What role did religion play in the 2024 Bangladeshi General Election? David Hoogstra and Geoffrey Macdonald explain the national division and unity in Bangladesh 24/07/2024

In January, Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League (AL) and its Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina won a fourth consecutive term in office amid an opposition boycott and controversial electoral process. Religion was not prominent in the campaign, but the role of Islam and the place of religious minorities in Bangladesh’s society and polity has been a historical and contemporary point of contention. Bangladesh protects religious pluralism better than many of its neighbours in South Asia and the Middle East. Still, there has been a persistent riptide of anti–minority sentiment that pulls the country toward eruptions of intolerance and violence, particularly during elections. To counter this, religious leaders from different faiths actively work to nourish a foundation of communal harmony that can withstand political currents. 

Religion and Politics in Bangladesh 

Religion and nationalism are deeply intertwined in South Asia. The “British Raj” was dismantled along religious lines, creating Hindu–majority India and Muslim–majority Pakistan, which was itself bifurcated between an Urdu–speaking western half and a Bengali–speaking eastern half. East Pakistan’s rebellion against the West in 1971 was primarily to protect Bengalis’ distinct language and culture, but Islam remained an important part of the new country’s post–independence identity. Although the core principles of Bangladesh’s liberation hero and first president, Shiekh Mujib Rahman, were “nationalism, socialism, democracy, and secularism,” which have endured in the nation’s constitution, religion has become an increasingly salient feature of society and politics.  

Powerful Islamist movements that resisted Bangladesh’s split from Pakistan resuscitated their standing after independence. Bangladesh’s leaders in the 1970s and 1980s began to deploy religious rhetoric and symbolism and embedded Islamic precepts in the legal structure. Today, both major political parties—the AL and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)—wield religion for political advantage. Politicians routinely use religious rhetoric in their speeches, engage in public displays of piety, promote international Muslim solidarity, forge formal and informal alliances with Islamist groups, and consistently put state resources into Muslim educational, cultural, and religious institutions.  

The complicated salience of both secularism and religion in Bangladesh incentivizes these political appeals. Bangladeshis are deeply devout, strongly support elements of strict Islamic jurisprudence, and hold social hostilities regarding religion. Simultaneously, the concepts of secularism—often framed under the rubric of Islam’s cultural primacy—and democracy are widely held social and political values. Consequently, many politicians straddle the divide, using religious appeals while also claiming to defend secularism. 

Religion as a Divider 

The historically rooted tension between secularism, Islam, and national identity in Bangladesh has reified religious divides that have continued to generate violence. 

The issue of violent Islamic extremism in Bangladesh rose to global attention in July 2016. Five young militants affiliated with ISIS targeted non–Muslims in a posh Dhaka cafe, murdering 20. This terrorist act was indicative of a problem that has been growing since the 1980s. Scholarship on Bangladeshi extremism identifies the first generation of religious militants joining the anti–Soviet Mujahideen in Afghanistan. These fighters returned to Bangladesh and began a steadily growing movement advocating violence in pursuit of an Islamic state in Bangladesh. Although the Bangladesh government has effectively, and at times controversially, controlled the problem, the ideological threat continues. 

Social media has also exposed religious divides. In October 2021, Bangladesh’s largest anti–Hindu riots in years spread across the country. During the Hindu Durga Puja festival, a Facebook post allegedly showed a Hindu man desecrating a Quran. The video, proven fake afterward, led Muslims to attack multiple Hindu communities, killing two and injuring dozens. Dating as early as 2012, numerous similar social media–inspired attacks have occurred in Bangladesh. 

During elections, religious divides get politicized. Bangladesh’s Hindus, who are historically supporters of the AL, have been particularly vulnerable to election intimidation and retaliation. After the 2001 parliamentary election, supporters of the victorious BNP reportedly attacked Hindu communities, driving hundreds of families off their land, destroying homes, and raping women. After the 2014 parliamentary elections, Hindus were again targeted by opposition forces. In January’s contentious election, Hindus reportedly faced threats from all sides: from the AL to vote and from the BNP to boycott. 

Religion as a Connector 

Religion also creates positive social connections in Bangladesh. With a deeply religious populace, Bangladesh’s diverse faith traditions have been a source of strength in countering political violence. In the months leading up to the 2024 elections, religious communities across Bangladesh used their piety to overcome religious divides. 

In an interfaith dialogue program supported by international donors, hundreds of members of the Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and Buddhist communities across Bangladesh, including over 30 religious leaders, participated in dialogues that produced interfaith peace pledges to maintain religious harmony during the election cycle. The pledges promised to refrain from spreading rumours and inciting religious sentiments in–person and online. At the dialogues, which included congregants from across faiths, religious leaders used their prominent community standing to promote peace.  

“No religion allows violence,” said a reverend from a church in southern Bangladesh at one dialogue. “The Christian scriptures say love your neighbour as you do yourself. It prohibits us from violence. All of us from any religious institution should preach this; religious violence will decline, and social harmony will grow.” 

At another dialogue, a Buddhist leader from northern Bangladesh said, “[We] are like five fingers of a hand. If we lose any finger, it looks odd. We must be united. If we commit to our religious ethics, no violence will happen.” 

Building on these interfaith dialogues, religious leaders returned to their communities to spread a message of tolerance and peace in the run–up to January’s elections. These leaders facilitated local interfaith gatherings, delivered sermons, and engaged young people in discussion sessions that promoted religious harmony to build resistance to electoral violence. Local NGOs say these activities alone engaged over 30,000 people ahead of election day. In many previous hotspots of election violence, religious leaders reported that their interfaith work reduced tensions this year. 

This election year’s scale–up complemented longstanding efforts to cultivate interfaith comity. Organizations like the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, which was founded four years after Bangladesh’s independence, have worked to preserve the rights of religious minorities, foster inter–religious cooperation, and preserve non–sectarian governance. This work of community–based religious leaders and organizations to promote peaceful politics continues today. 

Fortifying Interfaith Connections 

The social salience of religion in Bangladesh makes it easy fodder for politicians looking to mobilize support. Bangladesh’s independence ethos of secularism often tempers the most malevolent religious appeals, but the recent history of anti–minority extremism, hate speech, and violence highlights the divisive power of religion. But in Bangladesh, religion divides and connects. Religious leaders from diverse traditions—Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and others—utilize religion for good, drawing on harmonious religious teachings to build a citizen constituency for nonviolence during and after elections.  

The thoughts expressed in this piece are the authors’ alone.

On Theos’ ‘Religion Counts’ series

This blog is part of a larger body of work including briefing papers and articles exploring the impact of religion on voting patterns in the UK, and worldwide. 

Learn more about our Religion Counts work here.