both Afghanistan and Neighouring nation. The primary aim of Jamaat or ICS is to create a government in Bangladesh akin to that of the Taliban, with the ISI reportedly providing assurances of support to help realize this ambition.

What was the trigger for the bloody protest?

Protests commenced at university campuses in June following the High Court's reestablishment of a quota system for government employment, which reversed a 2018 ruling by Hasina's administration that had abolished it. Subsequently, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court's decision in response to the government's appeal and ultimately annulled the lower court's ruling last month, mandating that 93% of positions be available to candidates based on merit.

Rising levels of unemployment

FLAGGING ECONOMY, UNEMPLOYMENT

The current turmoil in Bangladesh is largely linked to the lack of growth in private sector employment, which has rendered public sector positions, characterized by consistent salary increases and benefits, particularly appealing. The introduction of quotas has incited frustration among students facing significant youth unemployment, with approximately 32 million young individuals either unemployed or out of educational institutions in a total population of 170 million. The economy, which was previously one of the fastest-growing globally due to the thriving garment industry, has now stagnated. Inflation rates are approximately 10% annually, and foreign currency reserves are diminishing.

The protests in Bangladesh, which initially aimed to reform the quota system, came to a halt following the Supreme Court's decision to abolish the majority of quotas on July 21. Nevertheless, demonstrators resumed their activities last week, calling for a public apology from Prime Minister Hasina regarding the violence, the restoration of internet services, the reopening of college and university campuses, and the release of individuals who had been detained.

In the recent weeks, the protest’s  , they have since evolved into a broader protest against Prime Minister Hasina and the Awami League Party. The demonstrators have made it clear that their primary demand is for Hasina to resign, while the government claims that the agitation is being orchestrated by the Bangladesh.Demonstrations have persisted even after the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court annulled the High Court's order that had triggered the crisis. The ruling body declared that 93% of positions in government services would be allocated based on merit, with only 5% of jobs set aside for freedom fighters and their descendants. Additionally, a 1% quota has been designated for tribal communities, individuals with disabilities, and sexual minorities.

https://www.businesstoday.in/world/story/bangladesh-unrest-do-isi-neighouring nation-have-a-hand-in-conspiracy-to-oust-sheikh-hasina-heres-what-we-know-440315-2024-08-06

An historic context that dates back to 1972

Following the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, the country underwent significant transformations in its social, economic, and political structures. A fundamental promise underlying the establishment of the state was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's commitment to ensuring justice for those who had endured sacrifices and hardships in the struggle for freedom against the Neighbouring national military. Upon his return to Dhaka in 1972, Mujib took decisive steps to implement a quota system for freedom fighters, known as Mukti joddhas. Additionally, he established a separate quota for Bangladeshi women who had suffered atrocities at the hands of the Neighbouring national military. However, after Sheikh Mujib's assassination in 1975, the quota system experienced modifications. The provisions for freedom fighters were weakened, and the scope of the quota was broadened to include marginalized groups within society, encompassing women, individuals from underdeveloped regions, and ethnic minorities or tribes

Why were students protesting in Bangladesh?

The protests started in early July, driven by the peaceful demands of university students to eliminate quotas in civil service jobs. These quotas, which reserve one-third of positions for the relatives of veterans from Bangladesh's war for independence from Neighbouring nation in 1971. The foundation of these protests stems from a contentious quota system, which allocates up to 30% of government positions to the relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence against Neighbouring nation. The Bangladesh Police have resorted to using tear gas against the protesters.

Protests regarding the quota system have emerged due to a significant decline in the number of freedom fighters eligible to benefit from it over the years. This reduction has resulted in the underutilization of the quota for its intended purpose, thereby increasing the likelihood of its misuse. Critics argue that while it was justifiable to provide reservations to freedom fighters during their active years in the workforce, the practice of extending these reservations to their descendants—first to their children and subsequently to their grandchildren—has raised concerns. This opposition is further fueled by allegations that any shortfalls in the reserved seats are being compensated by granting quotas to members of Ms. Hasina’s Awami League party.

The political landscape of Bangladesh has been predominantly influenced by Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and her political party, the Awami League. Over time, opposition parties and government critics have increasingly expressed concerns that the quota system for freedom fighters serves as a mechanism to cultivate a faction of loyalists within the bureaucracy, thereby securing the Awami League's ongoing governance.

A possible dubious ploy supported by external fore

According to high-level intelligence sources, two nations played a significant role in the crisis in Bangladesh that resulted in Sheikh Hasina's departure. CNN-News18 was the first outlet to report on the potential resignation of Hasina from her position as Prime Minister. Unverified report indicates, David Burgan, based in the United Kingdom, along with activist Pinaki Bhattacharjee, Tarique Rehman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and the proprietors of Netra News, were identified as the principal coordinators. They orchestrated a social media campaign targeting her and were responsible for the military maneuvers as well as the initiation of a fabricated narrative on social media platforms.

Reports are emerging that a fabricated narrative regarding Prime Minister Hasina was constructed by the United States concerning the issue of "free and fair elections." Furthermore, the US imposed sanctions on Bangladesh's elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) due to allegations of human rights abuses. It is noted that the BNP has significant influence within this context. Additionally, Yunus Hasan, a Nobel laureate associated with Grameen Bank and accused of corruption in Bangladesh, is also active as a lobbyist in the United States, as per the sources. The sources indicated that the lobbying efforts by four to five prominent individuals, combined with Hasina's unwillingness to comply with American demands, contributed to the situation's deterioration.

An additional factor was her geographical closeness to Neighouring nation, as perceived by Western nations. In contrast, Tarique has promised the West that upon regaining power, he will sever connections with Neighouring nation and prioritize Western interests in Bangladesh, according to sources. Another tactic involves maintaining regional instability, which would also pose challenges for India, thereby diverting its attention to Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, and Neighouring nation, as reported by sources. Furthermore, Neighbouring nation's Inter-Services Intelligence has significantly contributed to these efforts, operating both directly and indirectly in support of Western objectives, according to sources.

Role of neighboring enemy nation which is inimical to India’s growth cannot be ruled out, which expect an anti-India government to be formed in Bangaldesh, to ferment contestant trouble, destabilize the country, possibly create a civil war like situation, which will directly impact India and especially the border stage of Bengal and Assam populated with a sizeable minority community. A foreign intelligence agency is leveraging an anti-India organization along with its student faction to exacerbate the situation in Dhaka. Jamaat is perceived to have strong ties with Neighbouring nation, receiving covert financial support intermittently. Recently, an atypical action was observed, which is generally not undertaken by diplomatic missions. The Neighbouring national embassy encouraged students to seek refuge within the mission if necessary. Such conduct is rarely exhibited by diplomatic entities. As a result, they gain access to various border entry points into India for a wide range of activities. Their objective is to see the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) ascend to power and extend support to Neighbouring nation.

A possible role of another neighboring nation cannot be ruled out which must also be in the scanner of Indian security top-brass. However, they maintain strong business relationships with Hasina. The evident indication is the assault on Hindus, which is also aimed at fostering anti-India sentiments. If this situation is not managed, the next phase will involve the initiation of terrorist activities.

As reported in prominent news channel, the role of a neighbor that is aligned with as more advantageous. An intelligence source cited in a TOI report suggests that "the assistance from Neighouring nation's ministry of state and security is believed to have played a supportive role, given Neighouring nation concerns regarding Hasina's 'balancing act' in her interactions with both India and Neighouring nation. A government in Dhaka that is influenced by Neighouring nation would undoubtedly align more closely with Neighouring nation interests."

What next?

in the wake of Hasina's exit, the chief of the Bangladesh army is scheduled to engage with leaders of the student protest movement, as the nation looks forward to establishing a new government. The Students Against Discrimination initiative has put forth Nobel Prize winner Mohammad Yunus as a candidate to lead an interim administration.

[minnesotafollower]

Migrants from All Over Flocking to U.S.  

For the fiscal year ending September 30, 2023, arrests at the U.S. Southwest border of migrants from China, India, Mauritania, Senegal, Russia and other distant countries tripled to 214,000. This is a special challenge for the U.S. because deporting them is “time-consuming, expensive and sometimes not possible.” As a result, the U.S. is actively working on obtaining agreements for removal of such…

[newzzwired]

Government sanctioned Rs 30 crore funds for 5,500 CCTVs, surveillance gadgets at Pakistan, Bangladesh borders: BSF DG : The Tribune India

Government sanctioned Rs 30 crore funds for 5,500 CCTVs, surveillance gadgets at Pakistan, Bangladesh borders: BSF DG : The Tribune India

PTI New Delhi, November 30 The government has sanctioned a fund of Rs 30 crore to procure surveillance cameras, drones and other monitoring gadgets for the BSF deployed to guard Indian fronts along Pakistan and Bangladesh even as it is deploying 5,500 security cameras in the front areas, the chief of the paramilitary said Wednesday. Reiterating that the illegal activity of drones along the…

[rockdesignbd]

India - Bangladesh friendship gate. #reyes #bangladesh #india #meghalaya #border #travel #indiabangladeshborder #tamabil #tourism (at Tamabil Boder INDIA Bangladesh Friendship Gate) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClQerDTvWWm/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[nohkalikai]

DONATE FOR ISLAMIC RELIEF'S EMERGENCY RESPONSE TO CYCLONE REMAL IN BANGLADESH

select the 'Global Emergencies' fund

Islamic Relief is expanding our emergency response to help those affected by an enormous cyclone that has laid waste to the Bangladeshi coastline over the past few days.

More than 3.7 million people across 19 districts have been affected, with more than 35,000 homes destroyed and a further 115,000 suffering damage.

The districts of Bagerhat, Satkhira, Khulna, and Patuakhali have been most heavily affected.

Thousands of people remain trapped in waterlogged coastal areas as the strong winds and heavy rainfall continues.

A devastating impact

After making landfall close to the Bangladesh-India border on Sunday 26 May, Cyclone Remal has battered coastal regions with strong gales of 110 km/h.

Torrential rain and huge tidal surges as large as 7 feet high have left countless villages flooded.

According to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, over 800,000 people have been evacuated to shelters amid fears up to 8.4 million could ultimately be affected.

10 individuals have died as a result of the cyclone.

Due to the heavy rainfall, landslides are forecast in areas such as Cox’s Bazar, Chattogram and the hill districts. The Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar could be affected, with landslides threatening approximately 27,000 Rohingya. More than 840 shelters have been reported as partially or totally damaged so far.

The cyclone has caused further issues with 26 million people living in Bangladesh’s coastal belt currently without electricity.  

Rising floodwaters have also caused embankments to break in regions such as Kalapara in the Patuakhali district, Amtali in the Barguna district, and Gabura in the Satkhira district.

Bangladesh is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change, regularly suffering extremes including heatwaves and flooding.

Going where we are most needed

Islamic Relief has already begun to help survivors of the cyclone, providing supplementary food packs in the hours before the cyclone made landfall. More than 300 of the most vulnerable families in Satkira received food packs of rice, sugar, energy biscuits, and drinking water that will last at least 7 days.

Moving forward, Islamic Relief’s emergency response will be targeting the badly affected areas of Amtali of Barguna district and Kalapara of Patuakhali district where we will provide 500 families with food packs.

Our initial allocation will also aim to provide 1,735 families with hygiene kits and providing cash transfers enabling them to purchase food, access clean water and emergency shelter items.

As the rainfall continues, Islamic Relief will continue to liaise with the Bangladesh government and work with local authorities to increase our emergency response.

[fatehbaz]

About the lethal world-altering power of "legal fictions of property" and creation of laws in British imperial attempts to control the monsoon-flooded rivers and deltas of Bengal, described in Debjani Bhattacharyya's work (Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta: The Making of Calcutta, 2019). Other scholars have also come to similar conclusions about British treatment of Bengal. It's kind of a nice microcosm not just of British rule in South Asia, but also of imperial attempts to control ecology, communities, and imaginations across the planet.

In deltas, shorelines, seasonally-flooded rivers and riparian wetlands, mangrove forests, etc., there may not be clear distinctions between "land" and "water". The boundaries might change every year, every season, sometimes every day, depending on tide, floods, etc. So, if empires like Britain or the United States are to control such a place, there are two different challenges here. One challenge is, maybe more obviously, material, physical. The other is ontological, imaginative, etc., or what not.

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The material or physical challenge is:

How does the empire tax or administer properties if the property changes seasonally depending on rivers, floods, precipitation, etc.? How does the empire "manage" local social/financial conditions if there isn't clear recognition of a stable title, landlord, authority figure? Where is the solid property boundary that can facilitate ownership transfer, zoning, revenue collection, etc.? How does the empire force people into industrial or plantation labor if the empire can't use the threat of home-loss or job-loss to coerce local people? How does the empire install development projects or extractive industries, like roads, bridges, monoculture/plantation fields, etc., if the land and water are always in motion, fluid, changing?

The ontological challenge is:

Part of the empire's power comes from its ability to conquer the imagination, to capture the future, to insist that there is no other way, there are no other options. Empire is inevitable. And the empire insists that borders are "real", definite, strict. But how can you believe the empire's claims about strict boundaries, about the inevitability of their future, when you can clearly see an alternative, when you are living in an ecosystem where land and water are in a kind of dance, influencing each other, fluid, impermanent?

And the empire doesn't appreciate physical, material challenges. But the empire especially doesn't want any ontological challenges. If you can identify other ways of being, alternative lives, other futures, you undermine the empire's claim to inevitability and inspire others to live otherwise. In a way, a river or a delta or an estuary, they are a provocation; as if they were alive, agents themselves, these environments are a direct challenge to empire's claims.

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A summary of this imperial conundrum, from Natasha Ginwala and Vivian Ziherl:

'[T]his tropical coastal ecology is a site of continual refiguration: neither sea nor land, neither river nor sea, bearing neither salty nor fresh water […]. The Sundarbans covers an area of 10,000 square kilometers of intertidal zones between parts of southwestern Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal in India. The largest mangrove forest in the world […]. As a landscape, the Sundarbans is marked by unfixity, since its intertidal nature places it between appearance and disappearance – with islands being submerged overnight. […] [T]heir porous quality does not allow for clear border-making. [...] [W]e are met with the trembling instability of borders. [...] [H]ere the coastline becomes indiscernible as a single entity. The legal vexations of such amphibious and obtuse terrain become pronounced in sea-rights cases, wherein border-making becomes the necessity of tenure.' ["Sensing Grounds: Mangroves, Unauthentic Belonging, Extra-Territoriality." e-flux Journal Issue #45. May 2013.]

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So, those "legal vexations", "wherein border-making becomes the necessity of tenure [ownership]"? That's what Bhattacharyya discusses, how laws become "technologies of property" in Bengal.

Basically, Bhattacharyya describes "the legal processes through which the mobility of the landscape was accommodated into the architecture of ownership" (p. 77); "drying a tidal landscape was as much an infrastructural project as it was an ontological endeavor in producing a dry culture with colonial law as its handmaiden" (p. 83)' "the materiality of the paper" functioned as "a legitimizing object of modern property" (p. 100); the British/US/imperial imagination of rivers were "characterized by a cartographic-mindedness that captures and fixes the spatial mobility. The colonial journey is one of reterritorialization that involves mapping, measuring and fixing" (p. 122).

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In the tags of my post, I mentioned that the "legal engineering to conquer rivers in Bengal" is also the focus of two other scholars who examine the relationships with water, the creation of private property, and the power of colonial law-making in Bengal:

Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt and Rohan Ignatious D'Souza.

D'Souza authored Drowned and Dammed: Colonial Capitalism and Flood Control in Eastern India (1803-1946), which provides nice coverage from the East India Company, through the Mutiny and nineteenth-century expansion of finance and plantations, into modernist development of the twentieth century.

And I think Lahiri-Dutt sums up this whole situation nicely:

'Traveling through Bengal in the eighteenth century, […] [travelers] saw a highly sophisticated water-based economy – the blessing of rivers […]. Bengal’s essential character as a fluid landscape was changed during the colonial times through legal interventions that were aimed at stabilizing lands and waters, at creating permanent boundaries between them, [...] in a land of shifting river courses, inundated irrigation, and river-based life. Such a separation of land and water was made possible not just by physical constructions but first and foremost by engineering a legal framework. […] BADA, which stands for the Bengal Alluvion and Diluvion Act, a law passed by the colonial British rulers in 1825 […]. Nature here represents a borderless world, or at best one in which borders are not fixed lines on the ground demarcating a territory, but are negotiated spaces or zones. Such “[...] spaces” comprise “not [only] lines of separation but zones of interaction…transformation, transgression, and possibility” […]. Current boundaries of land and water are as much products of history as nature and the colonial rule of Bengal played a key role in changing the ideas and valuations of both. […] [R]ivers do not always flow along a certain route […]. The laws that the colonial British brought to Bengal, however, were founded upon the thinking of land as being fixed in place. […] To entrench the system, the Permanent Settlement of 1793 created zamindars (or landlords) “in perpetuity” – meaning for good. The system was aimed at reducing the complexities of revenue collection due to erratically shifting lands and unpredictable harvests in a monsoon-dependent area […]. From a riverine community, within a hundred years, Bengal was transformed into a land-based community.' ["Commodified Land, Dangerous Water: Colonial Perceptions of Riverine Bengal." RCC Perspectives, no. 3. 2014.]

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Part of why I appreciate Bhattacharyya's take on it is that she focuses on what was lost, not just in terms of physical landscape, material accessibility, etc., but also what was lost culturally, emotionally. Stories, traditions, ways of being. This is why Bhattacharyya describes this process of British rule in Bengal "a history of forgetting". She says: "And because we forget, it is harder for us to imagine alternatives".

Basically, British legal maneuvers to strictly define borders between land and water in Bengal, achieved several things: Yes, faced with frequent seasonal/annual changes of where shorelines and islands, etc., were located, part of the benefit of this legal defining and clarification of solid land was allowing the empire to map and administer stable segments of property for purposes of taxes, records, and development projects (roads, bridges, canals, etc.). This "permanence" of property then allowed for the opening of the door to financialization, so that investors in London or Calcutta could participate in financial speculation on the real estate market.

Another benefit was the installation of "private" property and strengthening the power of landlords, enforcing a social hierarchy, detaching poorer people from land access, resulting in conditions of indebtedness. Of course, the precarity of debt and lack of access to land then essentially forced poorer people into wage labour, factory work, plantations.

After all, Britain needed laborers to staff its expanding and notorious Assamese tea plantations. And the empire did this repeatedly elsewhere, too: Alienated people by using legal frameworks to force them into debt or homelessness, and then using those alienated people to work in terrible industrial conditions, often far away from their homes. Just as earlier nineteenth-century metropolitan London staffed its factories with indebted and impoverished people from elsewhere in England, Britain staffed its Assameses tea plantations with poor people from central India, and Britain staffed its plantations and infrastructure projects in Malaya with "coolies" and convicts from Bombay.

Outside of these material consequences, there is also the insidious lasting devastation of alienation itself. Emotionally. Loss of stories, songs, traditions, relationships, etc. The river, the delta, the ecosystem that you know and love, is not accessible to you. And so the empire's definitions and traditions are made resolute, the only possible future. There is no alternative.

But the river says otherwise.

[xclowniex]

I have two questions and apologies if this seems wordy, but I'm a little bit confused. I learned about the "Land for All" solution, which is two-states, one homeland solution, and I think that that is what I think the solution to the conflict is. However, I've seen people argue for a strict 1SS or 2SS solution and I'm confused.

Do you think a 1 state solution will ever be possible? Because right now, the Gaza strip and the West Bank are not physically connected, and I don't see it working out well. (Pakistan and Bangladesh being separated by India, for example. It didn't work). Obviously we can't force people to move just redesignate what is now Palestine and what is now Israel. I really can't see either of those territories functioning independently but they're also very different (culturally/politically/socially, I've seen Gaza and the West Bank beginning to diverge). But a 1SS seems theoretically possible, given that 20% of Israelis are Arab. Is there a huge difference between Israeli Arabs and Palestinian Arabs?

What is it that makes Israel a Jewish country. I understand that Jews are indigenous to the Levant and that indigenous groups have the right to self-autonomy. I am not disputing that, and I have no problem with Israel existing. But what EXACTLY makes Israel a Jewish state? Is it the population demographics (majority Jewish), the fact that the country follows Jewish rules? Jewish culture/language? Presence of Kosher food? Because I've heard a lot of pro-palestinians argue that instead of the State of Israel, there should be a 1SS Land for All solution. But that risks Jews not being the majority, and many Arabs in Palestine have been brainwashed to hate Jews (not saying Arabs are inherently evil. Obviously I disagree with that. But Jews live side by side with Arabs in Israel. The reverse simply does not happen in Palestinian territories.) so "Israel" (or whatever the hypothetical 1 State would be called) would no longer be a Jewish country. But many people say that a 1 state solution is the ideal solution. I guess my question is "why", because a 1SS denies the existence of a Jewish nation.

Hi there! So to answer your questions, I am just going to need to clarify a few things you may be confused on.

Land for all is not a one state solution of Israel or Palestine nor two states one homeland. It is essentially when you create a new third country.

To answer your first question, under a land for all, it doesn't matter as the west bank, gaza and Israel are all a new country. Under a two state solution, it depends on which form you support.

There is the version where you keep the borders where they are now, some where you go to the borders back in the 60's or the original proposed borders in 1948. The west bank and Gaza haven't always been separated.

As I am a land for all idealist and 2SS realist, under a two state solution I do think that they would need to be connected, and purely from a border point of view, some of Southern Israel should be given up for this. Ofc it gets more complicated when you bring in how Israelis living in Southern Israel would feel about it as well as from an infrastructure perspective, but that is not really my wheelhouse.

I would have to defer your question on the difference between Israeli arabs and Palestinian arabs to Israelis as I am not that knowledgeable on that, but I assume the main difference is lifestyle and ideologies they are surrounded with.

To answer the second bit of your ask, for context, most pro Palestine folk don't really support a land for all, they support a one state solution of Palestine. And this becomes an issue where you have Hamas who hates jews. If this does happen and Hamas remains in power, a genocide of jews will happen.

Assuming Hamas is removed from power and a government which supports coexistence is installed in a one state of Palestine, the only issue is preserving jewish self determination. Which any meaningful way just ends up putting you at a land for all solution and no longer a 1SS of Palestine. This is also the reason why I do not support a 1SS of Israel.

Israel is a Jewish country because of 3 reasons: the majority population is ethnically jewish, the majority religion is judaism and there is a mixture of religion and state in the country's laws.

That last bit I'm not a huge fan of regardless of country or religion as I am a huge fan of keeping religion and state separate, but the other two are normal reasons.

For example, Aotearoa New Zealand is a Christian country as the main religion here is Christianity. Jamaica is considered a primarily African country despite not being in Africa as per the 2006 census, 90% of the population is of West African descent, despite the country technically being north amercian as that is the continent it is in. (Source)

If you have any follow up questions, feel free to send an ask or to dm me!

[mariacallous]

Bangladeshis made history in July when a mass uprising, led by student protesters, toppled Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League’s government, which had become increasingly dictatorial over the course of 15 years in power. Before she fled to India on Aug. 5, Hasina oversaw the killing of thousands—at least 90 people were killed by the police on the day before her departure alone. Children were not spared.

The end of Hasina’s dictatorship has turned a new chapter in Bangladesh’s history. The country’s lone Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, now heading an interim government, called it Bangladesh’s second liberation. But Bangladesh has to step carefully over the mess Hasina has left behind—both in domestic and foreign affairs.

And the mess is huge. Historically, Bangladesh’s politics has been a game of pass the parcel played between Hasina’s center-left Awami League and Khaleda Zia’s center-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), with the two regularly exchanging power for years—until Hasina broke the norms of democracy in 2011. That was the year she abolished the caretaker government system, where neutral civil society leaders headed an interim government to conduct the elections in a free and fair manner. Since then, the country has witnessed one rigged election after another. The BNP said about half of its 5 million members faced legal charges.

The democratic institutions that have been destroyed over the years can’t be rebuilt overnight. In his first speech to the nation, Yunus talked about bringing back the ��lost glory of these [government] institutions.” The country effectively has no police force left. Hasina used members of the Border Guard Bangladesh, who were supposed to be posted at the border, against the protesters. Now they are facing widespread public anger too.

The damage is everywhere from administration to law enforcement to the military. Nothing has been spared. Hasina destroyed the country’s judiciary by handpicking judges. In 2017, the chief justice of Bangladesh’s Supreme Court, Surendra Kumar Sinha—a Hindu in a Muslim-majority country—was forced to resign and seek asylum in Canada after being threatened by the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, the country’s military intelligence service.

The economy is in tatters, and corruption is rampant. Hasina herself has said that her manservant is worth $34 million and commutes via helicopter. According to Transparency International, around $3.1 billion is laundered from Bangladesh every year, which is more than 10 percent of the country’s total national reserves.

With the Awami League now hated by most of the public, the only political force left this political vacuum is the BNP. Zia, the party chairperson, is 79—and she is now gravely ill and was hospitalized multiple times since this summer. Tarique Rahman, her firstborn child and deputy, is 56. Rahman, often seen as his mother’s successor and the future head of state, has been living in a self-imposed exile in the U.K. for the last 16 years and the extent he is in touch with the country’s new reality is a question up for debate. He faces a slew of corruption charges—although these may not stand up in a fair trial as they were trumped up by Hasina.

After 15 years of autocracy, most of the remaining politicians are greying, while the median age in Bangladesh is a little over 25. The uprising that saw Hasina’s rule crumble was spearheaded by mostly by members of Generation Z. Their leadership of these supposedly apolitical groups in the July revolution has caught the politicians off guard, proof that Bangladeshi politicians are not capable of reading the pulse of the young.

Amid this chaos, the West needs to start playing a far more positive role. One of the reasons Hasina’s rule lasted so long was because the U.S. turned a blind eye to her misrule. Months before the one-sided elections in January, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken threatened to “restrict the issuance of visas for any Bangladeshi individual, believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh.” But after the polls, no punitive measures materialized. On the contrary, U.S. President Joe Biden wrote a letter to Hasina, expressing his government’s wish to “work together on regional and global security” and “commitment to supporting Bangladesh’s ambitious economic goals.”

U.S. complicity depends in part on its desire for India, a close ally to Bangladesh, to contain China in the Indo-Pacific. According to the Washington Post, last month Indian officials told their U.S. counterparts, “This is a core concern for us, and you can’t take us as a strategic partner unless we have the same kind of strategic consensus.”

India supported successive Awami League regimes due to its own security and strategic concerns. India’s landlocked northeastern states, also known as the Seven Sisters, are linked to the rest of the country through the narrow 60-kilometre-long Siliguri Corridor. This tiny passage, known as the Chicken Neck, separates Bangladesh from Nepal and Bhutan. The strategically important Tibetan Chumba Valley controlled by China is only 130 kilometers away.

The Seven Sisters are inhibited by 220 ethnic minorities and are home to active insurgent groups, especially in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland. India also has the world’s fifth-longest land border with Bangladesh. All this gives India a potent stake in Bangladesh—but instead of making new friends or giving Bangladesh’s democracy a chance, India placed its chips entirely on Hasina and the Awami League. Anti-Indian sentiment now runs high in Bangladesh—the Indian Cultural Center in the capital was torched within three hours of Hasina’s fall.

India has a long way to go to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Bangladeshis, and blaming Pakistan and its intelligence agency, the ISI, for every problem won’t help. India’s old narrative is dead, and New Delhi must realize this.

The U.S. must stop seeing Bangladesh through India’s eyes. Time and again U.S. policymakers have misread Bangladesh’s importance, looking at it as an extension of India instead of a state in itself. Bangladesh is potentially crucial to containing China in the Indo-Pacific. It has a young population who hold their ethno-religious identities close to their hearts but are pro-Western, too, with more than 13 million Bangladeshis living abroad.

Hasina herself was playing both sides, turning herself into China’s closest ally in South Asia. In July, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning described the relationship between Bangladesh and China as “good neighbors, good friends, and good partners.”

China dislodged India as Bangladesh’s top trading partner nine years ago. Bangladesh imports more goods from China than from any other country, and is in debt to China to the tune of $17.5 billion, which was mainly invested in white elephant infrastructure projects. After Hasina’s fall, China’s reaction, however, has been muted—hoping to build a relationship with whoever emerges afterwards.

The U.S. and the European Union have welcomed Yunus and his interim government. Mathew Miller, a State Department spokesperson, said last month the U.S. wants the interim government to “chart a democratic future for the people of Bangladesh.” The best way to do this is for the U.S. to offer support to U.N.-led efforts to support order and democracy in the country.

The interim government immediately needs to establish law and order. It can start by bringing the perpetrators of the July carnage to the book. A national office of missing persons should be established to look into all the incidents of enforced disappearances. It can seek technical support from the United Nations, which should lead an independent U.N.-led fact-finding program into the revolution and fall of the Hasina regime. Western nations should support the establishment of a new, fairer constitution that takes the range of Bangladeshi identities into account.

The presence of torture cells inside Dhaka cantonment and the alleged involvement of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence tells us that a section of the armed forces were involved in crimes against humanity. Bangladesh has been a major contributor to U.N. peacekeeping—but that needs to stop until responsibility for these crimes has been established.

The ongoing civil war in Myanmar is also an existential threat to Bangladesh’s national security. With Bangladesh’s security forces in disarray, the U.S. should support Bangladesh by setting up a temporary base that will provide the Bangladesh Armed Forces and intelligence agencies with arms, training and other logistical support, while maintaining a firm emphasis on the political neutrality of the army and its support of human rights.

Bangladesh has survived a dire time to potentially chart a brighter future. Washington should see it not as an extension of Indian interests, but as an independent country that is capable of making its own decisions, an important ally, and a partner in the Indo-Pacific.

[nepalenergyforum]

Bangladesh and Nepal to Strengthen Energy Ties Through BIN Initiative

In September 2022, during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India, Bangladesh made a request to import power from Nepal and Bhutan through India. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has requested authorization from the Indian regulatory bodies to export 40-50 MW of electricity to Bangladesh by utilizing India’s current transmission infrastructure. Hence, in the context of…

[mapsontheweb]

If India-Bangladesh border was a straight line

by u/two_plus_two_is_zero

[inc0rrectmyths]

Bruh stop calling yourself an Desi. India shares his borders with South Africa making it an afrikkaan nation. Desi are Paki, Afgan, napel, bengaldesh.

There's just so many levels of wrong in this my head hurts pls it's 6:30 (but i love roasting idiotic ppl so here we go)

India is she/her not he/him 🤣

Afrikkaan-? Wot

An Desi-? Last time I checked we don't use AN before D.

Sure Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh are Desi countries. And so is India. :)

I don't recall seeing India sharing it's border with the entire continent of Africa, let alone South Africa sjejwkkas.

Pls check a map, and if you don't have it or you're a broke kid who never got to attend school then lemme tell you. India is surrounded by it's neighbouring Asian countries mostly in the North and East. With Srilanka in the South. India has land on one side and two seas on either side, and the fucking Indian Ocean on the fourth side. Which means, it's no way NEAR Africa!

And if map isn't enough to educate your peanut brain, then just search SAARC on Google. Which is South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. India is a member of it. ✌

(I thank my parents everyday for making me study geography)