Masks of Authoritarianism

​This edited book investigates how life is affected by the increasingly authoritarian regime in Bangladesh.Earlier a flawed but real electoral democracy, over the last several years Bangladesh has been characterised as a ‘hybrid regime’ in The Economist’s Democracy Index. Today it is a country in which law still rules and leaders are still chosen – but only on paper. The uniqueness of this book is not in defining regime type or investigating trajectories. It is in its efforts to study how these changes affect everyday life. All chapters are based on intimate knowledge of a field, on first-hand experience, and on interviews and ethnography. This book will interest political scientists and scholars of Bangladesh, the Islamic world and beyond, with findings of broad relevance to hybrid regimes.

“In its now 50 years of existence as an independent state, Bangladesh has achieved remarkable economic stabilization. After a turbulent foundational period and ensuing decades of military dictatorship, democratically elected shifting governments have since the 1990s seconded this process. However, international trends towards authoritarian rule are increasingly manifesting themselves in Bangladesh also. The essays in this volume cast a critical glance at these developments. They describe the  reduction of freedom in the public arena and evolving mechanisms of self-censure in recent years. They argue that it is as a pluralist and democratic society that Bangladesh can flourish, not under restrictions on the public sphere and the political process. An uncomfortable critique, to be taken seriously.” (Hans Harder, Professor, University of Heidelberg, Germany)

“Fifty years on, Bangladesh’s statebuilding story is also one of global image-building, gradually transforming the country’s infamous branding as an economic ‘basket case’ to an ‘economic miracle’. As this volume powerfully reveals, this story of transformation, framed as a success, has come with significant political and social cost.  This important volume unfolds the profound grief and trauma that exist in complex layers of everyday lives; built on rights violations, exclusions and silences.” (Bina D’Costa, Professor, Australian National University, Australia)

“Having suffered colonially for about two centuries and sub-colonially for more than two decades, Bangladesh emerged as an independent and forward-looking state through a sustained struggle of its people. The occupying exploiters have left but the system of subjugation they set up remains. Consequently, authoritarianism prevails, pervading almost all spheres of public as well as private life. The mask it wears is of promoting economic advancement, hiding what is indeed Capitalism at the limits of Fascism. The system is both localand global and needs systematic unmasking. And that is what the present volume seeks to do.  Its essays are well-researched, fully documented and academically invulnerable; and they are written with commitment to examine what has been happening in the vital areas of creativity, governance and economy as also the reasons thereof. Together, they bring to the fore the necessity of the social revolution Bangladesh has been waiting for. The publication is  intellectually stimulating and will continue to be useful for understanding Bangladesh.” (Serajul Islam Choudhury, Professor Emeritus, Dhaka University, Bangladesh)

Arild Engelsen Ruud is Professor and Head of Research, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, at the University of Oslo, Norway. Recently, he is co-author of Mafia Raj: the Rule of Bossism in South Asia (Stanford UP 2018) and co-editor of South Asian Sovereignty: the Conundrum of Wordly Power (Routledge 2019) and Outrage: the Rise of Religious Offence in South Asia (UCL Press 2019). He is author of several books both in English and in Norwegian on South Asian history and politics, including democratic practice.

Mubashar Hasan PhD is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Humanitarian and Development Research Initiative, Western Sydney University, Australia. He is the author of Islam and Politics in Bangladesh: The Followers of Ummah (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), and the lead editor of the book Radicalization in South Asia: Context, Trajectories and Implications (Sage, 2020). Previously he was a post-doctoral fellow atOslo University, Norway. He taught political science in North South University and Journalism in University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.