Elements that foster violence

Dhaka—On April 20, 2025, rickshaw drivers took to the streets to protest the decision to ban their vehicles on Dhaka’s Gulshan and Banani areas. Clashes broke out between drivers of battery-run rickshaws, pedal rickshaw pullers, and ride-sharing motorcyclists.

The following day, protests escalated again, with threats against pedestrians attempting to record the incident. The scuffle intensified as protesters threw two pedal rickshaws off the bridge into Gulshan Lake.

Last April, when demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza poured out across the country, the movement garnered attention for the looting and vandalism that undermined their collective efforts. A month before that, two young women were attacked in Lalmatia by an enraged mob, followed by a barrage of more reports of violence against women.

It would be wrong to claim that these acts have only taken place in recent months since the interim government took charge. It did feel like they happened more frequently, with collective fear gripping the nation. As a nation in transition, any sign of instability threatens grave consequences. However, as we look back at the incidents not just in the past several months but in the many years prior, an underlying pattern emerges: our inclination for violence.

Many traits may characterize this irrational phenomenon that may be described as being delirious, damning, and downright despicable. But if all we do is condemn these attacks without fully fleshing out what trigger them, and if the thoughts we spare for the victims are performative at best, then we must turn to the values, or rather the lack of them, that the country has lived with for far too long. Our core values have been distorted and blatantly overlooked. Without institutions built on the foundation of state values, how can we expect to undertake the long-term project of nation-building? On what basis is it meant to be sustained and directed? What core beliefs are supposed to resonate across generations?

Despite our history, these questions are devoid of a solid answer. We have been left to fend for ourselves based on the whims of politicians, most of whom have rarely, attempted to rectify or address this violence. Rather, they have continued to perpetuate a political culture of control and dominance and leveraged it to accumulate personal wealth. The cycle has been repeated because the system has been rife with corruption for decades. It has cultivated a culture of impunity, not accountability, essentially warping the law and forcing functionality to completely crumble. Even when due process is taken, it is not done to uphold the law or serve justice but for retribution, or to assert dominance.

Inevitably, the impulse that one might get away with wrongdoing trickles down, thus forging the culture of impunity as the norm. Nonetheless, the malfunctioning of our legal system doesn’t exist in isolation. Its roots, which are a result of a lack of a value system, are entrenched deep in our education system as well. Without a set of values to dictate the curriculum, what core principles are meant to be instilled in and embodied by young minds? While we can debate the implications and impacts of imparting a few rigid values on students, we cannot deny that these principles can at least act as references to mold their thinking around.

Indicative of the state of our educational institutions is the fact that elected politicians themselves tend not to send their children to local government schools, opting instead for private English schools or those abroad. This screams of the giant rift between politicians and their constituencies. In the process, it also lays bare the source of scarcity that the rest of the nation has to make do with. The dynamic this fosters is one of resentment, enforcing the idea that not only is there no one looking out for them, but also that these institutions are doing nothing to bolster their interests.

As a result, people take matters into their own hands and take drastic, often poorly thought-out measures that prove to be counterproductive. With crumbling institutions built on fragile principles, power has, time and again, been co-opted. Is it then any wonder that Bangladesh has been marred by mindless violence for as long as most of us can remember?

The sources of people’s apathy and collective restlessness can be attributed to a system that continues to fail them. A withering system may amplify and echo their troubles. However, it most certainly underpins that while values may be abstract, their weight is tangible. The Daily Star/Asia News Network