Amidst various multidirectional interpretations surrounding the recent student-mass uprising in Bangladesh, one straightforwardly clear thing is that the youth has set on a journey, which is long, fateful and full of dreams. They have shockingly fast snatched away power from the old people who proved themselves utterly corrupt, incompetent and unpatriotic and could do nothing better than babbling away `development' day and night. In contrast, the young people of the country have been driven by a sense of morality that led them into an anti-discrimination movement, which swelled into a typhoon and instantly swept away the old power like dust particles before it. Marx-Engels' rallying cry for workers -you have nothing to lose but your chains-became true in their lives in the twenty-first century context.

The change has been overwhelming. The ghost of fear has left us for the time being and now people can think, talk and act more freely than before. While writing, at least for some months or years, one need not be afraid of any careless word which can lead one into trouble, need not startle while talking with other persons, need not look back scared of being followed in the street and need not pass sleepless nights in fear of disappearance in the pre-dawn night. One now feels living in one's own country, not in the country owned by someone's father. Writings on walls across the country express these deep feelings in the hearts of students.

To the past regime, development was synonymous with some high-rise buildings, bridges and such crudely visible items and the main production item under their rule was 'fear'. The ruling power calculated that their weapon of fear could stop the students' movement after some deaths. But the machine of fear became ineffective this time to their surprise. Cold-blooded murder of children, adolescents and unarmed students enraged people more. More and more students began to come out and stood before guns so defiantly that the hands that held the guns began to tremble in fear. The course of theatre reversed and a new chapter opened in history.

Why did the ruling power fail to calculate this? The answer lies in the gap of generations. The Gen Z was almost unknown to the people in power because of the great gap made by their hanging on power unelected for fifteen years. Immoral luxury and corrupt idleness for years made them blind to the force growing up in the horizon and utterly detached from people on the ground. Children of gen Z is far distant from that ruling generation in morality, feelings and thoughts. The rotten ruling generation measured the universe with their faulty scale of greed, fear, boastfulness, self-centeredness, escapism, slavishness, flattery etc. On the other hand, students of the new generation is fresh, empathetic, ethical, patriotic and dynamic. Despite many individual differences in both camps, this was the unbridgeable gap between the old and the new. And the old paid highly for failing to come to terms with the new in due time.

This gen Z is the father of the changed course in Bangladesh. Yet, one must not forget that this movement did not fall from the sky. It stands on the shoulders of previous historical movements like language movement, mass uprising of sixty-nine, liberation war, student uprising of ninety. The revolutionary uprising of 2024 is the successor of those previous years. Those who are trying to deny this line of succession and denigrate our glorious liberation war and Bangabandhu as its leader are undoubtedly wrong and condemnable. All these glorious years are connected by an invisible thread of our history.

There was a rehearsal of today's movement in 2018 through the quota reform movement and the rebellion of adolescents. The seed of 2024 was planted in that year. The unity, coordination, empathy for one another, dream of a better society, the urge to build a new and the distinctive other aspects are the fruits of that seedling of 6 years ago. So, some of the slogans used then are repeated now and the same support bestowed on them from the wider society. What was the main power of these students?

The power is their purity as the changemaker, which has got the label of non-political. But who does not know that an anti-discrimination movement cannot be anything but political. Its identity as non-political is a means to set up a platform as big as possible. As most of the prevailing political parties and their leaders have become polluted, a non-partisan platform was necessary and therefore this 'non-political' movement became urgent. The non-political caused the greatest political upheaval since the country achieved its liberation in 1971. This upheaval promises to bring about big changes going beyond mere changes of hands holding power of the state.

But dreams we dreamt before, too-in 1971 and also in 1990-the dream of a nation without discrimination. Yet those dreams broke down before we woke up. After waking up, people saw a world opposite of their dreams-either as bad as the one gone by or seemed worse than that. The present dream can also not be fulfilled the way we wish now.

The reasons of its breaking away are many-both internal and international games and balances of power. Besides, the seed of its failure lies in the very core of this student-mass uprising. What will be won by the class that really has nothing to lose but the world to win? The political and institutional structures to be wrought anew will fulfil their dreams of life without discrimination or at least make their life some better? Again, crisis lurks in the popular slogan, too-'Merit or Quota? Quota, Quota.'

Merit has been the victim of the assault from all sides. It has lost its place not only to quota, but also to favoritism, nepotism, partisanship, greed, violence, bribe and other evils. To restore merit is the first difficult challenge. But the next difficult challenge will be to put merit in its legitimate place, not let it overwhelm all other considerations. There is nothing like pure merit in this world. Focusing singly on merit will be able to germinate discriminations if the following questions are not taken into consideration-Merit possessed by which class of people? belonging to which socio-political philosophy? under whose rule? and serves whose interests?

Solving the first challenge will require dealing with the second challenge, too. Unless it can be done, the current anti-discrimination movement will veer off its declared destination. Taking power through an uprising is undoubtedly a most dangerous and courageous task. But fulfilling the promises of the uprising is much more difficult.

If we could ride a time machine and look back from the future, taking power would look much easier than solving the problems promised now. Professor Yunus is one of the few most successful people ever born on earth, all of whose individual dreams have been fulfilled. But it is very difficult to say how much successful he will be in fulfilling the dreams of the generation and the nation under his leadership.

The writer is Editor, Biggan O Sangskriti