Until a few months ago, it seemed as if the goodwill commanded by the interim government of Bangladesh headed by Muhammad Yunus — the product of an agreement between the major political parties, the army, and student leaders — would be enough for it to carry out its ambitious reform agenda. But while the reform efforts are still on, the banning of the Awami League and the onset of the absentee trial of the ousted leader, Sheikh Hasina, have produced an unsettling sense that we are witnessing what commentator Taqbir Huda calls “the perverse circularity of revenge politics in Bangladesh”....