Ever since Bangladesh came into existence after breaking up with Pakistan, it has been an anathema for radical Islamic organisations like the Jamaat-e-Islami and Muslim League. The creation of Bangladesh hit at the root of the idea of Islam being the binding force.
And it happened just within 34 years of the foundation of Pakistan, which was founded as an ‘Islamic state’.
Pre-Independence Bangladesh
Before its independence, Bangladesh was called the East Pakistan, while the current Pakistan was called the West Pakistan. The two ‘Pakistans’ were not only separated by a huge landmass of India but they were separated by culture and language as well.
When the Awami League, a predominantly Bangla party, headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, won the 1971 General Elections in Pakistan, it was not allowed to form the government.
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto prevailed upon the military dictator Yahyah Khan not to allow Mujibur Rehman to form the government. There was a clear divide between East and West Pakistan. This triggered the freedom movement of Bangladesh, supported by strong ‘Bangla’ nationalist sentiment.
The freedom movement assumed a militant character as Mukti Bahani confronted the Pakistani army in East Pakistan. Eventually, Bangladesh got freedom when the Pakistan Army surrendered before the Indian Army in Dhaka in 1971 famously called Dhaka surrender.
While the Bangla nationalists celebrated freedom, there were the Islamic radicals who were against the separation of East Pakistan (Bangladesh) from West Pakistan (Pakistan).
During the Bangladesh freedom struggle the Islamic radicals supported by the Pakistani Army had unleashed a reign of brutal terror against the Bangla nationalists.
Radicalism in hiding
Islamic radicals were down but not out. They were never out. Within three years of the freedom of the country, the founding father of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, called the father of the nation was assassinated along with his entire family, except two daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana at that time they were on a tour to Europe.
Right from the day Bangladesh was formed, the radical Islamists, who never wanted to separate from Pakistan, started their campaign for Islamisation of the country.
That process is continuing. The recent violent protests that led to the exit of Sheikh Hasina have a lot more to do with the spread of radical Islam than anti-incumbency or so-called misgovernance by Hasina.
Cause behind the current chaos
The current protests were triggered by a Bangladesh Court ruling that allowed 30 per cent reservation for the children and wards of the ‘Bangladesh Freedom Struggle’. This has been going on for fifty years now. There was genuine resentment against this privileged treatment of the descendants of those who participated in the freedom movement.
The reservation for the immediate wards of the freedom fighters was understandable as all of them had undergone innumerable excesses and atrocities at the hands of the Pakistan army and Islamic radicals, but to continue that for generations did cause resentment and anger.
The Islamic radicals, led by the Jamaat-e-Islami exploited the “anti-reservation” sentiment among the youth, setting the country on fire. Although the court had reversed its decision on reservations, that was too late as the country had been engulfed in sectarian flames.
There has always been a deep ideological divide between the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Awami League, given its hereditary relationship with India, has always been pro-India. Even the recent protests that eventually led to Hasina’s exit are attributed to her pro-India approach. Jamaat-e-Islami has always been hostile towards India.
Hasina’s pro-India stance was also one of the main reasons for it (the Jamaat-e-Islami) to spearhead the campaign for her ouster.
It does not take a long time for the narratives to change. Till the recent past, Sheikh Hasina was glorified as a visionary leader who had transformed Bangladesh, particularly its economy, which she did. Bangladesh’s economy has done phenomenally well under her 15-year rule. The growth rate has been impressive.
However, her assertion of strategic autonomy of her country on various international matters annoyed and antagonised the United States and China.
Despite the two countries being perennially hostile towards each other, they shared their common aversion towards Hasina. The two countries are believed to have a definite role in Hasina’s exit after she won the elections for the fourth term. It was alleged that the elections were rigged.
Threat to Bangla nationalism
The current crisis in Bangladesh challenges the very idea that has been the foundation of the country’s existence; the idea of Bangla nationalism, which is being threatened by radical Islamic extremism.
Bangladesh has withstood the challenge for a long time, against all odds and also thanks to a supportive neighbour like India, but how long it will withstand the challenge remains to be seen.
Let us not forget that it did not take so long for the enemies of Bangla nationalism to eliminate its founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. He was assassinated along with his family, barring his two daughters, on August 15, 1975, just four years after he led the country to freedom on March 25, 1971.
Only his two daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana escaped the assassination as both of them were away on a tour to Europe. After the mass assassinations, the two sisters stayed in India for six years before they returned to Bangladesh where Hasina got active in politics and eventually became the Prime Minister.
She was the longest-serving Prime Minister of the country, having remained in office for over 20 years. Five years in the first term and later continuously for three terms since 2009, before she was forced to resign on August 5, 2024.
The political life of Sheikh Hasina appears to have come full circle after about 49 years. It was August of 1975, when she lost her entire family, except her younger sister to the assassins’ bullets, and now she has been thrown out of the country most unceremoniously.
She must be feeling lucky that she escaped alive in the face of a dangerously hostile radical and extremist ideology that holds her family guilty of fragmenting not only an Islamic country but undermining the idea of religion being the founding principle of the foundation of a nation.
The current anarchy in Bangladesh is not just about the change of regime, but is against the very idea on which the country was founded, the ‘Bangla nationalism’, which is under an existential threat from Islamic extremism.
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