December 31, 2025 07:21 AM IST First published on: Dec 31, 2025 at 07:21 AM ISTA stateswoman in 20th-century South Asia was invariably dynastic. So was Khaleda Zia, who passed away in the early hours of 30 December But the commonalities between the tallest South Asian stateswomen — Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Sheikh Hasina, and Khaleda Zia — went much beyond the boundedness of their origins. While they all started off in the shadow of a man, each of them ended up reshaping the country in their own way.It was the events set off by the massacre of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family that eventually catapulted Hasina and Khaleda into politics. The saga would come full circle with the assassination of President Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda’s husband, after which she would enter politics with a vengeance. Khaleda made full use of her newly gained space, to the surprise of many who dismissed her as just another rich housewife. She expanded the BNP into a militant grassroots force, allying with anyone who could keep up with its militancy, except the Awami League. The military dictator, H M Ershad, was her singular focus.AdvertisementIn her three terms as Prime Minister, Khaleda would oversee a shift from socialist to market-oriented economic policy, while also making radical gains for women’s access to resources and power, cracking down on domestic violence and child marriage, and making primary education free and compulsory. Like Ziaur Rahman before her, she made compromises with religious extremists . Khaleda was no less authoritarian than any other leader of Bangladesh: Her regime was accused of repression, corruption, and attempts to rig elections. It was only a matter of time before she lost power and was punished for one or the other crime.In her crusade against the military establishment and the Awami League, she built a terrifying dam of street power. it would build up into an extra-democratic structure within the BNP, culminating in the kleptocratic institution of Hawa Bhaban. Street violence continues to be endemic to the BNP. A woman who took full advantage of newfound political freedom would end up giving birth to an almost feudal and patriarchal institution. Like the other 20th-century stateswomen, her life was prone to tragedy. The trauma of her husband’s murder propelled her towards greatness. She was imprisoned in her old age by her rival matriarch, Hasina. Her release from imprisonment after the July uprising, though, gave her what might seem like a last laugh.But it might yet turn out that Khaleda’s passing coincides with the passing of revolutionary democracy and nationalism in Bangladesh. It is on her son, Tarique Rahman, to save the future of the country. In the hands of his and the BNP’s enemies, as Walter Benjamin once quipped, not even the past is safe.AdvertisementRamachandran is research scholar at University of Hyderabad. Mathew teaches politics and international relations at P P Savani University