Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) shakes hands with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe before a meeting in New Delhi in July 2023. (Naveen Sharma/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
South Asians tend to view other countries in their region more positively than negatively. But views vary by religion, especially when it comes to opinions of India and Pakistan. The data comes from a Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 5-March 25, 2024.
The Pew Research Center analysis focuses on how adults in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka view other countries in South Asia.
The analysis is based on a nationally representative survey of 7,124 adults conducted between 5 January and 29 March 2024. Surveys were conducted face-to-face in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. No survey was available in Pakistan this year.
For each country studied, only religious groups with sufficient sample sizes for analysis are included.
To compare education groups across countries, we standardized education levels based on the United Nations International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED).
The questions, answers, and research methodology used in this analysis are as follows:
We asked these questions to explore regional trends in South Asia, a region that has been plagued by historical, geopolitical and religious tensions since the partition of British India in 1947. We surveyed adults in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, but were unable to reach anyone in Pakistan this year.
View of India
Sri Lankans and Bangladeshis' views of India are mostly positive: 65% of Sri Lankans have a favorable view of India, as do 57% of Bangladeshis. (We only asked people in each country about their views of other countries, not their own.)
Bangladeshis are divided by support for the Bangladesh Awami League, the ruling party at the time of the survey – conducted before former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned this month and fled to India – and its supporters are more likely to view India favorably than non-supporters (71% to 49%).
Opinions also vary by education level: in both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, more educated adults are more likely to express a positive opinion of India than less educated adults. Higher educated adults are also more likely to express an opinion.
Sri Lanka scenery
Bangladeshis and Indians are roughly twice as likely to have a favorable opinion of Sri Lanka as an unfavorable one, but about a third of people in both countries did not answer the question.
Indian adults who support Prime Minister Narendra Modi's National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are more likely to have a favorable view of Sri Lanka than non-supporters (46% vs. 39%). (The survey was conducted ahead of Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe's visit to India in July.) Similarly, in Bangladesh, supporters of the former ruling party were more likely to express a positive opinion of Sri Lanka than non-supporters.
Even among Bangladeshis, views of Sri Lanka vary by education level: Higher-educated Bangladeshis are more likely to say they have a favorable view of Sri Lanka than less-educated ones (60% vs. 42%), and higher-educated adults are also more likely to say so.
Bangladesh landscape
In India and Sri Lanka, views of Bangladesh are more positive than negative: Roughly half of Sri Lankan adults (47%) have a favorable opinion of Bangladesh, and about a third (35%) in India also have a favorable opinion of Bangladesh.
But in both countries, a large proportion of people answered “I don't know” or did not answer the question. In fact, in India, this proportion is higher than the proportion who said they had a favorable or unfavorable view of Bangladesh. The survey was conducted before deadly clashes between Bangladeshi police and student protesters in July.
View of Pakistan
Compared to opinions about India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, South Asians' views of Pakistan are more mixed.
Sri Lankans are more likely to view Pakistan unfavorably (44% vs. 25%) than unfavorably (25%). In Bangladesh, 40% view Pakistan favorably compared to 32% unfavorably. Meanwhile, Indians are more likely to view Pakistan unfavorably (61%) than unfavorably (12%). Also, 51% say they have a very unfavorable view of Pakistan.
Indians have viewed Pakistan less favorably since the question was first asked in 2013, when fewer than two in 10 Indian adults expressed a favorable view of Pakistan. Relations between India and Pakistan have been tense since the partition of British India in 1947, which gave India and Pakistan their independence.
Indians who do not support the NDA are more likely to have a favorable view of Pakistan than those who do (15% vs. 9%).
Religious Perspectives
In the three South Asian countries surveyed, views of other countries in the region often differ along religious lines.
In both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Hindus are more likely to have a favorable view of India than other religious groups: in Sri Lanka, for example, 80% of Hindus express a favorable opinion of India, compared with less than 70% of Buddhists, Christians and Muslims.
In Bangladesh and India, Hindus tend to have a more favorable view of Sri Lanka than Muslims: for example, 62% of Bangladeshi Hindus view Sri Lanka favorably, compared with 44% of Muslims.
Indian Muslims stand out as twice as likely as Hindus to have any opinion about Pakistan (22% vs. 11%).
Note: The questions, answers, and survey methodology used for this analysis are as follows:
