In response...

MS Rahman, PhD student, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Hawaii at Manoa USA
Ref: Why are some Bangladeshis anti-Indian? By Professor, Habibul Haque Khondker (July 24, 2009). Your last paragraph of this piece pretty much answers your main question about the anti-Indian sentiment. If we track down the historical trajectory of Hindu-Muslim relationship, since or even before the separation of 1947 and the consequent liberation war of 1971, there have been Right (e.g. BNP or 4 party alliances, JP) or extreme Right (Muslim League) political leaders who ruled East Pakistan and then Bangladesh ( the AL was in power for less than 10 years since 1971). These Right/extreme-Right wing politicians have used anti-Indian sentiments to get more mileage in their political journey which has influenced the mostly uneducated and rural poor people. The USA and other Western capitalist countries also helped these political leaders, (especially during the Cold War) in formulating anti-Indian public policies (so that these policies also go against the Soviet bloc). There is no doubt that, there have been some critical disputes between India and Bangladesh (e.g. cross border terrorism, water sharing etc.) and there have been some sort of Patron-Client relationship (India being the core and Bangladesh being the periphery e.g. in regard of huge trade deficit, cultural hegemony and the like) to warrant Bangladeshi citizens to have some grudge against India. However, local and global politics have been playing the major role in accelerating this kind of India-Bangladesh antagonism. Now, what do we do about it being Bangladeshis? I would argue that the politicians and people alike focus on real issues between the two countries, instead of dragging each other to score more political points.