Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah died nearly eight decades ago, but his photograph has become the centrepiece of a fresh battle over history at Bangladesh's top university. The image of Mr Jinnah was shown at a new museum display this month at Dhaka University -- only to be torn down, exposing a bitter dispute over how Bangladesh remembers its complicated history. The row shows how the legacies of nationality, religion and language that shaped Bangladesh are politically potent -- and how the 2024 revolution that toppled Sheikh Hasina has upended old narratives.
Mr Jinnah's campaign for a separate Muslim homeland makes him a potent symbol for Bangladesh's opposition Islamist politicians, who seek to emphasise the country's Muslim identity. The Dhaka University Central Students Union (DUCSU), led by Bangladesh Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of the country's largest Islamist political party, said the photograph was part of a chronological display tracing the university's history.
DUCSU leader SM Farhad criticised what he called the "mob attack" that ripped the picture down. "You can correct us if we make any mistake, though we haven't made any," he told Critics accused the student union of trying to reshape that history by highlighting Mr Jinnah -- while diminishing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's founding president and independence leader. "Jinnah is the father of Pakistan," Habildar, the student who ripped the picture down, told But Mujibur Rahman's legacy is also deeply controversial.
His daughter is Sheikh Hasina, whose iron-fisted rule as prime minister ended in a bloody student-led 2024 revolution, and is reviled by those who overthrew her. Hasina has been sentenced to death in absentia, and activities of her former ruling Awami League have been banned. Rahman's former home, later turned into a museum, was torched during the uprising.
Farhad, the DUCSU leader, said the university museum also needed an update. "They left no stone unturned to establish the narrative of the Awami League... so we thought we would renovate it," he said.
But student Mahafuzur Rahman, 19, said removing photographs was not the answer. "I don't think it's good to remove his photo... He is also part of history." The space where Mr Jinnah's photograph hung remains empty.