South Asian diaspora and locals: Deep interest in Bangladesh, discussion at the Cambridge Community Center, 25 August 2024 - Photo by Beena Sarwar
South Asian Diaspora Reflects on the Fight for Freedom and Justice
By Ankita G.
Boston, MA
For South Asians like me living in America, our ‘homelands’ are never far from our hearts and minds. And homeland is not just the land of one’s birth, but also the region of one’s ethnicity.
I was born in Delhi. My family had moved to West Bengal, India, from the land that is now Bangladesh, after the first Independence, also known as Partition, in 1947.
I was two when they moved to the US, but they have always avidly followed happenings in their birthplace. During the student uprising this past year in Bangladesh my entire family talked about it nonstop. We closely followed the Bangladeshi student protests that ousted the despotic Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The protests, with the horrific accompanying loss of lives, paved the way for what we hope is a new road for the people of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh for the people’
So it felt good when members of the South Asian diaspora organized a meeting in the Boston area where I live, to discuss the situation.
The 'Bangladesh for the People’ forum hosted by the Boston South Asian Coalition, a voluntary group of activists in the area, drew Bangladeshis from all walks of life - students, professionals and local activists. There were also Indians, Pakistanis, and other members of the local community.
The event took place in late August at the Cambridge Community Center in Massachusetts, but the discussion – led by members of the Bangladeshi diaspora with deep links to the situation on the ground – has stayed with me.
“Freedom is a constant struggle” was the message of the day, which remains relevant even now. The discussion provided context to the situation, underlining that the movement did not begin on July 14 when PM Hasina called student protestors “rajakaars” – a derogatory term used to refer to supporters of the Pakistani military against Bangladesh’s liberation. This was just the trigger.
The students were already protesting against political repression, lack of unemployment, and inequity, all of which had long been brewing discontent in the country. The culture of impunity with which PM Hasina operated, from extrajudicial killings to anti-labor policies, to suppressing political dissent, had all played a part, explained Dr Nafisa Nippun Tanjeem, an activist and professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Worcester State University.
With reference to the suppression of dissent she quoted the famous saying:
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Struggle for equality
On June 5, the Bangladesh High Court reversed the 2018 decision to abolish all quotas, thus reinstating the quota of reserving 30% of government jobs for the descendants of freedom fighters. This quota was widely perceived as inequitable and filled the government with Awami League loyalists as part of then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s effort to consolidate political power.
In July, students began peacefully protesting this decision and an anti-discrimination student’s movement emerged. As the movement spread, the state deployed police and border guards, besides Awami League supporters and paramilitary forces against the protestors. Many were killed, there were widespread arrests, and telecommunication services were shut down.
Nearly 650 people died between July 16 and August 11, 2024, according to a preliminary report released by the United Nations Human Rights Office on August 16.
“All dissent was repressed for a long time,” said Sadia, a Bangladeshi student organizer in Boston who has since returned to Dhaka. She said that the student coordinators were forced to give testimony under torture and to end their hunger strikes.
Sadia shared deeply personal stories of her comrades in Bangladesh and their struggle to be heard despite the state efforts to silence the people. Her own friends had been directly shot at, she said. She also told stories of her friends going through great lengths to overcome the media ban and curfew imposed by Hasina. They would have to travel hours in secret to give interviews and get the news out.
The students had united under one demand: Hasina’s resignation and the cabinet stepping down. Hasina finally stepped down on August 4.
At the Forum, there was a consensus that Bangladesh deserved the right to self-determination and that its citizens deserved a people-centered society.
Local community organiser Rafeya R. who focuses on anti-imperialism and working-class liberation stressed that Bangladesh did not need help from the US, directly or indirectly.
The increasing privatization in Bangladesh, export-oriented garment factories, anti-labor policies, and highly inequitable trade deals with Indian capitalists, have all led to deep inequity.
Bangladesh now wants to cancel its power purchasing agreement signed with India’s Adani Power in 2017 . It also wants to renegotiate its water-sharing deals with India over the decades, deemed as inequitable for it as the lower riparian
Many at the Forum expressed concerns about the neoliberal background of Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize-winning Economist chosen to head the interim government. Would his leadership center the people?
As Sadia said, “more neoliberalism is NOT what the students want”.
Accountability
It’s easy to romanticize social movements, but it’s important to keep asking the difficult question of “How do we create a society for the people?”
Hasina had been ousted and the imminent threat of repression had been removed, but “freedom is a process, not an event”, as Dr Tanjeem said.
She also stressed that the new interim government must be held accountable by the people. The current cabinet chosen by Yunus is largely made up of officials from the Bangladeshi bureaucracy, academia, and non-governmental organizations who have long had neoliberal and corporate connections.
The attacks on minorities by vigilante groups in Bangladesh remain of great concern. However, these have also been greatly exaggerated by rightwing forces in India, noted Dr Tanjeem.
Bangladesh is in flux, but the ouster of Sheikh Hasina and efforts to build a just and equitable society for all show that freedom is indeed a constant struggle.
(Ankita G. works in the health sector and is a member of the Boston South Asian Coalition, BSAC, a coalition partner of the Southasia Peace Action Network.)
Some last names have been withheld due to security concerns. - Sapan News
