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ACCORDING to Marxian jargon, what happened during those 36 days from July 1 to August 5, 2024, in Bangladesh was not a revolution in the stricter sense of the term. It was not related to a class struggle in any sense, nor was it a victory for one class against another.

However, this uprising’s endgame was not simply replacing one government with another. So, what is it?

I will resort to the Oxford English Dictionary for the definition of revolution. It is a mild and inclusive definition. It defines revolution as ‘a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favour of a new system.’ The uprising overthrew Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarian government in favour of a democratic system of government that would present a new constitution that guarantees freedom, equality, and justice, would reform corruption-infested government institutions and eliminate nepotism and kleptocracy. Therefore, this uprising is a revolution. No one knows if this revolution will bring the expected results. We should not forget that many intended accomplishments failed to materialise following the Arab Spring, Colour Revolutions, Bolshevik Revolution, and French Revolution.

What could be its name? Many international media prefer the ‘Gen Z Revolution’ because it is the only successful revolution led essentially by Generation Z, born between 1997 and 1912. In Bangladesh, it is dubbed the July Revolution, which reminds us of the October Revolution of the Russian Bolsheviks. Remember, ‘What’s in a name?’ — the lamentation of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Or Gertrude Stein’s ‘A rose is a rose is a rose.’

I utterly revere Bangladeshi Generation Z, who made this revolution happen with incredible sacrifice. Because it is the only successful Gen Z revolution in the world, I will use ‘Gen Z Revolution’ as its name for the rest of my essay.

This extraordinary generation of Bangladesh and its revolution attracted wide-ranging news coverage worldwide. For brevity, I am mentioning only the New York Times, one of the most influential newspapers on Earth, which gave good coverage of the events unfolding. The headline ‘Facing Mass Protests, Bangladesh Leader Quits, Setting Up Power Struggle’ with elaborate news appeared in the online edition of the New York Times on August 5. The next day, the print edition published a news report with a four-column picture of the fall of the prime minister’s palace at the top of the front page from column 1 to column 4. Thousands of jubilant students and other citizens celebrated the revolution’s victory on the rooftop and porch. The international media, except those from India, with a few exceptions, carried comparable news reports about the resignation and fleeing of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was allowed 45 minutes to pack up and leave.

For comparison, let me explore the international news coverage of the Bolshevik Revolution, which influenced mankind’s history for most of the twentieth century. As per the research paper entitled ‘British and US Newspaper Coverage of the Bolshevik Revolution’ by Elisabeth Hupp Schillinger, published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Volume 43, Issue 1, the paramount event of November 7, 1917, was mostly ignored by London Time, Manchester Guardian, New York Times, and Chicago Tribune. The First World War was raging at that time. These newspapers covered the news of the overthrow of the Kerensky government as one of the war news. On November 8, 1917, the New York Times published a news item on the front page’s first column with the headline ‘BOLSHEVIKI SEIZE STATE BUILDING, DEFYING KERENESKY,’ and the first paragraph begins with ‘PETROGRAD, Nov. 7. – An armed naval detachment, under orders of Maximalist Revolutionary Committee, has occupied the official Petrograd Telegraph Agency.’

No one knows if the ‘Gen Z Revolution’ will impact the world like the Bolshevik Revolution. The news coverage is good, but this revolution lacks intellectual and philosophical precursors like those of the great minds of Europe who influenced the Bolshevik Revolution and whose contributions to knowledge resonate with the world’s preeminent universities even to date. I have no crystal ball to predict if the impact of this highly publicised revolution of Gen Z will ever echo beyond Bangladesh’s national boundary. I hope it will.

To be continued.

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Dr Mostofa Sarwar, a scientist and poet, is a professor emeritus at the University of New Orleans. He was dean, provost and vice-chancellor of Delgado Community College and served as a visiting professor and adjunct faculty of the University of Pennsylvania.