What a week it was! The students of Bangladesh showed the way to their country’s future. They restored people’s power by sending a government home which held on to power despite humungous unpopularity. It is a turning point in the history of Bangladesh as Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League’s decade-and-a-half rule ended. A generation which has seen three largely questionable elections in 2014, 2018 and 2024 held protests which were led by, ‘Students against Discrimination’– a group that was formed to demand reforms in quotas for jobs. These protests were not led by an individual or a political party; they were led by the power of youth. These protests have brought to light, hitherto facts unknown to the outside world.
Student movements have been in the forefront in Bangladesh in the past as in the language movement in 1952 and the independence movement in 1971. Since July 1, this year thousands of university students in Bangladesh had been staging protests against a recruitment system that they say is discriminatory and favours children and grandchildren of war heroes of the Bangladesh Liberation War, for high-paying government jobs. The protesters were calling for recruitment based on merit. Some of these posts are also reserved for women, ethnic minorities and the disabled.
During a press conference at the then Prime Minister’s Hasina’s residence on July 14, she responded, saying: “If the grandchildren of freedom fighters do not receive (quota) benefits, who would get it? The grandchildren of Razakars?” Angered by the statement, the protesting students shot back: “Tui ke? Ami ke? Razakar, Razakar! (Who are you? Who am I? Razakar, Razakar!)” to taunt her, an iconic slogan that was used by Bangladeshi freedom fighters between 1968-1971 during their fight for independence from Pakistan. It was perceived that Sheikh Hasina had equated students with anti-liberation actors.
The confrontation between the government and the students led to mass killings, the worst that has been seen in recent Bangladesh. A tragedy unfolded with the loss of almost 300 lives, besides a curfew and military marches. In the name of restoration of law and order the government order to use live bullets against its own citizens, enraged the ordinary people. The image of unarmed student Abu Sayed standing with open arms and within seconds being shot by the police spoke volumes of the Bangladeshi State like no other image could. This image became a public symbol of the fight against repression and the arrogance of power. In this crossfire situation the army and the student movement in Bangladesh have given every positive indication of the protection of Hindu minorities.
Like Bangladesh, student protests have forced regimes to change across the world. One has to visit the War Memorial Museum in Ho Chi Min, Vietnam to see that the aftermath of the Orange Gas Effect that has lasted over generations with thousands of Vietnamese born without limbs. It was the student movement in the USA (with student and teacher sit-ins) that protested against America’s involvement in the Vietnam War throughout the 1960s and early 1970s across the campuses across America that ultimately led to popular sentiment against the war. The American troops were withdrawn in 1973. On a recent visit to Vietnam, I understood that present day Vietnam has moved on and the people have no malice against their past oppressors.
In South Africa, the Soweto uprising of June 1976 saw armed police attacking a march of thousands of students against unequal education in Apartheid. This led to protests and the world condemning the South African regime, which soon culminated in the end of the Apartheid legislation in 1991, leading to multiracial elections in 1994.
The Velvet Revolution in 1989, which led to the formation of the Czech Republic from the former Czechoslovakia, was an immediate effect of the fall of the Berlin Wall. When students had gathered in Prague to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a protester’s death in an anti-Nazi demonstration, the police mishandled the gathering. This led to a protest against the communist Czechoslovakian government, spreading to other cities which ultimately forced the regime to resign to a peaceful transition with democratic Slovak and the Czech Republic today living as peaceful neighbours. In fact as tourists, we were shown these student police confrontations sites near the historic building of the National Council in Bratislava, capital of the Slovak Republic and the Old Town City hall in Prague’s Old Town Square.
The students mainly of Beijing university went on hunger strikes and peaceful protests before the countless massacre in the Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 －A subject banned in China but impossible to erase from public memory. The Umbrella movement of 2019 in Hong Kong was also led by students over a proposed extradition bill that would cover extradition to mainland China. These student protests led the Hong Kong administration to suspend the bill. Today although it is a special administrative region of China, it maintains legal and political systems distinct from those in mainland China until 2047.
The Jasmine Revolution of the Arab Spring saw students as an important part of the protests in 2010 and early 2011 which led to the ouster of strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The main problems were political repression and economic issues. In November 2013, students set up barricades, tents at Kyiv’s Independence Square in Ukraine, when the then President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, wanting closer ties with Russia instead. The students protest led to the eventual ouster of the President and brought in a new dispensation.
The Sunflower Movement in 2014 was against the Taiwanese Kuomintang governments proposed trade in services agreement with China. Students and civil society groups joined in this protest which shelved this trade pact and laid the foundation for a change in government in the 2016 elections in Taiwan. In Sri Lanka the Aragalaya protests of 2022, university students demonstrated over the mismanagement of the economy which led to the exit of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Goa has also seen movements by the All Goa Students Union and the Progressive Students Union for various causes which to a large extent culminated in raising public sentiment against the governments of its times. The All Assam Students Union and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad was a six-year period (1979-1985) of civil disobedience campaigns and ethnic violence, which finally ended with the Assam Accord and the students joining mainstream politics.
India had student movements during the Emergency. The last big student-led movement was the agitation for Telangana, but that did not turn violent because the state was responsive. The State of Telangana was born in the Osmania University. The fact that Bangladesh is a student-led movement holds out the possibility of hope — a sign of a society contentiously trying to carve out a more equitable future.
Students have always retained the democratic legitimacy to challenge authoritarian regimes. They have the youthful energy necessary to sustain such agitations. In hopeless situations they become rays of hope and the conscience keepers of society. The tragedy lies in the loss of young lives for a political cause. As the globe is taking a sharp right turn for reasons of history there is hope that the students shall cease every moment to protect freedom and liberty wherever need be!
(Dr. Sushila Sawant Mendes is an Author & Professor in History and an Independent Researcher.)