SPRING 2021

POL 101: Session 20 (NHA)

BANGLADESH POLITY: A CHRONOLOGY

OF POLITICAL HISTORY
 WHAT IS A POLITY ?
It is a form or process of civil government
or constitution.
It is an organized society; a state as a
political entity.
A polity is an identifiable political entity,
any group of people who have a collective
identity. A polity can be any other group of
people organized for governance or the
government of a country.
•
LEGACIES
Since the 4th century BC in ancient Bengal and India a caste based civil military dominance existed under the Kshatriyas.

• From Sanskrit kṣatriya or kṣhatra means ‘rule, authority’. They belong to the second of the four Hindu castes, called the military
caste. The traditional function of the Kshatriyas is to protect society by fighting in wartime and governing in peacetime. The
recognized castes are Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra.

• Due to an interval of the Buddhist Palas, from 7th to 11th centuries an orthodox Sena rule was established with kṣatriya hegemony.
It is named after its ruling dynasty, whose rulers bore names ending with the suffix of Pala ("protector" in
Sanskrit). The Palas were intelligent diplomats and military conquerors.

• The emergence of Sena Dynasty displaced the Palas in Bengal towards the close of the 11th century AD and ruled for little over a
century. Their ancestors came from the south and established themselves as chieftains in southwestern Bengal. Sena rule in Bengal
brought about a marked revival of orthodox Hinduism. The caste system was reestablished which had become relaxed because of
the Buddhist influence.
 LEGACIES Contd
• With the advent of the Muslim rulers the civil military
settings in administration continued their rule initially by
the Turkish Sultans in Delhi by 1204 and by the Mughals
from central Asia in 1526.

• The British East India Company was initially created in

1600 to serve as a trading body for English merchants,
specifically to participate in the East Indian spice trade. It
later added such items as cotton, silk, indigo, salt, tea and
opium and also participated in the slave trade.

• The Company slowly and gradually expanded its trading

activities in India by getting permission from the then
ruling powers, the Mughals and the local rulers.
 LEGACIES Contd
• Siraj ud-Daula succeeded his maternal grandfather, Alivardi Khan as the
Nawab of Bengal in April 1756 at the age of 23. Betrayed by Mir Jafar,
then commander of Nawab's army, Siraj lost the Battle of Plassey on 23
June 1757. The forces of the East India Company under Robert
Clive invaded and the administration of Bengal fell into the hands of the
company.
• Siraj ud-Daula, was the last independent Nawab of Bengal. The end of
his reign marked the start of British East India Company rule over
Bengal and later almost all of the Indian subcontinent.

• The ascendancy of British colonial authority was established in Bengal

by 1765. But they further extended the traditional Mughal aristocratic
practice. The communal politics including deliberate neglect and
disparity impacted adversely on the development of democratic
institutions in Eastern Bengal.
• Hence, the participation of the community leaders of Bengali Muslims
were very miserable in the Imperial Legislative Council during 1861-
1911.
 MOVEMENTS AGAINST BRITISH RAJ
The Partition of Bengal (বঙ্গভঙ্গ)

• The first Partition of Bengal was a territorial reorganization of the

Bengal Presidency implemented by the British Raj in 1905. The partition
separated the largely Muslim eastern areas from the largely Hindu
western areas on 16 October 1905 announced on 19 July by the Viceroy
of India of that period Lord Curzon.
• The Hindus of West Bengal, who dominated Bengal's business and rural
life, complained that the division would make them a minority in a
province that would incorporate the province of Bihar and Orissa. Hindus
were outraged at what they saw as a “divide and rule” policy (where the
colonizers turned the native population against itself in order to rule).

• The partition however, encouraged the Muslims to form their own

national organization on communal lines.

• As a reward few of them were picked up for the first time in the Bengal
Legislative Council in 1911.
 MOVEMENTS AGAINST BRITISH RAJ
Swadeshi Movement
• The Swadeshi movement started with the partition of Bengal in 1905 and
continued up to 1911. It was the most successful of the pre-Gandhian
movement.
• It was in response to the Swadeshi movement’s riots in protest against
the policy and the growing belief among Hindus that east Bengal would
have its own courts and policies.
• In order to calm down Bengali sentiment, Bengal was reunited by Lord
Hardinge once again in 1911.
• It is true that the Partition of Bengal was a British tactic of 'Divide and rule
policy'. The reason was to run the administration smoothly but in reality
an attempt was made by the British to dilute the demand for
independence.
 MOVEMENTS AGAINST BRITISH RAJ
Ahimsa Movement
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Indian independence
leader took the religious principle of ahimsa (doing no harm)
and turned it into a non-violent tool for mass action in 1930.
This was one of the civil disobediences against British rule
in India towards independence.
 How long did England occupy India? 200 years?

• The First and Second World Wars left Britain weakened

and less interested in its empire. Also many parts of
the empire contributed troops and resources to the war
effort and took an increasingly independent view. This led
to a steady decline of the empire after 1945.

• Almost everyone in India knows the British ruled India for

200 years. In reality, Robert Clive won the battle of
Plassey in 1757. India was liberated in 1947 and so that
is a neat 190 years.
 PROMINENT BENGALI LEADERS AND THEIR ROLES
• The creation of the Bengal Legislative Council in 1937
facilitated AK Fazlul Haque to become the first Bengali
premier. For 10 years between 1937 and 1947, he was an
elected member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly where
he was Prime Minister and Leader of the House for 6 years.
• Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was engaged in organising
the Bengal Provincial Muslim League throughout the length
and breadth of the province. Suhrawardy led the campaign
against Fazlul Huq causing the collapse of his Ministry. He
was the architect of the Muslim League's comprehensive
victory in Bengal in the 1946 elections in which it secured
114 seats out of 121 reserved seats. This electoral success
was seen by many as a justification of the Muslim demand
for Pakistan.
 DOMINANCE OF RELIGION
• Before partition, Suhrawardy upheld the interests
of the Muslim community. In 1932 he attended the
third Round Table Conference in London as a
representative of his community. He was an
ardent supporter of the Separate Electorate
System for the Muslims.

• However, instead of building democratic

institutions, pursuance for communal politics by
dominant political parties further isolated Bengali
Muslims which was reflected in 1946 election.
 DOMINANCE OF RELIGION
• When British rule in India ended in August
1947, the country was partitioned to create a
new independent nation, Pakistan.

• Comprised of the Muslim-majority areas in the

northwest and northeast of British India,
Pakistan came into existence as a country
divided in two parts, West and East Pakistan,
whose people, the majority of whom share a
common religion, were separated by nearly
1,600 km (1,000 miles) of Indian territory and
differences in language, culture, and
traditions.
 DOMINANCE OF RELIGION
• Soon after the partition, enlightened Hindus left the
Eastern part of Pakistan.

• During 1947-1971, the East Pakistan era, which

preceded the foundation of Bangladesh, religion
became an indispensable part of life.

• Initially, the fanatical religious Muslim League

government tried to close down all girls’ schools across
Pakistan and thus religion was a dominant determinant
in women’s lives.

• Rabindra Sangeet was banned.

 POST COLONIAL REGIMES
• Following the independence legacies of the colonial
bureaucracy were strongly felt and fragility persisted both
in Pakistan National Constituent Assembly and Provincial
Legislative Assembly in East Pakistan during 1947-71.
Due to the absence of functioning bureaucracy and its
institutional settings, the Punjab centric civil-military
continued their extraordinary influence in the state
machinery.

• By contrast, post independent Congress leadership in

India managed to bring civil military bureaucracy under
political control by the practice of parliamentary democracy
from the very beginning.
 ROLE OF POLITICAL PARTIES

• Among the few political parties those evolved in

East Bengal during the early decades included All
India Muslim League (1906), Krishak Praja Party
(1936) but none of them could exert enough
influence over the semi colonial civil military
bureaucracy in Pakistan.

• East Pakistan Awami Muslim League was founded

by Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani and Yar
Mohammad Khan in June 1949. It was established
as the Bengali alternative to the urdu dominated
Muslim League in Pakistan.
 ROLE OF POLITICAL PARTIES Contd
• The party quickly gained massive popular support in East
Bengal. In the 1954 provincial election in Bengal, the party
won 143 seats. The United Front of East won a total of
223 seats, soundly defeating the Muslim League with 10
seats.

• Subsequently, the two parties merged in 1959 and used

the name All Pakistan Awami Muslim League. The party
later dropped All Pakistan and named the party Awami
Muslim League in East Pakistan.

• Later, the party evolved under the leadership of Sheikh

Mujibur Rahman (himself a former aide to Suharwardy)
and was named the Awami League.
 ROLE OF POLITICAL PARTIES contd

• During the foundation of Awami League in 1949

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was in jail but he was
given the position of joint secretary.
• From the very inception the Awami League it has
been a secular and non-communal party. As a
mark of its secular posture, the term 'Muslim' was
deleted from the name of the party at its third
council meeting held on 21-23 October 1955.
 MOVEMENTS IN PAKISTAN REGIME
Language
• Just after the partition of India in 1947 the government of Pakistan
ordained Urdu as the sole national language in 1948.
• In reality East Pakistan was composed of various ethnic and linguistic
groups, with the geographically homogenous East Bengal province
having a mainly Bengali population.

• That sparked extensive protests among the Bengali-speaking majority

of East Bengal. Facing rising sectarian tensions and mass discontent
with the new law, the government outlawed public meetings and rallies.

• The students of DU and other political activists defied the law and
organised a protest on 21 February 1952. The movement reached its
climax when police killed student demonstrators on that day. The
deaths provoked widespread civil unrest.

• After years of conflict, the central government relented and granted

official status to the Bengali language in 1956.
  AGARTALA CONSPIRACY CASE
A case framed by the Pakistan Government in 1968
during the Ayub regime against Awami League
chief Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, some in-service and
ex-service army personnel and high government
officials. They were accused of involvement in a
conspiracy to secede the East wing from Pakistan
with the help of the government of India. The
conspiracy was invented between the Indian party
and the accused persons at Agartala city of Tripura
in India. The case was thus called Agartala
Conspiracy Case. However, the Pakistan
government was compelled to withdraw the case in
the face of a mass movement in East Pakistan.
 THE SIX POINT MOVEMENT
The six point movement was a movement in East Pakistan
organized by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman which called for
greater autonomy for East Pakistan. The movement's main
agenda was to realize the six demands put forward by a
coalition of Bengali nationalist political parties in 1966, to end
the perceived exploitation of East Pakistan by the West
Pakistani rulers. It was meant to end Master-slave rule in
Pakistan. Exports from East Pakistan (such as Jute) were a
majority of Pakistan's export income. East Pakistanis were
subject to economic discrimination and proportional share of
political power was unequal.

The 6 point demand is considered a milestone on the road to

Bangladesh’s independence.
 THE 6 POINTS
1. The Constitution should provide for a Federation of Pakistan
in its true sense based on the Lahore Resolution and the
parliamentary form of government with supremacy of a
Legislature directly elected on the basis of universal adult
franchise.
2. The federal government should deal with only two subjects:
Defence and Foreign Affairs, and all other residual subjects
should be vested in the federating states.
3. Two separate, but freely convertible currencies for two
wings should be introduced; or if this is not feasible, there
should be one currency for the whole country, but effective
constitutional provisions should be introduced to stop the
flight of capital from East to West Pakistan. Furthermore, a
separate Banking Reserve should be established and
separate fiscal and monetary policy be adopted for East
Pakistan.
 THE 6 POINTS
4. The power of taxation and revenue collection should be
vested in the federating units and the federal centre
would have no such power. The federation would be
entitled to a share in the state taxes to meet its
expenditures.
5. There should be two separate accounts for the foreign
exchange earnings of the two wings; the foreign
exchange requirements of the federal government should
be met by the two wings equally or in a ratio to be fixed;
indigenous products should move free of duty between
the two wings, and the constitution should empower the
units to establish trade links with foreign countries.
6. East Pakistan should have a separate military or
paramilitary force, and Navy headquarters should be in
East Pakistan.
 ROLE OF THE LEADER
• Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was a Bengali politician and a lawyer
who served as the fifth Prime Minister of Pakistan, appointed in this
capacity on 12 September 1956 until resigning on 17 October 1957.
After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, he became a leading populist
politician of East Pakistan ( East Bengal ) and served as the first
Bengali Prime Minister of Pakistan.

• Within a period of seven years from the establishment of Pakistan,

the Muslim League was moved from East Bengal at the hands of the
United Front in the first provincial elections held in 1954.

• The Pakistani rulers exercised undemocratic practices and dissolved

the East Bengal Provincial Legislative Assembly shortly after the
election in 1954. They also foiled the general election plan of Prime
Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy under the constitution of
1956.
 MARTIAL LAW RULE
• In 1956, the Awami League formed an alliance with the Republican Party to lead a
coalition government in Pakistan. Suhrawardy became prime minister and pledged to
resolve the energy crises, address economic disparities between East and West
Pakistan, and strengthen the armed forces. His initiatives included supply side economic
policies, planning nuclear power and energy and reorganizing and reforming the
Pakistani military. In foreign policy, he pioneered a strategic partnership with the United
States.

• Faced with pressure from the bureaucracy and business community over his policies in
aid distribution, nationalization and opposition to the one unit scheme he was ousted
from office in October 1957 and was imprisoned as traitor and had been exiled to
Lebanon where he had a mysterious death at a hotel room in Beirut.

• The incumbent Governor-General, Iskander Mirza, became Pakistan's first president. He

reportedly suspended the first Constitution in 1958, and appointed Army Commander-in
-Chief General Ayub Khan as the first chief martial law administrator.

• Due to weak institutionalization of political parties the leadership of overdeveloped civil

military bureaucracy first declared an emergency and then Martial law in October 1958.
 MARTIAL LAW RULE Contd
• Under Field Marshal Ayub Khan, presidential
autocracy was installed through the adoption of
the constitution in 1962. He organized indirect
presidential elections through the 80,000 primary
democrats in 1965 to legitimize his rule.

• In the following year under the leadership of the

Bengali vernacular elites and their followers in
East Pakistan raised 6 point demand for their
legitimate share in the economy and power
structure at the center. Facing severe opposition in
both regions of Pakistan Ayub Khan had to quit in
March 1969.
 ELECTION IN PAKISTAN
• General elections were held in Pakistan on 7 December 1970. Voting
took place in 300 constituencies of a unicameral house.

• The Awami League won a landslide victory by winning an absolute

majority of 160 seats and 288 of the 300 seats in the Provincial Assembly
of East Pakistan in the provincial elections held ten days later. The PPP
won only 81 seats in the National Assembly, but were the winning party
in Punjab and Sindh.

• The Assembly was initially not inaugurated as President Yahya Khan and
the PPP did not want a party from East Pakistan in government. This
caused great unrest in East Pakistan, which soon escalated into a civil
war that led to the formation of the independent state of Bangladesh.

• The Assembly was eventually opened when President Yahya resigned a

few days later and PPP leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over. Bhutto
became Prime Minister in 1973.
HIGHLIGHTS ON BANGLADESH REGIME

• BRITISH LEGACY
• SINGLE PARTY DOMINANCE
• DOMINANCE OF RELIGION
• SEAT BELTS FOR MPS
• CARE TAKER INTERVENTION
• EXECUTIVE SUPREMACY
• GENERALS IN POLITICS
• DYSFUNCTIONAL PARLIAMENT
• COMMITTEE SYSTEM
• DYNASTIC RULE
• ELECTORAL ORDEAL
 BRITISH LEGACY

The Laws of the Land

1. The Penal Code 1860

2. The Evidence Act 1872
3. The Criminal Procedure Code 1898
 SINGLE PARTY DOMINANCE
4th Amendment was passed on 25 January 1975.
Significant changes included:
• The presidential form of government was
introduced replacing the parliamentary system;
• A one-party system in place of a multi-party
system was introduced;
• The powers of the Jatiya Sangsad were
curtailed;
• The Judiciary lost much of its independence;
• The Supreme Court was deprived of its
jurisdiction over the protection and enforcement
of fundamental rights.
 DOMINANCE OF RELIGION
• At independence in 1971, the new country Bangladesh emphasised
its Bengali character and adopted the trappings of a secular state.
• Secularism was proclaimed as one of the fundamental principles of
the new constitution of the country. But two subsequent military
coups in 1975 and 1981 changed the situation.
• The first coup leader started the process of de-secularising the
state by deleting the principle of secularism and replacing it by
absolute trust and faith in the almighty Allah in 1977.
• The second coup d’état continued the process and declared Islam
as the state religion in 1988. In return, the recognition of Islam as
state religion, and constitutional amendments, encouraged the rise
of fundamentalism in the country.
 SEAT BELTS FOR MPS
Vacation of seat on resignation or voting against political
party: Article 70 of Bangladesh Constitution

Article 70
• A person elected as a member of Parliament at an election
at which he was nominated as a candidate by a political
party shall vacate his seat if he –
• (a) resigns from that party ; or
• (b) votes in Parliament against that party ;
but shall not thereby be disqualified for subsequent election
as a member of Parliament.
 Background of Article 70
In early days of the birth of Bangladesh, under the interim
constitution in 1972, law making powers resided with the
executive branch. The internal laws and policies of Bangladesh
were made by the bureaucrats. KM Obaidur Rahman, an MP
from Faridpur district, questioned this procedure in an
assembly in the parliament. This offended Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the lawmaker from his own party
raised this question in the Assembly.

Thus Article 70 was made as a result of the Bangladesh

Constituent Assembly (Cessation of Membership) Order
1972, promulgated by President Justice Abu Sayeed
Chowdhury. The President acted on the advice of Prime
Minister. In simple words, if MPs voted against their party, they
automatically lose their seats.
• Article 70 of the constitution is a contradiction with the spirit of the
Criticism
constitution because on Article
the constitution 70 expression of the will
is the solemn
of the people. In the parliamentary democracy, parliament is the place
where open debate takes place so that different opinions come from the
members of parliament. The MPs have right to oppose any bill which
may not serve the interest of the people. But article 70 has limited the
rights of the members and it is against the basic principles of the
constitution: freedom of expression and democracy. As a result, the
parliament has not been able to hold a ‘no confidence’ motion to remove
a prime minister and Bangladesh's parliament has largely served as
a rubber stamp body.

• On 29 October 2020 the Jatiyo Party Leader Mr G M. Qader claimed that

due to article 70 the party top leaders have become dictators. He
demanded abolishing this article from Bangladesh constitution.

• The provision is contrary to the norms of Westminster systems, as in the

parliaments of the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan and Australia; as well
as other democratic systems, such as in the U.S. Congress and
Japanese Diet.
 CARE TAKER INTERVENTION

15th Amendment was passed on 30 June 2011 to scrap

the system of Caretaker Government of Bangladesh

• The Caretaker Government of Bangladesh was a form

of government in which Bangladesh used to be ruled by a
selected government for an interim period during the transition from
one elected government to another, after the completion of tenure. The
system was introduced in the mid-1990s in an effort to end violence
and fraud that often spoiled voting.
• Since 1996, a Caretaker government has managed the elections and
transitions of 1996, 2001 and 2008.
• The Bangladeshi parliament has overturned a 15-year-old requirement
that general elections are overseen by non-partisan caretaker
governments.
• The ruling party was highly critical of the last military-backed caretaker
government of 2006-8 stayed and ruled two years. It was beyond its
mandated three months and delayed voting.
 EXECUTIVE SUPREMACY
• The liberation war in 1971 was meant to establish
democracy but ended up eventually by creating executive
supremacy in the political system.

• Executive branch leads and controls the government in

domestic affairs, diplomatic relations, economic activities
and adopting policies in the light of its objectives and
experiences.

• Two major components of the executive branch: 1. Political

executives 2. Bureaucracy.

• The political executives include 1. Head of the State and

Head of the Government i.e. President or Prime Minister or
both 2. The Cabinet 3. Advisory Council.
 GENERALS IN POLITICS
• From the blood-stained takeover in August 1975 till December
1990 Bangladesh witnessed the revival of Pakistani styled military
rule.

• General Zia and General Ershad embraced the principal office left
by Shiekh Mujibur Rahman.

• They used the power structure built by the civilian government and
made their ministers and prime minister remain subservient to them
instead of the legislature.

• To legitimize his military rule, General Zia organized a referendum

in 1977 and then activated the rubber-stamp parliament to amend
the constitution and validate all his military ordinances.

• Drawing support from the right wing elements Zia created the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). He was assassinated in a
military coup in 1980.
 GENERALS IN POLITICS
• Army Chief General Ershad ousted democratically elected
President Satter government and took over power in 1982.

• For regime maintenance he tried to get the support of local

influential by forming Jatiya Party (JP) and managed to win the
voter less 3rd parliamentary election in 1986.

• The creation of the Upazila system under his decentralization

policy was introduced by him provided some political dividends at
local level.

• He introduced Islam as the state religion.

• Opposition parties portrayed him as dictator and due to political

agitation he had to resign on 6 December1990.
 DYSFUNCTIONAL NATURE OF THE PARLIAMENT

• In the pretext of non availability of the floor the boycott

2 culture started in the 5th parliament when the then AL
led opposition had started boycotting.

• In the 7th parliament BNP followed the same.

3
• TIB’s parliament Evaluation Report suggests that
during the 5th, 7th, 8th and 9th parliaments the
opposition party led by AL and BNP boycotted 34%,
43%, 60% and 83.38% of the parliament sessions.

• Lack of professionalism of the MPs is seen as a

1 deterrent to proper parliamentary business. Most of the
time good debates turns into full of self-praise and
praise of the leader.
 COMMITTEE SYSTEM
• Parliamentary Committees function under Article 76
of the constitution and the Rules of Procedure of
Parliament.
• Various Committees are constituted to discuss and
review the burning questions of the people and
amend the matters in the form of bills before
presenting them to the parliament.
• These committees are meant to oversight executive
activities, examine and report on policy issues and
special investigation.
• Ministers do not voluntarily agree to implement the their
recommendations made by the committee.
• Committees lack formal authority to take punitive
actions against defaulting officials if they ignore their
directives.
 DYNASTIC RULE

• Signs of the dynastic rule have been a

dominant feature of party politics in
Bangladesh.

• Both the leaders Khaleda Zia and

Sheikh Hasina inherited the office of
the party chiefs and earned people’s
mandate in a cyclic order and became
prime minister interchangeably
several times since 1991.
 ELECTORAL ORDEAL

• After nearly half a century the electoral malpractices

have remained a major concern for the leading
opposition parties.

• The Election Commission continued to lose its image.

• TIB termed the national election 2018 as partially

participatory, non-competitive, questionable and faulty.

• TIB reported electoral irregularities like stamping ballot

papers the night before the polls and ballot stuffing by
capturing booths during election took place in most of the
constituencies.
 REFERENCES
Haq, E.M., (2019). Bangladesh Polity in Comparative Political Systems.
Century Publications. (Chapter 9; Pages:203-42).
Kshatriya
https://www.encyclopedia.com/places/asia/indian-political-
geography/kshatriya

Political History of Bangladesh

https://www.assignmentpoint.com/arts/social-science/political-history-
bangladesh.html

Bangladesh - Political background

https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/World-Leaders-2003/Bangladesh-
POLITICAL-BACKGROUND.html

Six point movement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_point_movement
Polity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polity