‘Freedom is a constant struggle’

On July 16, students of Jahangirnagar University brought a procession after the Bangladesh Chhatra League violence on campus the night before.  — Shahidul Islam Shahi

Prapti Taposhi is a young feminist activist, recently graduated from the Department of Economics at Jahangirnagar University. She was one of the core student leaders during the July mass uprising and was among the first to challenge the Awami League’s false narrative in international media. In an interview with New Age, she has related the police violence they encountered at Jahangirnagar University on July 15, 2024, and talked about the selective inclusion of women and new forms of minoritisation of the Hindu community in the post-uprising period.

New Age: On July 15, 2024, protesting students of Jahangirnagar University were attacked while locked inside the premises of the vice-chancellor’s residence. Tell us about the night. What was the role of the university administration?

Prapti Taposhi: The day was tense at the Jahangirnagar University campus. News and photographs of violent attacks by the Bangladesh Chhatra League activists, it’s better to call them arm-wielding goons, at the Dhaka University campus were unsettling. We brought out a procession, protesting against the violence on different campuses. When our michhil was crossing near the then Bangabandhu hall in the evening, the Chhatra League attacked us. Many of us sustained minor to serious injuries. We went to the vice-chancellor’s residence demanding an answer as to how the Chhatra League can attack us in broad daylight and to demand justice for it. The university administration was aloof. They didn’t think they were accountable to the students. The former vice-chancellor, pro-vice chancellor and proctor hesitantly met with us and made unconvincing promises, like they will investigate and discuss the matter in the syndicate the next day. We know from history what happens in such investigations; even when there is evidence against BCL members, the university administrations have rarely taken strict action. We demanded immediate cancellation of the studentship of the already identified attackers. Then the administration asked for some time to discuss and went back inside.

As we were waiting there, discussing our next move, we heard nearly 200 armed BCL members approaching the VC’s residence to attack us. We then entered the premises of the vice-chancellor’s residence. We thought, if we had stayed inside, the BCL members would not dare to attack us inside the residential premise of a VC. There was a collapsible gate, and we urged, cried and pleaded with the teachers in administrative positions to open the gate and let us in. But they did not open the gate. Even when the BCL attacked us inside the premise of VC’s house, even after watching us bleed, the door remained closed. After all, they were handpicked to serve the interest of the Awami regime.

The police came, but only to protect the BCL members, the attackers. For a while, they were waiting outside the main entrance. We asked for their help as well. But they did not do anything to help us. We were scared as hell, trapped and cornered by the BCL and police.

In the end, it was students from different residential halls who came to rescue us with a michhil to save us from the BCL. Then, suddenly, the police lodged tear gas inside the premises of the vice-chancellor’s residence. Tear shells were targeted at us and the students who came to save us. They also shot rubber bullets, again targeted at us, the peaceful protesters. Further chaos from the tear gas shells and rubber bullets created a safe exit for the BCL members.

That night, the indignity we were subjected to on our own campus, I think, for me, was the breaking point.

Prapti Taposhi 

New Age: You were among the few who decided to reject the hall vacate order on July 17, 2024, and stayed at your residential hall when the entire country was gripped with fear and under an internet lockdown. How were those three days of defiance at the Bangamata Begum Fazilatunnesa Hall?

Prapti Taposhi: I, along with my friends Isaba Shuhrat, Tahmina Meem, Rifa Tasfia, Tahsina Tanzin Athoi, Moni Akter and Zeba Tahsin, rejected the hall vacant order and stayed in our residential hall since police had violently dispersed our protest programme on July 17, 2024. The first night, there was no electricity, and we constantly heard rumours of BCL members coming to attack us. Many of our well-wishers urged us not to stay at the hall as it would be ‘too risky,’ but still, we were determined that we wouldn’t leave our hall, our campus, no matter what happened. There was no internet access, no electricity and very limited access to water.

After the first night, the assistant superintendent of police of Savar Thana came and warned us again to leave the hall, otherwise they would have to ‘use force’. He sealed the collapsible gates of the dorm. Still, we were content in our decision. We won’t leave. They had killed Abu Sayed, a fellow student and five others by then. We thought, how dare they try to attack us and make us leave our campus. We did not commit any crime, the police action on students was illegal and the BCL attacks were criminal offences. Why should we leave our halls? The hall vacant order was an abuse of power to suppress our movement, an order we must defy and continue our fight for justice.

Other students on campus helped us with food and water, and the hall supervisor and hall attendants were also secretly helping us with emergency food supplies. Hearing the constant rumours, many female students decided to leave the hall at some point.

Later on, it was only me and Isaba. We could defy and resist the hall vacate order because of the constant support of our friends and the hall attendants, we call them khala. The 36 days of July only became possible because it slowly became everyone’s struggle. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the defiance of our hall attendants. We held our ground because these women stood in solidarity with us.

New Age: On July 27, you told DW that ‘there is no returning to normalcy.’ Later, on July 30, you told Al Jazeera, ‘We will continue our fight until this fascist regime, this autocratic regime, is down and until our demands are met.’ This was before any of the political platforms officially raised the one-point demand of Sheikh Hasina’s resignation, but you were unhesitant in your words. What was your reading of the situation? Did you really see an end in sight?

Prapti Taposhi: We knew Sheikh Hasina, the fallen prime minister, would try every means possible to crush the movement, the way she had crushed the road safety and quota reform movement in 2018. In 2024, the violence perpetrated by the Awami League regime reached a murderous height; she ordered the killing of our brothers and sisters. The way little children were shot from helicopters, I realised it had to end. The tyranny had to end. The 15-year legacy of silencing our voices had to end.

After the curfew was imposed, she once again tried the old trick and announced that all our demands seeking reforms in the quota system for public services are met. It was a ploy to quash the movement. After killing so many people, the prime minister thought we would easily return home if they could stage a drama that the student coordinators had called off the protests because their quota reform demands were met! And that’s when I said this is not about quota reform anymore. The movement had long evolved beyond just the reform of quota systems. It had become a movement for the restoration of our democratic rights in Bangladesh. I felt it was now or never. It was the endgame. I also had that feeling that with the way she had killed innocent students, children and citizens of Bangladesh; the way they had abducted the student leaders; and the way her government was selling lies to the international media, it was time to call out her lies in front of everyone. When I saw people getting shot unarmed, without committing any crimes, and yet, the prime minister had no remorse. It was inevitable. She had to go.

New Age: The interview intensified state surveillance on you. Your family home was repeatedly visited by different intelligence agencies, and your father was threatened. Then, immediately after the fall of the regime, the Hindu community across the country was faced with the new risk of being targeted as a minority. We have seen you taking a strong position on social media against such minoritisation and tagging Hindus as Awamidosor. Please share your position on the issue with New Age readers.

Prapti Taposhi: When I said all the truth about Hasina’s regime on international media, my parents were harassed several times. My father was taken into the custody of the Detective Branch of the Bangladesh Police. My teachers faced similar kinds of surveillance, being asked about my whereabouts. Still, they did not give up on me. I continued appearing on international media and narrating the actual scenario of Bangladesh at that time.

It is heartbreaking, even insulting, to see how members of the Hindu community were targeted when the community did not hesitate to participate in the July Uprising. We have nine documented July martyrs from the community. Now, in the post-uprising period, we had to hear from political leaders that Hindus are Awami dosor (collaborators of Awami fascism). That tagging, that alienation, that everlasting divide-and-rule politics reached a new height just after Hasina had fled the country.

The AL and the Indian media ran a misinformation campaign suggesting Hindus were in heaven during Hasina’s regime, which is an utter lie. In 2021, according to media reports, 117 Hindu temples were attacked across 27 districts. We’re also noticing that in their desperate attempt to debunk that misinformation, the interim government has also started a campaign of denial whenever it comes to any attack on the community. This is a very critical and sensitive moment.

Due to the ongoing terror and fear campaign, the community must be addressed with empathy and care, not with denial, disrespect or further minoritisation. Anybody who is tagging us as Awami dosors clearly has no knowledge of communal violence and politics in Bangladesh and no sense of critical understanding of the resistance and fight against the tyranny of the last 15 years.

New Age: Recently, in a number of social media posts, you have criticised this tendency to ask ‘before’ and ‘after’ July Uprising questions from journalists. You have also said you are tired of this question on women’s invisibility. Why so?

Prapti Taposhi: I am genuinely exhausted by these questions.

After the mass uprising, the female leaders were sidelined and made invisible. It took a little for the national leadership to notice that women are left behind. People started making a fuss about it, what happened then is sheer tokenism. Once the women question was brought to the table, patriarchy could only afford selective inclusion. Women with their independent fierce voices were slowly sidelined to make space for women who only speak the language of the so-called leaders, patriarchs in the field of national politics.

I honestly believe that the ‘before and after’ questions, and the ones about women’s invisibility, should be asked to the so-called leaders to hold them accountable, not to us! We have already said what we feel, we have already said how we were sidelined. It’s high time these questions were directed to those who are responsible for this situation.

The ‘before and after’ question also feels tiring because it’s only asked to those of us who are criticising the ‘new Bangladesh’ narrative, even though every part of this system is old. The patriarchal structure is intact. Communal and ethnic tensions are heightened. Indigenous rights are violated. The new Bangladesh has yet to come and it’s a long fight against all these autocratic structures. Borrowing from Angela Davis, a Marxist feminist activist and scholar, I would say, freedom is a constant struggle.

Interview was taken by Saydia Gulrukh.