What does secularism mean in Bangladesh, a country where Islam is the state religion?

The Constitution Reform Commission was appointed by the interim authorities led by Muhammad Yunus which took powerfulness aft the illness of the authorities led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina successful August 2024.

The study submitted to Chief Adviser Yunus has recommended that equality, quality dignity, societal justice, and pluralism should beryllium included successful the preamble, and nationalism, socialism, and secularism removed.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Khaleda Zia and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the astir important governmental parties successful the post-Hasina period, the centre-left Ganosamhati Andolan, and the civilian nine level Jatiya Nagorik Committee are yet to marque nationalist pronouncements connected the proposals.

The Awami League nether Hasina has agelong been accused of utilizing these law principles for partisan governmental purposes. The Islamist Jamaat — which Hasina’s authorities dealt with harshly, and which is an important dependable successful Yunus’s authorities — has been particularly resentful.

What does secularism mean successful Bangladesh?

The statement implicit secularism goes backmost to the founding of the Bangladeshi nation.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father, who led the country’s state question against Pakistan, envisaged a secular, liberal, antiauthoritarian aboriginal for his country. There were, however, those who believed adjacent astatine that clip that the interruption with Pakistan was not desirable, and were opposed to what they believed amounted to the splintering of the Muslim ummah.

In June 2024, erstwhile Hasina was inactive successful power, The Daily Star, the starring regular paper successful Bangladesh, published an nonfiction by Nafiz Ahmed, a prof of jurisprudence astatine Dhaka’s backstage North South University, which discussed the antithetic quality of Bangladeshi secularism.

“One of the astir unsocial features of the Bangladeshi Constitution is that it pledges to conserve secularism (Article 12) portion besides declaring Islam arsenic its authorities religion (Article 2A),” Ahmed wrote.

He elaborated: “The committedness of secularism was contiguous successful the archetypal Constitution. The authorities religion was added aboriginal done an amendment. Secularism was removed from the Constitution but was aboriginal restored done different amendment. Currently, some secularism and authorities religion co-exist successful the Bangladeshi Constitution.”

Is determination an inherent dichotomy successful this situation?

“If their meanings are taken literally, the beingness of secularism and a constitutionally recognised authorities religion look mutually exclusive, arsenic determination is an intrinsic struggle betwixt the two,” Ahmed wrote.

The question has been considered by Bangladesh’s apical court. In 2016, the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh (the different part is called the Appellate Division) held that having a authorities religion “does not offend the conception of secularism, arsenic provided for successful the Constitution”.

It neither affects the basic structure of the Constitution nor violates the constitutionally guaranteed state of religion, the tribunal held.

In his article, Ahmed, who analysed the judgement – the afloat substance of which was made nationalist lone successful 2024 – concluded that it had produced “a caller knowing of secularism successful Bangladesh and the consequences (or deficiency thereof) of recognising Islam arsenic the authorities religion”.