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Bangladesh:

Development andpolitical economy

Link to map

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Recap:Turning points in History 1952 Language revolution 1971 march Beginning of the Liberation War 1971 - Sheikh Mujib arrested and taken to West

Pakistan. In exile, Awami League leaders

proclaim the independence of the province ofEast Pakistan on 26th March. The new countryis called Bangladesh. Just under 10 millionBangladeshis flee to India as troops from WestPakistan are defeated with Indian assistance

Dec 16 1971: Surrender of the Pakistan Army(termed Victory Day)

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Birth of Bangladesh Internal colonialism

Challenge of facing both a state apparatusand a political community

Disarray of civil bureaucracy and themilitary

Schism between collaborators and

patriots

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Bangladesh

Continuing militancy

Debates over the constitution extent ofpolitical power of the Prime Minister

Mujibbad Mujibism nationalism,socialism, democracy and secularism

Supposed to correct the deficiencies of

communism and capitalism (the third way)

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Indicators SL I P B

Children underweight for age

(% under age 5)

29 46 38 48

Population living below $1.25 aday (%)

14.0 41.6 d 22.6 49.6

Population living below $2 aday (%)

39.7 75.6 d 60.3 81.3

Total GDP (PPP US$ billions) 84.9 3,097 405.6 196.7

Annual growth rate of GDP percapita (%)

3.9 4.5 1.6 3.1

Income/expenditure share ofthe richest 10% of thepopulation (%)

2.9 3.6 f 3.9 f 4.3

33.3 31.1 26.5 f 26.6

Ratio of the richest 10% to thepoorest 10%

11.7 8.6 6.7 6.2

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Bangladesh timeline1971-5: The Mujib era. This is the formative period, associated with a

strong nationalist and statist fervour, with MujiburRahman and hisparty Awami League in power;

1977-81: The Zia regime. This is the beginning of military rule inBangladesh, marked by the adoption of Islam in the constitution;

1982

-91:The Ershad regime. Military rule, and declaration of Islam asstate religion;

1991-6: the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) regime, withKhaleda Zia as Prime Minister;

1996-2000: The second Awami League regime, with SheikHasina as leader;

2001-6: Coalition government headed by the BNP2006-9: Caretaker government, postponement of elections,

declaration of a state of Emergency and political violence

2009: The third Awami League regime, with Sheik Hasina as leader

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The story of Bangladesh:

stunning ironiesOn the one hand, it affirms the power of

popular discontent and the eventual

vulnerability of a minority elite, howeverpowerful, to such discontent.

On the other hand, it suggests the irony thatstates may well reproduce processes of

exclusion which they themselves are bornout of.

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Origins

In 1971 Bangladesh inherited an economywith a high external dependence on food,inequity, and landlessness. The Liberation

War caused large-scale death anddisplacement, along with the withdrawal ofthe Pakistani industrial classes from theproductive economy. The immediateproblem was to rehabilitate ten millionrefugees a task for which foreign aidbecame the only feasible option.

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Dependent development

The very premises of autonomy and self-sufficiency on which the liberation strugglewas based became marginalized, as state

power became directed towards a strategyofdependent development

It offered certain classes legitimate

instruments to institutionalize theirmonopoly over domestic and externalresources, in particular the state.

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Dependent development:

two elements the strategy of promoting a local capitalist classthrough state patronage;

and a systematic dependence on foreign aid. Aselsewhere in the Third World, the processengendered a rather unhealthy symbiosisbetween the bureaucracy and the emergentindigenous capitalist class. What evolved wastherefore a predatory state par excellence,

couple with a distorted and primitive form ofcapitalism.

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Proto capitalism

The political-economy that evolved inBangladesh has been labeled in variousways. Broadly speaking, it has had the

character of petty mercantilism and hasoften been referred to as protocapitalism or shopkeeper capitalism.Various kinds of rents emanating fromstate patronage, price manipulation andovert exploitation of workers became thehallmark of this structure of predation

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Recent insertion into the

global economy myriad forms of oppressive social relations drawn fromdifferent types of social formations ranging fromfeudalism to flexible accumulation exist quitecomfortably in synergy with one another.

The extraordinary development of the textile sector inBangladesh. This new growth sector is the lifeline oftodays Bangladesh. It has drawn millions ofBangladeshi women into the orbit of factory production,generating profound and often irreconcilable

contradictions in social relationships at the level of thefamily, the community, the workplace, and the nation-state

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From Womanmachine

Both economically, and in literal terms, workers feel trapped bytheir machines the operators of machines experience the machineoperating them at multiple levels. In the eyes of many workers,they are part of a machine that men are in control of. It is menwho throw on the switches to turn the giant on, men who guard itsproducts, and of course, men who own it. Moreover, the promise ofempowerment through paid labor is belied by the knowledge ofworkers entrapment in the labor market. It is not only that womenare perceived as inhabiting the space of men certainly the factoryis an archetypically masculine site. Of critical import here, however,is the specific conditions under which women come to displacemale labor. Since womens access to the factory occurs in the

context of inequality and severe male unemployment, femalegarment workers have come to represent a socially disruptive laborforce.

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Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs)

Inhabited by indigenous communities whoinhabit the south-eastern region of thecountry and comprise less than 1 per centof the population. The conflict between theBangladeshi state and the indigenouscommunities continues to result in much

violence and destruction.

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The people of CHT

The people of CHT belong to thirteen differentindigenous tribes primarily of Sino-Tibetan descent. Amajority of them are Buddhists or Hindus. Bengali, whichis the language spoken by the majority of Bangladeshis,is not their language. They speak a variety of languagesand are governed by different legal, social and culturalcustoms What explains the intensely conflictualrelationship

It appears to be a conflict between two fundamentallyopposite understandings of justice and development

and of the relationship between the state and its people.The state took recourse to violence to resolve theseoppositions, unleashing an armed conflict in response.

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History

During British colonialism, the CHT region enjoyed a special statusand limited self-government. Migration into the region was strictlyprohibited during colonial rule, and the local populace was allowedto live by its distinctive cultural and economic practices withrelatively limited interference from the state. The special status waslost in 1963 as a result of an amendment to the constitution ofPakistan. With this amendment began two processes of enduringimpact on the region: the in-migration of Bengalis from other parts ofBangladesh, and the initiation of large-scale development projects.

Approximately 54,000 acres of settled cultivable land, mostly farmedby the Chakma tribe, were lost as a result of these processes.Some 100,000 people lost their homes and livelihoods, leading to a

fairly large out-migration of Chakma tribals into India. TheGovernment of Pakistan also embarked on a policy to encouragepoor Bengali families to settle in the region, a policy that thegovernment of independent Bangladesh decided to continue andexpand.

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Structural inequalityStructural inequality does not affect people as

individuals but as collective entities who sharesimilar structural locations that similarlycondition their opportunities and life-chances

and their ability to act as agents. It is in thissense we argue that collectivities such asgender, race, ethnicity or class are bestunderstood as structural. The structurallocations shared by these collectivities are

engendered through historical processes andreflect the intersection of the realms ofeconomics, politics, culture and knowledge.

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Origins of structural inequality

intermingling of several distinct historicalforms:

different varieties of proto capitalism;

predatory and rentier states andassociated patterns of governance;

the dominance of religion in the cultural

and political realms; the pervasive patterns of subordination ofwomen, etc.

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