A revolution in Bangladesh against orientalist rote assumptions

Seen through an Orientalist window, the people of Bangladesh, the easternmost and most suffering of the East, the silent, obedient, mysterious land of Rickshaws, who try to earn their bread by their labor and the sweat of their brow, set about something that could never have been expected from this Eastern typology: they made a revolution. As if only Westerners could make revolutions. As if governments in the East changed only through palace intrigues, through the maneuvers of despotic leaders or monarchic rulers. Yet in Bangladesh an extremely elegant revolution took place, with all its components, its elements, its intellect, its excitement, its will. There is a philosophy beneath the revolution, and those who led it rose up to demand freedom, dignity and prosperity, even though they had many things to lose besides their chains.

They showed that they had merely endured, until now, the humiliation they had been subjected to for years, the identity and history that were forced upon them at gunpoint, the false narratives of "liberation and liberators." They showed that the only thing these narratives of savior cults and liberation mythologies, which even children could laugh at, deserve is a revolt. On every occasion they show that they made the revolution not merely to replace the current dictators with other absurd narratives, but truly to establish a more reasonable governance that treats them as human beings.

On 27 July, at the University of Dhaka, as guests of the Institute for International Law and Justice, we took part in an internationally attended conference titled "The Legacy of the July Revolution of 2024: Rebuilding Bangladesh."

THE REVOLUTION THAT SAVES FROM THE MYTHS OF LIBERATION AND SAVIORS

A savior myth that Sheikh Hasina, who ruled the country for 16 years in a fascist and despotic manner, tried to build around the personality of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was targeted from the first days of the revolution. Where could there be any liberation in having saved the country from Pakistan and immediately afterward turning it into a satellite of India? Independence from Pakistan is fine, but what relation to liberation could there be in being this secularist, in moving this far from religion, and in embracing so eagerly the values of India, the real great other against which a struggle for independence had been waged not long before? For that reason, from the first days of the revolution the people attacked the statues and representations of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and even the house on the shore of the big lake in the middle of Dhaka where he had lived for years, burning and demolishing it with all its outbuildings. Now this ruined house and all the Hasina and Mujibur Rahman symbols around it are visited as ruins to serve as a lesson. Young people take photographs in the ruins of these buildings. This is the end of all Pharaohs, sooner or later.

Many civil society organizations and youth movements are brainstorming together to build Bangladesh's future. On this occasion we attended many conferences and youth talks. In particular, at the University of Dhaka on 27 July, as guests of the Institute for International Law and Justice, we took part in an internationally attended conference titled "The Legacy of the July Revolution of 2024: Rebuilding Bangladesh." The Institute was formally founded right after the revolution by a youth initiative that had been carrying out activities even before the revolution. Of course, there was no possibility of carrying out such activities beforehand. The institute, founded by young people who had all completed their undergraduate or graduate degrees at university, has already produced very brilliant work. A very detailed documentation of the human rights violations committed during the Hasina period, year by year, has been put forth in the form of books running to thousands of pages.

The conference at the University of Dhaka took place with the participation of many other organizations. The conference was an expression of the wishes that the democratic spirit of the July Revolution continue to be carried forward and continue to inspire a lasting commitment to justice, equality and freedom.

Among those attending the meeting, one of the most notable names was Nurul Izzah Anwar, the daughter of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and deputy president of her own party. Anwar's assessments of the July Revolution were thoughtful contributions, distilled from the Malaysian experience, on the likely risks facing the democracy that is newly being breathed in Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, this ruined house and all the Hasina and Mujibur Rahman symbols around it are visited as ruins to serve as a lesson. Young people take photographs in the ruins of these buildings.

KEEPING VIGIL SO THAT THE REVOLUTION IS NOT STOLEN

Each of the many organizations that invited me gathered a large number of people in a short time to listen to "a guest from Turkey," and each meeting soon met all the conditions of a professional organization. In these meetings we faced questions about Turkey and about Turkey's rise as a power. I can say that there is tremendous sympathy for Turkey, but this is not a dry sympathy, nor the sympathy of those who know Turkey only from afar and build empty fantasies. You fully feel the pleasure of conversing with an intellectual level that closely follows where Turkey has come from and where it is heading, and that is extremely well informed about the world. In fact I took greater pleasure in listening to everyone at length than in speaking.

The young people say they were the protagonists of the revolution, and some even pointed to the halls where we were as the places where many steps that were effective during the revolution were planned. I cannot know of course, but one reason they say this is the concern they feel about the possibility of the revolution being stolen from the youth, that is, from those who made the revolution. In the Arab Revolutions too, those who made the revolution and those who later pulled the revolution in another direction soon diverged from one another. They are aware. What they wanted to hear about from the Arab Spring and Turkish experiences was how Bangladesh could succeed in preserving the democracy it has found late. Of course each of them has views, concerns and solutions about this. Let us see what kind of a future the young, national, dynamic youth and people of Bangladesh will build with these concerns.

In the area where the homes of the overthrown leaders are, messages written in spray paint such as "Respect, and do not lose hope in the revolution" draw attention.

THE MOTIVATION GIVEN BY DİRİLİŞ ERTUĞRUL

One of the young people described how, in Bangladeshi youth's becoming an actor capable of making a revolution, they had found their strongest handhold against the existing ideological hegemony in Turkish TV series... That ideological hegemony which had trampled the country's self-confidence underfoot and tried to strip the masses of their personality in the face of a powerful government that was an Indian satellite. Turkish historical series have convinced them that Muslims can be, today, actors of history just as they were in the past.

It was a speech that everyone present approved of. With series such as Diriliş Ertuğrul, Selçuklu and Kuruluş Osman, they both became more aware of Turkey and became quite motivated to be a social actor by the heroism presented here.

Of course, state television did not broadcast the series. The masses watched them on YouTube, and this created something like a new horizon and motivation for the people of Bangladesh, who were besieged by India geographically, politically, through almost proxy rulers in the country, and also culturally and ideologically. To break this effect of Turkish series, the Hasina government took the series Muhteşem Yüzyıl and broadcast it through the state television channel, but this, far from producing the expected effect, though much watched, was added to a narrative already set in motion about the power and splendor of the Ottomans as the center of the caliphate. This alone constitutes an interesting and meaningful enough experience.

Many civil society organizations and youth movements are brainstorming together to build Bangladesh's future. On this occasion we attended many conferences and youth talks.

TURKEY ALWAYS CONCERNS US FIRST AND FOREMOST

Of course, what makes Turkey inspiring for them is not only the TV series, but its international position today and, of course, its central position yesterday. The people of Bangladesh form the heart of the famous Indian subcontinent that joined Turkey's War of Independence with their money and their volunteers. That sacrifice is not to be forgotten. They remember it as the "Khilafat movement," or rather they never forget it at all. They say the situation Turkey is in always concerns us first and foremost, and they invite Turkey's businesspeople to invest, and its institutions to open their offices, or

to develop them, as one would invite one's brothers.