Tharoor’s “Worrying Portent” Isn’t About Jamaat — It’s About Bangladeshi Youth Finally Free
A forceful rebuttal to Shashi Tharoor’s line: the Dhaka University outcome is not an Islamist wave but the latest chapter in a centuries‑long Bengali Muslim resistance to domination — from zamindars and the Raj to Pakistani generals and Indian hegemony — culminating in the July 2024 Revolution.
Introduction: What Tharoor Gets Wrong
When Shashi Tharoor warns that the Jamaat‑e‑Islami student win at Dhaka University is a “worrying portent,” he reveals the fear of an old order watching its power slip. This moment is not about Jamaat; it is about continuity of resistance, and about Gen Z agency. Bangladesh did not receive true independence in 1971; 2024 was the country’s real break from domination.
Colonial Roots: Zamindars, Raj, and the Peasant Resistances
The Permanent Settlement (1793) entrenched a landlord class (zamindars) over predominantly Muslim peasants, binding revenue extraction to elite interests.[1][2] In response, waves of rural resistance emerged: the Faraizi movement led by Haji Shariatullah in eastern Bengal, and later the Tebhaga sharecroppers’ struggle, both fusing social justice with a distinctly Bengali Muslim assertion of dignity.[3][4]
The first modern crack in elite hegemony came with the Partition of Bengal (1905), which briefly created a Muslim‑majority province in the east before a Calcutta‑led campaign had it annulled.[5]
1947: Partition Ends Hindu Landlord Supremacy in the East
With 1947, Hindu landlord dominance in East Bengal collapsed, but a new external domination soon followed from West Pakistan. The Language Movement and the crescendo to 1971 were not departures but continuations of the same resistance arc toward dignity and representation.[6]
1971: Genocide and a Calculated Regional Realignment
In 1971, the Pakistani military’s atrocities — contemporaneously denounced by U.S. diplomats in the Blood Telegram — shocked the world.[7][8] Bangladesh emerged, but great‑power calculations ensured that liberation was followed by dependency.
1971–2024: Hegemony, Repression, and the Road to July
Over the ensuing decades, domination reappeared through economic leverage, security entanglements, and the state’s use of force. Crackdowns like Shapla, 2013, and the pattern of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings — including actions by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), sanctioned under the U.S. Global Magnitsky Act — marked this era.[9][10][11]
2024: The Youth‑Led July Revolution — True Independence
In July–August 2024, student‑led protests met a catastrophic state response. A United Nations OHCHR fact‑finding mission later found hundreds of extrajudicial killings, thousands arbitrarily detained, and patterns of torture, with indications the abuses may amount to crimes against humanity.[12][13][14] Independent coverage estimated up to 1,400 killed in the three‑week crackdown.[15] The uprising toppled the regime — and with it, the last façade of external supremacy.
2025: Shibir’s Campus Upset — Vehicle, Not Destination
The Dhaka University result is not a theocratic surge; it is a rebuke of the old order and a tactical coalition by youth voters who rejected Islamophobic smear tactics and rallied around the most viable vehicle at hand. The point is not Jamaat’s ideology; the point is Gen Z agency reshaping political possibility. (For context on the wider political calendar, note that national elections are slated for April 2026 under an interim administration.)[16]
Tharoor’s “Worry” and the Blind Spot
“This may have registered as barely a blip on most Indian minds, but it is a worrying portent of things to come.” — Shashi Tharoor on X[17]
Tharoor’s framing misreads a liberation moment as an Islamist threat. The youth’s message is blunt: corruption, repression, and foreign domination are finished. They will borrow today’s instruments to build tomorrow’s leadership — and discard them when they no longer serve the public good.
TL;DR
Continuity of resistance runs from zamindari Bengal to 1971 to July 2024. The campus upset is a waypoint, not a destination. The future belongs to Bangladesh’s Gen Z.
Footnotes & Sources
- Britannica, “Cornwallis Code” — overview of the Permanent Settlement (1793) and creation of a loyal landed class. Link.
- Tirthankar Roy, The Permanent Settlement and the Emergence of a British Fiscal State in India, LSE Economic History Working Paper 355 (2023). PDF.
- On the Faraizi movement in East Bengal: Banglapedia entry (as an encyclopedic reference) and academic overview: M.A.U. Faisal, “Ideology of the Faraizi Movement of Bengal,” BJIT (2005). Banglapedia • Article.
- Tebhaga sharecroppers’ struggle in Bengal (1946–47): overview references and studies. Summary • Study.
- Britannica, “Partition of Bengal (1905).” Link. Also see Joya Chatterji, Bengal Divided (review). Link.
- UK National Archives teaching pack on the 1971 independence crisis (primary documents). Link.
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), the “Dacca Telegram,” April 1971 (the Archer Blood dissent). Link. Also see GWU National Security Archive overview. Link.
- Gary J. Bass, The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide (2013). Overview.
- Human Rights Watch, Blood on the Streets: The Use of Excessive Force During Bangladesh Protests (2013) — includes Shapla crackdown context. Link.
- U.S. Treasury, Global Magnitsky sanctions designating Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and officials (Dec. 10, 2021). Press release • SDN update.
- CIVICUS, “Despite sanctions, abuses against activists, journalists and protesters persist in Bangladesh” (Mar. 2, 2022). Link.
- OHCHR Fact‑Finding Report: Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh (12 Feb 2025). Report • PDF • ReliefWeb.
- OHCHR press release & explainer on findings (12 Feb 2025). Press release • Story • Infographic.
- Amnesty International, “Critical UN report must spur accountability and justice” (13 Feb 2025). Link.
- Associated Press, “UN rights office estimates up to 1,400 killed in crackdown on protests in Bangladesh” (12 Feb 2025). AP report.
- AP News, “Bangladesh to hold national elections in April 2026, interim leader Yunus says” (May 2025). Link.
- Tharoor’s original wording on X (archived tweet). Link.
Notes: In keeping with your request, the sources avoid Indian press and Indian‑funded think tanks, relying instead on international outlets, academic work, and official UN and U.S./UK documentary material.
The Unfinished Revolution: How Bangladesh Finally Found Its Voice
A story of three centuries, two partitions, and one generation that refused to stay silent
Chapter 1: The Land of Zamindars
Picture Bengal in 1793. The British Empire has just created something called the “Permanent Settlement” – a fancy name for a system that would haunt the region for centuries. Under this arrangement, Hindu landlords called zamindars were given permanent control over vast stretches of land. Below them, countless Muslim farmers worked the soil, growing rice and jute that would fill British coffers.
This wasn’t just about farming. It was about power. The Muslim peasants, who made up most of the population in eastern Bengal, found themselves trapped under a double burden: ruled by the British Empire above, and dominated by Hindu landlords who collected their taxes and controlled their lives.
But even then, resistance was brewing. In the 1800s, a man named Haji Shariatullah led what became known as the Faraizi movement – one of the first organized efforts by Muslim farmers to stand up against this system. It was like a spark in dry grass, signaling that the people of Bengal would not accept domination forever.
Chapter 2: The Great Divide of 1905
Fast-forward to 1905. The British, perhaps sensing the growing tensions, decided to partition Bengal. For the first time in centuries, eastern Bengal – where most people were Muslim – would have its own administration. Finally, the Muslim majority would have a voice in their own affairs.
The reaction from Calcutta’s Hindu elite was explosive. They launched a massive campaign against this partition, calling it an attack on Bengali unity. But historians like Joya Chatterji have shown us the real story: this wasn’t about unity at all. It was about the Hindu landlord class fighting desperately to keep their grip on power over Muslim Bengal.
The campaign worked. In 1911, the British reunited Bengal, crushing the hopes of millions of Muslim farmers who had glimpsed, for just six years, what self-rule might look like.
Chapter 3: 1947 – The First Freedom
When India was partitioned in 1947, eastern Bengal finally broke free from Hindu landlord control. For the Muslim farmers who had suffered under the zamindar system for over a century, joining Pakistan felt like liberation.
But this freedom came with a cruel twist. Instead of Hindu landlords, they now found themselves under the thumb of Pakistani generals and bureaucrats from the west. The people of Bengal had traded one set of masters for another.
The language movement of 1952 was their first cry of defiance. When the Pakistani government tried to impose Urdu as the only national language, Bengali students took to the streets. Some died for their mother tongue. It was a preview of the greater struggle to come.
Chapter 4: 1971 – The War That Changed Everything
By 1971, the tension had reached a breaking point. The Pakistani army, faced with Bengali demands for autonomy, unleashed a genocide that shocked the world. American diplomat Archer Blood sent his famous “Blood Telegram” to Washington, documenting the horror: “Our government has failed to denounce the suppression of democracy. Our government has failed to denounce atrocities.”
India intervened, and Bangladesh was born. But this birth came with strings attached. India’s leaders had their own plans – they wanted Bangladesh to be a grateful client state, dependent on Delhi for everything from trade to security.
Chapter 5: The Long Captivity (1971-2024)
For the next fifty years, Bangladesh lived under what many now call “Indian supremacist domination.” The worst period came under Sheikh Hasina’s rule from 2009 to 2024. Her government, backed by India, created a reign of terror:
- The Shapla massacre of 2013, where hundreds of protesters were killed in a single night
- Thousands of disappearances and extrajudicial killings, documented by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International
- The systematic looting of Bangladesh’s banks and resources
- The silencing of any voice that dared question India’s influence
It all came to a head in July 2024. When young Bangladeshis rose up demanding change, Hasina’s forces responded with what UN investigators later called “systematic, state-sponsored mass atrocities.” But instead of breaking the protesters’ will, the violence broke the back of the old system.
Chapter 6: July 2024 – The Real Independence Day
The July Revolution was different from anything Bangladesh had seen before. This wasn’t led by political parties or established leaders. This was Generation Z – young people who had grown up with smartphones and social media, who could see how the rest of the world lived and refused to accept corruption and domination as their fate.
They forced Sheikh Hasina to flee the country. For the first time in centuries, Bangladesh stood truly free – not from British colonizers, not from Pakistani generals, not from Indian puppet-masters. Just free.
Chapter 7: The Election That Shocked Everyone
In early 2025, students at Dhaka University – the same university where the language movement began in 1952 – held elections for their student union. The result stunned the world: Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, won nine out of twelve positions.
Indian diplomat Shashi Tharoor called it a “worrying portent.” International media wondered if Bangladesh was turning toward religious extremism.
They were all missing the point.
Chapter 8: Understanding the Victory
Shibir’s victory wasn’t about religion or ideology. It was about something much simpler and more powerful: it was young people refusing to be told what to think.
During the campaign, Shibir’s opponents tried the old tricks – painting them as extremists, using fear to win votes. It was the same playbook that Hasina had used for years, the same rhetoric that had been used to justify decades of oppression.
But this generation wasn’t buying it. They had seen through the lies. They knew that calling someone an “extremist” had become a convenient way to avoid talking about real issues like corruption, unemployment, and foreign interference.
More importantly, Shibir had changed. They formed alliances across political lines, reached out to students from different backgrounds, and talked about practical issues that mattered to young people. This wasn’t the Jamaat of the 1970s – this was something new.
Chapter 9: What Tharoor Got Wrong
When Shashi Tharoor warned about this “worrying portent,” he revealed more about himself than about Bangladesh. Here was a polished Indian diplomat, educated at Oxford, unable to understand that his fear of Shibir’s victory came from the same place as his ancestors’ fear of the 1905 partition.
It was the fear of losing control over Bengal.
If Tharoor truly believed in democracy and freedom, he would have celebrated young Bangladeshis making their own choices. Instead, he spoke like someone whose empire was crumbling.
Chapter 10: The Bigger Picture
The young voters who chose Shibir aren’t fools. They know Jamaat-e-Islami has plenty of flaws and outdated ideas. But they also know something that older generations sometimes forget: you work with the tools you have while building the tools you need.
Shibir was their vehicle, not their destination. They were using an existing organization to send a message: “We will not be told what to think. We will not bow to anyone’s empire. We will choose our own path.”
Chapter 11: The Future Belongs to the Young
This story is still being written. The young people of Bangladesh face enormous challenges – rebuilding their economy, fighting corruption, establishing true democracy. They will make mistakes along the way.
But one thing has changed forever: they know they are free. After centuries of being ruled by others – Hindu landlords, British colonizers, Pakistani generals, Indian puppet-masters – they have tasted independence.
And once you’ve tasted freedom, it’s impossible to go back to slavery.
Epilogue: The Revolution Continues
Shashi Tharoor called Shibir’s victory a “worrying portent.” He was right about one thing – it is indeed a sign of things to come. But not in the way he imagined.
This is the portent of a generation that refuses to be controlled. A generation that chooses its own leaders, makes its own mistakes, and writes its own future.
For three centuries, the story of Bengal was written by others. The British wrote it in the language of empire. The Pakistani generals wrote it in the language of oppression. The Indian supremacists wrote it in the language of domination.
But in July 2024, the young people of Bangladesh picked up the pen.
Now they’re writing their own story.
And the world will never be the same.
The revolution that began with Haji Shariatullah’s farmers in the 1800s, continued through the language martyrs of 1952, and exploded in the Liberation War of 1971, finally found its voice in the youth of 2024. This is their story. This is Bangladesh’s story. This is the story of a people who refused to stay silent.