INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
In Bangladesh, something remarkable has happened
Initially in response to a quota system that reserved the majority of government jobs for specific groups, university students initiated
large-scale non-violent protests
gunning down hundreds of students and shutting down the internet across the country
Scenes of extreme police brutality flooded social media
By the end of July, the protests had grown into a nationwide pro-democracy movement
Eventually, the military joined the students, and Hasina fled the country
A nationwide student-led democracy movement successfully challenged a violent autocratic leader, and, at least for now, appears to have
In Pakistan, the popular former prime minister and leader of the opposition party, Imran Khan, was jailed a year ago, an act dictated by
Media companies were instructed not to mention his name, quote his words, or show his picture
Members of his opposition party were imprisoned
But something astonishing has begun there
Motivated by the success of the student-led pro-democracy movement in Bangladesh, the Pakistan Students Federation declared an ultimatum for
the government: free Khan by 30 August or face nationwide student protests.What has happened in Bangladesh and now could happen in Pakistan
is the nightmare of every autocratic regime
Authoritarians and would-be authoritarians are only too aware that universities are primary sites of critique and dissent
ruled the country since 2014
myth of widespread voter fraud to severely restrict minority voting
(Voter fraud practically never happens in the United States; rigorous investigation estimated it as between 0.0003 and 0.0025%.) DeSantis
also created an office of election crimes and security, to pursue supposed cases of voter fraud.Besides minority voting populations,
DeSantis has focused on public and higher education as central targets
terror, as the administrative threat to public university professors has been shown to be very real.Even more so than Florida, Tennessee is
a one-party state, with a Republican governor and a Republican supermajority in the legislature
The Tennessee house and senate passed a resolution to honor the Danube Institute; on the floor of the Tennessee house, the state
To report a professor for teaching such a concept (such as intersectionality), Tennessee provides an online form.Attacks on voting, and
democratic systems generally, almost invariably center on universities, and vice versa
The Yale Law School graduate and current Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance has claimed that the 2020 election should not have
been certified because of suspicion of voter fraud
universities, with the active participation of a significant number of Jewish students
These anti-genocide protests were labeled as pro-Hamas and used as a basis to attack elite universities, their students, their professors
and their administrations, verbally, politically and physically
It is not implausible to take the goal to have been, at least largely, a preliminary show of police power to university students.In the
United States, the Republican party has long been aware of the democratic potential of student movements
As it lurches closer and closer to authoritarianism, it will, like all rightwing authoritarian movements worldwide, seek to crush dissent,
starting with university students and faculty
With great courage and determination, the students in Bangladesh have shown that this strategy can be made to backfire.
This article first appeared/also appeared in theguardian.comnbsp;
