“The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.” — Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali
Rivers do not respect borders, and yet they define them. For India and Bangladesh – bound by history, geography, and an intimate fluvial geography – the rivers that course between them have long served both as lifelines and fault lines. At the heart of their complex hydrological entanglement lies the Ganga, or Padma as it is known in Bangladesh, the sacred and strategic river whose waters have carried more than sediment: they have carried contest, compromise, and, occasionally, concord.
As the 30-year Ganga Water Sharing Treaty of 1996 approaches its scheduled review in 2026, this long-standing agreement stands at a crossroads. Once hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough, the Treaty now faces mounting pressures – hydrological, ecological, political, and geopolitical. The present downturn in India-Bangladesh relations that has been shaped by the continuing anti-India sentiment (during and after the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government in August 2024), stalled negotiations over the Teesta water sharing treaty, rising Chinese influence in Dhaka, and India’s growing unease with the Muhammad Yunus-led government and its growing proximity to both Islamabad and Beijing, only adds to the urgency. In this moment of flux, the Ganga Treaty is not merely a technical document to be reviewed, but a symbol of the region’s capacity – or incapacity – to share water, power, and trust in equal measure.
