C-Voter survey reveals what Indians think of China, Bangladesh and Pakistan. it’s shocking

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sSometimes, even those who do not forget history are condemned to repeat it. In 2012, we were mourning the humiliation of India by China in 1962. As we approach 2022, mourning has turned into a celebration with realism about Bangladesh, Pakistan and China. Undoubtedly, 1971 turns out to be a historic year for a land devastated by centuries of invasions.

Fifty years down the road, how has this affected India? Did this help? Has Pakistan ‘behaved better’? Has the China-Pakistan axis become a less powerful threat? Can relations with Pakistan ever improve? These and many other questions were asked in our c-voter india tracker. This survey is part of our regular India Tracker series where we conducted surveys in 11 languages ​​on a daily basis. For this particular research, we interviewed 2,339 randomly selected people across India.

The opposite of the responses came to the fore when respondents answered carefully chosen questions, cutting across age groups, race and ethnic background. The results were both predictable and shocking.

Read also: Kabul to Dhaka – Modi is saying India and South Asia belong to each other, there is no place for three

creation of bangladesh

One of them was the question: Has the creation of Bangladesh helped India? Predictably or surprisingly, the opinion of ordinary Indians seems to be equally divided on this. Less than 30 percent felt that the creation of Bangladesh had helped India a lot, while 26.5 percent felt that it had hurt India. Overall, a little over 50 per cent were of the opinion that the move helped India a lot or at least, while close to 50 per cent felt it either made no difference or harmed India.

There is no doubt that the major reasons for the perception of harm have been the fear of global ‘Islamic jihad’ (though most Indians consider Bangladesh a friend on this issue) and the influx of “illegal” migrants. This has been a serious issue since the 1970s. Arguments supporting this view point out that illegal refugees not only strain the resources of a deteriorating economy, but also reduce wages in an already low-wage market. In extreme cases, of course, large “jathas” of Bengali Muslims are convinced to enter India to perform ‘love jihad’ and to effect demographic change so that India will become an ‘Islamic republic’ in the near or distant future. ‘ Be it. How accurate are both in the larger historical context? Of course, to another question on the decline in the share of Hindus in Bangladesh’s population, the majority identified Islamic extremism and persecution as reasons. Ironically, the regular dose of shoddy news on the ‘pathetic condition of minorities in Pakistan’ has further polarized perceptions about the situation in Bangladesh as well.

At C-Voter we decided to test the respondents with a tricky question. From the decades of its creation, Bangladesh has been Agreed An economic ‘basket case’. But unknown even to many economic analysts, the situation has changed dramatically in this century, and the tables, so to say, could well have turned. As a test of deliberate polling, we informed respondents that Bangladesh will soon overtake India in the United Nations Development Program Human Development Index. We also told them that Bangladesh’s per capita income last year exceeded that of India; That its readymade garment exports were almost twice that of India and there was a steady boom in factory jobs. The question was: Do you envision a situation in the future where people from West Bengal move to Bangladesh for jobs?

Those who nurture nationalist sentiments may be pleased with the overall answers. About 37.5 percent of the respondents felt that it would never happen, while about 20 percent felt that it could happen. The fact that every fifth respondent feels that Indians could possibly emigrate to Bangladesh from all over the place should send groups with ‘nationalist sentiments’ looking for some serious introspection for the job. There is another bad news for them. Every third respondent said they didn’t know or couldn’t say – another way of being ambivalent. There is bad news for conservatives on this front. 40 percent of Indians under the age of 25 said that migration to Bangladesh could happen or certainly will happen in the future. It fell to 30 percent for Indians aged 26 to 35 and to 15 percent for those above 56. But ‘don’t know’ or ‘can’t say no’.

Read also: Pakistan lost the 1971 war, but its project of Islamic violence won the major conflict

Pakistan-China axis

While Indians may be confused about Bangladesh, they have no illusions about Pakistan or China, except perennial optimists, whose candlelight vigil at the Wagah border has been disrupted by the Covid pandemic. Most Indians consider Pakistan to be a hostile nation, which will probably never have friendly relations with India. Most Indians also believe that the China-Pakistan axis will do everything possible to prevent India from emerging as a global power.

When asked whether Pakistan had learned any lessons from its military defeat in 1971, over 37 per cent respondents felt that India’s neighbor had learned many or at least some lessons. In contrast, 63 percent felt it had learned no lessons and became even more dangerous and vindictive. Asked whether there is any prospect of friendly relations between the two countries, a quarter of those surveyed said there is no prospect of a better relationship. Before the ‘Candle Vigil Brigade’ celebrates Christmas early, here’s a wake-up call. About 77 percent were either not optimistic about a better relationship, or thought there would be no change or that the relationship would deteriorate.

Respondents were equally candid and realistic when it came to the “eternal” friendship between China and Pakistan. When asked whether their pivot could prevent India’s rise as a global power, four out of ten Indians felt that they would be wholly or partly successful, compared to the same number of people who thought they would be successful. Will try but fail. In response to the same question, a significant number (every fifth Indian to be precise) felt that internal divisions within India were more dangerous.

Picture of General AAK Niazi of Pakistan Army Dedication On 16 December 1971 for Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Arora of the Indian Army in Dhaka, now the capital of Bangladesh, loved by Indians. But the golden jubilee celebrations of India’s victory over Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh are filled with a healthy dose of realism, which is clearly evident in the responses from the c-Voter India tracker. The respondents were asked to rate and rank India’s greatest achievement in the last 50 years. The options given to him were: India’s military victory over Pakistan; India going nuclear in 1974; Economic reforms of 1991 and toilets in every household. The responses astonished us, and we’re sure they’ll surprise you too when we put the data in the public domain. stay tuned.

Yashwant Deshmukh is the founder of cVoter, and Sutanu Guru is the executive director of the cVoter Foundation. Thoughts are personal.

(Edited by Srinjoy Dey)

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