DEPARTMENT

OF

Class Assignment

Course Name : Bangladesh Studies

Course Code : HUM 100

Name: Amit Hasan Rakib Teacher’s Name : Ataus Samad

Student Id : CSE 02207157 Teacher’s Name Code : ASR

Batch: CSE 22-“A” (Day) Department : Natural Science
History of Bangladesh (in brief)

1. Introduction....................... (page – 1)
2. Capital................................ (page – 1)
3. Major Cities....................... (page – 2)
4. Bangladesh's Government. (page – 2,3)
5. Population of Bangladesh. (page – 3,4)
6. Languages.......................... (page – 4,5)
7. Religion in Bangladesh.... (page – 5,6)
8. Geography......................... (page – 6,7)
9. Climate of Bangladesh.... (page – 7,8)
10. Economy............................ (page – 8,9)
11. History of Bangladesh...... (page – 10-14)
12. Sources and Further Information...
(page – 15)
Introduction
Bangladesh is often associated with flooding,
cyclones, and famine, and the low-lying
country is among the most vulnerable to the
threat of rising sea levels due to global
warming. However, this densely populated
nation on the Ganges/Brahmaputra/Meghna
Delta is an innovator in the development and
is quickly pulling its people up out of poverty.
Although the modern state of Bangladesh
gained independence from Pakistan only in
1971, the cultural roots of the Bengali people
run deep into the past.

Capital
Dhaka, population 20,3 million (2019
estimate, CIA World Factbook)

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Major Cities
 Chittagong, 4.9 million
 Khulna, 963.000
 Rajshahi, 893,000

Bangladesh's Government
The People's Republic of Bangladesh is a
parliamentary democracy, with the
president as chief of state and prime
minister as head of government. The
president is elected to a five-year term
and may serve two terms total. All citizens
over 18 years of age can vote.
The unicameral parliament is called
the Jatiya Sangsad; its 300 members also
serve five-year terms. The president
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 officially appoints the prime minister, but
he or she must be the representative of
the majority coalition in parliament. The
current president is Abdul Hamid.
Bangladesh's prime minister is Sheikh
Hasina.

Population of Bangladesh
Bangladesh is home to approximately
159,000,000 people, giving this Iowa-sized
nation the eighth highest population in the
world. Bangladesh groans under a population
density of about 3,300 per square mile.
Population growth has slowed dramatically,
however, thanks to a fertility rate that has
fallen from 6.33 live births per adult woman
in 1975 to 2.15 in 2018,
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which is replacement-rate fertility.
Bangladesh also is experiencing net out-
migration.
Ethnic Bengalis make up 98 percent of the
population. The remaining 2 percent is
divided among small tribal groups along the
Burmese border and Bihari immigrants.

Languages
The official language of Bangladesh is Bangla,
also known as Bengali. English also is
commonly used in urban areas. Bangla is an
Indo-Aryan language descended from
Sanskrit. It has a unique script, also based on
Sanskrit. Some non-Bengali Muslims in
Bangladesh speak Urdu as their primary
tongue.
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Literacy rates in Bangladesh are improving as
the poverty rate falls, but still, only 76
percent of men and 70 percent of women are
literate, as of 2017. Those aged 15–24,
though, have a literacy rate of 92 percent,
according to UNESCO.

Religion in Bangladesh
The predominant religion in Bangladesh is
Islam, with 89% of the population adhering to
that faith. Among Bangladeshi Muslims, 92
percent are Sunni, and 2 percent Shi'a; only a
fraction of 1 percent are Ahmadiyyas. (Some
didn't specify.)
Hindus are the largest minority religion in
Bangladesh, at 10% of the population.

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There are also tiny minorities (less than 1%)
of Christians, Buddhists, and animists.

Geography
Bangladesh is blessed with deep, rich, and
fertile soil, a gift from the three major rivers
that form the deltaic plain upon which it sits.
The Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna
Rivers all wend their way down from the
Himalayas, carrying nutrients to replenish
Bangladesh's fields.

This luxury comes at a heavy cost, however.

Bangladesh is almost entirely flat, and except
for some hills along the Burmese border, it
almost entirely at sea level. As a result,

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the country is regularly flooded by the rivers,
by tropical cyclones off the Bay of Bengal, and
by tidal bores.

Bangladesh is bordered by India all around it,

except a short border with Burma (Myanmar)
in the southeast.

Climate of Bangladesh
The climate in Bangladesh is tropical and
monsoonal. In the dry season, from October
to March, temperatures are mild and
pleasant. The weather turns hot and muggy
from March to June, awaiting the monsoon
rains. From June to October, the skies open
and drop most of the country's total annual

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rainfall, as much as 224 inches per year
(6,950 mm).
As mentioned, Bangladesh often suffers from
flooding and cyclone strikes—an average of
16 cyclones hit per decade. In 1998, flooding
struck due to an unusual melt-off of
Himalayan glaciers, covering two-thirds of
Bangladesh with floodwater, and in 2017,
hundreds of villages were submerged, and
tens of thousands of people were displaced
by two months of monsoon flooding.

Economy
Bangladesh is a developing country, with per
capita GDP of just about $4,200 U.S. per year
as of 2017. Nevertheless, the economy is
growing rapidly,
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with a roughly 6% annual growth rate from
2005 to 2017.

Although manufacturing and services are

increasing in importance, almost half of the
Bangladeshi workers are employed in
agriculture. Most factories and enterprises
are owned by the government and tend to be
inefficient.

One important source of income for

Bangladesh has been workers' remittances
from the oil-rich Gulf states such as Saudi
Arabia and the UAE. Bangladeshi workers
sent $13 billion U.S. home in FISCAL YEAR
2016–2017.

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History of Bangladesh
For centuries, the area that is now
Bangladesh was part of the Bengal region of
India. It was ruled by the same empires that
ruled central India, from the Maurya (321–
184 BCE) to the Mughal (1526–1858 CE).
When the British took control of the region
and created their Raj in India (1858–1947),
Bangladesh was included.

During the negotiations surrounding

independence and the partition of British
India, predominantly Muslim Bangladesh was
separated from majority-Hindu India. In the
Muslim League's 1940 Lahore Resolution, one
of the demands was that the majority-Muslim
sections of the Punjab and Bengal would be
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included in Muslim states, rather than
remaining with India. After communal
violence broke out in India, some politicians
suggested that a unified Bengali state would
be a better solution. This idea was vetoed by
the Indian National Congress, led by the
Mahatma Gandhi.

At the end, when British India gained its

independence in August 1947, the Muslim
section of Bengal became a non-contiguous
part of the new nation of Pakistan. It was
called "East Pakistan."

East Pakistan was in an odd position,

separated from Pakistan proper by a 1,000-
mile stretch of India.
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It was also divided from the main body of
Pakistan by ethnicity and language; Pakistanis
are primarily Punjabi and Pashtun, as
opposed to the Bengali East Pakistanis.

For 24 years, East Pakistan struggled under

financial and political neglect from West
Pakistan. Political unrest was endemic in the
region, as military regimes repeatedly
overthrew democratically elected
governments. Between 1958 and 1962, and
from 1969 to 1971, East Pakistan was under
martial law.

In the parliamentary elections of 1970–71,

East Pakistan's separatist Awami League won
every single seat allocated to the East.
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Talks between the two Pakistans failed, and
on March 27, 1971, Sheikh Mujibar Rahman
declared Bangladeshi independence from
Pakistan. The Pakistani Army fought to stop
the secession, but India sent troops to
support the Bangladeshis. On January 11,
1972, Bangladesh became an independent
parliamentary democracy.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the first leader

of Bangladesh, from 1972 until his
assassination in 1975. The current prime
minister, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, is his
daughter. The political situation in
Bangladesh is still volatile and has included
free and fair elections,

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but recent persecution of political dissent by
the state raised concerns about how the 2018
elections would go.

The election held on December 30, 2018

returned a landslide for the ruling party, but
garnered several episodes of violence against
opposition leaders and accusations of vote
rigging.

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Sources and Further Information

 "Bangladesh." CIA World Factbook. Langley:

Central Intelligence Agency, 2019.

 Ganguly, Sumit. "The World Should Be Watching

Bangladesh’s Election Debacle." The Guardian,
January 7, 2019.

 Raisuddin, Ahmed, Steven Haggblade, and

Tawfiq-e-Elahi, Chowdhury, eds. "Out of the
Shadow of Famine: Evolving Food Markets and
Food Policy in Bangladesh." Baltimore, MD: The
Johns Hopkins Press, 2000.

 Van Schendel, Willem. "A History of Bangladesh."

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
2009

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