A year after popular protests in Bangladesh toppled the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, India’s neighbour increasingly appears torn among competing forces, with the hope of a better future eroded by fears of violence, lawlessness and deep political discord. That is a cause for concern for Bangladeshis, many of whom risked their lives to demand change last year. It is also worrying for India, for long Bangladesh's closest ally and partner, which finds itself at odds with Dhaka far too often these days. The revolt against Ms Hasina's reign, which started out as a protest against a quota regime many viewed as discriminatory, quickly morphed into calls for her resignation amid accusations of human rights abuses carried out under her. There was also criticism of how political opponents were being silenced during her rule. Her family was accused of corruption too. But a year later, many of those ills remain pervasive in Bangladesh. The weeks after the August 2024 overthrow of Ms Hasina’s government saw major attacks on religious minorities. Supporters of her Awami League party were hounded and many within Bangladesh's political circles who have since gained influence are now calling for the party to be banned from future elections. Government data suggest that violent crime has gone up across the board — its victims include many who stood by the protesters last year.
The Nobel laureate and leader of Bangladesh’s interim government, Muhammad Yunus, is facing mounting pressure to call for early elections, especially from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party that has long been the chief adversary of the Awami League. Tensions with the country's armed forces have spilled out into the open. Bangladeshi courts, including a tribunal that was set up to prosecute crimes committed during the nation's 1971 liberation war, have reversed convictions against Islamist leaders who had been found guilty and are now busy prosecuting Ms Hasina and her former colleagues. In effect, Bangladesh in August 2025 is doing many of the same things its ousted leaders were accused of doing before August 2024. The impartiality of its courts and its political process is under a cloud. The crime graph has gone up. Dhaka’s foreign policy — which Ms Hasina's critics said was too deferential to India — is still unbalanced; New Delhi is now seen as the devil and an ahistorical friendship with Islamabad is brewing. This picture of chaos and crisis is disappointing for all of Bangladesh's well-wishers. Yet hope flickers. The people of Bangladesh must not let that flame of hope get extinguished.