In Bangladesh, weeks of protests against a quota system for government jobs turned into a broad uprising that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country.
The demonstrations began peacefully weeks ago and were primarily led by students frustrated with the system that they said favoured those with connections to the ruling party. But it quickly turned violent resulting in the death of nearly 300 people.
Also read:U.S. will continue to monitor situation in Bangladesh, says White House
Students or other young people have frequently played pivotal roles in popular uprisings around the world that have brought down governments or forced them to change policies.
Protests in Sri Lanka
Like in Bangladesh, widespread protests in Sri Lanka in 2022 were able to bring down a government, and youth played a key role.
Scattered demonstrations turned into months-long protests starting in March 2022 as an economic crisis worsened in the Indian Ocean island nation, leading to a shortage of fuel, cooking gas and other essentials as well as an extended power outage.
In April, protesters, primarily led by university students and other young people, occupied an esplanade adjoining President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office in the capital Colombo, demanding he and his government resign.
More people joined daily, setting up a tent camp dubbed “Gota Go Gama,” or “Gota Go Village,” a play on the President’s nickname “Gota.” Camp leaders, many of whom were university students, held daily media briefings and made regular speeches, while the crowd was entertained by bands and plays.
The government reacted by imposing a curfew, declaring a state of emergency, allowing the military to arrest civilians and restricting access to social media, but were unable to stop the protest.
Under pressure, many Ministers resigned but President Rajapaksa and his older brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa remained.
In May, Rajapaksa supporters attacked the protest camp, drawing widespread condemnation from across the country and forcing Prime Minister Rajapaksa to resign.
Mr. Gotabaya clung to power until July, when protesters stormed his official residence, forcing him to flee the country. He later resigned, after taking temporary refuge in the Maldives.
His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, in one of his first moves as new President, ousted protesters from occupied government buildings and shut down their camp — dismantling their tents in the middle of the night.
The situation has since calmed, and Mr. Wickremesinghe has been able to address the shortages of food, fuel and medicine and restore power.
Complaints continue, however, about the rise in taxes and electric bills that are part of the new government’s efforts to meet International Monetary Fund loan conditions. And the Rajapaksa family is hoping to return to power with Namal Rajapaksa, son of Mr. Mahinda, set to contest presidential election this September.
Uprising in Greece
In November 1973, students at Athens Polytechnic university rose up against the military junta that ruled Greece with an iron fist for more than six years.
Military officers seized power in a 1967 coup, establishing a dictatorship marked by the arrest, exile and torture of its political opponents.
The regime’s brutality and hardline rule gave rise to a growing opposition, particularly among students, culminating in the November uprising.
The protest began peacefully on November 14, with students staging a strike at the Athens Polytechnic university and occupying the campus. By the next day, thousands from around Athens had joined in to support the students and the demonstrations grew, as did calls to end the dictatorship.
On November 17, the military crushed the revolt when a tank smashed through the university’s gates in the early hours of the day, killing several students.
Days after the uprising, another military officer staged a coup and implemented an even harsher regime, but it did not last long.
American students had long been protesting the U.S. involvement in Vietnam when President Richard Nixon authorised attacks on neutral Cambodia in April 1970. On May 4, hundreds of students at Ohio’s Kent State University gathered to protest the bombing of Cambodia, and authorities called in the Ohio National Guard to disperse the crowd. After failing to break up the protest with tear gas, the National Guard advanced and some opened fire on the crowd, killing four students and wounding nine others.
It sparked a strike of 4 million students across the U.S., temporarily closing some 900 colleges and universities. The events also played a pivotal role, historians argue, in turning public opinion against the conflict in Southeast Asia.
As the Communist governments of Eastern Europe teetered in 1989, widespread demonstrations broke out in Czechoslovakia after riot police suppressed a student protest in Prague on November 17.
On November 20 as the anti-Communist protests grew, the students being joined by scores of others and some 5,00,000 took to the streets of Prague.
Dubbed the “Velvet Revolution” for its non-violent nature, the protests led to the resignation of the Communist Party’s leadership on November 28.
By December 10, Czechoslovakia had a new government and on December 29, Vaclav Havel, a dissident playwright who had spent several years in prison, was elected the country’s first democratic President in decades by a parliament dominated by Communist hard-liners.
In 1992, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
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