Anarchism in Bangladesh has its roots in the ideas of theBengali Renaissance and began to take influence as part of therevolutionary movement for Indian independence inBengal. After a series of defeats of the revolutionary movement and the rise ofstate socialist ideas within the Bengali left-wing, anarchism went into a period of remission. This lasted until the 1990s, when anarchism again began to reemerge after the fracturing of theCommunist Party of Bangladesh, which led to the rise ofanarcho-syndicalism among the Bangladeshi workers' movement.
Bengal was largely stateless until the 6th century BCE, when the laterVedic Period gave way to the rule of theMahajanapadas, with theVanga Kingdom coming to rule over theGangaridai region. Bengal subsequently was ruled by a succession of Hindu and Buddhist empires before the conquests ofMuhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji eventually introducedIslam to the region.[1] In the 14th century, theBengal Sultanate was established as an independent power, but it was later conquered by theMughal Empire, which established theBengal Subah in the sultanate's place. By the 18th century, Bengal began to regain independence under theNawabs and subsequently underwent anIndustrial Revolution. But the region soon became a locus for European colonial powers, with the BritishEast India Company eventuallyannexing Bengal into theBritish Empire, bringing it under the rule of theBengal Presidency.
In the early 19th century, theBengali Renaissance began to spread throughout the Bengali community,[2] beginning with the establishment of theAtmiya Sabha discussion circle inKolkata byRam Mohan Roy. The group promoted free thinking and fought for social reforms such as the abolition of thesati,polygamy,child marriage and thecaste system,[3] setting the groundwork for the earlyfeminist movement.[4] In 1828, Ram Mohan Roy andDebendranath Tagore founded theBrahmo Samaj religious movement, which initially aimed at reforming Hinduism, but later broke from Hindu orthodoxy entirely.
Debendranath's sonRabindranath Tagore went on to become of the foremost figures in the Renaissance, reshapingBengali literature andmusic. He denounced the rule of theBritish Raj and advocated for Bengali independence from the empire, expounding ahumanist,universalist andinternationalist philosophy.[5] A staunchanti-nationalist, Tagore wrote in his essay onnationalism:
[L]ook at those who call themselves anarchists, who resent the imposition of power, in any form whatever, upon the individual. The only reason for this is that power has become too abstract—it is a scientific product made in the political laboratory of the Nation, through the dissolution of personal humanity.[6]
In 1905, thefirst partition of Bengal was implemented by theBritish Raj, separating theMuslim-majorityEast Bengal from theHindu-majorityWest Bengal, in what was described as a policy of "divide and rule".[7][8] Spearheaded byAurobindo Ghose,Pramathanath Mitra andBipin Chandra Pal, secret societies such as theAnushilan Samiti andJugantar were established on both sides of the new border, aimed at training Bengalis in self-defense, with the ultimate aim of achievingindependence from the British Empire. TheDhaka Anushilan Samiti led byPulin Behari Das was particularly radical, advocating for political terrorism.[9]
In the wake of an assassination attempt on the Presidency Magistrate Douglas Kingsford, theAlipore Bomb Case was opened, in which a number of members of the Anushilan Samiti were accused of conspiracy to "wage war against the Government". This experience led one of the accused,Sri Aurobindo, to withdraw from political activity in Bengal and moved toPondicherry, where he dedicated himself to practicing a form of spirituality and philosophy which has been described as "radical anarchism".[10]
Bagha Jatin subsequently rose to the Jugantar leadership and developed a decentralised federated body of loose autonomous regional cells, which began to organize a series of actions throughout Bengal "to revive the confidence of the people in the movement",[11] Jatin undertook the armed robbery of banks using automobiles, 3 years before the similar crime spree committed by theBonnot Gang.[12] After a number of assassinations attempts against colonial officials, theGovernor-General of IndiaGilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound declared that: "aspirit hitherto unknown to India has come into existence (...), aspirit of anarchy and lawlessness which seeks to subvert not only British rule but the Governments of Indian chiefs..."[13][14] Jatin was eventually arrested in connection with theHowrah-Sibpur Conspiracy case and immediately suspended armed activity following his acquittal. Nevertheless, further assassinations were undertaken, with members of Dhaka Anushilan Samiti assassinating two police officers inMymensingh andBarisal.
Despite the repression, the British colonial authorities were unable to stop the revolutionary activity, so they conceded to revert the partition in 1911,[15] reuniting the region under theBengal Presidency.[16] But many Bengali revolutionaries had already been forced to flee from persecution by the British authorities, one of which wasTarak Nath Das, who joinedHar Dayal in attempting organize Indian emigrants and educate them on anarchist ideas, going on to establish theGhadar Movement.
DuringWorld War I, members of the Ghadar movement, Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar attempted to organize amutiny against British rule. Jugantar seized arms from theRodda company and used them to commit robberies in Kolkata. During the revolt, Bagha Jatin was killed in a firefight with police, while Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar were caught up in the ensuingrepression, which led to the widespread arrest, internment, deportation and execution of Bengali revolutionaries.[17] After the war, the government instituted theAnarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919, which extended the state of emergency, allowing the British authorities to carry out the preventive indefinite detention and incarceration without trial of people perceived to be part of the revolutionary movement.[18] This largely drove the Bengali revolutionary movement underground, with many of its leaders fleeing toBurma to escape the repression.[19]
In the 1920s, thenon-cooperation movement led byMohandas K. Gandhi began to gain influence throughout the Indian independence movement, leading many Bengali revolutionaries to renounce violence, at the request ofChittaranjan Das. The Jugantar and Samiti experienced a brief resurgence in 1922, but theBengal Criminal Law Amendment reinstated emergency powers which curtailed their terrorist tactics.[20] This led to the Samiti gradually disseminating itself into the Gandhian movement, with many of its members joining theIndian National Congress. Other Bengali revolutionaries, such asSachindra Nath Sanyal andJadugopal Mukherjee, went on to join theHindustan Socialist Republican Association.
Attacks by the Bengali revolutionary movement continued into the early 1930s. In April 1930,Surya Sen led a group of revolutionaries in araid on the police armory inChittagong,[21] while in December 1930, theBengal Volunteers launched an attack on theWriters' Building. However, the revolutionary movement largely subsided by 1934, with the Samiti and Jugantar being dissolved shortly after. During the late 1930s, many Bengali revolutionaries became increasingly attracted toMarxism-Leninism, leading to the formation of theRevolutionary Socialist Party from remnants of the Samiti. By this time, anarchist ideas had lost their remaining influence in the Bengali revolutionary movement.
In 1947, theSecond Partition of Bengal was implemented.East Bengal was brought under theDominion of Pakistan, whileWest Bengal became a state of theRepublic of India. Much of the East Bengali left-wing regrouped under theAwami League, which was at the forefront ofBengali nationalism and theBengali language movement, seeking autonomy fromWest Pakistan. But under theOne Unit scheme, East Bengal was further integrated into Pakistan and was renamed toEast Pakistan.
Pakistani Bengal went through a period of repression, as the1958 Pakistani coup d'état instituted themilitary dictatorship ofAyub Khan, which cracked down on the Bengali left-wing and democratic movements. The socialistSheikh Mujibur Rahman emerged as the leader of the opposition and launched theSix point movement for greater autonomy in East Pakistan.[22] In 1969, amass uprising in East Pakistan led to the overthrow of Ayub Khan and anelectoral victory for Rahman. But the military's new leaderYahya Khan refused to recognize the results and enforcedmartial law over East Pakistan. As part ofOperation Searchlight, the Pakistani military began to commit agenocide against the Bengali people, killing hundreds of thousands.[23] This provoked theproclamation of Bangladeshi Independence and the beginning of theBangladesh Liberation War, which resulted in the surrender of Pakistani forces and the independence of thePeople's Republic of Bangladesh.
After the liberation of Bangladesh,Sheikh Mujibur Rahman set about implementingsocialism in Bangladesh,[24] seeking to create a society free fromexploitation.[25] Much of the country's industrial and financial sector wasnationalized,[26][27][28] while much of the country's agricultural sector remained in private hands.[29] In 1975, Rahman enacted theSecond Revolution, which transformed Bangladesh into aone-party state, merging theAwami League and theCommunist Party into the rulingBaKSAL front. However, thisstate socialist revolution was brought to an abrupt end with theassassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in acoup d'état, which brought the country under a right-wing military dictatorship and saw the dismantling of the government's socialist policies.[30]
The Communist Party participated in the opposition movement to the military rule ofHussain Muhammad Ershad, which finally came to an end in 1990.[31] Therestoration of parliamentarism[32] brought with it the renewal of political freedoms for the Bangladeshi left-wing. But this also brought with it a crisis for the Communist Party, which now came to reckon with theRevolutions of 1989 and the collapse of theEastern Bloc. The party fractured into a number of factions, one of which advocated the dissolution of the Communist Party and the reconstruction of the Bangladeshi left-wing along more democratic and libertarian lines.
In the 2000s, anarchist ideas began to spread throughout the Bangladesh workers' movement, particularly among workers in the tea and garment sectors. TheNational Garment Workers Federation, which had formed contact with foreign anarcho-syndicalist federations including theIndustrial Workers of the World, began to gain more prominence and organized a number of mass strikes among garment workers. But it gradually began to shift away from workers' self-organization and wildcat actions, towards more bureaucratic means of trade union management.[33] The rise of anarcho-syndicalist practices had also led to the formation of the firstworkers' council among tea workers.[34] This surge of anarcho-syndicalism in the country culminated on May 1, 2014, with the establishment of the Bangladesh Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation (BASF),[34] which has the ultimate aim of creating a society based on liberty, mutual aid, federalism and self-management.[35] The federation is affiliated with theIWA-AIT and is particularly active in organizing tea and garment workers.[36]
In 2019, the organizationAuraj was founded.[37] It consists of an anarchistpublishing house that is also involved in various social struggles.[38]
