Student Revolt in Bangladesh



For the past few weeks, students have taken to the streets across Bangladesh in a massive wave of protests against the Sheikh Hasina government and the country’s quota system for distribution of government jobs.

 

Since then, people across the world have been appalled by the levels of state repression and violence, with the government giving a free reign to the country’s police and security forces to attack the students and repress the protests. The ruling Awami League’s affiliated groups, including their student-wing of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), empowered by the police and security forces, have also carried out brutal violence on oppositional students organized under Students Against Discrimination banners. Even as the actual numbers remain unclear, it is widely believed that at least more than 300 protestors have been killed in this violence, many more injured, with the hospitals overflowing with injured protestors. Despite these brutalities, the protests have only been further galvanized, inspiring more and more people to take to the streets, resulting in a wider section of Bangladeshi society joining the students in the struggle.

 

Even though, by now, the top court has been forced to partially concede to the demands of the protestors, the movement created by these protests have begun to reshape Bangladeshi politics altogether.



 

What is the Quota System?



 

Under the current quota system, more than 50% of all government jobs, some of the most well paid, are reserved. The biggest chunk of this reservation, a massive 30%, was accorded in 1972 to the descendants of those who participated in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. The students have been asking for a reform to this system, by scrapping the portion afforded to the descendants of the independence war, while maintaining the reservations for minorities, including oppressed peoples, and women.



 

The problem with the 30% being cut out for the veteran families is squarely political. Most of these families are directly connected to, or affiliates of, the ruling Awami League which was the leading front during the Independence movement. As such, this reservation functions as a means for the government to entrench undemocratic powers over the state apparatus and maintain its authoritarian hold. 

 

In a political context where youth unemployment has skyrocketed in Bangladesh, with 40% of the youth either at universities or unemployed, even as inflation continues to plague food prices, the students began to call for these jobs to be democratized, and a merit-based system to be put in place instead that is not biased towards to Awami League sympathisers.

 



A previous wave of student protests in 2018 had caused the Hasina government to scrap this quota for veteran families, but in June of this year the High Court ordered for the quota to be reinstated and fast-tracked a return to the previous system. It is this decision that triggered the mass movement we are seeing currently.



 

In response to the protests, the top court of Bangladesh called for an emergency sitting on Sunday, July 21st, to find a resolution to the quota issue. In an unprecedented move and because of the pressure from below, the court was forced to scale back the 30% to 5%, which is certainly a win for the protestors. However, the levels of state violence have resulted in the protests growing beyond the issue of the quota system, and it is unclear whether the students will back down after the quota reform.

 



What next?

 

In response to the brutal state violence, the protestors have not backed off. In fact, the movement has only grown stronger, galvanizing more people, including workers and the general public, to take to the streets and challenge the authoritarian Sheikh Hasina regime. The issues at the core of the protests have since widened, to include the government’s inability to curtail inflation, the skyrocketing of food prices, the rampant targeting of minorities, and political corruption in the ruling party who have also been accused of holding rigged elections.  

 

All major opposition parties had boycotted the previous elections. As such, these protests mark the most serious challenge to Hasina’s government, and an indication that Bangladeshi people are more than willing to take back their power in the streets.

 

As of July 18th, the government shut down all internet connectivity nation-wide to try and prevent communication and curtail mobilization, banned all public rallies, and the very next day it imposed a nation-wide martial curfew, essentially holding the 170 million people hostage to the government’s political whim. But the protestors are here to stay. They clapped back at the telecommunication shut-down, with a group called ‘THE R3SISTANC3” successfully hacking the top government websites, including those of the prime minister’s office and Bangladesh’s central bank. The official website of the Hasina’s office welcomed visitors with a message “Stop Killing Students”, followed by the line “It’s not a protest anymore. It’s a war now”.

 

In the digital silence imposed upon a nation, what we are now hearing are rumblings of a massive political transformation in Bangladesh, where the future of the authoritarian Sheikh Hasina regime is now uncertain.