The Unending War: Examining Violence As a Result of the Nation-Building Project

Sociologist Charles Tilly writes: "War made the state (1975, p. 42)." One of the empirical cases supporting this assertion is the birth of Bangladesh from erstwhile East Pakistan in 1971 through a bloody civil war claiming a few million lives and causing physical and mental suffering for even more people. The war of independence is, however, far from ending, as everyday experiences of violence show in contemporary Bangladesh. According to Amnesty International, at least 222 people were killed by Bangladeshi security forces in alleged extrajudicial executions in 2020 alone. At least 31 incidents of enforced disappearance were reported over the year, among them a college teacher, an editor, a businessperson, two students, and four opposition activists. This paper examines the ongoing political violence (particularly forced disappearance and physical torture, including extrajudicial killing) in Bangladesh within the context of nation-building. First, it offers a brief account of how the War of Independence in 1971 was utilized to discursively construct national identity by highlighting common ethnic heritage against competing narratives about identity based on the majority population's religious (specifically, Islamic) orientation. Then, it explores how the ruling elite utilizes mass schooling (specifically, history textbooks) and mass media to teach the population national loyalty towards the ruling elite by presenting it as the national savior while projecting those opposing the regime as the national enemy deserving punishment, and violence, if necessary. Looking beyond the binary construction of the nation in terms of competing ideological foundations (i.e., ethnicity versus religion), it recognizes elements of ethnic heritage and religious orientation that help us to rethink the nation. It concludes with recommendations to encourage peaceful cohabitation of all people by ensuring the democratic participation of all in the nation-building project.