Long March to Dhaka

In their resilience against what they deemed unjust, Bangladeshis have once again achieved a new independence. They have shown the subcontinent that if the government does not cater to the needs of the people, it indeed must not govern them.

Since the day Bangladesh became independent, the Awami League had set a quota system that guaranteed 30% of public jobs to be given to the descendants and relatives of the veterans who fought the 1971 war. Although initially patriotic, this arrangement had more to do with Hasina’s desire to stay favorable and further her political base rather than account for any nationalist endeavor to honor the war heroes. Furthermore, Hasina has long been disliked by the public due to her continuous corrupt practices and greed for power. With their remarkable unity and organization, Bangladeshi students mobilized huge masses across the country in a ‘Long March to Dhaka’ with a singular demand to end the Awami Party’s dynastic rule that specifically demanded Hasina’s removal. Despite the loss of over 300 lives and harsh police encounters in ‘bloody July,’ within 24 days, Hasina was forced to resign and subsequently left the country. Complying with student demands, Muhammad Yunus was declared the interim Prime Minister, and two student activists, Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, attained a seat in the parliament as ministers. The leaders of this second ‘Fall of Dhaka’ are student activists like Sheikh Mujib, who have honored him for rebelling against an autocratic rule, be it Mujib’s own daughter Hasina. More importantly, this newly forming political office has vowed to exercise a democratic mandate for governance that champions equal opportunity and accountability for all Bangladeshis.

In their resilience against what they deemed unjust, Bangladeshis have once again achieved a new independence. They have shown the subcontinent that if the government does not cater to the needs of the people, it indeed must not govern them. Ironically, the Bangladeshis, who were once ethnically marginalized by East Pakistan and entirely despaired by the subcontinent, have twice shown us how to be independent of, firstly, a state that doesn’t serve you (in 1971) and, secondly, of governance structures that don’t purpose the people (in 2024). This time, they have achieved what Pakistan could not accomplish with the protests that wreaked havoc throughout the nation after Imran Khan’s arrest.

Although Pakistanis have learned the art of mobilizing for protests, the country is still provincially divided and a slave to living under a dynastic rule that hides behind the farce of a democratized elective selection of a leader. While the PTI may be pretty prominent in KPK, the PML-N has acquired a strong hold over Punjab, and the PPP is cemented in interior Sindh. These realities may have been stirred during the previous election due to the high favorability of Imran Khan (not to be mistaken for PTI). Still, even after having amassed a majority of votes for PTI, Khan was helpless against Pakistan’s establishment and governing forces that failed to render a solution. For Pakistan, each step towards a revolution is resistant. Too often, political protests are violently shut down. If not, the people leading them tend to have no long-term plans, but if they do, which was the case of PTI when Imran Khan was elected and successfully came into office in 2018, they are not given the time to execute them. The establishment overrides them, and perpetually, the entire country is forced to ride the wheel of confusion again.

Bangladesh’s ability to mobilize a movement so grand, not once but twice in the small history of the nation, should be admirable and inspirational for Pakistan, for they did not allow the burden of familiarity to eclipse the future of over 171 million people. Time and again, they dare to remove leaders they deem incapable and participate in their country’s political realm, thereby exercising their right to citizenry. At fifty-one, Bangladesh has successfully elected a leader it wants, made student ministers, begun creating a new mandate with the help of their youth leaders, issued arrest warrants for corrupt political servants, and created an atmosphere of change that looks optimistic and is actively striving towards development.

For Pakistan, this should be a roadmap. The first step to ensure just governance is to allow the political dialogue of protest to ensue and create solutions as a provincially united nation. The recycled patterns of familiar structures must be broken and replaced with new structures and people, for monotony is the death of progress. The success of a revolution lies in the commitment to foster a changing environment within your people, institutions, and country.