At Dhaka University, the cradle of a student uprising that overthrew Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August, a mural featuring her late father, the independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, has been defaced.

Red paint splatters the face of the man many Bangladeshis revere as a founder of the nation. Under his visage, which is depicted addressing an adoring crowd, someone has scrawled the words: “Icon of fascism”. 

Barely half a year after a revolution that overthrew Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule, the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is rewriting Bangladesh’s official history, downplaying Sheikh Mujib’s role in its 1971 struggle for independence and challenging the cult of personality that was built around him.