India Matters: Teesta Sutra

Published On: December 16, 2011 | Duration: 19 min, 53 sec

The Teesta is worshiped for centuries by all those who live along the path its carved down from the snows of the mighty Kanchenjunga in Sikkim, to where it joins the Brahmaputra in what is Bangladesh today. The power of the river is now the leitmotif for a new kind of diplomacy, a symbol perhaps for the unfinished task of Independence 40 years after India helped Bangladesh win it from Pakistan. The question of sharing at least 25 per cent of Teesta waters still hangs in the air between Delhi and Dhaka. The man who divided the subcontinent in 1947, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, must never have thought river waters would lead to continued bitterness among neighbours.