605 shutdowns since 1947, 243 of them in past six years: Study

Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, has experienced as many as 605 general strikes since the partition of British India in 1947. Of these, 243 were called by opposition political parties, including the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami alliance, in the past six years of Awami League government in the country, says a report.

Journalist Ajay Dasgupta revealed the findings in a study undertaken on the basis of a compilation of nearly seven decades of data, culled from his own collection and published news reports.

His findings show a steep rise in the number of general strikes after 1990.

The study reveals that 72 general strikes were called between March 1982 and Dec 6, 1990, the period in which General HM Ershad served as the country’s military ruler.

There were 463 general strikes in the subsequent 25 years, Dasgupta said at a programme while presenting a summary of the report on Saturday.

Dasgupta noted that the country witnessed only 47 general strikes in the 24 years between its emergence as East Pakistan after the end of British Rule in 1947 and independence from Pakistan in 1971 as the sovereign state of Bangladesh.

The Jamaat has topped the list of parties linked to general strikes since the end of the British Raj and until now, he said.

The party was involved in 473 nationwide and area-based general strikes enforced from 2001 to 2015.

The BNP was found to have been linked with 421 and the Awami League with 170. The parties called the strikes when they were not in power.

The journalist also said general strikes had become the easiest political programme to call and enforce.

He said he had reached his conclusions through 15 years of research on various aspects of the protest tool.

“You’ll have to mobilise activists or people for other programmes; but, nowadays, general strikes are held even if called from unknown places,” Dasgupta said. 

He also noted that a general strike, called ‘Hartal’ in South Asia, was an altered form of Mahatma Gandhi’s Ahimsa (nonviolence) movement.

He said religious fundamentalist groups injected violence into general strikes.   

Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique, Centre for Policy Dialogue Executive Director Mostafizur Rahman, and Liberation War Museum Trustee Sarwar Ali, among others, attended the programme.