India’s Low-Intensity Warfare Against the Dr Yunus-Led Government in Bangladesh

Reading Time: 4 minutes In the strategic theatre of South Asia, India has refined a sophisticated model of coercion short of war—what analysts call low-intensity warfare (LIW). This doctrine is not defined by conventional invasions or dramatic military escalation but by a slow, grinding erosion of a target state’s sovereignty. Nowhere is this campaign more visible than in India’s hybrid war against Bangladesh—a rising regional actor pursuing an independent foreign and economic policy under the post-revolution government led by Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus. At the core of this conflict is India’s desire to retain hegemonic control over Bangladesh’s political trajectory. The new government’s pivot toward multipolar diplomacy—with greater alignment with China, Türkiye, Southeast Asia, and Muslim-majority nations—has alarmed Indian policymakers. As a result, New Delhi has responded with an all-encompassing strategy that weaponises economics, information, religion, water, and military positioning to destabilise Dhaka’s internal order and obstruct its external