Precisely six months after former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s unceremonious ouster from Dhaka, a mob on February 5 razed to the bottom the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi 32. The constructing had been beforehand torched by vandals final yr, hours after Hasina’s exit on August 5.
Dhanmondi 32 was the residence of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. It was from this home that Mujib led Bengali resistance towards Pakistan all through the Sixties until his arrest in 1971 — in line with the museum’s web site, Dhanmondi 32 “was the middle of all of Bangabandhu’s political actions”.
And it was right here that renegade officers of the Bangladesh Military murdered Bangabandhu, his spouse, sons, and 10-year-old grandson. (Mujib’s daughters Hasina and Rehana survived as they have been overseas on the time). In 1994, Hasina transformed the constructing right into a museum.
This makes Dhanmondi 32’s demolition a watershed second in Bangladesh’s political historical past. However this isn’t the primary time that anti-Hasina protesters have focused Mujib’s legacy.
Mujib in Hasina’s politics
Within the three years previous to his killing in 1975, Mujib tried to reshape Bangladesh’s nationwide character, and de-link it from Pakistani traditions. This included a concerted effort to ostracise these Bangladesh Military officers who didn’t take part within the Liberation Battle, and containing Islamist tendencies in each the polity and the army.
However there was pushback from some quarters that finally led to Mujib’s assassination and a army coup in 1975. Basic Ziaur Rahman took management — unofficially by late 1975, formally as President in 1977 — and undid lots of Mujib’s insurance policies. Notably, he gave extra space (together with Cupboard positions) to events like Jamaat-e-Islami in mainstream politics. This continued underneath subsequent Bangladesh Nationalist Social gathering (BNP) governments of Ziaur’s spouse Khaleda Zia in 1991-96 and 2001-06.
It’s on this context that Hasina’s private politics have to be understood. After coming to energy in 2009, Hasina clamped down on Islamist events, making certain that they’re successfully faraway from the electoral subject. She additionally focused alleged razakars (or collaborators with the Pakistani state) for his or her conflict crimes in 1971.
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Past reflecting Bangabandhu’s political imaginative and prescient, the Awami League relied closely on Mujib’s legacy to legitimise Hasina’s politics — which grew to become more and more controversial with every election since 2014. A lot of what the Hasina administration did, good or unhealthy, was in Mujib’s identify.
This made defending Mujib’s legacy of paramount significance. To this finish, the Hasina administration handed legal guidelines just like the Digital Safety Act, 2018 whose Part 21 penalises “any propaganda or marketing campaign towards liberation conflict… Father of the nation [Bangabandhu]…” with imprisonment of upto 10 years, and a fantastic of upto 1 crore taka.
Throughout the 2024 protests
By February 2024, as anti-Hasina protests gathered steam, something and every thing linked to the PM — from her sturdy India tilt to her reliance on Mujib’s legacy — got here underneath assault.
Hasina’s years-long clampdown on the opposition, together with the arrest of Khaleda in 2018 and ban on BNP’s actions and publications in 2023, alleged corruption, and financial mismanagement had created important resentment among the many populace. When the resentment boiled over, the folks of Bangladesh rejected the very foundation of Hasina’s politics — an espousal of what she believed was genuine Bangladeshi nationalism based mostly on the Awami League’s and Mujib’s position within the liberation wrestle.
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For this reason Hasina’s use of the time period razakar whereas criticising scholar protestors didn’t work. “Ami ke? Tumi ke? Razakar razakar [Who am I? Who are you? Razakar razakar],” they chanted, proudly proudly owning what had lengthy been seen as essentially the most horrible largest slur in Bangladesh politics.
Lengthy suppressed fundamentalist and Islamists components discovering area within the protests ostensibly led by the College students Towards Discrimination solely made issues worse. As protestors closed in on Hasina’s residence on August 5, Mujib’s statues have been toppled and murals defaced.
Put merely, Bangladeshi reverence for Mujib because the founding father, was outdated by protestors’ revulsion for his daughter’s authoritarianism in his identify.
Yunus’ legitimacy bid
What occurred in Dhanmondi 32 in August was the results of anti-Hasina sentiments being prolonged to the devices she used to maintain her rule. However its demolition final week was the product of a distinct course of.
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During the last six months, the interim authorities has confronted important challenges, together with questions relating to Muhammad Yunus’ personal legitimacy as “Chief Advisor”, most notably from Hasina herself. To counter this, the Yunus authorities has mounted strain on India — recent friction on the border, diplomatic spats, unprecedented protection and intelligence ties between Dhaka and Rawalpindi, amongst different issues — and extra importantly, prosecuted Hasina legally, politically, and socially.
Establishments that Hasina had erected, such because the Worldwide Crimes Tribunal in 2010, have additionally been turned towards her. The ICT was initially meant to research conflict crimes from 1971. However the tribunal now focuses on alleged crimes towards humanity dedicated underneath Hasina’s rule, has issued a number of arrest warrants towards her, banned the publication of her speeches, and is searching for an Interpol Purple Discover.
A recent and decided give attention to undoing Mujib’s legacy — with all issues related to Mujib being characterised as symbols of “fascism” that have to be eliminated — is a key a part of the federal government’s technique to legitimise itself, and maintain its rule.
That is finest illustrated by the federal government cancelling eight Hasina-era nationwide holidays linked to Mujib, together with one on August 15, the anniversary of Mujib’s assassination. On the similar time, the federal government allowed the celebration of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s 76th loss of life anniversary at Dhaka’s Nationwide Press Membership with Urdu songs and poetry, one thing that flies within the face of what Bangladesh’s wrestle towards West Pakistan’s linguistic and cultural imposition on Bengali Muslims stood for.
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If the 2024 anti-Hasina protests focused Hasina’s father, the most recent developments are towards the ‘Father of the Nation’. The sturdy downstream impact of the federal government’s strikes is that extremists, the likes of whom destroyed Bangabandhu’s home, now get a free hand to focus on Mujib.
That this doesn’t signify the whole lot (or perhaps a majority) of the views held by Bangladeshi folks, was mirrored in what Mahfuz Alam, editor of The Every day Star, wrote on October 18, 2024: “We can not malign Bangabandhu’s historic and indeniable position with what Sheikh Hasina did within the 15-plus years she was in energy.”
Sadly, very similar to the politics of revenge that Hasina herself perpetuated, the Yunus administration now advantages from a reciprocal give attention to revenge. Bangabandhu’s legacy pays the value.
Bashir Ali Abbas is a Senior Analysis Affiliate on the Council for Strategic and Protection Analysis, New Delhi.
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Bantirani Patro is a Analysis Affiliate on the Centre for Air Energy Research, New Delhi.
