The origins of the liberalism in Bangladesh can be traced from the anticolonial movements during the British Raj period.
After the Partition of India, Bengali nationalist movements in the East Pakistan were led by the liberal and progressive politicians.
Early Bangladeshi leadership was dominated by the left-wing, who opposed the development of a capitalist system and promoted a strict protectionism, state intervention and economic regulation under a planned economy and limited market activities, which was characterized as "neither capitalist nor socialist" in nature.
[1] But economy remained stagnated, with a deadly famine hitting in 1974.
In late 1970s and 1980s, various reforms, predominantly under the presidencies of reformists Ziaur Rahman and Hussain Muhammad Ershad were taken to boost economic growth and foreign investments, including the decentralization of state enterprises and trade liberalization.