Torn Jinnah Photo at Dhaka University Ignites Bangladesh’s History Wars
DHAKA — The photograph of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founder, had been on display for only days at a new museum exhibit at Dhaka University. Then a student ripped it from the wall.
The act has turned the image of a man who died nearly eight decades ago into the center of a renewed fight over memory, identity and political power in Bangladesh.
Abu Tayyab Habildar, the student who tore down the photograph, called Jinnah a “villain.” The dispute is not merely about a portrait. It touches the national, religious and linguistic fault lines that shaped Bangladesh—and shows how the 2024 revolution that toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has unsettled old narratives.
Pakistan and Bangladesh were once the western and eastern wings of a single country, carved from British-ruled India in the violent partition of 1947. They were separated by more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) of Indian territory.
Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan after a bitter 1971 war. Pakistani forces were accused of widespread atrocities during the conflict. Hundreds of thousands were killed, according to widely cited estimates; Bangladeshi figures say millions. Many in Dhaka still demand that Islamabad apologize.
Jinnah was not an Islamist, but his campaign for a separate Muslim homeland has made him a potent symbol for Bangladesh’s opposition Islamist politicians, who seek to emphasize the country’s Muslim identity.
“In Bangladesh, Jinnah was never celebrated,” political analyst Altaf Parvez said. “The ground is fertile for the rise of the Islamists. They need a suitable leader, and that is why there is so much fuss around Jinnah.”
‘Part of history’
The Dhaka University Central Students Union (DUCSU), led by Bangladesh Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of the country’s largest Islamist political party, said the photograph was part of a chronological display tracing the university’s history.
DUCSU leader SM Farhad criticized what he called the “mob attack” that tore the picture down. “You can correct us if we make any mistake, though we haven’t made any,” he told AFP.
Critics accused the student union of trying to reshape that history by highlighting Jinnah while diminishing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founding president and independence leader.
“Jinnah is the father of Pakistan,” Habildar told AFP. “But that same Jinnah, when he stood against Bengali and Bangla language, he is a villain.”
Rahman’s legacy, however, is also deeply contested. His daughter, Sheikh Hasina, led Bangladesh with an iron fist until a bloody student-led uprising in 2024 forced her from power. She is reviled by many of those who overthrew her.
Hasina has been sentenced to death in absentia, and the activities of her former ruling Awami League have been banned. Rahman’s former home, later turned into a museum, was torched during the uprising.
Farhad said the university museum also needed an update. “They left no stone unturned to establish the narrative of the Awami League... so we thought we would renovate it,” he said.
But student Mahafuzur Rahman, 19, said removing photographs was not the answer. “I don’t think it’s good to remove his photo... He is also part of history.”
The space where Jinnah’s photograph hung remains empty—a stark symbol of a country still arguing over whose history belongs in public view.