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In a politically charged move, Bangladesh may soon witness the re-entry of Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) into electoral politics, according to a recent media report. Despite being banned from contesting polls since 2013 due to its theocratic foundations and the role of its leaders in the 1971 genocide, JeI now seeks re-legitimisation by floating new proxies. This development comes amid growing political instability and rising pressure on former Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina’s government, creating a fertile ground for reactivating ideological forces that were once considered defanged. However, to view this merely as a case of electoral opportunism would mean turning a blind eye to a far more insidious reality: JeI is not just a political party—it is a civilisational project, an ambitious ideological paradigm intent on transfiguring socio-political infrastructure into a theocentric order.

Its ideological tenacity, institutional elasticity, and subterranean influence form a complex web of geopolitical implications that regional powers—particularly India—cannot afford to underestimate.

Despite decades of state repression, juridical proscription, and robust political opposition, JeI exhibits an extraordinary capacity for strategic reinvention and doctrinal persistence across Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Jammu & Kashmir. Its ideological tenacity, institutional elasticity, and subterranean influence form a complex web of geopolitical implications that regional powers—particularly India—cannot afford to underestimate. This article explores JeI’s theocratic infrastructure, subterranean operations, and civilisational agenda, arguing that it represents not a peripheral radical outfit but a structured ideological insurgency.

The Theocratic Blueprint: Maududi’s Doctrine and JeI’s Civilisational Mission

Established in 1941 by Maulana Abul A’la Maududi, Jamaat-e-Islami has rarely been content with mere electoral participation. Its ambitions have always been more expansive: to reorder society along divine lines, subordinating law, education, the economy, and governance to a theocentric order. JeI’s approach is distinct from conventional jihadist outfits, which primarily rely on militancy. Instead, it follows a meticulous and long-term strategy of ideological subversion—what Maududi observed as a ‘cultural revolution from below’. By embedding its doctrine into societal institutions—such as schools, mosques, welfare trusts, and student organisations—JeI has created an enduring epistemic infrastructure.

Its rejection of secular modernity is foundational. Democracy, in JeI’s cosmology, is heretical unless it aligns with divine jurisprudence. Yet paradoxically, JeI often enters democratic spaces not to participate in them sincerely but to hollow them out from within. It leverages democratic legitimacy to launch a critique of democracy itself, advancing a vision that ultimately seeks to dissolve the constitutional order in favour of a divine polity.

Pakistan: Parasitic Partnership with the Military Establishment

Nowhere is the symbiosis between JeI and the state apparatus more entrenched than in Pakistan. While it has never commanded significant electoral clout, JeI has long been an ideological arm of Pakistan’s military elite. During General Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamisation drive, JeI embedded itself in the state’s intellectual and educational bloodstream—producing curricula, occupying key bureaucratic posts, and controlling a vast network of madrasas.

As Islamabad oscillates between military and civilian rule, JeI’s ideological machinery remains impervious, lubricated by state patronage and religious populism.

Its student wing—Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT)—remains a formidable force in universities, functioning both as an enforcer of moral orthodoxy and a recruiter of ideological cadres. This deep ideological encapsulation has allowed JeI to shape public discourse, sustain Islamist narratives, and perpetuate a shadow state that survives regardless of electoral fortunes. As Islamabad oscillates between military and civilian rule, JeI’s ideological machinery remains impervious, lubricated by state patronage and religious populism.

Bangladesh: Rebranding After Repression

JeI’s history in Bangladesh is indelibly marked by its role in the 1971 genocide, during which its paramilitary wing—Al-Badr—collaborated with the Pakistan Army. Although JeI was banned after independence, it was rehabilitated later through political compromises and shifting geopolitical priorities. The war crimes tribunal initiated by the Awami League after 2008 aimed to amputate JeI’s political legacy, culminating in the execution of several top leaders.

Nonetheless, the core ideology endured. Chhatra Shibir, its student front, remains active in educational institutions, while JeI-controlled businesses and charities offer social services in rural and underserved areas. The recent move to field candidates under new banners is not a deviation but a continuation of JeI’s strategy of ideological camouflage. Despite constitutional embargoes, JeI has never truly exited the political field; it has merely changed its apparel. As Hasina’s regime grapples with economic discontentment and political backlash, JeI’s re-entry signifies more than opportunism—a potential re-ignition of theological politics in the region.

Jammu & Kashmir: Theology as Resistance

In India’s Jammu & Kashmir, JeI has played an integral role in transforming a political conflict into an Islamic civilisational struggle. It capitalised on post-1987 electoral disillusionment to propagate an Islamist narrative that delegitimised secular resistance and promoted a religiously encoded insurgency. JeI’s strategy involved setting up a parallel civil infrastructure—mosques, schools, welfare trusts—that challenged state authority and redefined societal norms.

The persistence of this epistemic framework poses long-term security and integration challenges for India, especially as new political voids emerge.

Despite being banned multiple times—most recently in 2019—JeI’s intellectual grammar remains intertwined with the region’s socio-political psyche. Its methodical proliferation of mosque networks, madrasa systems, and welfare apparatuses created a parallel civil society, functioning as a state-in-waiting and a normative re-educator. It is not simply an organisation to be banned; it is an ideological matrix that recalibrates the Kashmiri identity around theological nationalism. The persistence of this epistemic framework poses long-term security and integration challenges for India, especially as new political voids emerge.

Geopolitical Ramifications: India’s Strategic Dilemma

The reactivation of JeI in Bangladesh, its ideological penetration in Pakistan, and its subterranean resilience in Kashmir constitute a tripartite challenge to India’s regional security architecture. Unlike transnational jihadist networks, JeI operates through localised institutions with global ideological ties. Its soft power—via educational outreach, social welfare, and religious discourse—allows it to remain undetected by conventional counter-terrorism frameworks.

India’s counter-insurgency efforts in Kashmir will also remain incomplete without addressing the ideological ecosystem that JeI has cultivated over the decades.

Furthermore, JeI serves as a conduit for larger pan-Islamist currents that find resonance in other ideological outfits across South and Central Asia. Its resurgence in Bangladesh—particularly during a politically vulnerable moment—may destabilise the region and recalibrate the strategic calculus of both Delhi and Dhaka. India’s counter-insurgency efforts in Kashmir will also remain incomplete without addressing the ideological ecosystem that JeI has cultivated over the decades.

Conclusion: An Embedded Worldview, Not Just a Banned Outfit

To view Jamaat-e-Islami as a radical party is to fundamentally misunderstand its essence. It is a paradigmatic insurgency nested within civil society, functioning like an ideological deep state that erodes the foundations of secular constitutionalism. Its operatives are not merely political activists but cultural engineers working to transform state institutions from within. The challenge it poses cannot be countered by electoral disqualification or organisational bans alone.

Policymakers must confront the full spectrum of JeI’s operational vectors—its student fronts, welfare agencies, publishing houses, and educational networks. The ideological war must be waged in classrooms, community halls, religious forums, and policy debates. Any attempt to co-opt, moderate, or ignore JeI will only play into its strategies of mimetic legitimacy and long-term infiltration. JeI thrives not in open confrontation but in subtle subversion.

Its endurance across disparate political systems—military authoritarianism in Pakistan, democratic authoritarianism in Bangladesh, and constitutional democracy in India—underscores a disturbing reality: this is not a political party; it is the resilience of a worldview. Dislodging it will require more than strategy—it will require ideological courage.

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Soumya Awasthi is a Fellow with the Centre for Security, Strategy, and Technology at Observer Research Foundation.

Mehraj Bhat is a Srinagar-based expert on Islamic studies. He is studying the role of Jamaat-e-Islami in South Asian Politics.

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