Bangladesh – Which Path Will It Take?

Sheikh Hasina made a triumphant return to Dhaka today. After almost two months of jostling, the caretaker government finally gave up its clumsy efforts of trying to keep her out of the country permanently.

So just what is going on in Bangladesh?
Recent events have an eerie similarity with those in Pakistan over the last few decades. The euphoric return to democracy after decades of military rule, the gradual souring of the dream as elected governments ruined the country through rampant corruption, ineptitude and political violence, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, and coming back full circle, the relief when the military took over the reins of government again (in the garb of a caretaker government). There was no coup, of course. The caretaker government is in place according to a unique feature of the Bangladeshi constitution which requires the outgoing government to hand over power to an interim one that oversees a free and fair election. That they have the strong backing of the army is an added bonus.

Khaleda Zia handed over power to the interim government, headed by the President at the appropriate time. But the latter was seen as being biased and unreliable, leading to violence on the streets. A reconstituted caretaker government assumed power, backed by the muscle of the army. It took upon itself to ‘clean up’ the country’s politics and root out endemic corruption. It took the unprecendented step of indefinitely postponing elections, and riding on a wave of popular support, it went about arresting high profile people, such as Prime Minister Zia’s son, on charges of corruption and misuse of power. But then it’s rather botched effort at sending outgoing Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, into exile in Saudi Arabia, caused it much embarrassment and loss of face. It’s futile attempt at keeping her arch rival Sheikh Hasina stranded in London now seems to have backfired badly too. On the face of it, the country seems to be falling into a downward spiral that it cannot pull itself out of.

Bangladesh is one of the most politically polarized countries in the world. The reason for that lies in the personal history of the two women who dominate Bangladeshi politics today. Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s first President and ‘father of the nation’. She is one of the just two family members alive today, after Mujib’s entire family was gunned down in the bloody coup of 1975. One of the primary beneficiaries of that political murder? Ziaur Rahman, appointed chief of army staff after the assassination, and self-declared president two years and a coup and counter-coup later. Zia was founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). His widow, Begum Khaleda Zia, chief of BNP and three time Prime Minister of Bangladesh, is the other prima donna of Bangladeshi politics, and loathed, arch-rival of Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League party. It was never proved, of course, that Ziaur Rahman had anything to do with Mujib’s assassination, but the insinuation was always there.This historical baggage carried by these two rivals permeates every aspect of Bangladeshi politics. Their, and by extension, their party workers’, hatred for each other is legendary. The policies of the two parties may be almost indistinguishable, but to their supporters, that hardly matters. This is the time-warp that Bangladeshis seem to be living in since 1991.

Why is a nation that was born from the flames of ethnic, linguistic and cultural pride determined to hitch itself to the yoke of Islamic fundamentalism? It should be understood that Bangladesh’s so-called slide into Islamic fundamentalism is not a new phenomenon. The process can be traced all the way back to the partition of Bengal in 1905 and the gradual disconnect that grew between the predominantly Hindu educated class (the Babus) and the Muslim peasants. The horrific communcal violence and formation of East Pakistan in 1947 only cemented that divide. But still there was a thread of secularism and Bengali nationalism that existed in the fabric of East Bengali society. This was given a voice by Mujibur Rahman and his Awami League, culminating in the formation of the Mukti Bahini, and with political and military backing from India, the birth of the nation of Bangaldesh.

Not surprisingly, Mujib was an avowed friend of India and a committed socialist. He was also highly regarded in the civil society of West Bengal. This rattled many in the new nation, who did not take kindly to the watering down of the Islamic identity of the state in favour of a more Bengali identity. This section of Bangladeshi society, having experienced the blood-letting and communal hatred of partition, viewed India with deep suspicion and regarded it as a scheming Hindu state. In fact, the Jamaat-e-Islami openly collaborated with the Pakistan army against the formation of Bangladesh. This is worth remembering when we in India tend to over-simplify present-day Bangladeshi attitude towards us as ungrateful and selfish.

After Mujib’s assassination, Ziaur Rahman, exploited these feelings to the hilt and created the right-wing BNP, which still dominates political thought in Bangladesh. The word ‘secularism’ in the preamble to the Constitution was replaced with ‘Bismillahir-Rahmaanir-Rahim’, Shariat and Sunnah gained in social and legal importance. Islamic education became compulsory in schools. The parallel with the other Zia (ul-Haq) on our western border is almost surreal. And he was overwhelmingly popular among the masses of Bangladesh. He played to the nationalists by moving further and further away from India and the Soviets. When seen in this context, it is not surprising at all that the BNP, under Khaleda Zia came to power with the help of an alliance with Islamist parties, and has maintained a public show of almost disdain towards India from the beginning of her three terms in office.

As a result of the changing nature of the India-Bangladesh relationship over the decades, the new generation of Bangladeshis, disconnected from the bloody events of their nation’s birth, have been brought up in an environment that is increasingly anti-India. Many of them harbour an intense dislike for their mammoth neighbour, though for different, and more confused, reasons than that  of their earlier generations. Perhaps it has more to do with the wave of Islamism that is sweeping through much of Islamic South Asia and the perception of India as an overbearing anti-Islam state, that is uncomfortably closely aligned with the United States of America. This is a situation that is ripe for picking by Islamic radicals. Mujib’s secular socialist Bengali nation has remained the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in name only. For all practical purposes it is today the Islamic Republic of Bangladesh. Political outfits like Islamic Unity Front (Islami Oikya Jote), Bangladesh Islamic Assembly (Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh), and even Hizb ut-Tahrir, a Sunni Islamist political party founded in Jerusalem (!), have exploited the situation. B Raman opines in Rediff that groups aligned to the International Islamic Front formed by Osama Bin Laden are active in Bangladesh today.

I have myself witnessed the growing radicalization of Muslims living on the border areas of Assam, thanks to mushrooming madrasas funded by Arab petrodollars and staffed by fundamentalist wahabi fire-and-brimstone preachers from across the border. Hailakandi, a once-idyllic district town in southern Assam where my father’s family hailed from, is now overrun with illegal immigrants and is dotted with unregulated madrasas, the changes having taken place just within the last decade. Assam is a sad case really. Ignored by the center for decades, exploited for its oil and tea, and finally getting some recognition after the All Assam Students Union (AASU) agitation of the 70s and 80s (and the accompanying violence…who can forget the Nellie Massacre?), only to be lost to radicals like the ULFA once again, due to a government hopelessly out of its depth and playing the only game it knew…vote bank politics. The ULFA, of course, has changed colours almost completely, turning from a violent organization based on an ideology of Assamese nationalism to one that has become a pawn in the hands of the ISI and Bangladeshi intelligence agency, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) (link). Paresh Baruah, the head of ULFA, and other self-styled senior leaders like Arabinda Rajkhowa and Anup Chetia continue to be harboured and sheltered by Bangladeshi intelligence, helping them raise funds, travel around the world and maintain camps in Bangladesh. ULFA is also said to be intimately involved in Bangaldeshi political violence, with the finger of suspicion for an attempt on the life of Sheikh Hasina in 2004 pointing towards them. It is safe to say that the organization has completely lost grass roots support in Assam, with more and more people becoming tired and fearful of of its terrorist tactics, its pandering to the very Islamic radicals and Bangladeshi infiltrators that it used to speak out against earlier.

The caretaker government of Bangladesh has promised India that it will cooperate in the fight against insurgent outfits that take shelter in their territory. This itself is a step up from the standard denial tactics of the previous Khaleda Zia government, a trick it seems to have learnt from Pakistan – deny everything…keep denying till the world gets tired of the questions. And this trick works, because unlike aggressive western powers, India keeps asking the same questions in the face of repeated denials and blatant lies, and never takes affirmative action. India just does not know how to take the next decisive step. When, defying all odds, it does take some action, the results are usually spectacular…case in point – the ULFA being smoked out of the jungles of Bhutan by the Special Frontier Force with help from the Royal Bhutan Army, their camps demolished, their cadres killed or on the run. 

India is keeping its fingers crossed about the future of Bangladesh, naturally. But it should probably do more than that. A return of Sheikh Hasina and her secular Awami League party will be the ideal situation as far India is concerned, and may be the best path for Bangladesh itself to go down. I still have faith in the inherent ability of the average Bengali to favour good governance over fanaticism, cultural pride over religious dogma, but who knows? Times have changed and entire societies have changed in character. Bangladesh is at the crossroads. Which path will it take?

~ by Shubho on May 8, 2007.