When student-led, anti-government protests in Bangladesh snowballed into the ouster of Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year-long autocratic rule in August 2024, many in the South Asian nation hoped it signaled better times ahead.
Four months on, things are not going to plan. The initial surge of public jubilation has given way to pessimism. The interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, is grappling with governance problems, political instability, religious extremism and a fragile economy. Moreover, a series of recent events have highlighted and exacerbated Bangladesh’s fraught diplomatic relations with neighboring India.
The arrest of a Hindu monk in Muslim-majority Bangladesh on Nov. 24, 2024, encapsulates the problems facing Yunus. The detention of Chinmoy Krishna Das (also known as Chandan Dhar) was followed by sectarian violence in which a Muslim lawyer was killed, and anti-Bangladesh protests in India.
