On August 5, 2024, a historic moment unfolded in Bangladesh when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country after 16 years of rule. Her departure was not the result of a regular election or peaceful transition of power but the culmination of a student-led mass uprising. This revolution, which ultimately ousted the world’s longest-serving female prime minister, marked a significant turning point in the country’s political landscape. The rise of Dr. Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel laureate, to leadership symbolizes a fresh chapter for Bangladesh. Yet, the roots of this uprising are deeply embedded in the persistent injustices that plagued the country during Hasina’s tenure.

Throughout her reign, Bangladesh experienced widespread extrajudicial killings, judicial harassment, enforced disappearances, rampant corruption, and the marginalization of political dissidents. These issues, combined with the sharp division of the nation based on political ideologies, created an atmosphere of frustration and disillusionment. The uprising that forced Hasina’s resignation is a stark reminder of the broader historical lesson: injustices, when left unchecked, inevitably lead to revolution.

To understand this, one must look back at the history of Bengal, which sheds light on the enduring relationship between injustice and societal change. Bengal, unlike many parts of the Indian subcontinent, was not traditionally a Muslim-majority region. In fact, the 1872 census revealed that nearly 50 percent of Bengal’s population was Muslim, while in Delhi, the center of Muslim rule, Muslims constituted only 11 percent. This demographic transformation raises the question: what led to the large-scale conversion of........

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