The other day, at the start of my talk at a private university in Dhaka I asked my audience of students and faculty a rhetorical question: What is common among Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates, Elon Musk, Justin Trudeau, Sajib Wajed Joy, and Intel microprocessor 4004? The answer is: They were all born in 1971.
The birth of Bangladesh, though cheered by millions of Bangladeshis -- whose dream came true -- and by the friends of Bangladesh world over, was not favoured by the Nixon and Kissinger led-United States who chose to support Pakistan.
The birthmark of Bangladesh was dystopian. Even before Bangladesh emerged as an independent country following the surrender of the Pakistan army on December 16, 1971, in the situation room at the White House the fate of Bangladesh was being fretted on. Veteran US diplomat Ambassador Alexis Johnson’s dire prediction that if Bangladesh became independent, it would be a basket case was quipped by Henry Kissinger that “it would not be our basket case.” Later, that remark was attributed to Kissinger, the then National Security Adviser to President Nixon of the United States.
As Bangladesh struggled to find its bearing in the first three years of its existence devoting itself to the rehabilitation of millions of displaced and worked resolutely to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure, it also struggled to ward off starvation. The famine came following the flooding of the summer of 1974, and the withdrawal of the US food shipment to Bangladesh.
Starvation befell the country in the backdrop of an international economic downturn caused by the petroleum price increase by OPEC in 1973-74. Some thought the dire prediction of Ambassador Johnson finally came true. But soon after the famine was over, a bumper crop in 1975 turned the food situation of the country. Food production increased from 11 million metric tons in the 1970s to more than 20 million metric tons in the late 1990s. In 2022-23, food production is expected to be 36.32 million metric tons.
Bangladesh has done well in the subsequent years and decades as the country inched forward to self-sufficiency in food. In fact, one of the areas in which Bangladesh has gained tangible success is in agriculture. Credit must be given where it is due, namely, the hard-working peasants and farmers of Bangladesh. Their hard work, backed by the government's subsidy in fertilizer and other inputs, handsomely paid off. What seemed to be a fate was undone, and the poster child image of Bangladesh as a land of poverty and deprivation slowly gave way to successes in several areas of human development.
Over the years, Bangladesh has done remarkably well in poverty reduction and fighting hunger. But the dystopian image lingers on, not the least among sections of the Bangladeshi expatriates. While some expatriates remain fiercely nationalistic and optimistic about the future of Bangladesh, there are several who cannot reconcile with a positive image of Bangladesh. The latter group left Bangladesh as if Bangladesh was a sinking boat, but now that Bangladesh has survived and made decent progress, they find it difficult to accept such an outcome, because a successful Bangladesh would have proven their decision of abandoning their homeland wrong. They do not want to reconcile with this fact and hold on to a dystopian image. The dystopian image was perpetuated by the mainstream western media.
The utopian image has been created and sustained by the nationalistic governments, Non-Governmental Organizations, and several members of the civil society, backed by concrete evidence. They are also those who have invested their future in Bangladesh. The success of Bangladesh in a variety of social indicators is the collective result of the hard work and dedication of these entities.
Consider infant mortality, an important indicator of a country's socio-economic progress. In 1972 Bangladesh had an infant mortality rate of 152 (meaning, 152 infants died out of 1,000 live births); in 2020 the rate came down to 24. In 1972, Bangladesh had a life expectancy of 47 which stands at 74 today. With development comes its woes and challenges. In 1972, the ratio of urban population was 8%, in 2020 it reached 38.18%. The challenges of urbanization are clearly visible in Dhaka, which has grown from a sleepy town in 1972 to a thriving, bustling metropolitan city in 2022 with its paralyzing traffic and pollution.
One key area of success has been in the educational growth of Bangladesh. Despite many drawbacks, academic institutions in Bangladesh have grown, they have produced graduates of varied quality but given the entrepreneurship of Bangladeshis most of the graduates have been successful in their career overseas. The English-medium schools were set up by a small number of dedicated women leaders -- the likes of Yasmin Morshed -- who made a seminal contribution to the growth of a new English-speaking educated class.
This new class found their places in many reputable universities and professions overseas. Bangladeshis have shown an amazing appetite for education, including higher education. In 1972 there were six public universities; in 2022 there are fifty. In addition, there are 101 private universities or tertiary institutions.
There has been a revolutionary change in aspirations, especially of women. One of my respondents, in a study back in 2011 -- a village woman with no education -- wanted to see her daughter pursue education to be a doctor. A Bangladeshi female domestic worker told me that she sends money home so that her daughter can go to an English medium school. “Without English you cannot go far, I want my daughter to have a job like you, not like me”, she told me.
Over the years, Bangladesh has been able to overcome the image of negativity sustained by the Western media. Sustained economic growth for nearly two decades helped change the image of Bangladesh. The Western media, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, now routinely publish highly favourable op-eds extolling the success stories of Bangladesh.
The infrastructure development in Bangladesh has been impressive. Yet, these developments have taken place at a time of increasing criticisms of the human rights record for Bangladesh and the alleged erosion of democratic values and practices. Quality of democracy and human rights remain a matter of concern. An alternative to liberal democracies is rule-based orderly societies. Much work lies ahead in that area too.
What does the future hold for Bangladesh? Despite climate change and the dire prediction of 17% of Bangladesh likely to sink by 2050, Bangladeshis have not given up on their hope and resilience.
Once an American college friend from Pittsburgh, let’s call him, Mike, was posted in Dhaka as an official at the USAID. I asked Mike in the early 1990s, what impressed him most in Bangladesh. In one word, Mike’s answer was: “resilience”, “resilience of the people of Bangladesh”.
Habibul Haque Khondker is a professor of sociology at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE and a guest columnist.
