Opinion On a strong wicket

All societies have occasional moments of surging nationalism. When the founder of the famed Grameen Bank,Muhammad Yunus,was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006,a sense of nationalist pride swept Bangladesh.

The subcontinent,however,has never been short of brilliant individuals who make a mark on the international stage. That individual achievement,however,often tends to highlight the many collective failings of the South Asian states.

The cricket fever that has gripped Bangladesh this season can also be dismissed as a passing inconsequential passion that often grips countries,not unlike the football nationalism in many parts of the world — developed and developing.

Dhaka’s enthusiastic co-hosting of the cricket World Cup,however,marks the maturing of Bangladesh into a self-confident nation,four decades after it was born in a bloody conflict with Pakistan and India’s military intervention.

It will be utterly far-fetched to compare the World Cup opening ceremony to the hosting of Olympics by other Asian nations — Japan,South Korea and China — that marked their arrival on the world stage.

But it will be unwise to ignore the abundant self-confidence and unbounded optimism in Bangladesh today about its future. For Dhaka,co-hosting the World Cup is about moving away from its traditional image as the “basket case” perennially dependent on international aid to show-casing the new reality of a dynamic economy that offers many attractive opportunities amidst the global recession.

To be sure,the new Bangla self-assurance has not emerged overnight. Over the last decade,Bangladesh has made much progress on the economic front. Its average annual growth rates of around 6 per cent have steadily lifted Bangladesh’s standing in the global economy. With the per capita income now standing at $1,700 and gross domestic product at $250 billion (both in purchasing power parity terms),Bangladesh is now in the world’s top 50 economies.

The pace of improvement in Bangladesh’s social indicators — for example,reducing population growth rate and expanding female literacy — has been more impressive than in some its South Asian neighbours,including many Indian states.

On the political front,too,democracy in Bangladesh has proved to be a hardier plant than similar saplings in Pakistan and Nepal. Enduring occasional military interventions and surviving the self-destructive bouts between the two leading political formations,Bangladesh is on its way to becoming one of the world’s largest democracies.

A couple of more peaceful electoral transitions,and Bangladesh,with a population of 160 million,could soon rival Indonesia as the model for sustainable political pluralism in the Muslim world.

Put simply,one of the most backward regions of the subcontinent at the dawn of decolonisation,Bangladesh has slowly but certainly transformed itself. Goldman Sachs which coined the term BRIC — Brazil,Russia,India and China — to denote the emerging economies in the last decade has now listed Bangladesh as one of “next eleven” nations poised to make an impact on the global economy.

This positive story does not mean Bangladesh has solved all its major problems. Not by any stretch. The nation’s deep political divide was revealed when the main opposition leader and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia stayed away from the World Cup’s opening ceremony. Right-wing extremist elements continue to challenge the political identity of Bangladesh and undermine its stability.

What it does mean is that much like India in the 1980s — when the nation reinvented itself imperceptibly but inexorably — Bangladesh is now ready for a take-off on the regional and global stage.

As the larger of its two neighbours — Burma is the other — India has the valuable opportunity to support and benefit immensely from the emergence of Bangladesh. A solid partnership between New Delhi and Dhaka will accelerate the rise of Bangladesh and reorder India’s security environment.

In both countries,however,there are strong elements who think good relationship with the other is not critical for their own future.

Sections of the Bangladeshi elite continue to define their national identity in opposition to India,feel imprisoned by an India that surrounds them territorially,and insist on building their future in collaboration with distant partners.

Many in Delhi nurture the illusion that India can leap across its neighbourhood onto the world stage,believe that they can simply ignore the role of Bangladesh as a bridge to our remote northeastern provinces and to Southeast Asia.

For her part,the prime minister of Bangladesh,Sheikh Hasina,has shown the political courage to defy the conventional wisdom in Dhaka and reach out to India — by offering unprecedented cooperation in countering terrorism and rebuilding road and rail connectivity with the Indian mainland and the Northeast.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,in turn,has offered to quickly resolve all political and economic issues with Bangladesh. These include the resolution of many complex issues relating to the long boundary between the two countries and increased market access to Bangladeshi goods.

Much hard work remains to be done in both capitals before the full potential of bilateral ties is realised. Meanwhile,expectations are rising for a very productive visit by Dr Singh to Dhaka in the coming months.

A self-confident Dhaka and an imaginative Delhi can indeed bury the many bitter legacies of the Partition in the eastern half of the subcontinent. It is now up to Dr Singh and Hasina to demonstrate that Bangladesh and India can build a genuine partnership on the basis of mutual respect,political equality and shared prosperity.

raja.mohan@expressindia.com