By: Sakura Koner
Edited by: Natalie Cowan
The struggle to recognize the legitimacy of a language led to a struggle to identify a new nation. Bangladesh, a country born out of the Indo-Pakistan partition strife, fighting for the acceptance of the Bengali language in Pakistan, is a country that is still plagued by the conflicts of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
As India and Pakistan underwent Partition in 1947, Pakistan was also internally divided into East Pakistan, present Bangladesh, and West Pakistan, present Pakistan. Pakistan blatantly refused to accept Bengali as a state language, despite the presence of a significant population that spoke in Bengali and identified themselves as Bengalis. This disrespect towards the language accompanied with economic disparity between the East and West, marital laws, and an overall deprecating attitude towards Bengali culture and population, led to a deep-rooted demarcation between the populace. Tensions rose in December 1970 when the Awami League party, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also known as Mujib, and based in East Pakistan, won the national elections but West Pakistan parties, namely the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), refused to relinquish power. Finally, in March 1971, the Pakistan army intervened to stem nationalist sentiments in the East and recruited local pro-Pakistan Bengalis and non-Bengalis for its nefarious operations against Bangali factions. The escalation in violence forced refugees to cross into Indian territory, prompting New Delhi to justify intervening militarily in December 1971. This led to a nine-month-long conflict, culminating in the surrender of the Pakistani army and with the estimated loss of between three hundred thousand to three million lives, and the rape of hundreds of thousands of women.
Since the liberation war, various political parties have tried to control the narrative of Bangladesh and its political situation, going from democratic leadership to military rule, to often adopting almost a familial heredity-esque component to gain power over the country. Between 1972-1975, efforts to create a democratic, secular, and socialist nation were spearheaded by Sheikh Muijib when his political party, Awami League (AL) won in a landslide election in 1973. However, his ambitious task and his government faced tremendous backlash due to an inability to deliver on promises regarding economic stability and political ideals. Simultaneously, the military was also fractionalized and some personnel developed deep grievances against the AL governance. Eventually, Sheikh Mujib was assassinated and an anti-socialist faction took power and either imprisoned or murdered Bangladesh’s most prominent civilian politicians, thus plunging the country into a 15-year military rule.
During these 15 years, from 1975-1990, Ziaur Rahman and Ershad continued to undermine political institutions and treated them as malleable and subservient while making all attempts to legalize their actions and indemnify themselves from prosecution. Secularism was replaced by Islam being declared the state religion and “Absolute Trust and Faith in Almighty Allah”. However, as is prevalent in Bangladesh’s history, rulers have seldom tried to form a peaceful government, and thus the prejudiced and dogmatic martial rule came to an end in 1990. Triggered by the killing of a doctor on Dhaka University campus and the years of subjugation and manipulation under martial rule, Ershad was overthrown. And after 15 years of martial rule, Bangladesh once again made way for democratic rule.
Stability, however, was not an aspect of Bangladesh politics, even under democratic rule. The power struggle between the two major political parties, Awami League (AL) and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) tore the political fabric at the seams, with continuous accusations of rigging elections to inciting violence against the opposition. In 2009, AL returned to power under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, who tirelessly pursued her agenda of marginalizing the opposition and installing a corrupt and repressive regime that perpetuated election malpractice, intimidation, media censorship, judicial malpractice, extrajudicial killing, and harassment.
In the present day, Sheikh Hasina’s government has been toppled by a student-led revolution after 15 years in power. As Sheikh Hasina conceded power and fled the country, she left years of oppressive suffering and instability in her wake, but also, a new-found faith and demand for democratic rule, positioning BNP at the forefront of subsequent elections. Nobel laureate and microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus will steer Bangladesh’s revolution as head of the new interim government, tasked with sustaining the country’s positive development and social trends while also getting its democracy on the right track. Accountability is needed for abuses and corruption during the past 15 years. But as everything comes at a cost, it took weeks of violent demonstrations and it is estimated that more than 2,200 people have been killed in Bangladesh in acts of political violence since 2009 – among them bloggers, journalists, homosexuals, and avowed atheists. The number of journalists, bloggers, and human rights activists arrested and charged under the Digital Security Act is rising rapidly, with at least 1,134 cases since 2018.
As an Indian Bengali, I grew up with stories from people who lost families and friends in the liberation war, and they did not seem like unfamiliar people to me. In Canada, I meet Bengalis and we enjoy conversation in our mother tongue, but we do not think it is important to include whether we hail from India or Bangladesh because the language unites us. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore wrote the national anthems for India and Bangladesh, uniting us in the most intrinsic manner, overall showing that culture unites us where borders try to divide us. Language sees no borders, so why should we?
References:
Zakaria, A. (2019) Remembering the War of 1971 in East Pakistan, Al Jazeera https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/12/16/remembering-the-war-of-1971-in-east-pakistan
Bangladesh’s turbulent political history: 5 facts (2024) Hindustan Times. https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/bangladeshs-turbulent-political-history-5-facts-sheikh-hasina-east-pakistan-coup-job-quota-protest-101722910281169.html
Shehabuddin, S.T. and Khondker, H.H. Bangladeshi politics since independence. https://sai.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/docs/Shehabuddin%20Bangladeshi%20Politics%20Chapter%201+2.pdf
Jack, F.S. (2024) Dawn of a new era for Bangladesh’s democracy, East Asia Forum. https://eastasiaforum.org/2024/09/30/dawn-of-a-new-era-for-bangladeshs-democracy/
MacDonald, G. (2024) Bangladesh’s revolution remains unfinished, United States Institute of Peace. https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/08/bangladeshs-revolution-remains-unfinished
Democratic structures under strain (2023) Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. https://www.bmz.de/en/countries/bangladesh/political-situation-48720
Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Our_Bangladesh.jpg
