The July 2024 Revolution in Bangladesh: From Student Movement to Revolutionary Intellectual Elite

Student movements in Bangladesh were active even before the Liberation War of 1971 and contributed significantly to socio-political changes. The July 2024 Revolution, known also as the Gen Z Revolution or Monsoon Revolution, which started as a protest against the quota rule for government jobs, after the decision of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh invalidating the government's 2018 circular regarding job quotas in the public sector, was also initiated and conducted by the student social movement - Students Against Discrimination. The movement was institutionalized on 1 July 2024 and appointed a 65-member committee. Reformism, egalitarianism and social justice were announced as the main postulates. Two members - Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud were appointed as advisers in the Interim government led by Muhammad Yunus. The revolution received constitutional acknowledgment with the announcement of the July Declaration on the August 5th 2025. The main aim of the paper is to demonstrate the importance of student movements in Bangladesh in shaping the intellectual elite of subsequent revolutions, with particular emphasis on the July 2024 Revolution. The main units of analysis and research questions to be addressed: the role of young, educated individuals initiating the change of status quo and providing ideological justification for socio-political transformation; the significance of specific universities in the process of building the intellectual elite; the student movement’s resources in mobilization of the masses; the role of the non-governmental sector and the social business model. For analytical purposes, the author will refer to the data collected during the internship at the University of Dhaka in 2019 financed by the Polish National Science Centre, mainly to the interview with Muhamad Yunus.