Canberra, Jan 17 (IANS) The revival of Tawhidi Janata — a loosely defined Islamist mobilisation in Bangladesh — is not through organised militancy but represents a morally driven form of coercive populism that flourishes where institutions falter, law enforcement weakens, and questions over political legitimacy persist, a report has stated.
It added that by functioning openly and presenting the targetting of un-Islamic values as a religious obligation, this mobilisation enables evasion of immediate repression while reshaping public space.
According to a report in Australia-based ‘The Interpreter’, for nearly 16 years, the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government in Bangladesh combined elections, a strong security apparatus, and a state-endorsed secular “Bengali nationalism” while suppressing, co-opting or fragmenting Islamist parties and religious networks.
“Public religiosity was tolerated, but political Islam outside state control was tightly managed. While this limited overt confrontation, it did not erase religious politics; it pushed it into informal, depoliticised spaces. When the system collapsed in August 2024 with Hasina’s ouster, it exposed not only a political vacuum but also a crisis of moral authority,” it stated.
In the power vacuum following Hasina’s ouster, the report said, Tawhidi Janata emerged, invoking religious duty to influence public life.
“It is not a formal organisation but a label under which disparate actors converge, intervening in public spaces, policing behaviour, disrupting cultural activities, and targetting women-centric events. Its power lies in ambiguity: without leadership or formal structures, it operates through crowds, symbolism, and moral pressure rather than institutional presence,” it mentioned.
The report highlighted that alleged supporters of Tawhidi Janata have carried out acts of direct violence across Bangladesh.
“In September 2025, a mob clashed with police in Rajbari, attacking a shrine and exhuming and burning a dead body, leaving one person dead and many injured. In Dhaka, a crowd occupied a police station demanding the release of a man detained for harassing a woman about her “inappropriate” clothing, all the while livestreaming the event,” it detailed.
“These episodes reflect a shift from clandestine to visible moral activism. Emphasis is on presence — occupying streets, intimidating institutions, and testing state limits. Economic stress and declining trust in politics amplify these episodes, particularly among youth,” it further stated.
Asserting that the emergence of Tawhidi Janata serves as a warning for Bangladesh’s transition, the report said, “The challenge is no longer only electoral or constitutional; it is whether authority will be reclaimed through law and democratic legitimacy, or surrendered to those claiming moral supremacy through the crowd.”
–IANS
scor/as
