How a student-run uprising led to the ouster of Bangladesh's longest-serving prime minister

NEW DELHI — In a video that lit up social media feeds in Bangladesh, jubilant protesters climbed atop a statue of Sheikh Mujib Rahman, the country's first leader after independence, and beat it with iron rods and axes as people below hooted and cheered. Crowds across the nation have attacked symbols of Rahman, as they sought to literally dismantle his legacy and that of his daughter, Sheikh Hasina, the country's prime minister until Monday when she resigned and fled in the face of the unrest. The anger that pushed Hasina from power — and that is behind the drive to erase her and her family — is rooted in deep economic distress felt by the majority of people in Bangladesh, as well as the perception that while they suffered, the elites aligned with Hasina prospered, analysts said. "It created a deep-seated resentment against the government," said Ali Riaz, an expert on Bangladeshi politics who teaches political science at Illinois State University. That eventually triggered a full-scale rejection of Hasina and her increasingly autocratic turn. Monday's extraordinary scenes — when crowds ransacked her official residence, her party offices and a museum to her father while she fled to India in a helicopter — capped weeks of protests that began with discontent over a quota system for allocating government jobs that critics said favored those with connections to Hasina's party. Hundreds of people were killed as security forces cracked down on the demonstrations — violence that only fueled them, even after the quota system was dramatically scaled back. It showed that her government "wildly underestimated just how much anger there was among the public, and the sources of the anger which went beyond the issue of job quotas," said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center. The 76-year-old, the longest-serving prime minister in the predominantly Muslim country of 170 million, has prided herself on how she transformed Bangladesh's economy into a global competitor — fields turned into garment factories, bumpy roads became winding highways, more girls went to school, and electricity reached rural villages. But that transformation was not shared by all and it belied fragilities in the economy, like its dependence on exports and persistently high youth unemployment. Those were exposed after the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine drove her government to seek a $4.7 billion IMF bailout. Eighteen million young people — about a 10th of the country's population — are not working or in school, according to Chietigj Bajpaee, who researches South Asia at the Chatham House think tank. And the fact that the allocation of government jobs was at the center of the initial protests is no coincidence: They were seen as most stable and high-paying, revealing the widespread insecurity that persisted. Under Hasina, "the benefits of growth were limited to a small elite in or close to the regime," said Uday Chandra, assistant professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar. Critics also complained she touted the economic advances to cover up her crackdown on dissent, accusing her of curtailing press freedoms, shrinking civil society and jailing thousands of opposition members ahead of the January election in which she won a fourth consecutive term. The economic successes were "inflated to justify her rule, and to try and push development as an alternative to democracy," Riaz said, adding that allegations of vote-rigging and a boycott by the main opposition parties in the past three elections contributed to a sense that she lacked legitimacy. For now, Hasina's departure is being seen as a resounding victory for the protesters. "Everyone is celebrating," shouted Juairia Karim, a student, as she rejoiced with others in the streets Monday. "This has to be a historical day." But Hasina's ouster has also plunged the nation into uncertainty. The ceremonial president dissolved Parliament on Tuesday, as he and the military chief promised to announce an interim government that would lead the country until new elections can be held. It's not clear how long that process could take — but it could be months or years. The president also released Hasina's archrival, Khaleda Zia, the chief of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, from house arrest where she languished for years. Meanwhile, student protesters demanded that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus — a longtime opponent of Hasina — be put in charge of the interim government. He could not immediately be reached for comment, but one student leader said Yunus has agreed to step in. As for Hasina, it's unclear what's next. On Tuesday, India's foreign minister confirmed that she had arrived in the country the day before but did not say whether she would stay or head elsewhere. And more unrest could yet come — especially if the influential military attempts to go beyond its role of mediator. Bangladesh has faced more than 20 coups or coup attempts since independence in 1971. "In a fraught political environment, uncertainty can breed volatility and volatility can provoke more violence," said Kugelman, of the Wilson Center. "The last thing Bangladesh can afford right now is a broader security crisis … and this will come down to what role the army plays in addressing the serious threats to stability." This story was first published on Aug. 6, 2024. It was updated on Aug. 13, 2024, to correct the proportion of young people who are out of work or school.