You can hear my reading of this post in an audio file which you can find on the tabs on the Substack website and app. Please excuse the occasional car horns in the background (or see it as authentic sounds of Dhaka!).
“Make visible what, without you, might never have been seen.”
— Robert Bresson
Thank you to all who contacted me after reading my last post, The Day After. It seems to have been shared widely and more people have subscribed to my Substack. I am grateful – thank you! – though feel it right to clarify that I generally write (and draw) about seeking and belonging, looking for a home, and life lessons. Politics is not my usual jam. I’m writing about this extraordinary moment in Bangladeshi history because I cannot think about much else during this time. I’m also writing it very much from the perspective of a layperson who has familial and emotional ties to Bangladesh but doesn’t live here full-time.
With that out of the way, I wanted to respond to the many requests for an update, so here it is!
Dhaka, Bangladesh, 12th August 2024
Well, it’s been quite a week. It still feels surreal. We are not at the stage of waking up to a new dawn – my cousin said we’ve had the overthrown bit but not yet the part when things turn around to rightfully call this a revolution – but everything certainly feels different. It’s hard to describe it except to perhaps compare it to the moment when I realised, many years ago, that I didn’t have to stay in an unhappy marriage. Once I made the decision to leave it, it was as if I began to breathe differently, filled with the elation of what was possible, even before anything materially changed.
Sheikh Hasina resigned as Prime Minister and fled the country last Monday, 5th August. Even though plans were swiftly made for an interim government to lead Bangladesh to the next general election, for a few days it was difficult to predict which way the country would go – towards darkness and brutality, or towards hope and healing.
The days seemed mostly fine, but night-time came with stories of looting and robbery. Despite the huge wealth disparity within the population, Bangladesh has not been the kind of country where the rich live shielded behind armoured gates. But for a few days there, everyone from all income brackets was on guard. Neighbours banded together to patrol streets, mosques used their loudspeakers to warn residents of thieving in the area, and people locked their doors and windows and kept their outdoor lights on.
There were also targeted attacks, by and large against members of the fallen government, and their close allies. A cousin who lives across the street from the wealthiest man in Bangladesh saw his house being stripped by looters, leather dining chairs and crystal chandeliers being carried out one by one over a few days and sold to passersby, his numerous cars set alight. Everyone I know is relieved to see the end of this era of authoritarian leadership and their cronies who believed themselves to be so untouchable, their greed for power and money grew insatiable. But it’s upsetting to hear of properties being burned down and destroyed (a Rolls Royce can be sold by the interim government and funds channelled to worthy causes; a Rolls Royce burned to the ground is nothing except a symbol of revenge, which doesn’t feed as many mouths).
Would lawlessness take over? Trusted sources (I have 56 first cousins – not a typo – about half of whom live in Bangladesh) raised questions about who the players behind the attacks were. The once-suppressed opposition having a field day now that the government had fallen? Allies of the previous government who wanted to demonstrate the chaos unleashed as a result of their downfall? Or a more sinister and calculated influence from third parties? Fake news planted by Indian interests (see below) didn’t help.
Yet with each tale of destruction and disaster came follow-up stories of solidarity and activism. Once again, it was the students who led the way. After being responsible for bringing down a powerful autocratic government, you’d think they’d want to put their feet up for a while and relax, but no! The students were the ones who began to clean up the streets, who pressed for looters to return stolen goods, and who, in the absence of traffic police, began to man the traffic lights across the city. It is monsoon season, usually humid with sudden spells of torrential rain and thunder. And yet all I’ve heard is how stupendously effective and cheerful these students are directing the (obscenely chaotic) traffic of our streets.
Dr Muhammad Yunus flew into Dhaka on Thursday from Paris to head the new interim government. Their work ahead is enormous; a cousin likened it to renovating a house – you want to do it all at the same time but it’s only really possible to do it painstakingly room by room. We watched the ceremony on live television that evening. We observed the minute’s silence in memory of the hundreds of students and their allies who lost their lives in this short, dramatic month (the estimated number is 500). We then watched as Dr Yunus was sworn in as the Chief Advisor of the interim government. Sixteen other people were sworn in immediately after as Advisors. Sitting in front of the screen, we too applauded them and became emotional.
Two of the Advisors, Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, are all of 26 years old. They were doing their Masters at Dhaka University and became two of the student leaders who started the peaceful movement last month protesting the government job quotas. I am sharing part of an article in The Daily Star that outlines their extraordinary journey of courage and conviction:
They drew attention when they were picked up during the first round of curfew slapped by the Hasina government to suppress the quota reform movement. Media reports described how they were tortured and left on the roadside.
Later, Detective Branch (DB) members picked up the two again along with four other coordinators while they were undergoing treatment at Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital in the capital. But instead of backing down, they launched a hunger strike at the DB office on July 30, protesting the unjust arrests of their coordinators and the brutal crackdown on students nationwide.
Later, the six coordinators including Nahid and Asif were forced to announce the withdrawal of the anti-discrimination student movement programme in a video message when they were under DB custody.
But after being released from there, they vowed to press on with the movement.
Their persistence paid off as the movement soon resonated with the public.
As police brutality increased, at one stage they announced a one-point demand for Hasina's resignation which ultimately ended the Awami League’s rule.
… [Asif Mahmud] said while the major parties couldn’t oust the autocratic government in the last 17 years, they managed to do so in just four days after announcing their one-point demand.
“We will prove that the younger generation too can serve the country with passion and patriotism,” Asif said.
The full article, From students to youngest-ever advisers, by Muntakim Saad and Rafiul Islam is in The Daily Star. It made me teary!
Two days ago, my mother, restless at the best of times, got fed up with the hibernation I was enforcing on her and announced we simply had to step out. We went to the supermarket to buy drinks and snacks for the students manning the traffic lights near our home as our miniscule way of saying thank you to them. Our gift bags seemed paltry compared to some of the sackloads of juice boxes and packed biscuits we saw being unloaded and handed over to the young people. We are all so very proud of them. Traffic police were officially reinstated as of this morning, but when we went out today, we still only saw students manning the traffic in our area, some wearing neon vests and blowing whistles, all of them still unfailingly cheerful and polite. They amaze me.
Over this past week, I became acutely aware of two things. I used to be astounded at how swiftly this country seemed to get back to their daily lives after the brutal liberation war from Pakistan in 1971. But now I get it – there’s a yearning to return to a “normal”, even one that’s different to the one before. I don’t live in Bangladesh (I don’t live anywhere) but it is a place – thanks entirely to my mother who does – where I have any semblance of regularity and routine, and it has been soothing, after all this, to get back to it.
And the second thing is how in ABSOLUTE AWE I am of the incredibly brave young students and the younger generation of this country. They stood up for what they believed was right. They have embraced “non discrimination” to the extent of including it in the name of their movement. And when push came to shove, despite the shocking number of violent deaths at the hands of an autocratic regime, they did not back down. They doubled down. And carried the nation to its second liberation. They simply take my breath away.
My deepest hope is that future leadership moves on from the largely dynastic system that’s been in place so far. (The former Prime Minister’s son, also her advisor, pipes up daily on social media to give his views and there is a “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” oblivion on his part to how the tenor has shifted in the country.) This nation can and should be run by those whose vision is grander yet fairer and truer to its original principles of freedom and democracy. I hope this new awakening is taken by the right hands to lead Bangladesh towards its highest, most noble, bestest self.
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
— Albert Einstein
Recommendations
ART
I love how Bangladeshis cannot help but create art. This beautiful moving mural of solidarity was created this week. The artists are listed as: Rasna Tabassum, Arnob, Alvy, Rodoshi, Adit, Saif, Mithi, Ohee, Tonni, Mahfuza, Zaman, Rabeya.
ARTICLE
The people of Bangladesh don't need to be kept “in check” by a convenient autocrat. That is the narrative of a now-disgraced political party that has proven to lie repeatedly to the people and the world to keep power. The people of India must not fall for this narrative ever again.
Read Misinformation campaigns and the future of Bangladesh-India relations by Zillur Rahman in The Daily Star, written Sunday, 11th August.
ARTICLE
Here’s a longer and more detailed report in The Business Standard newspaper on the investigation by BBC Bangla on the proliferation of fake news coming from India: ‘Persecution’ of Hindus in Bangladesh: Fake posts uncovered by BBC.
ARTICLE
This article for The Guardian by Salil Tripathi, The question for Bangladesh: can it break the spell of its bloodstained history? is a succinct overview of Bangladesh political history.
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Thank you Nupu for the update. You and your family and fellow countrymen have been at the top of my thoughts and prayers. The mural portrays it all! May the new transitions continue in the best direction for Bangladesh.