Bangladesh's Revolution Addiction

Bangladesh is addicted to revolution. It has happened time and again, and despite its uneven achievement record at best, it continues to attract people and individuals who feel that salvation lies in dramatic decisions which ultimately peter out, creating the platform for the next revolution.

Many consider the 1971 war as the first revolution, and in the years after independence as the situation crumbled and the suffering of people increased, the call for another revolution began to surface.

If the various shades of leftists were calling for one revolution or another, the party in power, the Awami League, and its supporters began to talk of the "second revolution" as the solution to the problems of politics and governance that the country faced. This was, in essence, the populist aspect of Baksal, or one-party rule, as it contained the smell of revolution which till then was the most acceptable symbol of political change.

If 1971 was the first revolution, all subsequent "shocks" could also be packaged as "revolution." It was a faith in the description, and perhaps in the process, rather than substance that drove many to believe that as long as it was revolutionary or sudden and dramatic, and even traumatic, things would end in victory.