As Bangladesh heads into crucial elections on February 12, political fault lines are sharper than ever as identity politics, youth movements, and shifting alliances have turned the transition into a high-stakes battle for the country’s future.
THE WEEK’s Namrata Biji Ahuja, Chief of Bureau, Delhi, travelled across Bangladesh, speaking to young voters, artists, student leaders, politicians and everyday citizens to understand how they see the “new Bangladesh”—and the leaders they believe can represent it.
The country is in the middle of a political and a cultural war that erupted following the student-led rebellion in July 2024. The struggle is not just political; it is a fight for the very soul of the nation. The conflict finds its tragic symbols across the capital. Near rebel Bangladeshi poet Kazi Nazrul Islam's resting place lies the fresh grave of Sharif Osman Hadi, a prominent leader of the rebellion, killed in December last year. Hadi’s Islamist revolutionary platform, Inquilab Manch, saw Nazrul as a spirit of rebellion for a new Bangladeshi Muslim identity. Just a week after his death, a short distance away, Nazrul’s poetry was burnt at Udichi, one of the country's oldest secular cultural institutions. Both sides claimed Nazrul, yet they stand tragically apart in death and destruction.
This ideological rift fuels a volatile political landscape as Bangladesh prepares for its first competitive election in nearly two decades. The July rebellion, which began as a unified stand against autocracy, has splintered. As activists like Fatima Tasnim Zuma of Inquilab Manch said, a new generation is asserting a "Bangladeshi Muslim cultural lens", rejecting what they see as the dominance of a broader, India-linked Bengali identity. In contrast, cultural veterans who fought in the 1971 Liberation War lament that culture, once a tool for unity and freedom, is now being weaponised.
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With the previous ruling party sidelined, a political vacuum has emerged. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is positioning itself as a force for stability, with chairperson Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury saying the party under its new chairman Tarique Rahman, son of former prime minister Khalida Zia, is committed to changing the political culture of the country to make it more tolerant and respectful. For BNP, the country’s strategic autonomy is important, even as it works towards buidling trust and resetting ties with India.
On the other hand, the Jamaat-e-Islami has joined hands with the student-led National Citizen Party that took birth after the July 2024 protests. While the Jamaat-e-Islami is experiencing a resurgence, leveraging its student wing and forming alliances born of political necessity, the survival of the student-led party, which is fighting its first national election, hinges on the alliance’s ability to garner votes.
Amid this high-stakes contest for power, the ordinary Bangladeshi yearns for something simpler: an end to fear, corruption, and violence. They hope for stability, jobs, and the freedom to live without the shadow of conflict. As the nation approaches a pivotal election, the question remains. Can democracy heal these deep fractures and build a future where dissent and culture can coexist peacefully, or will the cycle of rebellion and retribution continue to define Bangladesh’s destiny?
Read the full story in THE WEEK issue dated February 8.
