Conceptualizing student movements in Bangladesh post-2013: a qualitative and comparative case study of the Quota Reform Movement and the Road Safety Movement

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ABSTRACT Despite the presence of mass grievances and moral indignation against the political elite and the monied class, the social movements in Bangladesh in the last decade, albeit very few, have failed to transform the increasingly authoritarian and claustrophobic political milieu. In fact, the nation has not seen that many movements, notwithstanding serious mass grievances on social, political, and economic issues. This situation poses a paradox. I study two significant social movements’ cases, the 2018 Quota Reform Movement and the 2018 Road Safety Protests, and briefly compare the genealogy of the movements, as well as their success and failure. The study draws primarily on secondary data derived from existing research on the issue and a systematic review of major newspapers in Bangladesh over the relevant period of time for its analysis and supplements it with participant observations and informal interviews. I conceptualize these movements by using a theoretical framework derived from Political Process Theory (PPT). I argue that, although both movements were partially successful, the Quota Reform movement was relatively more successful than the Road Safety Movement. In this paper, I try to address the reasons behind the relative success of one movement over another. By comparing the two movements in tandem, I argue that significant differences in ‘mobilizing structure’ make the difference in the degree of success, given that the ‘framing’ and the ‘political opportunity structures’ were more or less similar for both movements.