Abstract

This article explores different discursive representations of Bangladesh’s 2024 anti-quota movement, which played the most critical role in the fall of the Awami League—the then ruling party with a sixteen-year tenure. It discusses, in particular, the disputed connotation of the jargon, “razakar,” which is commonly understood as a historically derogative label for traitors during the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh. This article marks how this derogative tag was tactically implemented by Sheikh Hasina and her government to defame the protesters, and consequently, the protesters re-appropriated the term as an emblem of resistance to disparity and an autocratic regime. Incorporating critical discourse analysis, this study dissects the linguistic mechanisms though which the protesters’ voices subverted the government’s framing of conspiracy against them. Through a critical study of Sheikh Hasina’s select statements, select journalists’ statements and comments, media representation of the movement, and public speech from educationist and civil society figures, this article demonstrates the role of language both as an instrument of hegemonic control and as a site of counter-hegemonic struggle. It eventually contends that discursive contestation was central to regulating political mobilization, interceding narratives, and shaping domestic and international perceptions, thereby underscoring the constitutive role of discourse in contemporary socio-political conflict.