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Forty-two percent of Bangladeshis have a favourable view of India, compared with just 25% of Indians who hold a positive opinion of Bangladesh, according to a survey by the US-based Pew Research Center.
The Washington-based research organisation surveyed adults in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The findings were published on its website last Thursday.
The survey found that 66% of adults in Pakistan and 56% in Sri Lanka hold a favourable view of Bangladesh, while 25% of Indian respondents expressed a positive opinion of the country.
Meanwhile, 57% of Sri Lankans and 54% of Bangladeshis viewed Pakistan favourably. In India, only 8% of respondents had a positive view of Pakistan.
Positive sentiment towards Bangladesh in Sri Lanka increased by nine percentage points from 2024, while favourable views of Bangladesh in India declined by 10 points.
Among the four South Asian countries surveyed, India recorded the widest gap in favourable views of the other countries.
A large majority of Sri Lankans expressed a positive view of India. In Bangladesh, 42% of respondents viewed India favourably, compared with only 7% in Pakistan.
Sri Lanka was the only country where respondents expressed the highest level of positive sentiment towards people in all three other countries surveyed.
Favourable views of India in Bangladesh fell by 15 percentage points, while they increased by 14 points in Sri Lanka. The proportion of Bangladeshis who declined to answer the question also fell by 17 percentage points.
Asked which country they considered the most important ally of their own country, 63% of Sri Lankan respondents named India.
In contrast, respondents in Bangladesh and Pakistan identified India as the biggest threat to their respective countries.
The survey also asked respondents in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka how much confidence they had in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make the right decisions on international affairs.
Respondents in Sri Lanka expressed the highest level of confidence in Modi, while 42% of Bangladeshis said they had confidence in him. In Pakistan, the figure was just 4%.
