Students of Bangladesh during their 36-day movement launched between July 1 and August 5 last demonstrated a new kind of power. It was a veritable tsunami of political nature, though not driven by any politics, that brought down the government of Sheikh Hasina who ruled the country with an iron fist for over one and a half decades. Why and how an apparently innocuous demand for the reform of quota system in government jobs precipitated into one for the ouster of a government is history. This earth-shaking event has left many in a state of disbelief, while others would want to liken it to the Arab Spring of 2010s.
But who were the drivers of this month-long succession of events that shook the world? Or was it the work of what Neil Howe and William Strauss in their 1991 book called 'Generations', referred to as Gen Z or zoomers who were born between 1995 an 2010? But many before July 2024 looked upon these children belonging to the Gen Z as worthless because they were seen hooked on the social media platforms most of the time of the day on their digital devices, particularly, smartphones. It was thought that they had no clue to what was happening around them. The older people in their 60s 70s and 80s, on the other hand, were very proud of their generations as they fought against dictatorial regimes during the Language Movement of 1952, the movement against Education Commission in 1962, the mass upsurge against the military dictator Ayub Khan in 1969 and, finally, in the Liberation War of 1971. The older generations believe that they were more in touch with the people of their time and courageous than the present 'lost generation'.
But the five-week of shock and awe on the streets of capital and elsewhere in Bangladesh has shown who the real heroes are. These boys and girls fought and laid their lives without being motivated by any politics or ideology. They did not have any leader in the traditional sense of the term either. Even so, the movement they waged was not without direction, strategy or goal. In fact, the breakneck speed with which the movement evolved from an economic demand into one of a revolutionary political kind, calling for the resignation of an authoritarian government is unprecedented in history. There were mass protests led by opposition political parties before, many of those being bloody ones. But those were crushed by brute force. The difference between the purely student-led movement of the past weeks and the political party-led ones that preceded it was that the common people, though sympathetic to the latter's (party-led agitations') cause, did not join en masse their street struggles. But in the former's (student-led one) case, mass people considered the movement as their own and did not hesitate to fight beside the students who they thought were their own children. So, the common people thought noting of giving their lives for their children's cause. Here lay the source of the power that propelled the students' movement in question. And it added a new chapter to the history of student movement in this part of the world. So, what might be the implications of this watershed moment for the nation's future course of history? If anything, it has to be acknowledged that the Gen Z , i.e. zoomers or those in the making such as the Gen Alpha, who are still in their early and mid-teens, or those yet to come are people who we hardly know about, far less understand. They are indeed aliens, if only because of their understanding of the world emerging before them. The older generation has practically no inkling of it. The zoomers know that their parents and the generations they represent are quite clueless about them. But this apparent disconnect between the two generations have only gone to making their bonds stronger, not weaker. In fact, these zoomers are too pampered and sentimental to be treated dismissively by their elders in authority. Being called razakars (the anti-liberation collaborators of the occupation army of 1971) by the powers that be was the last straw that caused their normal 'quota reform movement' take an explosive turn. The suggestion might sound too simplistic to many who would like to look deeper into the social and economic factors as the motive force of the student-led upsurge. Of course, the movement had its dynamics rooted in disparities, discrimination and exploitation in society and economy. They are always there and political parties left no stone unturned to use those issues to mobilise the masses against the government. The government succeeded in striking fear in the minds of the political agitators that the regime's forces would open fire on the protesters without a second thought. The use of that psychology of fear did not simply work against these sentimental and pampered post-internet generation of boys and girls. They could not be frightened away by bullet and blood. Perhaps, only the warmth of love and the readiness to lend an ear of understanding to them would have melted their heart. Instead of doing that there was only show of force. But the protesters refused to be cowed into submission. So, the higher the death toll of their movement compatriots, the greater was their resolve to fight to the last. The power of the state had finally to bow down to the power of the street led by the zoomers.
In sum, what the long-drawn anti-establishment movement needed was a spark. The derogatory word calling them razakar was the spark that started the prairie fire of the movement finally unseating the government.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
