New Delhi, Oct. 11 -- A new standoff between religious hardliners and liberals in Bangladesh, particularly among students, has come to the fore. This has rocked Dhaka University, where students have historically led major protests that have impacted national politics.
On September 14, a group of students protested against the display of photographs of Pakistan's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and convicted war criminal Ghulam Azam at the Dhaka University Central Students' Union (DUCSU) Museum by placing photographs on the floor and trampling them. The protest continued on September 15, with students from the 2025-26 academic session participating. One of the protesters, Wasim Uddin Rahat, said Bangladesh is the country of students who had shed their blood for the language (Bangla). Hence, it can never tolerate giving a place at Dhaka University to someone who wanted to rob the country of its language. The students further alleged that Ghulam Azam was a notorious Razakar whose photograph had never been given a place at DUCSU. His photographs were placed on the ground as a symbol of hatred and should remain under the feet of the people.
It may be reiterated that Pakistan's founder and Muslim League leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had a pathological hatred for East Pakistan, belittling its people and Bangla while asserting that Urdu must be the dominant language and Bangla could never be accepted. This led to the student movement turning violent in 1952 and strengthened Bangla nationalism. Since then, Jinnah has been hated, and his two-nation theory was shattered in 1971, giving birth to Bangladesh as a free nation.
Earlier, the DUCSU Museum was inaugurated on September 13 following renovations. Although the museum did not include any solo or prominent photographs of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of Bangladesh's independence movement, it displayed three photographs of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. One was taken at the then Racecourse Ground (now Suhrawardy Udyan) on March 21, 1948, where Jinnah declared that "Urdu alone will be the state language of Pakistan." This was perhaps found insulting by progressive students.
Continuing with the protests, leaders and activists of the Students' Federation of Bangladesh's Dhaka University unit joined a protest at the DUCSU archive on September 14, where a student had earlier torn up photographs of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Students reiterated that they had not forgotten 1971 or the Language Movement, asking why "this villain's" photograph should remain at DUCSU and whether its manifesto had promised to "make Jinnah a hero".
Later, the federation put up a photograph in the archive showing convicted 1971 war criminal and former Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) Ameer Ghulam Azam being beaten with shoes by local people outside a prominent square in Dhaka on January 1, 1981. Meanwhile, Dhaka University authorities warned of strict administrative action if DUCSU continued activities without university approval. The university said there was no scope for any "parallel administration" on campus and that DUCSU must operate within existing laws, regulations and policies. It also objected to the display of photographs of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Abdul Malek at the archive, saying their inclusion was incompatible with the history of the Language Movement and the Liberation War. The university further criticised DUCSU's launch of a separate website for evaluating teachers without approval.
The administration said the university already had an approved teaching evaluation policy and alleged that the DUCSU website had made teachers' personal information public. While recognising DUCSU as an important student-representative institution, it warned that any attempt to establish a "parallel structure" by bypassing the administration would be "strictly resisted".
Judging by these developments, there appears to be a vertical polarisation between religious hardliners at Dhaka University and secular and liberal groups. While religious adherents are drawing inspiration and support from JeI, which has a considerable presence in the Bangladesh Parliament, the pro-Mujibur faction has the encouragement of liberal and forward-thinking elements. If pro-Jamaat elements and their affiliates continue to encourage the resurgence of Jinnah and persons of his ideology, Islamic fundamentalist forces in Bangladesh could fuel it further, influencing public opinion in a manner unconducive to progressive ideology.
Most crucially, a direct and possibly violent showdown between the two polarised camps remains a strong possibility. This may also provide an opportunity for the relatively dormant Awami League (AL) cadres to step in and occupy the space. Further, if the Dhaka University incident goes unchecked, the unrest might spread to universities such as Chittagong and Rajshahi, which are equally volatile politically. Perhaps the government needs to intervene effectively and contain the spiralling situation before it is too late.
Views expressed are personal. The writer is a retired IPS officer, Adviser NatStrat
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.