Bangladesh

 

Bangladesh, country of South Asia, located in the delta of the Padma (Ganges [Ganga]) and Jamuna (Brahmaputra) rivers in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent.

Meet the girls taking on taboos in Bangladesh

The riverine country of Bangladesh (“Land of the Bengals”) is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and its people are predominantly Muslim. As the eastern portion of the historical region of Bengal, the area once formed, along with what is now the Indian state of West Bengal, the province of Bengal in British India. With the partition of India in 1947, it became the Pakistani province of East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan), one of five provinces of Pakistan, separated from the other four by 1,100 miles (1,800 km) of Indian territory. In 1971 it became the independent country of Bangladesh, with its capital at Dhaka.

• Land

Bangladesh is bordered by the Indian states of West Bengal to the west and north, Assam to the north, Meghalaya to the north and northeast, and Tripura and Mizoram to the east. To the southeast, it shares a boundary with Myanmar (Burma). The southern part of Bangladesh opens into the Bay of Bengal.

• Relief

Stretching northward from the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh constitutes roughly the eastern two-thirds of the deltaic plain of the Padma (Ganges [Ganga]) and Jamuna (Brahmaputra) rivers. Except for small higher areas of jungle-covered old alluvium (rising to about 100 feet [30 metres]) in the northwest and north-centre—in the Barind and the Madhupur Tract, respectively—the plain is a flat surface of recent alluvium, having a gentle slope and an elevation of generally less than 30 feet (9 metres) above sea level. In the northeast and southeast—in the Sylhet and Chittagong Hills areas, respectively—the alluvial plains give place to ridges, running mainly north-south, that form part of the mountains that separate Bangladesh from Myanmar and India. In its southern region, Bangladesh is fringed by the Sundarbans, a huge expanse of marshy deltaic forest.

The Barind is a somewhat elevated triangular wedge of land that lies between the floodplains of the upper Padma and Jamuna rivers in northwestern Bangladesh. A depression called the Bhar Basin extends southeast from the Barind for about 100 miles (160 km) to the confluence of the Padma and Jamuna. This area is inundated during the summer monsoon season, in some places to a depth exceeding 10 feet (3 metres). The drainage of the western part of the basin is centred in the vast marshy area called the Chalan wetlands, also known as Chalan Lake. The floodplains of the Jamuna, which lie north of the Bhar Basin and east of the Barind, stretch from the border with Assam in the north to the confluence of the Padma and Jamuna in the south. The area is dominated by the Jamuna, which frequently overflows its banks in devastating floods. South of the Bhar Basin is the floodplain of the lower Padma.

In north-central Bangladesh, east of the Jamuna floodplains, is the Madhupur Tract. It consists of an elevated plateau on which hillocks ranging in height from 30 to 60 feet (9 to 18 metres) give contour to cultivated valleys. The Madhupur Tract contains sal trees, whose hardwood is comparable in value and utility to teak. East of the Madhupur Tract, in northeastern Bangladesh, is a region called the Northeastern Lowland. It encompasses the southern and southwestern parts of the Sylhet area (including the valley plain of the Surma River) and the northern part of the Mymensingh area and has a large number of lakes. The Sylhet Hills in the far northeast of the region consist of a number of hillocks and hills ranging in elevation from about 100 feet (30 metres) to more than 1,100 feet (330 metres).

In east-central Bangladesh the Brahmaputra River in its old course (the Old Brahmaputra River) built up the flood basin of the Meghna River, the region that includes the low and fertile Meghna-Sitalakhya Doab (the land area between those rivers). This area is enriched by the Titas distributary, and land areas are formed and changed by the deposition of silt and sand in the riverbeds of the Meghna River, especially between Bhairab Bazar and Daudkandi. Dhaka is located in this region.

In southern Bangladesh the Central Delta Basins include the extensive lakes in the central part of the Bengal Delta, to the south of the upper Padma. The basin’s total area is about 1,200 square miles (3,100 square km). The belt of land in southwestern Bangladesh bordering the Bay of Bengal constitutes the Immature Delta. A lowland of some 3,000 square miles (7,800 square km), the belt contains, in addition to the vast mangrove forest known as the Sundarbans, the reclaimed and cultivated lands to the north of it. The area nearest the Bay of Bengal is crisscrossed by a network of streams that flow around roughly oblong islands. The Active Delta, located north of the Central Delta Basins and east of the Immature Delta, includes the Dhaleswari-Padma Doab and the estuarine islands of varying sizes that are found from the Pusur River in the southwest to the island of Sandwip near Chittagong in the southeast.

Lying to the south of the Feni River in southeastern Bangladesh is the Chittagong region, which has many hills, hillocks, valleys, and forests and is quite different in aspect from other parts of the country. The coastal plain is partly sandy and partly composed of saline clay; it extends southward from the Feni River to the town of Cox’s Bazar and varies in width from 1 to 10 miles (1.6 to 16 km). The region has a number of offshore islands and one coral reef, St. Martin’s, off the coast of Myanmar. The hilly area known as the Chittagong Hill Tracts, in the far southeast, consists of low hills of soft rocks, mainly clay and shale. The north-south ranges are generally below 2,000 feet (600 metres) in elevation.

• Drainage

The most significant feature of the Bangladesh landscape is provided by the rivers, which have molded not only its physiography but also the way of life of the people. Rivers in Bangladesh, however, are subject to constant and sometimes rapid changes of course, which can affect the hydrology of a large region; consequently, no description of Bangladesh’s topography retains its absolute accuracy for long. One spectacular example of such a change occurred in 1787, when the Tista River underwent exceptionally high flooding; its waters were suddenly diverted eastward, where they reinforced the Brahmaputra. The swollen Brahmaputra in turn began to cut into a minor stream, which by the early 1800s had become the river’s main lower course, now known as the Jamuna. A much smaller river (the Old Brahmaputra) now flows through the Brahmaputra’s former course.

Each year between June and October, the rivers overflow their banks and inundate the countryside, rising most heavily in September or October and receding quickly in November. The inundations are both a blessing and a curse. Without them, the fertile silt deposits would not be replenished, but severe floods regularly damage crops and ruin hamlets and sometimes take a heavy toll on human and animal populations.

The rivers may be divided into five systems: (1) The Padma (or Ganges) and its deltaic streams, (2) the Meghna and the Surma river system, (3) the Jamuna and its adjoining channels, (4) the North Bengal rivers, and (5) the rivers of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the adjoining plains.

The greater Ganges is the pivot of the deltaic river system of the historical region of Bengal. The greater Ganges Delta covers some 23,000 square miles (60,000 square km), the bulk of it in southwestern Bangladesh. The Ganges in Bangladesh is known as the Padma, and it is divided into two segments, the upper Padma and the lower Padma. The river enters Bangladesh from the west and constitutes, for about 90 miles (145 km), the boundary between Bangladesh and West Bengal. As it flows farther into Bangladesh, the upper Padma forms numerous distributaries and spill channels and reaches its confluence with the Jamuna west of Dhaka, after which their combined waters make up the lower Padma which, from a hydrological perspective, is the Padma proper. The lower Padma flows southeast to join the Meghna near Chandpur and enters the Bay of Bengal through the Meghna estuary and lesser channels. Except where it is confined by high banks, the upper Padma’s main channel changes course every two or three years. Its waters appear muddy owing to the volume of silt carried by the river. Silt deposits build temporary islands that reduce navigability but are so highly fertile that they have been for decades a source of feuds among peasants who rush to occupy them.

The Meghna is formed by the union of the Sylhet-Surma and Kusiyara rivers. These two rivers are branches of the Barak River, which rises in the Nagar-Manipur watershed in India. The main branch of the Barak, the Surma, is joined near Azmiriganj in northeastern Bangladesh by the Kalni and farther down by the Kusiyara branch. The Dhaleswari, a distributary of the Jamuna River, joins the Meghna a few miles above the junction of the lower Padma and the Meghna. As it meanders south, the Meghna grows larger after receiving the waters of several rivers, including the Buriganga and the Sitalakhya.

The Jamuna and its adjoining channels cover a large area from north-central Bangladesh to the Meghna River in the southeast. A number of rivers enter the Jamuna, especially from the west, and, with their notoriously shifting channels, they not only prevent permanent settlement along the Jamuna’s banks but also inhibit communication between the northern area of Bangladesh and the eastern part, where Dhaka is situated.

The Tista is the most important water carrier of northwestern Bangladesh. Rising in the Himalayas near Sikkim, India, it flows southward, turning southeast near Darjiling (Darjeeling) to enter Bangladesh, where it eventually meets the Jamuna. The shoals and quicksand that surround the junction of the two rivers render navigation of the Tista’s lower reaches difficult.

Four main rivers constitute the river system of the Chittagong Hills and the adjoining plains—the Feni, the Karnaphuli, the Sangu, and the Matamuhari. Flowing generally west and southwest across the coastal plain, they empty into the Bay of Bengal. Of these rivers the longest is the Karnaphuli, which is dammed at Kaptai, about 30 miles (50 km) upstream from its mouth near the city of Chittagong.

None of the major rivers of Bangladesh originates within the country’s territory. The headwaters of the Surma are in India; the upper Padma rises in Nepal and the Jamuna in China, but they too reach Bangladesh across Indian territory. Thus, Bangladesh lacks full control over the flow of any of the streams that irrigate it. The construction of a barrage upstream at Farakka in West Bengal has led to the diversion of a considerable volume of water from the Ganges in India, and the flow to western Bangladesh is insufficient in the dry season, from November to April. The equitable distribution of the river’s waters has been since the 1970s a source of friction between India and Bangladesh.

• Soils

There are three main categories of soils in Bangladesh: the old alluvial soils, the recent alluvial soils, and the hill soils, which have a base of sandstone and shale. The fertile recent alluvial soils, found mainly in flooded areas, are usually clays and loams, variously pale brown, sandy, chalky, and mica-laden. They are deficient in phosphoric acid, nitrogen, and humus but not in potash and lime. The old alluvial soils in the jungles of the Barind and Madhupur regions are dark iron-rich brown or reddish clays and loams. They are sticky during the rainy season and hard during the dry periods. The hill soils are generally permeable and can support dense forest growth.

• Climate

Bangladesh has a typical monsoon climate characterized by rain-bearing winds, moderately warm temperatures, and high humidity. In general, maximum temperatures in the summer months, from April to September, are in the low to mid-90s F (mid-30s C). April is the warmest month in most parts. The range of high temperatures in the winter months, from November to March, is greater than in the summer months. January is the coolest month, with high temperatures averaging in the mid- to upper 70s F (mid-20s C).

The conditions of lowest atmospheric pressure occur in Bangladesh in June and July, the storm season. Winds are mostly from the north and northeast in winter, blowing gently in northern and central areas and somewhat more aggressively near the coast. During the period of the northwesters (strong winds from the northwest) from March to May, however, wind speeds may rise to 40 miles (65 km) per hour.

Bangladesh receives heavy rainfall; except for some parts in the west, it generally exceeds 60 inches (1,500 mm) annually. Large areas of the south, southeast, north, and northeast typically receive from 80 to 100 inches (2,000 to 2,500 mm), and the northern and northwestern parts of the Sylhet area usually receive from 150 to 200 inches (3,800 to 5,000 mm). The maximum rainfall occurs during the monsoon period, from June to September or early October.

Storms of very high intensity often occur early in the summer (in April and May) and late in the monsoon season (September to October, and sometimes November). These disturbances may produce winds with speeds exceeding 100 miles (160 km) per hour, and they may generate waves in the Bay of Bengal that crest as high as 20 feet (6 metres) before crashing with tremendous force onto the coastal areas and the offshore islands, causing heavy losses of life and property. Since the early 18th century, when records were first kept, more than 1,000,000 people have been killed in such storms, some 815,000 of them in just three storms occurring in 1737, 1876, and 1970.

• Plant and animal life

Bangladesh in general possesses a luxuriant vegetation, with villages appearing to be buried in groves of mango, jackfruit, bamboo, betel nut, coconut, and date palm. However, only a small portion of the country’s land surface is covered with forests.

Bangladesh has four different areas of vegetation. The eastern zone, consisting of parts of the Sylhet and Chittagong areas, has many low hills covered with jungles of bamboo and rattan (a species of climbing palm). The most common plant is a large type of bamboo that forms the basis of the country’s paper industry. The central zone, covering parts of the country to the north of Dhaka, contains many lakes and supports swampy vegetation; the soil of part of this zone produces the Madhupur jungles. The area lying to the northwest of the Jamuna and to the southwest of the Padma forms a flat plain, the vegetation of which consists mostly of cultivated plants and orchards. Babul (Acacia arabica) is the most conspicuous tree. The southern zone along the Bay of Bengal contains the vast wetlands of the Sundarbans, with their distinctive mangrove vegetation. Several of the mangrove species are commercially valuable, including the sundari (Heritiera fomes or H. minor), for which the Sundarbans are named, and the goran (Ceriops roxburghiana). Also valuable are the gewa or gengwa (Excoecaria agallocha) trees, which yield a softwood used for making newsprint. Among the astounding variety of flowers are water lilies (locally called shapla, the country’s national flower), marigolds, tuberoses, and Chinese hibiscus. The bokul (Mimusops elengi) is a common shrub that produces small red berries.

Bangladesh has an abundance of wildlife, including more than 100 species of mammals, although the population of some species has diminished significantly since the early 20th century. Elephants, living in herds of fewer than a dozen to nearly 100, are found in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and in the northeastern Sylhet region. Domesticated water buffaloes (Bubalis bubalis) are used for plowing and pulling carts. Of the different kinds of deer, the small muntjac (genus Muntiacus; also called barking deer) and the large sambar deer (Cervus unicolor), with its maned neck, are well known. The samba lives in the eastern jungles of the country. The medium-sized spotted deer (C. axis) was once common in many parts of the country but by the early 21st century had become limited to the Sundarbans region. The barasingha (C. duvauceli) also once inhabited the Sundarbans but became extinct in Bangladesh in the 20th century. Similarly, the hog deer (Axis procinus) has disappeared from the country.

Of the carnivores, the royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is the best known. The common leopard (P. pardus) is native to the region, as is its smaller relative, the rare clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), with its dark gray oblong-spotted fur. The ferocious leopard cat (Felis bengalensis) is about the size of the domestic cat but with longer legs.

Bears in Bangladesh include the sloth bear (Melursus ursinus), Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus; also called Himalayan black bear), and sun bear (U. malayanus). The sloth bear is the most common. Jackals (Canis aureis), whose eerie howling at night is a familiar sound in Bangladesh, are abundant, as are various species of mongooses. The Bengal, or rhesus, monkey (Macaca mulatta) is about the most common primate in the country.

Bangladesh is inhabited by hundreds of species of birds. Common house crows are found everywhere, and their cries are detested by many people of Bangladesh, who regard crows as a bad omen. Bulbuls, magpie-robins, and a wide variety of warblers are also found; some are migrants that appear only in winter. Several kinds of flycatchers occur, and there are mynah birds of several kinds. Other species of birds include various game birds, parakeets, cuckoos, hawks, owls, kingfishers, hornbills, hoopoes, woodpeckers, and vultures. Among the eagles, the crested serpent eagle and the ring-tailed fishing eagle are the most common. There also are an array of water birds, including herons, storks, ducks, and wild geese.

• People

Ethnic groups

The vast majority of the population of Bangladesh is Bengali—a term describing both an ethnic and a linguistic group. The Bengali people are historically of diverse origin, having emerged from the confluence of various communities that entered the region over the course of many centuries. The Vedda peoples were perhaps the earliest group to settle in the area. According to some ethnologists, they were followed by peoples from the Mediterranean and neighbouring areas, particularly those who spoke Indo-European languages. During the 8th century CE, persons of Arab, Persian, and Turkish origin moved in large numbers to the subcontinent. By the beginning of the 13th century, they had entered what is now Bangladesh. The contention that contemporary Bengali Muslims are all descended from lower-caste Hindus who had converted to Islam, then, is clearly incorrect; a substantial proportion are descendants of Muslims who reached the subcontinent from elsewhere.

Non-Bengalis—consisting primarily of smaller indigenous groups—constitute only a tiny fraction of the population. Most of these peoples inhabit the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the southeast, the most sparsely settled area of the country. Some of the groups are related to the peoples of Myanmar (Burma), and many follow Buddhism, although both Hinduism and Christianity also have a significant following. Of the dozen or so ethnolinguistic groups of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the largest are the Chakma, the Marma (Magh or Mogh), the Tripura (Tipra), and the Mro; the Khomoi (Kumi), the Kuki, and the Mizo (formerly called Lushai) are among the smaller groups. Since the mid-1970s ethnic tensions and periodic violence have marked the Chittagong Hill Tracts, where many peoples long resident in the area have objected to the influx of Muslim Bengali settlers.

Indigenous minority peoples in other parts of Bangladesh include the Santhal, the Khasi, the Garo, and the Hajang. The Santhal peoples live in the northwestern part of Bangladesh, the Khasi in Sylhet in the Khasi Hills near the border with Assam, India, and the Garo and Hajang in the northeastern part of the country.

Languages

Bengali (Bangla), the national language of Bangladesh, belongs to the Indo-Aryan group of languages and is related to Sanskrit. Like Pali, however, and various other forms of Prakrit in ancient India, Bengali originated beyond the influence of the Brahman society of the Aryans. The Pala rulers of Bengal (8th to 12th century)—who were Buddhists and whose religious language was Pali—did not inhibit the emergence of a colloquial tongue known as Gaudiya Prakrit, the language from which Bengali developed.

Bengali is the mother tongue of almost the entire population of Bangladesh. However, the indigenous minority groups have their own languages and dialects, some of which are Tibeto-Burman languages. English, an Indo-European language, is spoken in urban centres and among educated groups.

The Bengali language has two distinct styles: sadhu bhasa, the literary style, which contains many words derived from Sanskrit, and calit bhasa, the colloquial style, which is the standard medium of informal discourse, both spoken and written. Until the 1930s sadhu bhasa was used for all printed matter, but calit bhasa is now the basic form used for contemporary literature. There also are a number of dialects. Bengali contains many loanwords from Portuguese, English, Arabic, Persian, and Hindi.

• Religion

Most of the people of Bangladesh follow the religion of Islam, which was made the official religion by a 1988 constitutional amendment. The arrival of Muslims in Bengal at the beginning of the 13th century and the rapid increase in their strength and influence permanently changed the character and culture of the area. When the Muslims first arrived, Hinduism was by far the dominant religion, although there were pockets of Buddhists and a few adherents of local religions. The Hindus remained in the majority through the Mughal period (16th to 18th century). Even as late as the early 1870s, there were more than 18 million Hindus in Bengal, compared with about 16 million Muslims. From the 1890s onward, however, the weight began to shift toward the Muslims.

There were several reasons for the increase in the proportion of the Muslim population. Perhaps the most significant was the activity of ascetics and Sufis (practitioners of Sufism, a mystical form of Islam), who won converts among lower-caste Hindus. Also significant was an influx of Muslims from northern India and from other countries.

Most Muslims are Sunni, but there are a small number of Shiʿis, primarily descendants of immigrants from Iran. Hindus form a significant minority, while Roman Catholics and Buddhists constitute just a tiny fraction of the population. Of the tribes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the Chakma, Marma, and Mro are mostly Buddhists. Portions of the Kuki, Khomoi, and Mro communities practice local religions. While most of the Mizo are Christians, the Tripura are Hindus.

• Settlement patterns

The extremely high overall population density of Bangladesh, averaging more than 2,500 persons per square mile (1,000 per square km) in the early 21st century, varies widely according to the distribution of flatland. The highest density occurs in and around Dhaka, which is also the centre of the country’s most fertile zone; the lowest population density occurs in the hills of Chittagong.

• Rural settlement

The rural area throughout Bangladesh is so thickly settled that it is often difficult to distinguish any well-defined pattern of individual villages. There are, however, some noticeable features. The inundation of most of the fields during the rainy season makes it necessary to build houses on higher ground. Continuous strings of settlements along roads are common in areas south of the upper Padma River and in the floodplains of the Mahananda, Tista, Jamuna, lower Padma, and Meghna rivers. Similar settlements are found in the Chittagong Hills and in the hilly segment of the southern Sylhet region. Settlements are more scattered, however, in areas in southwestern Bangladesh along the Bay of Bengal, in the floodplains of the Old Brahmaputra, in the lower-lying areas of eastern and southern Sylhet, and in parts of Chittagong. In central and western Sylhet and in some areas of the Chittagong Hills, settlements occur in a nucleated, or clustered, pattern. With the addition of prefabricated one- or two-story structures scattered among thatched bamboo huts, the character of rural villages has changed since the mid-20th century. Supplies of electricity and safe drinking water, however, have remained inadequate in some regions.

• Urban settlement

Although industrial development has prompted migration to the cities, Bangladesh is one of the least-urbanized areas in South Asia. In the 2010s about one-third of the population lived in urban areas. There are three major cities: Dhaka, Chittagong, and Khulna. Dhaka, the capital, is the largest. Chittagong, the country’s major port, is second in importance. A number of industrial areas, such as Kalurghat, Sholashahar, and Faujdar Hat, have developed around Chittagong. Khulna, in the southwest, has become a commercial and industrial centre; the opening of the port at Mongla nearby and the growth of the Daulatpur industrial area have increased its population.

• Demographic trends

In the 2010s more than one-fourth of Bangladesh’s population was under age 15. The birth rate dropped from well above the world average at the beginning of the decade to about average. Infant mortality had dropped dramatically since the late 20th century but remained high. Life expectancy was about 74 years. There has been very little immigration since the 1970s. Many Bangladeshis, however, live and work abroad especially in the Middle East.

• Economy

Bangladesh’s heavy dependence on agriculture has long contributed to seasonal unemployment among rural farmworkers, as well as to a generally low standard of living in many areas. To counteract this imbalance, a policy of industrialization was adopted in the mid-20th century. During the period of Pakistani administration (1947–71), priority was given to industries based on indigenous raw materials such as jute, cotton, hides, and skins. The principle of free enterprise in the private sector was accepted, subject to certain conditions, including the national ownership of public utilities. The industrial policy also aimed to develop the production of consumer goods as quickly as possible in order to avoid dependence on imports.

The Pakistani administration established new types of autonomous corporations to deal with industrial development, electricity, water and sewerage management, the development of forest industries, and road transportation. In 1972, however, the government of the new, independent Bangladesh implemented socialist policies, nationalizing these corporations and establishing several new corporations to manage the nationalized enterprises. Hasty change, coupled with the inexperience of those placed in charge of the corporations, produced widespread disruptions, and industrial production nearly came to a halt. In 1973 the government launched a five-year development plan (the first of a series of such plans that have guided the country’s economy into the 21st century). The policy of nationalization was gradually revised and was replaced by a 19-point program announced in 1979 that emphasized greater productivity and efficiency. In an effort to encourage private investment, the government also returned many state-owned enterprises to the private sector.

• Agriculture and fishing

Bangladesh has remained largely agricultural, with nearly half the population employed in this sector in the early 21st century. Rice is the predominant agricultural product, but jute and tea, both of which are key sources of foreign exchange, also are important. Indeed, the country is one of the world’s leading suppliers of raw jute. Other major agricultural products include wheat; pulses, such as peas, beans, and lentils; sweet potatoes; oilseeds and spices of various kinds; sugarcane; tobacco; and fruits, such as bananas, mangoes, and pineapples. The country also is a leading producer of goat milk and goat meat.

Bangladesh tea picker

Agriculture was at one time wholly dependent upon the vagaries of the monsoon; a poor monsoon always meant poor harvests and the threat of famine. To reduce the risk of crop failure as a result of such adverse weather conditions, a number of irrigation projects including the construction of dams—have been undertaken to control floods and to conserve rainwater for use in the dry months. Among the most important of these initiatives have been the Karnaphuli Multipurpose Project in the southeast, the Tista Barrage Project in the north, and the Ganges-Kabadak Project, to serve the southwestern part of the country. Economic planning has encouraged double and triple cropping, intercropping, and the increased use of fertilizers.

The rivers of Bangladesh are particularly amenable to breeding and raising fish, and aquaculture is the source of more than two-fifths of the country’s fish yield. However, the rivers and seacoast also offer opportunities for open-water fishing, mostly in the estuaries of the Bay of Bengal. Among the varieties of fish caught are the marine rupchanda, or pomfret, and the freshwater hilsa, a relative of the shad.

Resources and power

A major obstacle to the economic development of Bangladesh has been a general lack of mineral resources. The country’s first oil well, near Sylhet, was established in 1986, but petroleum in marketable quantities has not been struck anywhere in Bangladesh. Natural gas is used mainly in the manufacture of fertilizer and for thermal power. More than half the proven gas reserves are in the Comilla area, and nearly all the rest are in Sylhet.

Some deposits of coal have been found in northwestern Bangladesh in the Rajshahi area. The thickest seams are located at relatively inaccessible depths of 3,000 to 3,500 feet (900 to 1,000 metres). Smaller deposits of coal exist in northwestern Sylhet. The Chittagong Hill Tracts contain some brown coal and lignite. Peat deposits exist in several places, but some of the beds remain underwater for half the year, making extraction difficult. Limestone is found in the Sylhet and Chittagong areas. Radioactive minerals have been detected in sand deposits along the beaches south of Cox’s Bazar.

Bangladesh’s electricity is produced by thermal and hydroelectric processes. The main source of hydroelectricity is the Kaptai Dam in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

• Manufacturing

Because the export of raw jute is not highly remunerative, efforts were made under the Pakistani administration to establish mills to produce and export jute products and thus earn foreign exchange. About 45 percent of the jute produced during that period was processed in the territory; the balance was exported raw. After independence, jute and jute products remained an important source of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. However, the clothing industry expanded rapidly in the late 20th century, and by the early 21st century the export value of garments, hosiery, and knitwear had far surpassed that of jute manufactures. Frozen fish and shrimp also became major exports.

The bamboo in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the various softwood trees growing in the Sundarbans provide excellent raw material for papermaking. There are paper mills at Chandraghona, Chhatak, and Paksey, as well as a paper and board mill at Khulna.

Bangladesh has fertilizer factories, textile mills, sugar factories, glassworks, and aluminum works. It also has cement factories, located at Chhatak, in the Sylhet area. A shipyard was opened at Khulna for repairing and reconstructing ships, and a steel mill is located at Chittagong.

By far the most important cottage industry centres on the production of yarn and textile fabrics—mostly coarse and medium-quality fabrics. Another cottage industry produces cigarettes known as bidis. Carpets, ceramics, and cane furniture also are products of cottage industries.

• Finance

The Bank of Bangladesh serves as the country’s central bank. Upon independence, Bangladesh nationalized all domestic banks, though much of this nationalization was reversed beginning with a privatization program in the 1980s. Since the establishment of Grameen Bank in 1976 and through the efforts of its founder, Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh has served as a pioneering centre for microfinance, a means of extending credit in the form of small loans to nontraditional borrowers, such as the poor. In the 2010s more than 30 million Bangladeshis were members of microfinance institutions.

• Trade

Total annual imports typically exceed exports. Imports come principally from China and South Asia, while Bangladesh exports goods primarily to Europe, the United States, and Canada. Major exports include garments and knitwear, agricultural products, seafood, jute, and leather.

• Transportation

Central to the country’s transportation system are networks of waterways, roads, and railways, the last built mostly during British rule. Inland waterways are important, providing low-cost transport and access to areas where land transport would be costly. They carry most of the domestic and foreign cargo. Chief seaports are Chittagong and Mongla, and there are international airports at Dhaka and Chittagong, as well as several other airports offering domestic service.

The forms of transport used on Bangladesh’s roads range from automobiles and buses to the bullock cart. Two-wheeled horse-drawn jigs and bullock carts are still used, primarily in the north in Rajshahi. Town and city dwellers both rely largely on the cycle rickshaw and on two types of three-wheeled vehicles, known locally as auto and tempo. The lightweight cycle rickshaw, which can easily be used on unpaved roads, is the most popular vehicle in towns and villages. The annual inundations that submerge most of the rural roads necessitate the use of so-called country boats flat wooden boats that are hand-propelled by means of poles or long paddles.

Government And Society

• Constitutional framework

While Bangladesh’s constitution of 1972 specifies a parliamentary form of government under a prime minister and a president elected by a national assembly, its implementation has been interrupted by coups. In 1975 a military coup led to a regime of martial law, and, though the form of government that followed was a mixture of presidential and parliamentary systems, power effectively remained with the army. The country experienced additional upsets and periods of martial law in the 1980s, but in 1991 a parliamentary system was restored, with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government.

The parliament of Bangladesh, called the Jatiya Sangsad (House of the Nation), is a unicameral entity consisting of some 350 seats, most of which are filled through direct election. The remaining seats are reserved for women; these members are elected by the parliament itself. Legislators serve five-year terms. The parliament elects the president, who also serves a five-year term, with a two-term limit. The president then appoints the leader of the legislative majority party (or coalition) as prime minister.

• Local government

Between the early 1980s and the early 1990s, local government in Bangladesh underwent a large-scale administrative reorganization to decentralize power. The resulting structure consisted of several major divisions, each of which was subdivided into a number of districts, called zila. These districts were parceled further into smaller units, called upzila and thana. Bangladesh now consists of 8 divisions, more than 60 districts, and more than 500 upzila and thana. Villages the smallest unit of governmentnumbered in the tens of thousands and were grouped into unions beneath the upzila and thana.

Local government in both rural and urban regions is primarily in the hands of popularly elected executives and councils. Each division is headed by a commissioner. Executives at the district and thana levels are assisted by various professionals appointed by the national government, as well as by their elected councils.

• Justice

Bangladesh has maintained essentially the same judicial system that was in operation when the territory was a province of Pakistan and that owes its origins to the system in operation under the British raj. The 1972 constitution divided the Supreme Court of Bangladesh into Appellate and High Court divisions and mandated a complete separation of the judiciary and executive branches of government. During the subsequent authoritarian regime, however, the power of the Supreme Court was greatly reduced. In 1977 a Supreme Judicial Council was established to draw up a code of conduct for Supreme Court and High Court judges, who may be removed from office by the president upon the council’s recommendation.

Judges from the High Court may go on circuit for a portion of the year to hear cases from lower courts in other parts of the country. Those lower courts include district courts, sessions courts, and several types of magistrate courts. The magistrate courts handle the vast majority of criminal cases.

• Health and welfare

Bangladesh has many government hospitals and rural health centres. Tuberculosis, cholera, and malaria continue to pose threats to public health, and since about 2000 outbreaks of dengue fever have been a concern as well. However, an effective approach to the treatment of cholera and tuberculosis has been developed by research laboratories and hospitals in Dhaka and Comilla, and the incidence of malaria has been reduced by a malaria-eradication program in which swamps and marshes are regularly sprayed with insecticides. Historically, leprosy also was a serious problem in Bangladesh. In the late 20th century, however, the government took aggressive measures to eradicate the disease, and within less than a decade, leprosy had virtually disappeared from the country.

Social services are provided by private agencies and government departments. These services include, among others, community development projects, schools for handicapped children, youth centres, orphanages, and training institutes for social workers. A family-planning program inaugurated in the late 20th century has helped to control population growth.

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• Education

The foundation of the educational system in Bangladesh was laid down during the period of British rule. The system has three levels—primary, secondary, and higher education. Primary and secondary education are both compulsory, though universal participation has remained more an ideal than a fact. Primary education consists of eight years, while secondary education lasts four years. Secondary education is divided into a lower level and a higher level, and public examinations are held at the conclusion of each level of schooling. Schools in cities and towns are generally better-staffed and better-financed than those in rural areas.

There are hundreds of colleges, most of them affiliated with one of the larger universities, such as the University of Dhaka (1921), the University of Rajshahi (1953), or the University of Chittagong (1966). Other prominent institutions include Jahangirnagar University (1970) on the outskirts of the capital, the Bangladesh Agricultural University (1961) at Mymensingh, the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (1962) at Dhaka, and the Islamic University (1980) at Kushtia. Medical education is provided by several medical colleges and an institute of postgraduate medicine at Dhaka. Each college or institute has a full-fledged hospital attached to it.

For vocational training Bangladesh relies on several engineering colleges and a network of polytechnic and law colleges. In addition, an array of specialized colleges are dedicated to training students in areas such as the arts, home economics, social welfare and research, and various aspects of agriculture.

Literacy improved significantly in the 21st century: less than half of the population could read and write at the beginning of the century, but by the late 2010s more than two-thirds were literate.

• Cultural Life

The Bengali language, Islamic religion, and rural character of Bangladesh all serve to unify the country’s culture to a considerable degree. Although some regional variation occurs across the Bengali community, cultural differences between ethnic, religious, and social minorities and between rural and urban populations are much more salient.

• Daily life and social customs

The typical household in Bangladesh, particularly in the villages, includes several generations of extended family. Most marriages are arranged by parents or other relatives, but increasing numbers of educated men and women choose their own partners. Custom and religion among Muslims require that a dowry be offered by the husband to the wife, but it is usually claimed only in the event of separation or at the husband’s death. Divorce is permissible among Muslims, and Muslim law (Sharīʿah) permits limited polygyny, although it is not widespread. Hindus may obtain a separation by application to a court of law.

The main festivals in Bangladesh are religious. The two most important are Eid al-Fitr, which comes at the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, and Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice, which falls on the 10th day of the last month of the Islamic calendar. On both occasions families and friends exchange visits.

While rice, pulses, and fish continue to constitute the staple diet of Bangladeshis, shortages of rice since World War II have forced the acceptance of wheat and wheat products as alternatives. Meat, including goat and beef, also is eaten, especially in the towns. At weddings and other festive occasions, seasoned rice (pilau) accompanies highly spiced meat dishes and curries. Bangladesh is noted for a large variety of milk-based sweets.

The lungi (a length of cloth wrapped around the lower half of the body, comparable to the Malaysian sarong) with a short vest is the most common form of male attire in the countryside and in the less-wealthy sections of urban settlements. Men of the educated classes prefer light cotton trousers called pajamas (from which the English word originates) and a kind of collarless knee-length shirt known as a panjabi. On more formal occasions they dress in a modification of the Western suit. The traditional sherwani and churidar, calf-length tunic and close-fitting trousers, are still seen at weddings, where they are worn along with the turban. The sari is common among women, but girls and younger women, especially students, prefer the shalwar kamiz, a combination of calf-length shirt and baggy silk or cotton trousers gathered at the ankles.

• Literature

The Bengali language began to assume a distinct form in the 7th century CE, and by the 11th century a tradition of Bengali literature had been established. Litterateurs received official patronage under both the Pala (8th to 12th century) kings and early Muslim rulers; under the Senas (11th and 12th centuries) and Mughals (early 16th to mid-18th century), however, they were generally unsupported. Nevertheless, Bengali language and literature thrived in various traditions of music and poetry that were practiced outside the court, laying the foundation for the so-called “Bengali Renaissance” of the 19th century. The renaissance was centred in Kolkata (Calcutta) and led by Ram Mohan Roy (1772–1833); its luminary poet, Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), composed the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. In its early years the movement espoused the virtues of Western education and liberalism, and it was largely confined to the Hindu community.

• Music, dance, and theatre

There are four main types of music in Bangladesh—classical, light-classical, devotional, and popular—which may overlap in some cases. Classical music has many forms, of which the dhrupad (Hindustani devotional songs) and the related, shorter form called khayal are the best known. Devotional music also is represented by qawwali and kirtana, vocal genres that are part of the common musical heritage of the subcontinent. It is, however, in the field of local nonclassical popular music that Bangladesh is most prominent. The forms known as bhatiali, bhawaiya, jari, sari, marfati, and baul have no real equivalents outside the country. The vigorous spontaneous style of these musics generally distinguishes them from classical genres.

Apart from such classical dances as kathakali and bharata natyam—forms that are popular throughout the subcontinent unique indigenous dances have developed in Bangladesh. Among the most widespread of these are the dhali, baul, manipuri, and snake dances. Each form expresses a particular aspect of communal life and is danced on specific occasions. Improvisation has been a core component of both classical and nonclassical music and dance. With the increasing commercialization of the arts, however, improvisation has been on the wane. Although some of the performing arts are learned informally, others are taught formally at music and dance academies. Two of the oldest and most prominent of such academies are the Bulbul Academy for Fine Arts and the Nazrul Academy, both in Dhaka.

All towns and most villages have cinema houses. Plays are occasionally staged by amateur groups and drama societies in educational institutions and are broadcast regularly on radio and television. Musical concerts, though not as popular as the cinema, are well attended. Especially popular in the countryside is jatra, a form of opera that draws on local legends.

• Visual art and architecture

Painting as an independent art form is a relatively recent phenomenon in Bangladesh. The main figure behind the art movement was Zainul Abedin, who first attracted attention with his sketches of the Bengal famine of 1943. After the partition of Pakistan from India in 1947, he was able to gather around him a school of artists who experimented with various forms, both orthodox and innovative.

The historical prevalence of Islamic arts in Bangladesh is especially evident in the many mosques, mausoleums, forts, and gateways that have survived from the Mughal period. Like Muslim architecture elsewhere in the subcontinent, these structures are characterized by the pointed arch, the dome, and the minaret. The best-preserved example is the 77-dome mosque at Bagerhat in the south. The ruins of Lalbagh Fort, an incomplete 17th-century Mughal palace at Dhaka, also provide some idea of the older Islamic architectural traditions. While such Mughal architecture belongs in style and conception to the same school as medieval buildings in northern India, a unique innovation in Bangladesh has been the translation into brick and mortar of the sloping four-sided thatched roof found in the countryside.

Some remains of pre-Muslim Buddhist architecture have been unearthed at Paharpur and Mahasthan in the north and at Maynamati in the south. They are said to date from the 8th century, and they exhibit the circular stupa pattern characteristic of ancient Buddhist monasteries in India.

see also Bangladesh Abbreviations

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