‘Fear of Hasina gone’: How the student agitation has shaken up Bangladesh’s authoritarianism

For much of July, the world watched as Bangladesh, a country of more than 170 million, was swept up by protests. Initially led by its students, demanding jobs, and then joined in by common citizens, the agitation was one of the largest seen in the country’s history. Faced with this upsurge, the country’s government took to violent repression, using lethal force on largely unarmed protesters. In spite of this violence, however, the protests show little sign of dying out, with massive crowds turning up in the capital, Dhaka as well as in other cities on Saturday.

Scroll spoke to Ali Riaz, a professor in the Department of Politics and Government at Illinois State University, who has studied Bangladeshi politics in great detail. He explained that the roots of the upsurge lie in the Awami League’s authoritarian rule, with several elections seen as fixed, and that this presents a major challenge to Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina’s hold on power.

We have seen some incredible and tragic scenes from Bangladesh over the last few weeks. Can you explain the reason for this quota agitation: both the immediate causes but also the background causes?

What led to this explosion suddenly?

First of all we need to understand that there are two...

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