Protecting Secularism in Bangladesh: A Critique of the Constitutional Unamendability Approach

Chowdhury, Jashim; Mamun, Md Abdullah Al; Jahed, Md Jahedul Islam

Abstract

Bangladesh’s struggle with religious fundamentalism is persistent. The liberal political force that spearheaded the country’s liberation war in 1971 tried to adopt a hard secularist policy by banning the religion-based political parties. However, the newly independent nation soon faced conservative and Islamist upsurge. In late 1970s, secularism was omitted from the constitution, and Islam was officially endorsed as the State Religion. In 2011, the current secularist regime revived Secularism. It, however, failed to remove the State Religion clause. The ban on religion-based political parties also could not be revived to its original extent. Still, they tried to entrench and better protect the compromised version of Secularism by inserting an ‘eternity clause’ in the Constitution. The eternity clause inserted through the Fifteenth Amendment Act 2011 made a large part of the Constitution, including the principle of Secularism, totally unamendable by any future parliament. This paper examines whether this ultimately saves the future of Secularism. It argues that textual entrenchment in the form of total unamendability may not prevent what the American constitutional experts call the ‘informal’, ‘off text’ or ‘stealth’ amendments. It further argues that the judicial protection through the implicit unamendability of ‘basic structures’ may also not be adequate to safeguard the Secularism against any its future dismemberment.

Citation

Chowdhury, J., Mamun, M. A. A., & Jahed, M. J. I. (2023). Protecting Secularism in Bangladesh: A Critique of the Constitutional Unamendability Approach. Rajshahi University Law Journal, 11, 108-131

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 16, 2023
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jan 16, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 18, 2024
• Journal: Rajshahi University Law Journal
• Print ISSN: 1991-8976
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Article Number: 6
• Pages: 108-131
• Series ISSN: 1991-8976
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4518531