The tumultuous journey of Sheikh Hasina
The history of Bangladesh begins with Sheikh Mujib the legendary leader who rose against the powerful Pakistan army and attained independence after a struggle that was both difficult and long. Lovingly called ‘Bangabandhu,’ he was a person admired and revered across the nation for achieving the impossible. After the surrender of Pakistan East Pakistan became what is now Bangladesh.
A nation was born and charted on a journey of progress and development under its benevolent leader. However, destiny had other plans. What began with a promising note in 1971 ended on an abrupt note when Bangbandhu and his family members were assassinated in a military coup. Hasina and her sister survived because they were abroad at the time. That trauma defined Sheikh Hasina’s political persona. Sheikh Hasina, the surviving daughter inherited her father’s legacy, goodwill and burden at the same time and charted on a political journey that would shape the destiny of small Bengali-speaking nation. Her rise, endurance, and eventual downfall are intertwined with the history of a nation that showed promise and even outpaced Pakistan but fell to poltical machinations.
She showed courage and determination when she returned from exile in 1981, and took over the leadership of the Awami League. The journey was not smooth though. She struggled to restore the democracy in the nation and finally succeeded. Her fight for democracy was marked by fierce rivalry, political crackdowns, and highhandedness of the army. With a mix of persistence and political instinct, she became the accepted custodian of Bangabandhu’s unfinished mission — to see a thriving democratic Bangladesh. Eventually Hasina became prime minister in 1996, marking the beginning of her long political dominance. Sheikh Hasina’s tenure as Prime Minister of Bangladesh began on 23 June 1996, when she assumed office after her party, the Awami League, won the general election, succeeding Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Her first term lasted until 15 July 2001. After a while she returned to office on 6 January 2009 following her party’s landslide victory in the 2008 general election and won subsequent elections in 2014, 2018 and 2024. Her ascent of power coincided naturally with good relations with India and period of growth and prosperity that was fast and sustained. Her governments saw major infrastructure projects, impressive growth indicators, social welfare expansions, and a consolidation of nationalist politics centred on the liberation. During her rule Bangladeshtransformed into one of South Asia’s fastest-growing economies. However, the torchbearer of democracy herself succumbed to autocratic traits and alienated a large section of people — giving sops to her supporters and brickbats to opponents — something that eventually led to Gen Z uprising and her ignominious downfall.
The abolition of the caretaker government system, the crackdown on opposition parties, and allegations of human rights abuses made her look authoritarian leader who wanted to retain power at all costs. The 2024 student uprising was the turning point. What began as anger over job quotas and governance failures quickly transformed into a nationwide movement challenging Hasina’s prolonged rule. Her government’s response-marked by repression, arrests, and violence-fuelled unprecedented public fury. As unrest spread, her political fortress began to crumble. After the uprising she moved to India where she currently lives but the International Crimes Tribunal’s death sentence has changed the situation and India will have to take a call on her extradition as an extradition treaty warrants that she goes back to her home country and is penalised as per the law. Till that happens her fate hangs in uneasy balance.
The writer is Senior Editor with The Pioneer; views are personal
