This Palgrave Pivot provides an authoritative account of the unexpected toppling of Bangladesh’s powerful Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024. Written by a journalist and an academic who were close observers and analysis of the increasingly authoritarian 15-year regime, the book provides a key source of the sequence of events and critical turning points, motivations and behaviour of key actors, and the grievances that drove the movement. An account of one of the most surprising democratic revolutions in recent times, the book contributes to the scholarly literature on contentious politics and protest movements. It will be a valuable addition to debates about politics in the world’s eighth largest nation, addressing some of the myths and conspiracies that have sprung up in its wake and examining the prospects for democratic restoration in the post-uprising period.

Naomi Hossain is the Global Research Professor of Development Studies at SOAS University of London. Her recent authored and co-edited books include The Aid Lab: Understanding Bangladesh’s Unexpected Success (2017, Oxford University Press; 2025, UPL Books); The Politics of Education in Developing Countries (2019, Oxford University Press) and Food Riots, Food Rights and the Politics of Provisions (2017, Routledge Earthscan). The Aid Lab was named by the Economist as one of its five must-reads about Bangladesh.

David Bergman is a journalist and researcher working between London and Dhaka. In recent months, since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, he has written on Bangladesh for the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday and the Spectator as well as researching the law enforcement killings that took place in July/August for the International Truth and Justice Project. In 2000, He was a founder and Editor of Netra News, an investigative website on Bangladesh and was involved in making the award winning Al Jazeera documentary, All the Prime Ministers Men, broadcast in 2022.