 | This articleis missing information about history. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on thetalk page.(October 2025) |
The origins of theliberalism (Bengali:উদারনীতিবাদ,romanized: Udārnītibād) inBangladesh can be traced from theanticolonial movements during theBritish Raj period.[citation needed] After thePartition of India,Bengali nationalist movements in theEast Pakistan were led by the liberal andprogressive activists.[1] According to the columist Hasan Ferdous, the principles of "equality,human dignity andsocial justice", inspiring from the ideals of theFrench Revolution that enshrined in theProclamation of Bangladeshi Independence,[2] can be considered as the "guiding values" of the liberalism in modern-day Bangladesh.[3]
Early Bangladeshi leadership was dominated by theleft-wing, who opposed the development of a capitalist system and promoted a strictprotectionism,state intervention andeconomic regulation under aplanned economy and limited market activities, which was characterized as "neither capitalist nor socialist" in nature.[4] But economy remained stagnated, witha deadly famine hitting in 1974. In late 1970s and 1980s, various reforms, predominantly under the presidencies of reformistsZiaur Rahman andHussain Muhammad Ershad were taken to boost economic growth and foreign investments, including the decentralization of state enterprises and trade liberalization.[5] Contemporary Bangladesh is a liberal market economy[4][6] and 33rd largest economy in the world.[7]