The 2024 student-public uprising in Bangladesh stands as a watershed moment in the nation’s political history, with the ousting of Sheikh Hasina’s government marking the culmination of years of growing discontent. This movement, however, has raised a profound question: can Hasina’s party, Bangladesh Awami League, with its philosophies of Bengali nationalism and secularism, find a path to redemption and reconciliation in the new political landscape? The answer to this question hinges on whether the uprising is understood as an expression of a collective language grounded in ideals like democracy and pluralism, or as a movement driven by a singular, pragmatic goal—the removal of an authoritarian regime.

If we argue that the uprising was underpinned by a collective language of democracy and pluralism, then reconciling with the Awami League becomes an exceedingly difficult task. Bengali nationalism and secularism, the two pillars upon which the Awami League has long stood, are inherently exclusionary in the way they have been politically mobilized. The party has used these philosophies to create stark binaries in the political landscape, dividing the populace into ‘pro-Liberation’ and ‘anti-Liberation’ camps, a tactic that marginalized dissenting voices under the guise of protecting national unity and secular values. The collective language of the uprising, if indeed democratic and pluralistic, directly challenges this binary by offering an alternative vision of inclusivity and shared political engagement. In this light, reconciliation between the uprising’s participants and the Awami League seems untenable without a fundamental shift in the latter’s political identity.

One of the central arguments for the difficulty of reconciliation lies in the stark ideological contrast between........

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