Bangladesh at Eden: Bond that wasn't

Such is their shared history that when Bhupen Hazarika sang of oneness with Ganga and Padma, the composer, lyricist and musician's song became an instant hit in West Bengal when it was translated from Assamese. Hazarika's support for Mukti Bahini resonated so much in the newly born country that his death in 2011 was mourned by Bangladesh.

- Dhiman Sarkar

Rabindranath Tagore acknowledged the geographical divisions, the separation of hearts and minds and the absence of social unity between west and east Bengal.

"Yet through it all runs a strain of unity, and that is the unity of language," said Tagore in Sarbari Sinha's translation of Ghulam Murshid's "Bengali Culture, Over A Thousand Years".

For Murshid, an academic from Dhaka University, to produce a work of incredible detail is as natural as Tagore, who spent a chunk of his life in Shilaidaha (now in Bangladesh), writing the national anthems of India and Bangladesh. The tradition of literary excellence spans centuries through Kazi Nazrul Islam, Jibananda Das, Mir Mosharraf Hossain, Shamsur Rahman, Al Mahmud, Shakti Chattopadhyay and Sunil Gangopadhyay.

It extends to music, food, films and sport. The history of Mohun Bagan being the first Indian football team to win the IFA Shield beating a British side in 1911 is incomplete without mentioning that seven players were from what is now a separate country. As is the birth of East Bengal Club. Established in 1936, Mohammedan Sporting, Dhaka, took their name from the older club then ruling the Kolkata Maidan.

That Jagmohan Dalmiya, as Bengali as they come even though his forefathers were from Rajasthan, would be instrumental in getting Bangladesh Test status in 2000 seems a natural fit in all this.