UniversePG l www.universepg.com 23 Resistance, Unrest, Protest and Demonstration Provoked by COVID-19: A Case Study of Bangladesh A H M Nahid* Department of Development Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Islamic University, Kushtia-7003, Bangladesh. *Correspondence: nhasnatnahid@gmail.com (A H M Nahid, Lecturer, Department of Development Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Islamic University, Kushtia-7003, Bangladesh). ABSTRACT Covid-19, the pandemic, has been wreaking havoc all around the globe including Bangladesh since its inception in China. Not only has the virus been a great threat to human life, but it has also affected the economic, political, and social aspects of life-generating resistance issues, a number of unrests, protests, and demon- strations. This study, following a mixed methodology, tries to identify the incidence and nature of these social issues brought about by Covid-19. The study finds that both the expatriates and the residents of the country continuously defied the lockdown and social distancing rules as the government had tried to contain the covid- 19 through those measures. While the motive for the expatriates was to get away from the authorities and get back home, apathy to follow the new rules, food and work opportunities, job security, and even marriage was the stimulus for the general people to bypass the laws. Unrests like the spreading of rumors, price hikes, a rise of crime, etc. shook all 64 districts of the country. Covid-19, directly or indirectly, provoked more than 250 protests and demonstrations. While the existence of demand for relief or complaints regarding relief distribution was the main incentive for the people of all ages and occupations, reasons such as demand for remuneration and incentives, safety equipment and facilities, closure of educational institutions as well as hospitals, halting specialized hospitals were evident. Keywords: Resistance, Unrest, Protest, Social response, Demonstration, COVID-19, and Bangladesh. INTRODUCTION: Novel Corona Virus first emerged in Wuhan, China as the earliest case was detected on November 17, 2019 (Davidson, 2020). International Committee on Taxo- nomy of Viruses (ICTV) named the virus as ‘severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2’ (SARS- CoV-2) (ICTV, 2020). The novel corona virus was named COVID-19 by WHO on February 11, 2020 (BBC News, 2020). The virus began to spread and reached Europe, France to be exact, in December, 2019(BBC News, 2020). Later, the outbreak was declared a global pandemic by WHO (Gumbrecht & Howard, 2020). The first cases of Covid-19 were detected in Bangladesh on March 8, 2020 (Jugantor, 2020). It is thought that the virus entered Bangladesh through expatriates as the first three cases were all expats from Italy (Business Standard, 2020). Since then, the pandemic has been affecting Bangladesh. People are mostly concerned by the health issues caused by covid-19, but the impact of the virus on economic, political, and social life is also very signi- ficant. The pandemic has greatly impacted the lives of the people spawning resistance issues, different types of unrests and many protests and demonstrations. Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Legal Studies, 3(2), 23-34, 2021 Publisher homepage: www.universepg.com, ISSN: 2707-4668 (Online) & 2707-465X (Print) https://doi.org/10.34104/ajssls.021.023034 Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Legal Studies Journal homepage: www.universepg.com/journal/ajssls