Bangladesh
Bangladesh is a low-lying, riparian country located in South Asia
with a largely marshy jungle coastline of 710 kilometers (440 mi.)
on the northern littoral of the Bay of Bengal. Formed by a deltaic
plain at the confluence of the Ganges (Padma), Brahmaputra (Jamuna),
and Meghna Rivers and their tributaries, Bangladesh's alluvial soil
is highly fertile but vulnerable to flood and drought. Hills rise
above the plain only in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the far
southeast and the Sylhet division in the northeast. Straddling the
Tropic of Cancer, Bangladesh has a subtropical monsoonal climate
characterized by heavy seasonal rainfall, moderately warm
temperatures, and high humidity. Natural calamities, such as floods,
tropical cyclones, tornadoes, and tidal bores affect the country
almost every year. Bangladesh also is affected by major cyclones on
average 16 times a decade.
Urbanization is proceeding rapidly, and it is estimated that only
30% of the population entering the labor force in the future will be
absorbed into agriculture, although many will likely find other
kinds of work in rural areas. The areas around Dhaka and Comilla are
the most densely settled. The Sundarbans, an area of coastal
tropical jungle in the southwest and last wild home of the Bengal
Tiger, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts on the southeastern border
with Burma and India, are the least densely populated.
The area that is now Bangladesh has a rich historical and cultural
past, combining Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Mongol/Mughul, Arab, Persian,
Turkic, and west European cultures. Residents of Bangladesh, about
98% of whom are ethnic Bengali and speak Bangla, are called
Bangladeshis. Urdu-speaking, non-Bengali Muslims of Indian origin,
and various tribal groups, mostly in the Chittagong Hill Tracts,
comprise the remainder. Most Bangladeshis (about 88.3%) are Muslims,
but Hindus constitute a sizable (10.5%) minority. There also are a
small number of Buddhists, Christians, and animists. English is
spoken in urban areas and among the educated.
Sufi religious teachers succeeded in converting many Bengalis to
Islam, even before the arrival of Muslim armies from the west. About
1200 AD, Muslim invaders established political control over the
Bengal region. This political control also encouraged conversion to
Islam. Since then, Islam has played a crucial role in the region's
history and politics, with a Muslim majority emerging, particularly
in the eastern region of Bengal. |
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Bengal was absorbed into the Mughul Empire in the 16th century, and
Dhaka, the seat of a nawab (the representative of the emperor),
gained some importance as a provincial center. But it remained
remote and thus a difficult to govern region--especially the section
east of the Brahmaputra River--outside the mainstream of Mughul
politics. Portuguese traders and missionaries were the first
Europeans to reach Bengal in the latter part of the 15th century.
They were followed by representatives of the Dutch, French, and
British East India Companies. By the end of the 17th century, the
British presence on the Indian subcontinent was centered in
Calcutta. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the British gradually
extended their commercial contacts and administrative control beyond
Calcutta to Bengal. In 1859, the British Crown replaced the East
India Company, extending British dominion from Bengal, which became
a region of India, in the east to the Indus River in the west.
The rise of nationalism throughout British-controlled India in the
late 19th century resulted in mounting animosity between the Hindu
and Muslim communities. In 1885, the All-India National Congress was
founded with Indian and British membership. Muslims seeking an
organization of their own founded the All-India Muslim League in
1906. Although both the League and the Congress supported the goal
of Indian self-government within the British Empire, the two parties
were unable to agree on a way to ensure the protection of Muslim
political, social, and economic rights. The subsequent history of
the nationalist movement was characterized by periods of
Hindu-Muslim cooperation, as well as by communal antagonism. The
idea of a separate Muslim state gained increasing popularity among
Indian Muslims after 1936, when the Muslim League suffered a
decisive defeat in the first elections under India's 1935
constitution. In 1940, the Muslim League called for an independent
state in regions where Muslims were in the majority. Campaigning on
that platform in provincial elections in 1946, the League won the
majority of the Muslim seats contested in Bengal. Widespread
communal violence followed, especially in Calcutta.
When British India was partitioned and the independent dominions of
India and Pakistan were created in 1947, the region of Bengal was
divided along religious lines. The predominantly Muslim eastern half
was designated East Pakistan--and made part of the newly independent
Pakistan--while the predominantly Hindu western part became the
Indian state of West Bengal. Pakistan's history from 1947 to 1971
was marked by political instability and economic difficulties.
Dominion status was rejected in 1956 in favor of an "Islamic
republic within the Commonwealth." Attempts at civilian political
rule failed, and the government imposed martial law between 1958 and
1962, and again between 1969 and 1971.
Almost from the advent of independent Pakistan in 1947, frictions
developed between East and West Pakistan, which were separated by
more than 1,000 miles of Indian territory. East Pakistanis felt
exploited by the West Pakistan-dominated central government.
Linguistic, cultural, and ethnic differences also contributed to the
estrangement of East from West Pakistan. Bengalis strongly resisted
attempts to impose Urdu as the sole official language of Pakistan.
Responding to these grievances, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1948 formed
a students' organization called the Chhatra League. In 1949, Maulana
Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani and some other Bengali leaders formed the
East Pakistan Awami Muslim League (AL), a party designed mainly to
promote Bengali interests. This party dropped the word Muslim from
its name in 1955 and came to be known as Awami League. Mujib became
president of the Awami League in 1966 and emerged as leader of the
Bengali autonomy movement. In 1966, he was arrested for his
political activities.
After the Awami League won almost all the East Pakistan seats of the
Pakistan national assembly in 1970-71 elections, West Pakistan
opened talks with the East on constitutional questions about the
division of power between the central government and the provinces,
as well as the formation of a national government headed by the
Awami League. The talks proved unsuccessful, however, and on March
1, 1971, Pakistani President Yahya Khan indefinitely postponed the
pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil
disobedience in East Pakistan. Mujib was arrested again; his party
was banned, and most of his aides fled to India and organized a
provisional government. On March 26, 1971, following a bloody
crackdown by the Pakistan Army, Bengali nationalists declared an
independent People's Republic of Bangladesh. As fighting grew
between the army and the Bengali mukti bahini ("freedom fighters"),
an estimated 10 million Bengalis, mainly Hindus, sought refuge in
the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal. On April 17, 1971, a
provisional government was formed in Meherpur district in western
Bangladesh bordering India with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was in
prison in Pakistan, as President, Syed Nazrul Islam as Acting
President, and Tajuddin Ahmed as Prime Minister.
The crisis in East Pakistan produced new strains in Pakistan's
troubled relations with India. The two nations had fought a war in
1965, mainly in the west, but the refugee pressure in India in the
fall of 1971 produced new tensions in the east. Indian sympathies
lay with East Pakistan, and in November, India intervened on the
side of the Bangladeshis. On December 16, 1971, Pakistani forces
surrendered, and Bangladesh-- meaning "Bengal country"-- was born;
the new country became a parliamentary democracy under a 1972
constitution.
The first government of the new nation of Bangladesh was formed in
Dhaka with Justice Abu Sayeed Choudhury as President, and Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman ("Mujib")--who was released from Pakistani prison in
early 1972--as Prime Minister. |
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