The sociology and future of the Revolution in Bangladesh

DHAKA

Bangladesh, which these days is celebrating the people's revolution it carried out a year ago, is a country surrounded by India on three sides and by the sea on one. That is, it has no neighbor other than India. There is no other country with which it can establish a land connection or contact. The sea route is very far from any other country, so there is no chance of contact other than by air. With this geographic position, although it gained its independence from India in 1947 as a part of Pakistan, its union with Pakistan lasted only 24 years. During this time, drawn by the political, cultural and ideological attraction of India arising from this geographic position, it gained independence from Pakistan in 1971 this time, but this second independence step by step turned it into a satellite country of India. This geographic position, which is carried to the present day and will probably never be able to let go of its collar completely in the future.

Geography is fate up to a point, of course, but however effective it may be, it ultimately cannot prevent a Muslim country from developing in the heart of India. There, the human desire to overcome the dungeon of geography seeks a way to realize itself somehow.

IN BANGLADESH THE NAME OF WESTERNIZATION IS INDIANIZATION

Interestingly, in Bangladesh the name of empowerment, modernization and rationalization as the official ideology is Indianization. The aspect of imitativeness and alienation here, similar to our Westernism, is India. Over the years the ideological apparatuses of the state have raised elites who think they can overcome their ill-fated destiny by resembling India, following its path or becoming dependent on it. These elites are characterized, of course, as alienated imitative elites by the wider and more native segments of society, but the privileges they enjoy come from the state's relations with India after the 1971 independence movement. For that reason the July Revolution expressed an angry outburst against India, which supported her in all these relations, as much as against Hasina, who is identified with fascism, Islamophobia, repression and reckless kleptomaniac corruption.

After the revolution took place, the Awami League (Hasina's People's Party), in which these elites in particular are concentrated, had its political activities banned by the interim government under the Anti-Terrorism Act and was prohibited from entering elections. This means that in the new period another anti-India current will blow in the name of independence.

THE LIKELY INTERNATIONAL BALANCES AND ELITES AHEAD OF BANGLADESH

However, owing to the geographic position we have mentioned, Bangladesh is expected to carry this current of independence forward with more balanced international relations. This requires it to continue on its way by opening a new page with India, but also by developing a balanced relationship with the US and China.

Of course, even though their parties have been banned, the elites within society who have been captured by the ideology of Indianization continue to voice the well-known clichés against the native elites whose voices had been suppressed until now, and the Islamophobic sentiments that also play to the West.

With an area of 147,570 km2 and a population of 171 million as of 2023, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Governing this population and meeting its basic needs is of course very difficult, but these difficulties are given to a country together with very great advantages. Because of administrations that were captured by secularist or Westernist-Hinduist foreign ideological obsessions rather than by good governance, and that made these obsessions a pretext for their corruption and failures, it has continued to flounder in great poverty. Extremely poor municipal administration and governance cannot be explained merely by the size or density of the population. If desired, or when there is a sincere approach, this surplus of population is seen and utilized not as a problem for a country but as an opportunity.

DHAKA, CITY OF RICKSHAWS

The extreme bustle and traffic density you see on the avenues and streets point to the working of an economy in its own right. On the avenues, hundreds of thousands of taxi-bicycles called Rickshaws, which have three wheels and can carry at least two passengers behind, are in traffic at the same time. Transport over short distances within the city is provided by these taxis. Some of them are fitted with an electric motor, charged overnight and consumed during the day; some run on pedals, that is, on human power; and some are hybrid, switching back to the pedals when the charge runs out.

Those I asked say their number in Dhaka alone reaches 1 to 1.5 million. By a rough calculation, 1.5 million people work in this sector alone.

Even if low-income, it is a door to employment. There is no tax, no license, no plate registration, and entry into the sector is easy. The image Rickshaws create on all the avenues and streets of the city forms the characteristic scenery of Dhaka.

That is why Dhaka is also called the "city of Rickshaws."

There are no traffic lights at all in the city, yet traffic rarely gets blocked even at the busiest hours, and compared with such a chaotic sight, very few accidents occur. Rickshaws, moving extremely nimbly and also drawing curves, begin to flow like a flood finding its way within a few minutes through traffic that seems at first glance jammed beyond untangling.

A YOUNG POPULATION IS NOT MERELY CHEAP LABOR, IT IS STRONG HUMAN CAPITAL

Bangladesh is also one of the countries with the youngest population in the world, and with nearly 180 universities, public and private, it has very strong human capital. Because English is compulsory in education, most educated people also know English, so the doors to integration with the international community are relatively open. Indeed, for many labor-intensive jobs Bangladesh is an important investment destination. However, people with somewhat more developed national feelings want Bangladesh to stand out not only in labor-intensive jobs but also with the human capital it has in terms of qualified personnel.

As I said before, the young people with whom I had the chance to sit and chat are truly very intelligent, very intellectual, have trained themselves very well in their own fields of education, and are aware of the world and of the realities of their own country. This human capital produces not only cheap labor; I cannot be the only one who sees in it the future actors who will build a civilization in the Far East.

THE AGENDA AFTER THE REVOLUTION IS REBUILDING THE COUNTRY

The July Revolution celebrations are not only a jubilant celebration; they are also being lived through a series of conferences and events in which all the components that took part in the revolution think, talk and debate in order to build Bangladesh's future. A constitutional drafting effort is in fact under way at present under the control of the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. These meetings also enable wider segments to take part in that constitutional preparation. It recalls the atmosphere of the Arab Revolutions before the coup, but there is also a serious sensitivity that its outcome should not resemble theirs. In many of the groups I attended or was invited to as a speaker, one of the questions I was asked most was how the outcomes of the Arab Spring, which was subjected to counter-coups, could be avoided.

In these meetings, Turkey's history of coups and tutelage, its experience of the successful struggle against them, and also 15 July, before and after, were frequently raised. The unparalleled love of Turkey and Erdoğan that everyone has of course marks all the conversations. Let us continue from here later.