Graffiti as Resistance during the July 2024 Uprising in Bangladesh: A Postcolonial and Semiotic Analysis

Graffiti has long been used as a medium of political expression that holds oppressed voices to challenge dominant power discourses. This study exposes the role of graffiti as a functional form of resistance in the crucial time during the July uprising movement in 2024 in Bangladesh, justifying through the lens of postcolonial literature. The July uprising is the outcome of a student-led protest against the government's assigned quota system. With the unsavory reaction of the government, it evolved into a nationwide movement demanding as a 'one point' agenda the fall of the government to reclaim democratic decorum. As a form of counter-discourse, graffiti formed a structural framework upholding dissent, symbolizing resistance, and maintaining solidarity among protesters. This study analyzes key visual and textual elements including prominent chanting, calligraphy, portraits, and theoretical concepts to understand how graffiti operated as a dominating discourse challenging state hegemony. Within the framework of postcolonial resistance, this study argues that graffiti as visual texts serve as sites of resistance and turns into archives of collective memory. This paper contributes to the broader discourse on art as activism, on how graffiti played a role as an act of defiance and became the voice of the unvoiced people during the resistance movement like the July uprising in Bangladesh.