Bangladesh: An important player of South Asian geopolitics

The Indo-China rivalry has Bangladesh playing a key role

samara ashraT

THe basic key factor behind the geopolitical importance of Bangladesh is its geography. The country shares land borders with Myanmar and India. Due to its geographical position, Bangladesh is a natural link between South Asia and Southeast Asia. The country is also a vital geopolitical ally to India, in that it has the potential to facilitate greater integration between northeast India and Mainland India. not only that, due to its open access to the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh has become significant for both China and the USA.

Previously Bangladesh’s importance in South Asian geopolitics was largely defined by the Sino-Indian rivalry and the Indo-Pak conflict; as India, Pakistan and China all are in the close proximity of Bangladesh. But in the post-Cold War era, China’s growing ambition in the South Asian region and the Bay of Bengal has changed the equation of geopolitics for Bangladesh. China followed the combined theories of geopolitics for its expansion.

The “Sea Power” theory of Alfred Thayer Mahan from the USA, said those who controlled the sea would control the world; the “Heartland” theory of Halford John Mackinder from Britain said those who controlled eurasia would control the world; while the “rim land” theory of nicholas John Spykman from the USA said those who controlled the rim land would control the world. To control eurasia, rimland and heartland, China needed to expand its connectivity with the outer world. But due to the rivalry with India, the opportunity of connectivity narrowed down and there came the geopolitical importance of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is very important to India militarily. China can easily close the Siliguri Corridor in a Sino-Indian military conflict, Through which India maintains communication with its eastern states. In this situation, India’s only option will be to use the territory of Bangladesh to protect its relations with the eastern states. That is why it is very important for India to have friendly relations with Bangladesh, which is necessary for its security.

India is now proposing connectivity of its northeastern part to China via the Chattogram port of Bangladesh, which will also boost further regional integration by complementing the BCIM and the Bangladesh-BhutanIndia-nepal (BBIn) corridors. India now aims to allow “limited Chinese investment” for boosting connectivity and trade in the northeast by using the BBIn sub-regional hub. This paradigm shift in Indian policies toward the BrI is being considered as the potential for a fresh beginning of India-China regional cooperation centring on Bangladesh, where a critical Bangladeshi port will work as the connecting hub.

The ‘Chicken’s neck’ or Siliguri Corridor created the importance of Bangladesh for India. This corridor is one of the most important geographical compulsions for India. This narrow corridor separated the whole north eastern region from the Indian Mainland. Bangladesh creates a broader nexus between the Indian mainland and the north eastern region, because Agartala is 1,650km from Kolkata and 2,637km from new Delhi through Shillong and Guwahati. The journey between Agartala and Kolkata via Bangladesh, on the other hand, is only about 550 km. Furthermore, the average distance between Bangladesh’s major cities and northeast India is 20 km to 300 km. As a result, Bangladesh is always considered crucial for the north-eastern region’s connectivity with mainland India by rail, road, and river routes. Bangladesh played a major role and has immense potential for the development of Indian northeastern states. And among those states, Tripura and Assam are the prominent. not only that, The northeast region of India is one of the most vulnerable areas in terms of security.

The north-eastern states are almost detached from the Indian mainland. The terrorists and separatists took advantage of the “Chicken’s neck” and carried out their insurgent movements in these states. Bangladesh, in turn, has been always by India’s side in combating the situation

The Indian Ocean is a key trading route for China’s energy supplies, making it also the theatre of vulnerabilities. Out of the 10, the route to nine of its suppliers is through the Indian Ocean region. Securing these critical Sea lines of Communications (SlOCs) is a key priority for China. And to contain Chinese ascension the USA has a similar amount of interest in the Indian Ocean region. The Bay of Bengal is one of the most important areas of the Indian Ocean region.

Due to its open access to the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh have become significant to both China and

ARGENTINA AND BRAZIL border transfers through old-school alternatives like email, telephone, and fax. the USA. Towards the sea, Bangladesh maintains three—Chattogram, Mongla and Payra—out of the 12 ports in the Bay of Bengal.

But, special cases like russia notwithstanding, there is also reason to think that China has limited gravitational pull financially. US complaints that China may be helping russia with war materiel raise the possibility that Beijing could become subject to secondary sanctions, in which case there will be little if any scope for doing cross-border business via Chinese banks.

Bangladesh is a prime candidate to partner with China in the hypothesized “String of Pearls” strategy and the formation of the “Maritime Silk road.” The land dimensions of the BrI consist of several interconnected corridors spanning the entire eurasian continent.

Bangladesh is centrally situated along the Bangladesh-ChinaIndia-Myanmar (BCIM) economic Corridor. Bangladesh also occupies a strategic position along the 21st Century Maritime Silk road with its bustling port of Chittagong as a major maritime hub through the Indian Ocean. Since the inception of the BrI, China with its vast financial clout has launched special initiatives to boost its ties with Bangladesh by pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure projects.

China considers Bangladesh one of the gateways for the Maritime Silk road (one of the segments of the BrI) that allows China access to the Indian Ocean and beyond. Therefore, China showed a keen interest in building a deep-sea port at Sonadia in Bangladesh China’s Western rivals, along with India, are quite aware of this possibility, and have already initiated steps towards building greater ties with Bangladesh. It is also this possibility that has changed Bangladesh’s status from decades of geopolitical irrelevance to a key player in shaping the future of Asia.

Overall, Bangladesh’s location, population, economic potential and regional stability make it a significant player in South Asia and a potential hub for regional connectivity and trade. The country’s geopolitical importance is likely to continue to grow in the coming years, as it continues to develop its economy and promote regional integration and stability

The USA and its european allies started to increase their engagement in this region, and its Indo-Pacific allies such as India, Japan and Australia also started to join in this engagement. Quickly, they inked agreements and pacts to contain China. The revival of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) between the USA, India, Japan and Australia, the AUKUS pact between the USA, the UK and Australia, and the Indo-Pacific economic Framework (IPeF) are the major agreements inked by the west and its Indo-Pacific allies to contain Chinese presence in this region.

Apart from these initiatives, the european Union and other major powers also clarified their stance on the issues. The USA also increased its presence in the region after Biden’s ascent to the Presidency, centring its policy on democracy and human rights.

Such diverse interests and the nature of South Asian politics are making the scenario more challenging for Bangladesh. While many consider the balancing as between QUAD and China, it has to balance between three great powers, India, China and the USA. Since the Ukraine crisis, russia is also emerging as a power to consider in this region as it is an ‘energy giant’ and also has a keen interest in this region. Gradually, russia’s stake in these geopolitics is also increasing.

WHen the United States and its G-7 partners imposed sanctions on russia’s central bank and barred Western financial institutions from doing business with russian counterparties, commentators warned of far-reaching changes in the global monetary and financial order. Other countries would see those sanctions as yet another step in the West’s “weaponisation” of finance. Fearing that they, too, might one day be on the receiving end of sanctions, governments and central banks would reduce their dependence on the dollar, US banks, and the US-dominated Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

China would be the principal beneficiary, these predictions continued. So far, China has sought to remain above the fray in the dispute between russia and the West. It has a large banking system. It has created a Cross-Border Interbank Payment System to facilitate renminbi settlement and provide an alternative to Fedwire and the Clearing House Interbank Payments System (CHIPS) through which dollar payments are made. russia already accepts renminbi in payment for fully 14 per cent of its exports. Its sovereign wealth fund holds $45 billion worth of renminbi securities and deposits, and russian companies issued $7 billion worth of renminbi-denominated bonds last year.

Given russia’s circumstances, none of this should come as a surprise. But will other countries also move in this direction? When President Xi Jinping visited Saudi Arabia late last year, there was talk of the Saudis taking payment for their oil exports in renminbi. China has recently concluded renminbi clearing arrangements with Pakistan, Argentina and Brazil. Just last month, Iraq’s central bank announced a plan to allow direct renminbi settlement for trade with China.

Yet this kind of broader shift is not yet visible in the data. According to the International Monetary Fund, the renminbi’s share of global foreign exchange reserves remains less than 3 per cent of the reported global total. Moreover, the renminbi accounts for less than 2 per cent by value of all instructions for cross-border interbank payments sent through SWIFT.

To be sure, not all countries report the currency composition of their foreign reserves and the countries most worried about sanctions are the least likely to report. And, instead of using SWIFT’s electronic messaging service, their banks are most likely to arrange cross-

Moreover, China’s government has repeatedly changed its posture toward the private sector. This points to the possibility that it may change terms of access for foreign central banks holding reserves in Shanghai and for commercial banks seeking to transfer funds through its cross-border payment system. China’s capital controls provide levers with which to make such changes, and Xi’s centralisation of power means that there are few countervailing forces to prevent him from taking such steps were he so inclined. rather than putting their eggs in China’s basket, other countries, in Asia and elsewhere, have been seeking to use their own currencies for cross-border payments. Singapore and Thailand have connected their real-time fast payment systems, Paynow and PromptPay, enabling customers of participating banks to transfer funds between the two countries using just a mobile number. Similarly, Bank negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand have expanded their ringgit-baht direct settlement framework to enable Malaysians and Thais to make direct payments through qualified commercial banks. Five Southeast Asian central banks have signed an agreement to link their fast payment systems, bypassing the need to use either the dollar or the renminbi for crossborder transfers. And Indonesia, during its G20 presidency, established a local Currency Settlement Task Force to identify regulatory reforms to encourage the practice.

Similarly, on the foreign-reserves front, diversification away from the dollar has not meant diversification toward the renminbi, in the main, but rather toward the Korean won, Singapore dollar, Swedish krona, norwegian krone and other nontraditional reserve currencies.

These trends reflect not so much geopolitics as developments in technology. Because payment systems like Paynow and PromptPay are digital natives, they are readily linked, removing the need to use the dollar or renminbi when transferring funds. The currencies of these smaller countries have also become easier to hold and cheaper to trade with the rise of digital foreign-currency platforms featuring automated market making and liquidity-provision algorithms. This, in turn, makes such currencies more attractive for payments and as a form of international reserves.

The presumption has been that geopolitics will reshape the global monetary and financial order in China’s favour. But technology may have the final say. And, if it does, it may alter that order in a very different way.

Barry Eichengreen, professor of

Moreover, as the Indo-Pacific trade route is one of the major concerns, the Western powers and their Pacific allies also became worried. China’s Belt and road Initiative (BrI) and its rapid spread worldwide have also increased China’s presence both in this region and beyond. As a result, the geopolitical attention of almost all major powers quickly shifted to the Indo-Pacific region.

Overall, Bangladesh’s location, population, economic potential and regional stability make it a significant player in South Asia and a potential hub for regional connectivity and trade. The country’s geo-political importance is likely to continue to grow in the coming years, as it continues to develop its economy and promote regional integration and stability.

The writer is a freelance columnist

Bollywood’s golden era

“YOU could photograph her from any angle— without make-up—and still come away with a masterpiece. She was a cameraman’s delight.” That was Jethabhai Hansraj Thakker on Madhubala, one of the most beautiful women in the history of Indian cinema, quoted in her biography by Khatija Akbar. Thakker was one of the premier film publicity photographers in Mumbai for two decades since he came to the city as a penniless refugee from Karachi in 1948. The 1,400 sqft, Art Deco photo studio he set up in Dadar, near the once-popular Chitra Cinema, still stands, as do over 4,000 photographs of stars taken in that studio, which belonged to him, not the studios. eighty of them are now in the possession of Kiran nadar Museum of Art in noida and they have put them up in an exhibition, Sitaare Zameen Par, curated by roobina Karode, and the women in them—from Madhubala to nargis to nutan—hark back to an era where beauty was unvarnished by a plethora of imagemakers, stylists and photoshop artists. Thakker, who passed away in 2003 at 80, was close friends with many of the actors who worked in the nearby studios, Filmalaya, Kardar Studio, ranjit Studio and rajkamal Studio. Several of them have been torn down for their real estate value. His son, Vimal Thakker, now 70, and also a photographer, recalls his father telling him about nalini Jaywant, an actor from the 1950s who made a successful pair with Ashok Kumar in a series of films, who would often drop by for a coffee at the studio or even lunch at their home in Sion. She first met Thakker as a newbie and the friendship progressed from there. It was she who recommended him to many of her friends and co-stars. Karode was introduced to Thakker’s photographs by artist-photographer ram rahman through an exhibition he curated in 2015 at Dr Bhau Daji lad Mumbai City Museum. For Karode, the natural beauty of actors of the bygone era was enhanced by Thakker who was a master at sculpting the image with light. As rahman puts it: “The remarkable aspect of Thakker’s photos is that they are all performed in the studio with his complex lighting. It was a collaboration between the actor and the photographer. The abhinaya [expression] was spontaneous and sometimes related to the props in the studio, sometimes brought by the actors themselves.”

Since Thakker was using a large format camera which entailed focusing on a ground glass after which the film was inserted into the camera, the actor would have to hold their position very precisely before he could release the trigger. The focus of these cameras was very shallow.

MADHUBALA

Was One Of The Most Beautiful Women In The History Of Indian Cinema

He could only check the result after the film was processed and printed. The skill of both actors and photographer was astonishing, says rahman, as any photographer would understand.

Both the men and women were looked at as stylised performers. The women were more “feminine” and sensitive, the men more macho. They followed accepted stereotypes of the period. As compared to now, the women are much more sensitively expressive—the moods are of longing, loss, with much less of the sexuality in recent movie images of the women actors. “It was also the result of shooting with hot lights in the studio, unlike the harsh flash lighting which has become the norm now and leads to a more quick, snapshot image,” he says.

The sheer magic of these single edition silver gelatin photographs takes us back to the time when cinema in India was making its presence and potential felt rather strongly in connecting to the larger public. Karode’s three favourites?

nargis, Suraiya and Madhuri Dixit, says Karode. “Thakker has been able to capture their face as well as persona, exuding and exemplifying their beauty through shades of vulnerability and strength in soft light,” she explains.

Taken so long ago, these images still stand out in the age of the ubiquitous paparazzi photograph, because it is the image-makers who manage and approve of the photos released in public. “The Thakker images are from the time when the actors were more human and real in their emotional connect,” says rahman.

“The new aesthetic, on the other hand, comes from our hyper consumer culture. You hardly ever see stars in sarees anymore—almost all in western clothing.

The photoshop post-production now is universal. The Thakker pictures are from the time of film and darkroom printing where the retouching was minimal. The digital era has led to a less real image.”

Thakker stopped shooting film stars in 1968, saying times had changed too much for him. The arrival of eastman Colour meant black and white had ceased to be attractive to stars. Thakker had also lost a lot of money, with producers owing him his fees. There was also a 19-day strike in 1968 in Mumbai cinemas which wreaked havoc on the film distribution system. A disheartened Thakker did only one major film shoot after that, in 1995, with Madhuri Dixit channeling Madhubala for the 44th anniversary of the film magazine, Screen. Bollywood glamour is now the work of many, not one. every actor now has a dedicated hair stylist, make-up person, fashion stylist, social media publicist and brand manager. Then there is the movie the actor is promoting at a particular point and the demands of fashion glossies which usually put Bollywood women on the cover. The whole process has become more professional, more process-driven, more brand-oriented, and less intimate and indeed less spontaneous. Though individual photographers such as Prasad naik, Avinash Gowariker and Dabboo ratnani are in demand for cover shoots, they usually follow a brief dictated by luxury labels and their seasonal looks.

But none of those instantly consumed photographs have the kind of gravitas enabled by Thakker’s use of chiaroscuro, a technique that plays with light and shadow. Thakker used spotlights and shadow textured backgrounds to create an aura around the stars of what is now known as Mumbai film industry’s Golden era. With printing and film rolls being expensive, Thakker, who was a photographer with the British Army in pre-Partition Karachi, usually could shoot only one frame. The cameras he used—Field, Graflex or rolleiflex—are all preserved by his son in India Photo House. “not for long though,” says Vimal, with builders hoing to demolish the studio to build flats. “We are fighting it in court,” he adds. nutan eating an apple, in a publicity still for Dilli ka Thug (1958); Madhubala in a sari with foliage in the background sourced from Chitra Cinema’s garden; nargis embracing raj Kapoor in a still for Chori Chori (1956), one of the last films in which the pair appeared together; Suraiya shot with hair lights. Thakker’s women had an aura and a mystique about them, absent in today’s all-seeing, all-knowing world.

The photographs bridged the distance between the star and the fan. Sunil Dutt would order his wife nargis’ photographs in bulk to be given to fans with her autograph, the 1950s precursor to the selfie. Thakker was as much an idol-maker as he was a man who connected the celestial body to the ordinary fan, something social media does so effectively now. He and many of his subjects may be gone now but their memory is forever.