Disbanding Awami League Could Lead To Identity Crisis For Bangladesh
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Awami League led a long political struggle for Bangladesh's emancipation. By rejecting this legacy, Bangladesh might end up shooting itself in the foot
On May 10, 2025, the interim government in Bangladesh further amended the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973 through ordinance no. 20, 2025. It thus authorised the tribunal to suspend and prohibit the activities of any political party (including its front organisations), cancel its registration and confiscate its property if found guilty of aiding, inciting or conspiring in any crimes mentioned in the statute. The Yunus administration, however, was unwilling to wait for the tribunal's verdict. On the same day, it hastily announced a ban on all activities of Awami League, pending the disposal of cases against it.
On May 8, the Yunus administration had created a second three-member tribunal with former High Court judge Nazrul Islam Chowdhury as its chairman. The existing three-member tribunal under Justice Mohammed Ghulam Murtaza Mazumdar has been re-designated as International Crimes Tribunal-I (ICT-I).
The interim government has redefined the objective of the tribunal, established on March 25, 2010. Its original purpose was to prosecute and punish those guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity during the Bangladesh Liberation War, 1971. A second tribunal was created on March 22, 2012 to expedite pending trials, but the two were merged on September 15, 2015, after the caseload decreased significantly.
The tribunal was essentially created by Sheikh Hasina's administration (though its conception dates back to her father Mujibur Rahman's government). Ironically, she now finds herself subject to its scrutiny. There was initial disagreement on whether approximately 1,400 lives lost in police firing during anti-quota protests (15 July to 5 August 2024) constituted genocide. The father of a student belonging to Students Against Discrimination filed a complaint with the ICT against nine people, including deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Professor Asif Nazrul, Advisor on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs in the interim government, opined that the July killings qualified for trial by the tribunal. The tribunal had previously ruled that crimes against humanity need not be specific to war.
Banning political parties is not new in Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman initiated this practice. Not content with Awami League's overwhelming majority (307 out of 315 seats) in Bangladesh's first general election (March 7, 1973), Mujib amended the 1972 Constitution on January 25, 1975, changing the government from parliamentary to presidential. Mujib, as Marcus Franda (1982) states, 'was vested with all executive power and authorized to declare Bangladesh as a one-party state. In subsequent months he abolished all political parties, stripped the supreme court of its powers to enforce fundamental rights, created special courts and tribunals directly answerable to him, and closed down all but four daily newspapers (two in English, and two in Bengali). All four of the newspapers that were allowed to exist were either government or party owned". (Bangladesh: The First Decade, p. 55).
On June 6, 1975, 40 days before his assassination in a coup, Mujib formally ended multiparty democracy in Bangladesh by establishing one-party rule under Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BKSAL). Bangladesh subsequently fell under the rule of military dictators General Ziaur Rahman and General H.M. Ershad, who governed for 15 years combined. In the last 50 years, Bangladesh has experienced coups, military dictatorships, controversial elections, political violence, and attempts to create an Islamist state. Even the two-party democracy in place since 1991 devolved into confrontational politics, often dubbed the 'battle of the Begums". In 2007, under the caretaker government of President Iajuddin Ahmed, a controversial 'minus two" formula was devised to restore democracy by excluding both Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia from politics. Both leaders were arrested. This unpopular formula faced backlash and was abandoned. It resurfaced recently when BNP General Secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir mentioned it disapprovingly.
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Both Sheikh Mujib and Sheikh Hasina exhibited authoritarian tendencies, seeking to eliminate political opponents. Their personalities often overshadowed the party itself.
However, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has demonstrated similar tendencies. When in power (e.g., 1991-96 and 2001-06), the BNP attempted to manipulate elections, leading to the introduction of caretaker governments, demonstrating the immaturity of Bangladeshi democracy.
Yet, banning Awami League is different. It threatens Bangladesh's identity. Ahmed Sofa (1943-2001), the late Bangladeshi essayist, poet and public intellectual, suggested that while Awami League's triumph might signify the victory of a few leaders, its defeat represents a loss for all of Bangladesh (Bangali Musalmaner Mon, p. 17). This is due to the party's historical roots in the struggle of the people of East Bengal. Sofa acknowledged Awami League's shortcomings, including its superficial secularism, which he considered a political tool incapable of addressing obscurantism and dogmatism within Muslim society, hindering Bangladesh's social progress.
Nevertheless, Awami League spearheaded nation-building in East Pakistan, culminating in Bangladesh's independence. Founded as Awami Muslim League Party on 23 June 1949 under Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani (1880-1976), its initial leadership comprised dissidents from the Pakistan Muslim League (formerly All India Muslim League). Before partition, the All India Muslim League prioritised the creation of Pakistan, neglecting governance issues that later plagued the new state. The party became an exclusive clique, restricting membership, which fuelled discord.
The East Pakistan Awami Muslim League (estd. 1949) was among several dissident parties emerging from the Muslim League. By the end of 1949, according to Shyamali Ghosh (1990), around 20 opposition parties existed in Pakistan, including 13 in Punjab, eight formed by dissident Muslim Leaguers (The Awami League 1949-1971, p. 2).
The Awami Muslim League's influence grew. In the 1954 provincial elections, its alliance with the Krishak Sramik Party, led by A.K. Fazlul Huq, and other smaller parties, campaigning on a 21-point demand (commemorating the Bengali language martyrs of 21 February 1952), decisively defeated the Muslim League, which secured only nine seats compared to the United Front's 229. The United Front's manifesto, essentially Awami Muslim League's charter of demands, was condensed from 42 to 21 points by journalist and lawyer Abul Mansur Ahmad.
'Neither in the manifesto of Awami League nor in that of Krishak Sramik Party", notes Justice Muhammad Munir (1979), 'was there any reference to Islam or the Quran and Sunnah" (From Jinnah to Zia, p. xvii). At its Dacca session from October 21-23, 1955, Awami Muslim League dropped 'Muslim" from its name.
The Awami League (1956) advocated for abolishing separate electorates, a colonial legacy. Prime Minister H.S. Suhrawardy, leading a coalition of Awami League and the Republican Party, piloted the Joint Electorate Bill on 10 October 1956. Joint electorates were introduced in East Pakistan, but separate electorates remained in the west, highlighting Pakistan's internal divisions. 'In spite of economic backwardness", comments Badruddin Umar, 'East Bengal was an advanced region in respect of social, cultural and political developments. Owing to its cultural and political backwardness and predominantly feudal composition of leadership in West Pakistan they cling to old prejudices" (The Emergence of Bangladesh Vol-1, p. 329).
On 3 April 1957, the East Pakistan Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution on regional autonomy, moved by Mohiuddin Ahmad of Awami League and addressed by his party colleague and United Front minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Mujib described regional autonomy as crucial for East Bengal. The resolution demanded full autonomy for East Pakistan except for currency, foreign affairs, and defence, which would remain with the Centre.
Mujib elaborated on regional autonomy and democracy in his booklet 'Six-Point Formula — Our Right to Live" (March 1966), published during Field Marshal Ayub Khan's military dictatorship (1958-69) after the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War. This Six-Point Formula became Awami League's programme. Ayub Khan attempted to implicate Mujib in the Agartala Conspiracy Case (1968), alleging collusion with India to divide Pakistan. However, he withdrew the case under pressure from public agitation in East Pakistan, compounded by his precarious position in West Pakistan. The 1969 agitations in East Bengal foreshadowed the 1971 uprising.
Awami League thus prepared the ground for Bangladesh's independence. It won 167 of 169 East Bengal seats in the 1970 National Assembly elections (total strength 313). Whether Bangladesh would have emerged if Yahya Khan had allowed Mujib to become Prime Minister is debatable. However, the March 1971 uprising demonstrated East Bengal's determination to achieve sovereignty, with or without Mujib, who was imprisoned in Mianwali jail in West Pakistan.
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Awami League's governance has been authoritarian at times, but so has that of the BNP and General Ershad. In a democracy, parties naturally cycle in and out of power. However, banning Awami League creates an identity crisis for Bangladesh. Denying its historical heritage could lead the nation in unpredictable directions.
The writer is the author of 'The Microphone Men: How Orators Created a Modern India' (2019) and an independent researcher based in New Delhi. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.
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New Delhi, India, India
First Published:
June 11, 2025, 14:32 IST
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