On paper, Bangladesh was on the rise. Why didn’t progress translate on the ground?

As a new interim government in Bangladesh headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in Thursday, many are asking, What just happened?

Over the past 15 years, the story of Bangladesh has been one of unequivocal progress.

Once the third-poorest country in the world, Bangladesh steadily advanced on the right indexes: Textile and garment exports grew, as did access to education, while child poverty and maternal mortality fell. Bangladesh crackled with more widespread electricity. It constructed new roads, and cleaned up its water.

So the sudden ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina this week, who had led Bangladesh during this entire era of growth, sent shock waves around the world.

For most Bangladeshis, however, it’s no mystery. Underneath macroeconomic success, Bangladesh has been watching inequality grow, even as poor people have grown wealthier, feeding into resentment and testing tolerance for worsening government corruption. And this year, as inflation put everyday goods out of reach for many citizens, that gap became too big to bridge. Indeed, bloody protests over the last month – which left 300 dead and ultimately led to Ms. Hasina’s resignation Monday – revealed a disconnect between outside views of progress and the experiences of regular Bangladeshis. 

“There was this rhetoric of Bangladesh as racing on the highway of development, whereas the people were dealing with day-to-day life [amid] price hikes,” says Sharmee Hossain, a senior lecturer at North South University in Dhaka and member of the University Teachers’ Network. “There was a huge disconnect. And I think that’s where the dissatisfaction of the people grew, and the gulf between the government and the general people of Bangladesh started to widen.”

Today, Bangladeshis are setting out to redefine their own notion of progress. It’s a historic moment – and a perilous one.

“Bangladesh is an incredible story of success and struggle,” says Tazreena Sajjad, a senior professorial lecturer in the Department of Peace, Human Rights, and Cultural Relations at American University in Washington.

This week, “there has been euphoria,” she says. “Expectations are through the roof. We need to give people time to ... revel in the moment, but also recognize that these moments are extremely contentious, extremely uncertain, extremely violent, and sometimes, extremely disappointing.”

Emerging visions for Bangladesh’s future

In a country with a long history of people’s movements, some, including Dr. Yunus himself, are calling this one “a second Victory Day” – a reference to Bangladesh’s first “victory” in its 1971 liberation war.

Bangladeshis across the country and across classes have expectations for how to advance forward. Construction worker Shahin Rahman, who lives four hours west of Dhaka, says he wants a better standard of living. “Fifteen years ago, both incomes and prices were low, and we could afford basic goods,” he says. “Now, prices are beyond our reach.”

Surjana Alam, who is educated but unemployed in northern Bangladesh, says she wants more opportunities for economic advancement, particularly in rural communities.

For Fahim Foysal, a middle-class worker in Dhaka, it’s “zero tolerance for corruption in government offices and better control over inflation.”

Aritri Debnath, a young student at Eden Mohila College in Dhaka, has loftier goals: “I hope for true independence and a discrimination-free country with no religious bias in the future,” she says. 

The student protesters who drove the movement were initially fighting a policy of government quotas that hindered their job prospects, and reset their demands amid the hardhanded response of the Hasina government, demanding the prime minister step down. This week, they threw support behind Dr. Yunus, who won the Nobel in 2006 for his work in creating a microcredit industry that has served millions of people living in poverty, particularly women and girls. 

Geoffrey Macdonald, a visiting expert on South Asia at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, says naming Dr. Yunus could herald progress for political development in Bangladesh. The economist and his organization, Grameen Bank, “have this ethos of grassroots development, of listening to the people,” he says.

That’s something Ms. Hasina’s critics say she increasingly failed to do.

Hasina’s mistakes and challenges ahead

Building on the legacy of her father – independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – Ms. Hasina was once a beacon for Bangladeshi democracy and female empowerment. But in recent years, she was accused of being partial to cronies and stamping out dissent.

“The government repressed political opponents for too long,” says Mahmudul Sumon, a professor in the department of anthropology at Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka. “They didn’t take the path of dialogue to resolve the political crisis.”

Mohammad Saiduzzaman Khan, an independent government and development analyst in Dhaka, says that the export industry that fueled economic growth did not increase opportunities for formal employment. Growth took precedence over human development and democracy, he says. 

“Limited social and economic well-being together with lack of governance triggered the turmoil,” he says, “despite significant achievements and milestone initiatives in particular sectors.”

Dr. Yunus formed an interim government today, including two student protesters, but many immediate challenges remain.

Amid the conflict, the police disbanded. Violence against religious minorities in the Muslim-majority nation, particularly Hindus, has been reported across the country. The economy is still reeling after the Hasina government imposed a curfew and shut off the internet. Students only returned to school this week.  

Student protesters have filled in some of the vacuum, working as traffic police, guarding temples and religious houses of worship for non-Muslims, and cleaning the streets.

Dr. Sajjad, who was in Bangladesh doing research when the student protests escalated, says she feels hopeful for the progress of the nation, in large part because of students who led the nation to this moment. 

“This generation has demonstrated an incredible love for their country, and have shown an awareness of the political ... [and] economic challenges in the country,” she says. “They took on what most people thought was impossible.”

Sara Miller Llana contributed reporting from Toronto.