Busting the myth of golden Bengal #StudentProtests2024

'আমরা ভাতে মারব, আমরা পানিতে মারব।' 

(March 7, 1971, Sheikh Mujib)

When Sheikh Mujib said he would stop cooperating with West Pakistan, he knew the power he had in his hands. Five decades later, his daughter Sheikh Hasina is doing the same, but against her own people. But this time, with their backs against the wall, they have nothing to lose, and woe upon those who do not recognize the desperation and rage of the hungry man. The student movement in Bangladesh primarily began as an outburst of economic grievances, as do all great revolutions. Think of the French Revolution that began with the disenfrancisement of the Third Estate as the best example of this - a lot of the initial protests were about bread until the inevitable happened. This movement was about protesting the quota system that has been used as a tool to rob and discriminate against the general population of Bangladesh for decades - 30 percent quota for 0.03% of the population, who unsurprisingly turned out to be either Sheikh Hasina's most loyal Awami dudes, or the highest bidders.

Doing a job in Bangladesh is a hellish experience - long working hours, forced overtime, terrible bosses, and worst of all, dismal pay. There are people who earn ridiculously low wages of 5000 -7000 taka per month (less than 50-70 dollars), and even many educated people with degrees (read lower middle class and middle class) hardly earn more than 20,000 taka per month (less than 200 dollars per month). And there is no job security most of the time, since the boss can kick you out, and there is nothing you can do about it. In a country like this, a government job is like a golden goose - apart from a steady pay, you are set for life, and your family members use your network and name to earn extra respect socially, not to mention financially as well.

So students, mainly those hailing from lower middle and middle class, see this as one of the few ways for upward social mobility. It is not uncommon to hear of students committing suicide if they are unable to secure a government job. The story of Bangladesh-as-an-economic miracle, so prevalent in Western media over the past decade, does not include the stories and stuggles of these students, but those of corrupt businesses and businessmen close to the regime who have amassed massive wealth overnight in not so legal ways. The gap in wealth inequality has been accelerating over the past decade, such that the wealthiest 10 percent of the population now controls a disproportionate 41 percent of the nation’s total income, while the bottom 10 percent receives a meagre 1.31 percent, according to (not so reliable) government data.

Therefore, although Hasina's regime oversold the myth of Bangladesh-as-an-economic miracle to a global audience, until it suddenly wasn't, the success of this progapanda relied on internationals not asking too many questions about overnight billionaires (আঙ্গুল ফুলে কলাগাছ billionaires). The confusion of international media was evident in the initial days - Aljazeera (The protests stand out all the more because of the significant economic gains that Bangladesh has made in recent years.) and TRT world (Despite being hailed as a “South Asian economic miracle,” Bangladesh has been engulfed in protests led by university students fearing job security) among them. In reality, the economy of Bangladesh is fragile, with high inflation, high youth unemployment, rampant corruption, absence of law/norms, high pollution, as well as nigh impossible precarity of one's very existence. When Hasina and her intellectual cohorts talk of "Shonar Bangla" or "Golden Bengal", it is a myth, and ideology, of "plenty for all." For example, this is highly visible in Bangladesh National Television broadcasts of "বাম্পার ফলন/ excessive agricultural output," and is deeply connected with desires to attain plenty in a golden Bengal, while having lived in a mythical golden past of plenty (Read through the lyrics of the national anthem 'Amar Shonar Bangla' by Rabindranath Tagore to get a sense of this). 

But instead of 'plenty for all' as promised since eternity by politicians and intellectuals of the Bengali state, it is in reality just 'plenty for some', as a result of remnance of colonial intitutions and structures of extraction for the benefit of a ruling few and their native collaborators. And the weakness of this table of cards is evident, as shown in the recent S&P down grading of Bangladesh just days into the govt curfew. The student protests have cracked open this gift that kept on giving, the idea of Bangladesh-as-an-economic miracle, and helped bust this myth of Shonar Bangla, showing the world that Bangladesh is a land of plenty for few, and nothing for the rest. Over time, the protesters have shown their maturity, evolving beyond mere demands for quota to asking for colonial structures that ensure inequality to be torn down. They have asked for both democracy to be restored, and perpetrators to face proper justice, so that their fallen comrades can rest in dignity, and not just recieve a few pieces of grain from the granary of Shonar Bangla Inc. 

Its time for Hasina to step down.

 "এবারের সংগ্রাম মুক্তির সংগ্রাম এবারের সংগ্রাম স্বাধীনতার সংগ্রাম! জয় বাংলা। পাকিস্তান জিন্দাবাদ।" (This war is a war for independence, this war is a war for Freedom! Joy Bangla. Pakistan Zindabad). (March 7, 1971, Sheikh Mujib)