Tag: Bangladesh Student Protest

Tiananmen Square To Nepal Gen Z: Legacy of Youth Struggles

By Vikas Parashram Meshram

Youth is a beautiful, enchanting, delicate, and fluid phase of life an age that tests a thousand new challenges. The wings of youth hold the strength to conquer the skies, which is why it is considered the most powerful stage of life. In truth, all dreams of tomorrow and the expansion of every new imagination are born in this phase. Youth is that intoxicated, restless moment where one seeks to catch a glimpse of the rising sun of the future.

Youth is not an age of silent acceptance. Across the world, young people have been writing history ushering in change, revolutions, and progress. We see youth in many forms: walking on the moon, exploring space, conducting massive experiments to uncover the mysteries of Earth, or hoisting victory flags at the Olympics.

Youth means love, bravery, courage, adventure, and valor. It is an age of questioning the system, rebelling against injustice, raising voices against what is wrong, and sparking movements to overthrow oppressive power. Youth does not merely dwell in dreams but dares to confront harsh realities. Be it staging protests, shaking the very foundations of tyranny, or laying down life for change, this has been the hallmark of youth.

History offers countless examples: Shankaracharya, at just 31, spread Hindu philosophy. Plato and Aristotle, who laid the foundation of human thought, were young. Buddha delivered his profound teachings in his youth. Revolutions in France and America were led by the young. Even in India’s freedom struggle, youth played the central role. Nehru was only 26 when he came under Gandhi’s influence, Maulana Azad was 35, Patel was 40, Ambedkar spearheaded reform in his younger days, and Bhagat Singh laid down his life at 23. The Indian freedom struggle was essentially a struggle of youth.

Time and again, whenever youth have taken to the streets, they have shaken the roots of oppressive regimes the Jasmine Revolution in Egypt, the Hijab protests in Iran, the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, student movements in Bangladesh, and now the uprising in Nepal. Just this Monday, the streets of Kathmandu witnessed a powerful sight as Generation Z marched in protest holding banners reading: “We will not let corruption sell the future of youth.” In fact, when the authoritarian government imposed restrictions on social media, Generation Z in Nepal rose in defiance. The protests have now turned bloody, with reports of casualties emerging.

But this is not the first such struggle. Earlier too, youth have blown the bugle of revolution, recalling echoes of China and Bangladesh’s student movements. Let us revisit some of the most significant youth uprisings that shook the world.

Tiananmen Square Massacre (1989): The world still trembles recalling the night of June 3–4, 1989, when China’s People’s Liberation Army used tanks to crush student protests demanding democracy. While official figures spoke of 200 deaths, independent estimates suggest nearly 10,000 students were killed in this brutal crackdown.

Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution (2011): This mass uprising laid the foundation of the Arab Spring. Tunisians were angered by corruption, unemployment, and rising prices. The tragic self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a young street vendor harassed by police, sparked nationwide outrage, ultimately forcing President Ben Ali to resign.

Egyptian Youth Revolution (2011): Here, young protesters brought down Hosni Mubarak, who had ruled for 30 years. Millions of youth filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square and other cities, protesting corruption, unemployment, poverty, and lack of freedom. Mubarak was finally forced to step down on January 25, 2011.

Hong Kong Protests (2020): The largest youth-led protests in recent decades, opposing the extradition bill and increasing Chinese interference. In 2019, Hong Kong’s government introduced a law allowing the transfer of suspects to mainland China, which triggered massive demonstrations led by students and youth.

Iran’s Hijab Protest (2022): Triggered by the death of a woman beaten for not wearing the hijab, young women and men rose in defiance. Images of women cutting their hair and burning hijabs went viral on social media. This movement soon transformed into a larger struggle against dictatorship, religious extremism, and the suppression of women’s rights.

Bangladesh Student Movement (2024): On August 5, 2024, violent student protests brought down Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government. Youth-led demonstrations against corruption and authoritarianism swept the nation, leading to a new government under Muhammad Yunus.

From philosophy to politics, from revolutions to reforms, one fact has been proven time and again: it is the youth who drive change. Youth is not just about dreamy illusions or romantic memories; it is about leading movements, overthrowing governments, and rewriting history. Whether it was challenging Russia’s Iron Curtain or facing down tanks in Tiananmen Square, it has always been the youth who dared to stand at the frontlines.

The writer can be contacted at vikasmeshram04@gmail.com

Dhaka Disorder: A Year Later

By Mahendra Ved

The current India-United States spat triggered by the “Trumpian tariff terror”, his repeated claims of brokering the end of the India-Pakistan conflict and his accusing India of ‘financing’ the Ukraine conflict, may or may not slide down to Cold War era rhetoric among “strategic allies.” But it has provoked the Indian Army, not without an official nod, to recall on social media what the Nixon administration did way back in 1971.

That year, India defied Nixon and the collective disapproval of the Western and the Islamic world to win decisively, its campaign to facilitate the birth of Bangladesh. Analysts say this has rankled with the US policy makers to repeatedly side with Pakistan and, whenever it found it convenient, target Bangladesh.

That was why Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed in a military-led coup, precisely 50 years ago. No evidence, but when some of the actors spoke out, it got written about, like many other regime changes in that era.

Now, there is talk that the Biden administration may have been behind the ouster of his daughter, the longest-serving Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, a year ago. Sophisticated, without the military involvement. No evidence, again, until someone speaks up one day. And allies don’t complain. Of course, the father-daughter had made a similar set of serious mistakes at home and outside of it.

The Biden/Trump boost to the new Dhaka regime, analysts say, has more to do with the US’s long-term need to ‘contain’ China. Reports say the US has quietly unleashed plans to use Bangladesh’s southeastern border to take on the China-supported military regime in Myanmar. Foreign military boots are stomping the ground, and Washington has reportedly invested USD 400 million to create a “humanitarian corridor” to facilitate the Rohingya refugees’ return to Myanmar. The new regime in Dhaka is facilitating it.

India is placed in a piquant situation where the US, its strategic ally, and China, the strategic adversary, otherwise confronting each other in the region and globally, find their clashing interests converging in Bangladesh.

Last year’s regime change has pushed Bangladesh closer to Pakistan, but even more to the latter’s “all-weather ally” China, which is perceived as trying to encircle India in the region. The era of India benefiting from having midwifed Bangladesh’s birth seems to have ended.

China is today Bangladesh’s largest arms-giver and trading partner. Dhaka looks to them, whatever its equations with India. This zero-sum game negatively impacts India, the largest entity in the region, in its internal security and external relations.

On the ground, improving Teesta’s flow with China’s help and a plan for an air force base for Bangladesh at Lalmonirhat, both close enough for a crow to fly from India’s vulnerable “Chicken’s Neck” corridor, worries New Delhi.

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Further, neither the US, nor Pakistan, nor China appear concerned about the ill-treatment of religious minorities and the surge of the Islamists, but all three concern India in its east and northeast.

Given the history of how Pakistan lost its erstwhile eastern wing, now Bangladesh, it is a zero-sum game: India loses as Pakistan and China gain. The American factor has hugely added to these complexities. All of this makes the South Asian region the playground for geopolitical games as never before.

Amidst this situation, Bangladesh is headed for elections next February. The announcement came significantly on the day that marked one year of Hasina’s ouster and exile. The “July Charter” reads like the total of what the critics think of her, ignoring the economic and social leaps, as if she did nothing good for 15 years.

Chief Advisor Mohammed Yunus warned of “a certain group” ready to ‘obstruct’ the elections, “both from within the country and abroad.” These obvious hints leave little doubt that like all previous elections, India is destined to be an election issue, with a sharper edge provided by the Islamists who are ideologically opposed to anything Indian.

All this gives little hope to India – and not only because the Awami League it trusted for half a century, is banned and out of the election fray. As Dhaka demands Hasina’s repatriation for trial on multiple charges, India cannot forsake her. Things could get more volatile as her supporters, already on the run and facing violence and imprisonment, may seek to cross over.

There are a few silver linings, though. The July Charter has stopped short of including two crucial demands from the Islamists: removing the reservation in parliament for women guaranteed at present and establishing an Upper House based on proportional representation. This could have made a relatively woman-friendly Bangladesh another Afghanistan and accorded parliamentary legitimacy and clout for the Islamists.

The Islamists want the history of Bangladesh to be traced from 1947, when a divided Bengal became part of Pakistan. But the “July Charter” begins the historical trajectory from the struggle for liberation, democracy, and sovereignty, with the 1971 Independence Declaration.

The announcement of the elections may have the effect of putting on hold the reforms in the system governing Bangladesh, however good, bad or needed. The contesting parties will be busy pushing their respective political and ideological standpoints in the months to come. It is a test for a chaotic administration and for the intending voter alike to show appetite for this discourse amidst poll-related violence that is endemic to the Bangladeshi scene.

Arguably, though, Bangladesh’s trajectory begins with the 1970 election, the last in Pakistan and rated as the fairest. The one in February next year has the potential to show if the separation five decades back to safeguard Bengali culture and language was worth it.