Greater Bangladesh: The Map, the Message, the Threat

A single image posted online by 84-year-old interim Bangladeshi leader Muhammad Yunus has reignited one of India’s oldest strategic nightmares. The photo showed Yunus gifting Pakistan’s Army Chief a book with a “Greater Bangladesh” map — including all seven states of India’s Northeast as part of Bangladeshi territory. What might look like symbolic posturing is, in reality, the newest move in a geopolitical chess game over the Siliguri Corridor, India’s most vulnerable artery.

Why it matters:

Yunus made this gesture just months after calling India’s Northeast “landlocked” and describing Bangladesh as its “guardian of the ocean” during a visit to China. The combination of map symbolism, China–Pakistan outreach, and calculated silence has turned this from a diplomatic spat into a national security flashpoint. India views this less as rhetorical trolling and more as a signal to Beijing.

The “oh, I never thought of this” angle:

This isn’t about Bangladesh trying to redraw borders. It’s about Yunus marketing Bangladesh as a strategic pivot in the China–Pakistan axis. By invoking the Northeast and the “Chicken’s Neck” corridor, he’s effectively telling Beijing: “We control India’s soft underbelly.” That is how a map becomes a bargaining chip.

The People Driving It

Muhammad Yunus — the laureate turned power player

Nobel Peace Prize winner, now interim leader, positioning Dhaka as an independent pole rather than India’s junior partner. His map gestures aren’t diplomatic accidents—they’re deliberate signals to multiple audiences: China, Pakistan, and domestic Islamist groups.

Islamist outfits and Turkish influence

Groups like Saltanat-e-Bangla, backed by Turkish networks, amplify “Greater Bangladesh” narratives online and at campus events. They don’t reflect mainstream Bangladeshi opinion, but they provide Yunus with ideological firepower.

Border communities & migrants

Amid this strategic posturing are farmers, migrants, and Hindu minorities living along the 4,000-km border. Their lives are shaped not by maps in book covers, but by fences, identity checks, and fear.

The Geopolitical Flashpoint: Siliguri Corridor

• Just 22 km wide, the corridor is India’s lifeline to the Northeast.
• Flanked by Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and close to China’s Chumbi Valley.
• A chokepoint vulnerable to hybrid warfare — physical or informational.
• Bangladesh’s pivot toward China raises the stakes of any crisis near this strip of land.

What Happens Next

1. Strategic signaling: India is likely to tighten its messaging on the corridor and issue quiet warnings to Dhaka.
2. Border hardening: Migration checks and BSF posture likely to intensify.
3. Geopolitical realignment: If Dhaka keeps tilting toward China and Pakistan, India faces de facto encirclement.
4. Information war: Further “map provocations” may be used as low-cost escalation tools.

BigStory Reframe

This is Dhaka staking a claim to strategic leverage—not land. Yunus is signaling that Bangladesh can be a **pressure valve—or pressure point—**in the India–China balance. The Northeast is his stage.

The question to leave readers with:

What happens when your neighbor starts treating your vulnerabilities as their foreign policy currency?

FAQ

Q1) What was in Yunus’s viral photo?

A book cover showing a “Greater Bangladesh” map that included India’s Northeast.

Q2) Why does India care so much?

Because the region is connected to the mainland only through the 22 km Siliguri Corridor—its most fragile strategic link.

Q3) Is Bangladesh actually claiming Indian territory?

No. The map reflects radical narratives, not state policy. But its symbolic use makes it geopolitically potent.

Q4) What role do China and Pakistan play?

Bangladesh is deepening ties with both, amplifying India’s vulnerability on its eastern flank.

Q5) What’s the real danger?

Not invasion—leverage. Yunus is trying to use geography to raise Dhaka’s strategic value.