How a jobs protest toppled Bangladesh’s iron lady
razakar," a reference to collaborators who had sided with Pakistan during the war of independence—came as security forces were stepping up a crackdown on protesters demonstrating over the lack of jobs and soaring inflation. The inflammatory word turned a protest that had been narrowly focused on economic grievances into a movement that channeled broader suppressed rage over Hasina’s governance.
“People had their grievances but people were not united," said Shafi Mostofa, associate professor at the University of Dhaka and a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics. “That was the moment, on that night, when thousands of people who are protesting said, ‘We are not the sons of razakars, we are the citizens of this country.’" After an especially deadly day of clashes on Sunday that prompted expressions of discomfort from former top army officials, Hasina resigned and fled to India on Monday.
She remains in a safe house near New Delhi, Indian officials have said. Analysts said Hasina’s past tragedy—intrinsically linked with the wartime history of the relatively young country—fundamentally shaped who she became as a leader, and could explain her turn toward autocracy over the years.
“The trauma she experienced as a young person really shaped her desire to become a strong, unforgiving leader," said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. British colonial rule ended in 1947 with the independence of modern-day India located between a bifurcated Pakistan, carved from Muslim-majority regions.
In 1971, Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, led the liberation movement of what was then East Pakistan and became the first leader of an independent Bangladesh. Four years
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