Roaring With Storms

Bangladesh witnessed dramatic changes in a month, but bigger changes are in the offing

- Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

Buker Bhetor Onek Jhor Buk Petechhi, Guli Kor

(My chest is roaring with storms/Shoot me in the chest)

- A popular slogan of Bangladesh's student-led uprising

ITwas the longest July. The month ended on the 36th. The world knows it as August 5, 2024. However, the student-led anti-government protesters who toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 15-year rule in Bangladesh, call it 36th July. The three-week-long pitched battle since the midnight of July 14 recorded over 500 deaths, mostly students and youths. August brought them freedom from an authoritarian rule. It marks a fresh start.

How long will August last? Following Hasina's resignation and hurried exit from the country on August 5, sweeping changes are taking place.

Leaders of Hasina's Awami League (AL)-the party that led Bangladesh's Liberation War in 1971 and now faces widespread condemnation for turning rogue-are either landing in jail or lying low. Some are suspected to have secretly left the country. Heads are rolling in the higher judiciary, the army, the police, the civil administration, educational institutions and even media organisations.

While these are being described as part of 'cleansing the system of all fascist traits', bigger changes like rewriting the Constitution and rewriting the country's history are also on the cards. What makes all these changes all the more interesting is that it is unlikely to be a swing from one extreme to another, at least at this moment, as the new leadership that emerged through this upsurge has had a specific plan of breaking this very binary.