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BangladeshThe People's Republic of Bangladesh (Bangla: is a country in South Asia that forms the eastern part of the ancient region of Bengal. Bangladesh literally means "The Country of Bengal". Lying north of the Bay of Bengal, on land it borders India and Myanmar, and it is a close neighbor to China, Nepal and Bhutan. History of BangladeshThere has long been advanced civilization in what is now Bangladesh, once the eastern part of a greater region called Bengal. There is recent evidence of civilizations dating back to 500 BC, and there are even claims of social structures from around 1000 BC. One of the earliest historical references to be found to date is the mention of a land named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100BC. The word is speculated to have come from Gangahrd (Land with the Ganges in its heart) and believed to be referring to an area in Bangladesh. However, more concrete proof of a political entity in Bengal starts with Shashanka in 7th century A.D. This followed (though not immediately) the Pala dynasty and the Sena dynasty. The Pala dynasty was Buddhist while both Shashanka and the Senas were Hindus. Bengal became Islamic starting in the 13th century and developed into a wealthy centre of trade and industry under the Mughal Empire during the 16th century. European traders had arrived in the late 15th century and eventually the British East India Company controlled the region by the late 18th century, from which the British extended their rule over all of India. When Indian independence was achieved in 1947, political motivations caused it to be divided into the Islamic state of Pakistan and a secular India. The Partition of India saw Bengal divided between the two new countries: a Muslim-dominated eastern part called East Bengal corresponding to what is now Bangladesh, and a western part, the Indian state of West Bengal. The abolition of the Zamindari system (which divided the society into lords, owners of property, and commoners, users of property) in East Bengal (1950) was a major landmark in Bangladesh's movement to a "people's state". The Language Movement of 1952 established the rights of the Bengali community to speak in their own language. This was one of the few instances of an uprising that was done solely for preserving the rights to speak a language. UNESCO recently recognized 21 February as International Mother Language Day. In 1955, the government of Pakistan changed the name of the province from East Bengal to East Pakistan. East Pakistan was dominated and neglected by West Pakistan, which comprised the rest of Pakistan (West Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, and the Northwest Frontier Province). Despite the fact that East Pakistan earned the larger share of national income, especially through the export of Jute, most of the development was done in West Pakistan. The Pakistan Army was also mostly dominated by officers from West Pakistan. The tensions peaked in 1971, following an open, non-democratic denial by Pakistani president Yahya Khan, a military ruler, of election results that gave the Awami League an overwhelming majority in the parliament (167 out of 169 seats allocated for East Pakistan) [1]. Under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also known as Bôngobondhu (Friend of Bengal), Bangladesh started its struggle for independence. The official onset followed one of the bloodiest genocides of recent times carried out by the Pakistan army on Bengali civilians on 25 March 1971. Virtually the entire Bengali intelligentsia was eliminated. This genocide is one of the most horrible in terms of death toll in post World War II history. Owing to West Pakistan's effort to rid the country of foreign journalists, accurate numbers are difficult to get, but some estimates claim 50,000 deaths in the first three days of the so-called Operation Searchlight of the Pakistan Army [2]. More than ten million Bengalis fled to neighbouring India. This put severe economic pressure on India and the then prime minister of India Indira Gandhi toured several western countries to apprise them of the situation and the burden on India. The Bangladeshi Liberation War took place during the Cold War period. The United States and the People's Republic of China, considering the war an internal affair of Pakistan, preferred to back West Pakistan. However, India, the USSR and her allies and general masses in Japan, and Western countries stood solidly behind Bangladesh. To gain strategic advantage over the Sino-US-Pakistan axis, the Indo-Soviet Friendship Treaty was signed on 9 August 1971." [3] India, owing to its geographical position and military antagonism towards Pakistan, as well as economic and social problems caused due to the huge influx of refugees into its territory vehemently backed the Liberation War, especially after the USSR backed its motives. Strategically, independence of Bangladesh would mean one fewer front to fight Pakistan on. Also worth mentioning is that certain regional governments gave support based on ethnic grounds. On 27 March 1971, Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, expressed full support of her Government to the struggle for freedom. The Bangladesh-India border was opened to allow the tortured and panic-stricken Bengalis to have safe shelter in India. The governments of West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura established refugee camps along the border. These camps became ready ground for recruitment of the freedom fighters. The headquarters of the Bangladesh Forces was established at 8 Theatre Road, Calcutta which started functioning from 12 April 1971. Lieutenant Colonel M. A. Rab and Group Captain A. K. Khandaker were appointed as Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff respectively. [4] Throughout the War, despite severe opposition from the West Pakistan government, the British Broadcasting Corporation continued to provide coverage through the BBC Bangla radio services in South Asia. Among international efforts to raise awareness was also the Concert for Bangladesh by former Beatle George Harrison. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, being identified as a major influencer of the Bengalis, was arrested by the Pakistani Government. Before he was arrested, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made a formal and official declaration of Independence on 26 March. Hence 26 March is considered the Independence Day of Bangladesh. On 27 March Ziaur Rahman, an army major then, and President of Bangladesh much later, made the announcement of the declaration of Independence of Bangladesh on behalf of the supreme leader Bongobondhu, using a makeshift radio transmitter from Kalurghat near the port city of Chittagong. With help of Bengali officers in the army, support of civilians and military/humanitarian aid from India, Bangladesh quickly formed a regular army as well as a guerilla force known as Mukti Bahini (Freedom Fighters), an armed group formed mostly of young students, workers, farmers and other civilians. Besides harassing attacks on the resident Pakistani army, the Mukti Bahini provided local intelligence and guidance of immense value to the allied force of Bangaldesh Army and Indian Army which attacked the occupying West Pakistani army of 80,000 in early December 1971. .Within two weeks of the Indian invasion, on 16 December 1971, the Lieutenant-General A. A. K. Niazi of the Pakistan army formally surrendered to Lt.Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora, the head of the Indian army's Eastern Command who transformed the Mukti Bahini into an effective fighting force. India took 93,000 prisoners of war who were held in camps in India to avoid reprisals by an enraged Bangladeshi population. The new nation of Bangladesh effectively came into being and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who had been incarcerated in West Pakistan since March, returned triumphantly as the first Prime Minister of the new nation. India withdrew its troops from Bangladesh within three months of the war. Pakistan, aided by its supporters in Bangladesh, committed war crimes before and during the war and memories of Bangladeshis remain scarred to this day. After the war, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became the Prime Minister and later the President of Bangladesh. He along with most of his family were massacred by a group of disgruntled Army officers on 15 August 1975. Following his death, (Major General) Khaled Mosharraf led a military coup on 3 November 1975. Khaled Mosharraf was killed in a counter coup on 7 November 1975 in the Dhaka cantonment culminating in General Ziaur Rahman gaining power. He later gained the Presidency. But in 1981, he was killed in yet another coup, in Chittagong. In 1982 General Hossain Mohammad Ershad staged a bloodless coup and deposed the president Ahsan Uddin Choudhury, a former Supreme Court Justice. Ershad later declared himself President and started a new political party named Janadal, which he later renamed as Jatiya Party. The rule of Ershad continued until 1990. A popular uprising forced Ershad to resign and give way to a parliamentary democracy. Since then, Bangladesh has been ruled by three democratically elected governments. Politics of BangladeshThe President, while head of state, holds a largely ceremonial post, with real power held by the Prime Minister, who is head of government. The president is elected by the legislature every five years and his normally limited powers are substantially expanded during the tenure of a caretaker government, mainly in controlling the transition to a new government. The prime minister is appointed by the president and must be a member of parliament (MP) who the president feels commands the confidence of the majority of other MPs. The cabinet is composed of ministers selected by the prime minister and appointed by the president. The unicameral Bangladeshi parliament is the House of the Nation or Jatiya Sangsad, whose 300 members are elected by popular vote from single territorial constituencies for five-year terms of office. The highest judiciary body is the Supreme Court, of which the chief justices and other judges are appointed by the president. Khaleda Zia is currently the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. The politics of Bangladesh is dominated by two major parties, Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Awami League. Other major political parties include Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and Jatiya Party. Geography of BangladeshBangladesh consists mostly of a low-lying river delta located on the Indian subcontinent with a largely marshy jungle coastline on the Bay of Bengal known as the Sundarbans, home to the (Royal) Bengal Tiger and one of the largest mangrove forests in the world. The densely populated delta is formed by the confluence of the Ganges (local name Padma), Brahmaputra (Jamuna), and Meghna rivers and their tributaries as they flow down from the Himalaya, creating the largest riverine delta in the world. Bangladesh's alluvial soil is highly fertile but vulnerable to both flood and drought. Hills rise above the plain only in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (highest point: the Keokradong at 1230 m) in the far southeast and the Sylhet division in the northeast. Straddling the Tropic of Cancer, the Bangladeshi climate is tropical with a mild winter from October to March, a hot, humid summer from March to June, and a humid, warm rainy monsoon from June to October. Natural calamities, such as floods, tropical cyclones, tornadoes, and tidal bores affect the country almost every year, combined with the effects of deforestation, soil degradation and erosion. Dhaka is the country's capital and largest city. Other major cities include Chittagong, Rajshahi, and Khulna. Cox's Bazar, South of the city of Chittagong, has a sea beach that stretches uninterrupted over 120 km; it is frequently quoted as the World's longest natural sea beach (although this claim is difficult to prove or disprove). Economy of BangladeshFishermen near the town of Cox's Bazaar in southern Bangladesh. Many industries in Bangladesh are still primitive by modern standards.Despite sustained domestic and international efforts to improve economic and demographic prospects, Bangladesh remains a underdeveloped, overpopulated, and ill-governed nation. Although more than half of the GDP is generated through the service sector, nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the single most important product. Among other crops, Jute has been the major foreign exchange earnings cash crop from Bangladesh. Almost 70% of the export earnings of Bangladesh came from Jute immediately after the independence. Jute is the second Natural Fiber widely cultivated in the world after cotton. And Bangladesh is the major producer of Jute in the world. However, major portion of the export earnings of Bangladesh comes from the Garments Industry. During the 80s, the garments sector in Bangladesh boomed very rapidly. This was possible because of the very low cost labor, which the attracted the foreign investors to invest in the garments sector. The garments sector has developed a comprehensive network of businesses in Bangladesh, from yarn, lables, accessories, and fabrics, to ready made garments. The garments industry employs almost 40% of the female population in Bangladesh. Major impediments to growth include frequent cyclones and floods, inefficient state-owned enterprises, mismanaged port facilities, a rapidly growing labour force that has not been absorbed by agriculture, inefficient use of energy resources (such as natural gas), insufficient power supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms, caused by political infighting and corruption. In 2001, 2002, and 2003, Transparency International's surveys ranked Bangladesh as the World's most corrupt country. Since June 2004 Bangladesh has been ravaged by its worst floods in six years, which have killed 628 people so far and covered about 60% of the country. About 20 million people are in need of food aid on account of damaged crops, and the textile industry which earns 80% of the country's export earnings has been disrupted. Officials estimate that the damage incurred could approach US$7 billion (Yahoo!News). The July 19, 2005 issue of the New York Times reported that an eight story shopping mall has recently opened in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The large influx of shoppers belies the notion that the economy of Bangladesh has been stagnant. Observers credited an expansion in the textile and garment trade for bringing some prosperity to the country. Demographics of BangladeshApart from very small countries such as Singapore and Bahrain, Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world. The nation, at 982 persons per km², has often been compared to Indonesia's Java. Bangladesh is ethnically homogenous, with Bengalis comprising 98% of the population. The vast majority speak Bangla, or Bengali. The remaining two percent are mainly Urdu-speaking, non-Bengali Muslims from regions of India such as Bihar. A substantial number of non-Bengali tribal groups inhabit the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the southeast and the Northern regions Bangladesh, including parts of the districts of Mymensingh, Sylhet, Rangpur. Almost all non-Bengali Bangladeshis speak Bangla as a second language. Most Bangladeshis (about 83%) are Muslims, but Hindus constitute a sizable (16%) minority. There are also a small number of Buddhists, Christians, and Animists. Bengali, an Indo-Aryan language, is written in a script similar to Devanagari. It is the official language, though English is accepted in official tasks and in (higher) education. In the mid-eighties, the government began promoting birth control to slow population growth, but with limited success. However, the Government has gained considerable success in preventing the spread of many childhood diseases, through an effective nationwide immunisation policy. Many are landless or forced to inhabit hazardous floodplains, with the consequence of rampant water-borne disease. In an effort to stem the spread of pathogens like cholera and dysentery, international organizations began to promote well-drilling throughout the nation. Several years after widespread implementation of the programme, over a quarter of the population exhibited symptoms of arsenic poisoning. High levels of naturally occurring arsenic in the water table of certain regions has not been accounted for. The effects of arsenic-tainted water still remain a problem. Sports in BangladeshSports and games form an integral part of Bangladeshi's life. In the villages one might see a group of kids kicking a football, or in some dusty alley one might see children playing cricket. Though Bangladesh is not a major sporting power in any sense, Bangladeshi athletes and sportspersons have brought her many laurels. Kabadi is the national game of Bangladesh, though recently cricket has gained popularity in the urban areas. In the international arena, cricket and chess have brought many victories to Bangladesh. Recently Bangladesh beat the world champions Australia in a one-day match in England and Niaz Morshed has become the first Grandmaster of the subcontinent. Education in BangladeshEducation in Bangladesh is highly subsidized by the Government, which operates many schools and colleges in the primary, secondary and higher secondary level as well as many public universities. The whole country is divided into seven education boards (Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Jessore, Barishal, Sylhet and Comilla Education Boards) which oversee education from the primary to the higher secondary level, and conduct the primary and junior scholarship examinations, the Secondary School Certificate examination, and the Higher Secondary Certificate examination. The Government also provides a large portion of the salaries of the teachers in non-government schools. To promote literacy among women, education is free upto the higher secondary level for female students. There is also a Government-funded program which gives incentives like stipends and food for continuing education in the secondary level. There are 22 Public Universities in Bangladesh. Among them five provide engineering education and the rest are general universities. AAbkhazia - Republic of Abkhazia (de facto independent state inside Georgia) Afghanistan - Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Akrotiri - Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area (overseas territory of the United Kingdom) Åland - Åland Islands (autonomous province of Finland recognized by international treaty) Albania - Republic of Albania Algeria - People's Democratic Republic of Algeria American Samoa - Territory of American Samoa (unincorporated unorganized territory of the United States) Andorra - Principality of Andorra (co-principality with the President of the French Republic and the Bishop of Urgell, Spain as ex officio heads of state) Angola - Republic of Angola Anguilla (overseas territory of the United Kingdom) Antigua and Barbuda (Commonwealth Realm) Argentina - Argentine Republic (federal state, also named Argentine Nation for purposes of legislation) Armenia - Republic of Armenia Aruba (overseas country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands) Ascension Island (dependency of Saint Helena, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom) Australia - Commonwealth of Australia (federal state, Commonwealth Realm) Austria - Republic of Austria (federal state) Azerbaijan - Republic of Azerbaijan (see also Nagorno-Karabakh) B Bahamas, The - Commonwealth of The Bahamas (Commonwealth Realm) Bahrain - Kingdom of Bahrain Bangladesh - People's Republic of Bangladesh Barbados (Commonwealth Realm) Belarus - Republic of Belarus Belgium - Kingdom of Belgium (federal state) Belize (Commonwealth Realm) Benin - Republic of Benin Bermuda (overseas territory of the United Kingdom) Bhutan - Kingdom of Bhutan Bolivia - Republic of Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina (federal state) Botswana - Republic of Botswana Brazil - Federative Republic of Brazil (federal state) Brunei - Negara Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria - Republic of Bulgaria Burkina Faso See Myanmar for Burma Burundi - Republic of Burundi C Cambodia - Kingdom of Cambodia Cameroon - Republic of Cameroon Canada (federal state, Commonwealth Realm, officially also (but infrequently) referred to as Dominion of Canada) Cape Verde - Republic of Cape Verde Cayman Islands (overseas territory of the United Kingdom) Central African Republic (sometimes also rendered as Central Africa) Chad - Republic of Chad Chile - Republic of Chile China (PRC) - People's Republic of China See Taiwan (ROC) for the Republic of China (see also One-China policy and dispute over UN representation between PRC and ROC) Christmas Island - Territory of Christmas Island (overseas territory of Australia) Cocos (Keeling) Islands - Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands (overseas territory of Australia) Colombia - Republic of Colombia Comoros - Union of the Comoros (federal state) Congo (Brazzaville) - Republic of the Congo Congo (Kinshasa) - Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly and popularly known as Zaire) Cook Islands (self-governing state in free association with New Zealand) Costa Rica - Republic of Costa Rica Côte d'Ivoire - Republic of Côte d'Ivoire (formerly and popularly known as Ivory Coast) Croatia - Republic of Croatia Cuba - Republic of Cuba Cyprus - Republic of Cyprus (see also Northern Cyprus) Czech Republic (sometimes also rendered as Czechia) D Denmark - Kingdom of Denmark Dhekelia - Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area (overseas territory of the United Kingdom) Djibouti - Republic of Djibouti Dominica - Commonwealth of Dominica Dominican Republic (sometimes also rendered as The Dominican) E See Timor -Leste for East Timor
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