Chapter-1

Introduction to Bangladesh Studies

Umme Kulsum
Lecturer
 Samsul Alam, Lecuturer (MIS), Daffodil
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Category
Basic Particulars
Information
Constitutional Name The People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Governmental System Parliamentary Democracy
Liberation and victory day 26th March and 16th December
Area (square km & square miles) 1,47,610 square kilometers/56,990 square miles
Geographical Position Bangladesh is a densely-populated, low-lying,
mainly riverine country located in South Asia with a
coastline of 580 km (360 mi) on the northern
littoral of the Bay of Bengal.
Sits in between 20'34N to 26'38N latitude and from
88'01E to 92'41E longitude
Local Time GMT+6
Climate Tropical monsoon
Seasons 6: Summer, Rainy, Autumn, Late Autumn, Winter,
Spring
Population in million 164.7 (WB-17 & UNDP-18) – 8th in the world
Sex Ratio (M:F) 100.3:100

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 Basic Information
Category Particulars
Population growth rate 1.37% (Bangladesh Economic Review-2018)
Population density 1090/Square km (BER-18)
Literacy rate 71% (M-73%, F-68.9%) (BER-18)
Poverty rate 24.3%, 12.9% (extremely) (BER-18)
Avg. life span 71 Years: M-70.3 & F-72.9 (BER-18)
Avg. Temperature 25 °C
Currency BDT (Bangladesh taka)
GDP 249.7 billion (WB-17)
GDP growth rate 7.86% (BER-18)

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 Basic Information
Category Particulars
Inflation rate 5.6% (BER-18)
Per capita income $ 1751 (nominal) (BER-18)
Annual budget 4,64,573 crore taka for 2018-19 (47th, 1st: 786 core taka in
1972-73) (BER-18)
Foreign debt per head Apprx. $ 205
No. of sea port 3: Chattogram, Mongla, Paira
International airport 3: Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet
No. of city corporation 12: Dhaka North City, Dhaka South, Gazipur, Narayanganj,
Khulna, Barishal, Chattogram, Cumilla, Mymensingh,
Rajshahi, Rangpur, Sylhet City corporation
No. of division 8: Dhaka, Chattogram, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barishal, Sylhet,
Rangpur, Mymensingh
No. of district 64
No. of subdistrict 491

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 Basic Information
Category Particulars
Natural resources Natural gas, Coal, Sand, Rock, Petroleum,
Oil, Energy, Fish, Water, Forest, Soil
Biggest district Rangamati
Smallest district Meherpur
Religion based on population Islam: 90%, Hinduism: 9%, Buddhism:
0.6%, Christianity: 0.3%, Other religions /
No religion: 0.1%
Principal rivers Padma, Meghna, Jamuna, Brahmaputra
Employment sector Agriculture, Industry, Service
No. of EPZ 8: Chittagong EPZ, Dhaka EPZ, Mongla
EPZ, Ishwardi EPZ, Comilla EPZ, Uttara EPZ,
Adamjee EPZ, Karnaphuli EPZ
Total parliamentary seat 350 incl. 50 reserved seat for women
State language Bengali

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 Culture and Customs of Bangladesh

Bangladesh has a long history of its culture and customs. The land, the
rivers, and the daily life of the common people from different
communities who live in harmony with greatly sympathetic neighbor to
one another formed a rich heritage and customs in the regions. Beside the
great Bengali poets Rabindranath Tagore (nobel laureate) and Kazi
Nazrul Islam (The National Poet of Bangladesh), a number of Bengali
Saints, Baul, Authors, Researchers, Thinkers, Painters, Music
personalities, Film-Makers and so on great soul have played a significant
role in the development of Bangladeshi local culture during Bengal
Renaissance in 19th and the first few decades in 20th centuries.
Agriculture plays an important role to form culture and customs in
Bangladesh when it is the main profession in the region. The culture of
Bangladesh is composited over centuries has assimilated influences of
local existing religion, socioeconomic condition, mass occupation, belief,
movement and so on factors. The region has a long heritage of
multifaceted folk, sculpture, weaving, pottery and terracotta, art and craft,
festivals and celebrations, philosophy and religion, and also in a
distinction of cuisine and culinary tradition. Folk theatre is common at
the village level and usually takes place during harvest time or at Melas
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 Culture and Customs of Bangladesh

Traditional music involves mostly lyrics and little instrumental

accompaniment reflects Sufism, lifestyle, nature, emotion, and
socioeconomic condition. Major traditional musical instruments are
the ektara, dotara, dhol, flute, table etc. Photography and Painting
are also a great combination of traditions. Now a days, day, week or
even month long painting or photography exhibition in different
places shows the artists creativity. There is much to learn about the
literature, entertainment and cuisine in Bangladesh. All of these
form an integral part of the cultural heritage of Bangladesh. National
occasions also mark Bangladeshi life, and these include
Independence Day, Historic Language Martyr's Day (now observe as
international mother language day), Victory Day etc.

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 Festivals and celebrations in Bangladesh

Festivals and celebrations are the part of parcel of the culture and customs of
Bangladesh. Prominent and widely celebrated festivals in Bangladesh are
described below in brief.

Pohela Boishakh Celebration in Bangladesh

Pohela Boishakh is the first day of the Bengali New Year. Now it is celebrated
on the 14th of April of the Gregorian calendar. Celebrations of Pahela Baishakh
started from Akbar’s reign. The main event of the day was to open a Halkhata
(new fresh book) of accounts. This was wholly a financial affair. In villages, towns
and cities, traders and shopkeepers closed their old account book and opened
new one. They used to invite their customers to share sweets and renew their
business relationship. This tradition is still practiced among the jewelers, local
store-businessman, retailers etc. Pohela Boishakh is a public holiday.

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 Festivals and celebrations in Bangladesh

Eid-ul-Fitr
Muslim festivals follow a lunar calendar. After a month long
fasting in Ramadan,  the  Holy Festival Eid-ul-Fitr comes with
great joy and the occasion of social gathering.

Eid-ul-Azha:
 There are many similarities between the celebration of Eid ul-
Azha and Eid ul-Fitr in many ways. The only major difference is
the Qurbani (sacrifice of domestic animals) on Eid ul-Azha.  It is
the second major Muslim festival and is celebrated with much
meat.
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 Festivals and celebrations in Bangladesh

Shab-E-Barat
 Atthe full moon 14 days before the starting of Ramadan, Shab-e-Barat is a sacred night when
sweetmeats are distributed to the poor, neighbors and relatives.

Durga Puja:
  Durga Puja is the biggest celebration of Hindu community. It is celebrated during
October. On the occasion, the Debi Durga (Goddess) statues astride a lion, with her
ten hands holding ten different weapons, are placed in not only regular Hindu
temple but also enormous temporary stages. Hindu community shop new dress and
so on knick-knack on the occasion. Almost all Puja stage, Village fair sits aside. It is
now a day’s one of the most public gathering occasion. Puja stage and such fair is
visited not only Hindu community but also all classes of people of Bangladesh.

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 Lifestyle of Bangladesh

Dress
 Bangladeshi people have traditional dress preferences. Bangladeshi men wear Pajama-
Punjabi or T-shirt on religious and cultural occasions and shirt pant on formal occasions.
Lungi is the unique preference for Bangladeshi men. Almost all men at home wear
Lungi.  Shari of different colors and patterns is the most common dress for Bangladeshi
women. Salowar Kamij is also very popular, especially among the teen girls. Some girls in
urban areas also wear pants, skirts and tops.

Jewelry
Every Bangladeshi woman has an exceptional point of view about Jewelry. Almost all the
Bangladeshi women fond of Gold and Silver. High or high middle classes people show
their blue blood wearing diamond or platinum jewelries. Costume Jewelries are also most
popular not only among the low earning group people but also educated and cultured
guys. Gold is so popular in Bangladesh that it is must in every weeding ceremony. Hindu
married women are easily identified by her wrist accessories and their Shidur which is
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dark red chemicals use in their middle of University,
International upper forehead.
Uttara Campus
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 Political context
The Moghuls ruled the country from the 13th century until the
18th century, when the British took over and administered the
subcontinent until 1947. During British rule, Bangladesh was part
of India. In 1947, the independent states of Pakistan and India
were created. The present territory of Bangladesh was a part of
Pakistan and was known as East Pakistan. It was separated from
West Pakistan by 1600 kilometres of Indian territory. Bangladesh
emerged on the world map as a sovereign state on March 26,
1971, after fighting a nine-month war of liberation. This was
followed by many years of political turmoil and military coups.
The December 1990 mass movement for democracy was
successful in forcing elections, which replaced the corrupt
government. Democracy was restored in 1991 and since then
Bangladesh has experienced a period of economic progress and
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 Social and economic context

Bangladesh is an E9 country and a ‘least developed country’ with

deep-ridden and inherited extreme poverty and hunger, growing
social and economic disparities, frequent cases of political and civil
unrest and the daunting challenge of natural hazards, likely to be
further compounded by climate change in the years to come.

According to the Human Development Report (HDI) 2010,

Bangladesh is one of the countries that made the greatest progress in
recent decades, as measured by the Human Development Index
(HDI). Bangladesh’s HDI has increased by 81 per cent in the past 30
years. Even with such impressive relative gains, Bangladesh remains a
country in need of continued and coherent development assistance.

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 Environment Condition of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a low-lying riverine country along with vast Bay of Bengal sea basin in
south. The country has modest weather however; the rapid climate changes become
impact the ecological imbalance. Once this region was naturally available of pure
surface water. In rare cases the country affected by floods, tornadoes and cyclones etc.
Unfortunately, the surface water become polluted thus resulted the epidemics like
outbreak of cholera. Late sixties the authorities suggested to drink ground water and
introduced tube well in order to eradicate the epidemics.
After the formation of Bangladesh, India built a world largest dam Called Farakkah in
the Ganges River the natural flow of water diverted and low land of Bangladesh
become desert land. Shortage of water, a vast area out of cultivation and all water
ways under intervention. On going building the dams by India thus blocked fifty four
rivers until now . At present even in rainy season rain fall become in reduce level as
well the flowing lowest river water the wetland is significantly reducing and the rice
transplant highly decreasing. Likewise, every year it has been affecting our
Biodiversity, forest, aquatic population ,birds, reptiles, mammals, aquatic plants,
weeds, shrubs etc.

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