Chaitey gelaam odhikaar, hoye gelaam razakar!

In the tsunami of slogans that swept away the Sheikh Hasina government earlier this month, this particular one (“We asked for our rights but became razakars”), dripping with sarcasm, stood out as the summary of the political history of Bangladesh’s independent existence. As her law and order machinery overplayed their hands, Ms. Hasina described the protesters as ‘razakars’, the anti-liberation forces of 1971 who opposed Bangladesh’s freedom. But it turned out that Ms. Hasina, despite her best efforts, failed to contain the anti-liberation forces that were most effectively represented by the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh.

During her 15-year prime ministerial tenure, one of the most dramatic moments came in the early morning of May 11, 2016 when Motiur Rahman Nizami, the leader of JeI Bangladesh, was hanged to death in the Dhaka central prison. That Nizami, once one of the most powerful figures in the country, could be hanged showed that the JeI had become weak after relentless attacks by the Hasina government.

The JeI’s weakness was further proved when its footsoldiers failed to mobilise themselves in protest against Nizami’s death. Nizami represented the might of the JeI in Bangladesh. On May 13, 1971, as the Pakistani military’s ‘Operation Searchlight’ rolled on, attacking those who opposed the freedom movement of Bangladesh, a large contingent of the Pakistan Army reached Demra in the western part of the country and, with the help of the collaborators, killed a large number of civilians. A War Crimes Tribunal set up by the Hasina government conducted an inquiry and found that it was the Al Badr militia, led by Nizami, that supported the Pakistan military in carrying out the Demra massacre.

The JeI Bangladesh is an offshoot of the Jamaat-e-Islami, which was established on August 26, 1941 in Lahore. Soon after its emergence, the JeI opposed the Pakistan movement of Mohammed Ali Jinnah. However, after the formation of the state of Pakistan, it reinvented itself by demanding an Islamic Constitution and Islamic regime. In East Pakistan, Ghulam Azam spearheaded the Islamic movement.

In 1954, Ghulam Azam joined the JeI and with his leadership the JeI became a strong movement in East Pakistan as well. It was during this time that the JeI founded its student wing (today Chhatra Shibir in Bangladesh). The JeI in East Pakistan faced the first crackdown under the government of President Ayub Khan, who banned the organisation under an order which remained in force until 1962. In 1963, the outfit revived itself as part of a campaign against the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961, which was opposed by the anti-Ayub Khan parties. In the next election of 1965, Fatima Jinnah, sister of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, contested against Ayub Khan. This marked a dramatic turn in the history of the JeI as the outfit, including its chief ideologue Maulana Maududi, went against their fundamental tenets and supported a woman candidature in an election. This experiment with democracy would be an example that the outfit would subsequently replicate.

Mujib’s opponent

It was after the defeat of Fatima Jinnah that the JeI’s East Pakistan wing became more focused on the politics in Dhaka where it emerged as the chief opponent of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Sheikh Mujib wanted a federal system for East and West Pakistan which would include two separate currencies and separate forex reserves for the two wings. He also demanded a separate paramilitary for East Pakistan. The recasting of the JeI’s political position against Mujib brought the movement closer to its former arch enemy, President Ayub Khan. As Pakistan moved towards the polls of December 7, 1970, the JeI contested the polls and won four seats in the National Assembly. As the movement for Bangladesh intensified, the JeI became part of the official move to preserve Pakistan in its undivided form.

After the defeat of the Pakistan military in the 1971 war, Ghulam Azam, leader of the JeI, left Bangladesh and for sometime lived in London and Pakistan while campaigning for the re-establishment of East Pakistan. Azam’s citizenship was nullified by the Mujib government in 1973 when the country held its first election. After a period of uncertainty, the JeI Bangladesh was launched in 1979 with Azam as the emir and Abbas Ali Khan as the emir-in-charge. In 1986, the JeI Bangladesh contested the election and got 10 seats. It campaigned against the government of President Hossein Mohammed Ershad. In 1990, during the stormy anti-Ershad movement that was led by Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League and Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), JeI leaders delivered speeches in support of popular democracy. In the election of 1991 that brought Ms. Zia to power, the JeI Bangladesh won 18 seats.

The biggest turnaround in the history of the JeI Bangladesh came on December 6, 1992 when the Babri Masjid was demolished in Ayodhya. The outfit took advantage of public sentiment and established itself as a voice of the religious majority in Bangladesh. Through a court ruling, Ghulam Azam got back his Bangladesh citizenship. In a twist of irony, in 1996, the JeI joined hands with the Awami League and launched a movement for establishing a caretaker government that would hold the next election. The two parties, however, did not form a coalition during the election that brought Ms. Hasina as the Prime Minister for the first time. From the margins, the JeI came into the core of Bangladesh politics in 1998 when it reached an understanding with the BNP.

In 1999,the JeI joined a BNP-led four party alliance. With the JeI becoming a mainstream political player, Ghulam Azam withdrew from active politics and Motiur Rahman Nizami became the emir. In the 2001 election, the JeI won 18 seats and Nizami became a Minister, holding the portfolios of agriculture and industry. It was during this time that the outfit warmed its ties with the JeI Pakistan. As the Zia government became unpopular, the JeI Bangladesh also bore the brunt and its leaders were caught in the vortex as they repeatedly made derogatory remarks about the 1971 liberation war that infuriated the public and prompted Ms. Hasina to pledge that the Awamil league would set up a war crimes tribunal if she returned to power. The opportunity to form this tribunal came in 2009 when the Jatiyo Sansad passed the unanimous resolution setting up the war crimes tribunal.

New tactics

After the execution of Nizami, the JeI, under the leadership of Shafiqur Rahman (in picture), has renovated its tactics and replaced its earlier anti-liberation rhetoric with sophisticated social media outreach. It also strengthened its presence in coaching centres and liberal universities where the heavy handed policies of the Hasina government had triggered a backlash. Ms. Hasina, in one last acts of reprisal, banned the JeI. But she was too late.

The JeI has taken revenge for the execution of Nizami. Just like the 1990 movement against the military dictatorship, this time too the JeI participated in a pro-democracy movement. In 1990, the JeI joined hands with the Awami League and the BNP to overthrow the Ershad regime. In 2024, they joined hands with students to overthrow Ms. Hasina.