Abstract
Bangladesh–India relations, originating from India’s crucial support during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence, continue to be defined by both cooperation and mistrust. Despite a shared history, tensions persist over political, economic, and territorial issues, reflected in Bangladesh’s internal politics through recurring debates over sovereignty, dependence, and identity, most recently in anti-India sentiments amid protests. Veteran Indian journalist Manash Ghosh, with decades of experience in covering stories from Bangladesh, has shown in his recent work, Mujib’s Blunders: The Power and the Plot Behind His Killing, that the spillover of Bangladesh’s internal political developments into its relations with India is not a recent occurrence but a recurring phenomenon since the nation’s very inception.
Manash Ghosh, founding editor of Dainik Statesman, a popular Bangali daily from Kolkata, established his reputation through his coverage of Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War. In this book, despite the title’s suggestion, he goes beyond Mujib’s personal blunders to reconstruct events and narratives surrounding the Liberation War of 1971, the rise and perpetuation of anti-Indian sentiment, and Bangladesh’s geopolitical challenges, though framed through an Indian perspective.
Ghosh believes Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s mistrust of Tajuddin Ahmed was his gravest mistake. Influenced by Khandokar Mushtaq Ahmed and his nephew, Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni, Mujib began to believe that Tajuddin sought his position and favoured India, leading to Tajuddin’s dismissal.
The author then examines anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh’s political sphere, highlighting how Mushtaq, along with pro-Pakistani Awami League politicians, capitalized on prevailing public discontent towards India. Mujib, for his part, failed to decisively confront political opponents such as Mawlana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani and his National Awami Party (NAP-B), as well as leftist groups like the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD). These groups denounced the 1972 Bangladesh–India 25-year treaty, accusing Mujib of compromising national sovereignty to appease India. Ghosh defends the treaty by comparing it to the Indo-Soviet agreement of August 1971, casting its critics as anti-Indian or pro-Pakistani. However, viewed beyond the narrow nationalist lens, this analogy overlooks the profound asymmetry between the two contexts: while the Soviet Union was a global superpower in 1971, Bangladesh was a newly independent and vulnerable state located in India’s immediate neighbourhood.
In Ghosh’s account, India is conveniently portrayed as a selfless ally whose intentions were misunderstood by Bangladesh’s socio-political actors, thus complicating bilateral relations. Conversely, Pakistan, the United States, China, and the United Kingdom are depicted as active conspirators against Sheikh Mujib. When addressing Bangladesh’s perceived misjudgement of India, he overlooks ongoing border killings by India’s Border Security Force (BSF), which have made the Indo-Bangladesh border one of the deadliest in the world (Shahriar et al., 2020). He also neglects the long-standing dispute over transboundary river sharing, where Bangladesh continues to demand fair allocations of rivers flowing through India (Obaidullah and Howlader, 2025). By emphasizing India’s ‘selfless’ friendship and ignoring such issues, the book misses an opportunity to provide a more nuanced view of the roots of anti-Indian sentiment in Bangladesh. Similarly, regarding rumours of the Indian army looting Bangladesh’s weapons and machinery, the book suggests that it was the pro-Pakistani lobby that spread these rumours to incite anti-Indian feelings. The hostility escalated to the point where, despite repairs to the Harding Bridge, Indian railway workers faced attacks from local residents and had to return to India without their equipment, driven by the unfounded rumour that Indians were stealing property from Bangladesh Railways. However, the discussions in the book do not sufficiently contextualize these rumours within the broader socio-political environment that enabled their spread and acceptance.
Ghosh highlights Mujib’s post-independence vulnerabilities, noting his misplaced trust in all Bangladeshis and disregard for security warnings. Influenced by Mushtaq’s pro-Pakistan faction, Mujib sought ties with Pakistan, China, and the West while ignoring India. His uncritical reinstatement of Bengali officers from Pakistan further weakened Bangladesh’s administrative and military stability.
The book revisits one of the most contentious debates of the Liberation War about which leader first declared Bangladesh’s independence. While the Awami League maintains that Mujib announced on 26 March, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) claims that Ziaur Rahman announced on 27 Marc. Ghosh, however, argues that independence was effectively declared on 7 March 1971, when Mujib urged Bengalis to prepare for armed struggle to achieve independence in a speech at the Racecourse Maidan (p. 86). He further supports the Awami League’s position by citing Tajuddin’s recollection that Mujib instructed him to continue the fight on 25 March. Dismissing the BNP’s version, Ghosh highlights Captain Rafiqul Islam as the first Bengali soldier to declare war on 24 March (p. 39). He also casts doubt on Ziaur Rahman’s commitment, suggesting that Zia joined the Liberation War only under ‘extreme pressure’ from Captain Rafiqul Islam, his men, and the local Awami League leadership. However, he does not clarify the nature of this pressure (p. 40). Given Zia’s later prominence as both a sector commander during the war and as Bangladesh’s president, the absence of such clarification leaves an important gap in the narrative.
In the final part of the book, Ghosh links the conspiracy against Mujib to his daughter, Sheikh Hasina, who fled after the 2024 Students’ Revolution. Ghosh dismisses the uprising as ‘so-called’, orchestrated by the BNP and Jamaat with US backing (p. 450). However, while opposition parties may have played a role, reducing the movement solely to their involvement overlooks its broader social base, as people from diverse classes and communities across Bangladesh actively participated.
Despite certain shortcomings, Ghosh’s Mujib’s Blunders is a significant work that offers valuable insights into the Bangladesh political crisis and how it may have determined Mujib’s eventual fate. For researchers of Bangladesh–India relations, the book provides a rich analytical resource. However, it falters at times, becoming entangled in an Indian geopolitical perspective shaped by long-standing perceptions of Pakistan, China, and the United States as adversarial powers. The book leaves critical questions unanswered: does India genuinely engage with Bangladeshi voices, and has it sought to build relations with the people of Bangladesh themselves?
