Bangladesh

Abstract

EAR, SUSPICION, and caution seem to be becoming part of life. There is hardly any guarantee that one will not run into a maniac on one's everyday way to or back from work ... We must strive harder to stop what looks like an excursion into the remote past many centuries away from civilization, and to rebuild the moral fabric. Thus Bangladesh's leading daily newspaper exhorted its readers in an editorial a few months ago in the aftermath of the murder of seven students on the campus of Dacca University by a rival student political faction.1 tragedy at intensely politicized Dacca University, where student elections have a way of erupting into bloody violence, reflects a deepening political and social crisis. It suggests that the revolutionary rising which began on March 26, 1971, and by which the former East Pakistan was transformed into the new People's Republic of Bangladesh, may soon be followed by another serious upheaval. Superficially, the revered Bangabandhu (Father of the Nation), Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is firmly in control. His Awami League holds all but nine of the 315 seats in the parliament, and he has some significant achievements to his credit, especially in normalizing and regularizing relations with Pakistan and India. But in reality, the base of government seems much less viable, and even Rahman's own Awami League supporters concede the fact. Bangladesh cannot depend on Bangabandhu's personal influence and prestige forever, one Awami League parliamentary deputy stated in June. The disorders in our country are not responding to government measures. To the bulk of the more than 70 million Bangalees, the first three years of independence have brought sharply deteriorating living conditions in a heavily controlled but declining and sometimes seemingly chaotic economy. Although adverse weather conditions can at least