50 years after independence, Bangladesh rises

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  50 years after independence, Bangladesh rises

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Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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• Golden Jubilee: As Bangladesh marks the 50th anniversary of its declaration of independence from Pakistan, there is admiration for its successful economic and social transformation. Less noted are the profound geopolitical consequences of Bangladesh’s economic rise, including a shift in South Asia’s center of economic gravity to the east and the reintegration of an eastern subcontinent that was once divided by animosities and barely penetrable borders. 
• Second Liberation: Bangladesh is now on the cusp of a second liberation — one that would end its relative isolation and allow Dhaka to play a stronger role in the region and beyond, seeking new maritime possibilities in the Indo-Pacific. 
• History: 

1. As it stepped out into the world in 1971 amid a bloody independence war with Pakistan, few in the world gave it a chance to survive, let alone thrive.  
2. For decades, it was one of the world’s most destitute countries, synonymous with famine, deprivation, and disease. But sustained high growth rates in the last few years have accelerated Bangladesh’s economic development. 
3. The country is on a firm trajectory to graduate out of the category of least developed countries by 2026 and likely to jump into the 25 largest economies worldwide by 2030. International development institutions praise Dhaka’s success in reducing poverty, improving life expectancy, enhancing literacy rates, and empowering women.

• Geopolitical strength: 

1. The recognition of Bangladesh’s economic transformation is not, however, accompanied by an appreciation of its growing geopolitical significance. 
2. For too long, South Asian geopolitics' focus has been entirely on India and Pakistan. The India-Pakistan academic establishment, media commentariat, and think-tank industry—myopically focused on the tick-tock between New Delhi and Islamabad over Kashmir, nuclear weapons, terrorism, and Afghanistan—sucks attention away from the rest of the region.
3. Even a cursory look suggests that each of the other states of the subcontinent are gaining in their strategic importance. 
4. That includes the smaller ones: Sri Lanka and the Maldives, sitting astride the sea lanes in the heart of the Indian Ocean, are objects of great interest to the major maritime powers—including India, China, Japan, and the United States. Nepal and Bhutan, nestling in the Himalayas as a long cordon between China and India, are theaters for the intensifying geopolitical competition between Beijing and Delhi.

• Size matter: Bangladesh’s geopolitical significance is not least a function of its size. Its population of nearly 170 million is the eighth-largest in the world. The Bangladeshi diaspora is growing as well, currently standing at about 8 million. Besides a large community in the Gulf Arab states, the diaspora is also growing in the English-speaking world. 
• Geography: Bangladesh’s geographic proximity to Nepal and Bhutan in the north, China in the northeast, and Burma in the southeast make it an attractive partner to all of them. For India, Bangladesh has in recent years emerged as its most important neighbor in the subcontinent—with strengthening strategic, political, and economic ties. Beyond its region, Dhaka is also a major contributor of forces for international peacekeeping. Bangladesh has become an exporting nation—mainly on the back of its textile industry, which generated $30 billion in exports in 2019. The country is the second-largest manufacturer of ready-made apparel after China and exports to more than 150 countries.
• Birth pangs: The geopolitics of Bangladesh, the former East Pakistan, began with its very birth. In seceding from Pakistan only 25 years after the creation of Pakistan in the name of religion, Bangladesh is the biggest testimony to the enduring truth that religion can’t peacefully unify a nation. Although Islam continues to play an important role in the politics of Bangladesh, the country’s religious moderation—and success in controlling home-grown Islamist movements after a spate of high-profile terrorist attacks—remains an important political virtue in the non-Western world. Bangladesh’s special location and political character would not have amounted to much if the nation had not made itself an economic success. To understand the scale of Bangladesh’s economic transformation relative to Pakistan and India, let us consider two important facts.
• Knowledge centre:

1. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman - Mujib was the son of a middle-class landowner, and studied law and political science at the Universities of Calcutta and Dacca (Dhaka). He began his formal political career in 1949 as a cofounder of the Awami League. The league advocated political autonomy for East Pakistan, the detached eastern part of Pakistan. Mujib’s arrest in the late 1960s incited mob violence that eroded the Pakistani president’s authority in East Pakistan. In the elections of December 1970, Mujib’s Awami League secured a majority of the seats in the National Assembly, and Mujib demanded independence for East Pakistan. Troops from West Pakistan were sent to regain control of the eastern province but were defeated with the help of India. East Pakistan, renamed Bangladesh, was proclaimed an independent republic in 1971, and in January 1972 Mujib, recently released from prison, became the country’s first prime minister. He, along with most of his family, was killed in a coup d’état just seven months later. His daughter, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, who was out of the country at the time of the overthrow, served as prime minister of Bangladesh (1996–2001; 2009– ).A left-wing insurgency from 1972 to 1975 is widely held responsible for creating the conditions that led up to the assassination.
2. Sheikh Hasina Wajed - Sheikh Hasina is the 10th Prime Minister of Bangladesh, having held the office since January 2009. She is the daughter of Bangladesh's first President and founding Father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. She served as Opposition Leader from 1986 to 1990, and 1991 to 1995, then as Prime Minister from 1996 to 2001. She is the leader of Bangladesh Awami League (AL) since 1981. In January 2014, she became Prime Minister for a third term in an unopposed election, as it was boycotted by the Opposition, and criticised by international observers. She won a fourth term in December 2018. Under her tenure as Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Bangladesh has experienced democratic backsliding, coupled with some economic rejuvenation on the back of textiles exports.
3. Begum Khaleda Zia - Khaleda Zia is a Bangladeshi politician who was the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996, and again from 2001 to 2006. She was the first woman in the country's history and second in the Muslim majority countries (after Benazir Bhutto) to head a democratic government as prime minister. She was the wife of a former President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman. She heads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) which was founded by Rahman in the late 1970s. After a military coup in 1982, led by Army Chief General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, Zia helped lead the movement for democracy until the fall of Ershad in 1990. She became the prime minister following the BNP party win in the 1991 general election. Since the 1980s, Zia's chief rival has been Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina. Since 1991, they have been the only two serving as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. In February 2018, Zia was jailed for a total of 17 years for corruption cases. In March 2020, she was released for six months on humanitarian grounds with conditions.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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