SASNET: Bangladesh

Aerial view of Bangladesh Official name: People's Republic of Bangladesh (Gana Prajatantri Bangladesh)

Area: 143.988 sq.km

Administration: The country is divided into six divisions – Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Barisal, Sylhet and Khulna. See administrative map of Bangladesh.

Capital: Dhaka

Independence: 26 March, 1971, from Pakistan. Internationally recognized on 16 December, 1971

Population: 141,340,476 (July 2004 est)

Population growth: 2.08 p.c (2004 est)

Life expectency: 61,7 years

Literacy rate (age 15 and over who can read and write): 43.1%

Per capita GDP: purchasing power parity – 1 900 US-dollars (2003 est)

Population below poverty line: 35.6 p.c (FY95/96 est.)

Industries: Cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light engineering, sugar

Industrial growth: 4 p.c. (2003 est.)

Rice transplanting Export products: Major agricultural products are rice, jute, wheat, potato, pulses, sugarcane, tea, tobacco. The country is the world's largest exporter of jute and jute goods. Tea, leather and frozen shrimp are also major foreign exchange earners. Manufacturing industries offer a wide range of exportable goods such as leather goods and ready-made garments. Export of handicrafts is also significant. Remittances from Bangladeshis employed abroad have contributed significantly toward foreign exchange earnings.

Land use: Arable land: 73 p.c, forest and woodlands 15 p.c.

Ethnic groups: Over 98 percent Bengalis. Approximately 250 000 Biharis (Urdu-speaking, non-Bengali Muslims) and 900 000 members of tribal minority groups. Main tribal groups Chakmas, Marmas, Tipperas, and Mros, living primarily in Chittagong Hills Tracts

Religious groups: Muslims 88,3 p.c, Hindus 10,5 p.c, Buddhists 0,6 p.c, Christian 0,4 p.c, Others 0,2 p.c

Languages: Bangla (official); English widely used by educated elite. Arabic used in many Muslim homes. The tribal population speak various tibeto-burman and austro-asiatic dialects.

National flag: Green with a large red disk slightly to the hoist side of center; the red sun of freedom represents the blood shed to achieve independence; the green field symbolizes the lush countryside, and secondarily, the traditional color of Islam

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman National anthem: Amar shonar Bangla (musik and lyrics by Rabindranath Tagore)

Legislature: Bangladesh has a 300 seat Parliament, Jatiya Sangsad. The members are elected for a period of five years. Till the previous parliament an additional number of thirty seats were reserved for women, who were nominated, but this provision has been withdrawn. Legislative power is exercised by the Parliament.

Between January 2007 and December 2008 Bangladesh was governed by a so-called Chief Advisor, acting as Head of a non-party interim caretaker government of Bangladesh. The Chief Advisor was Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed (photo to the left), a noted Bangladeshi economist, civil servant, and a former governor of the Bangladesh Bank. He was appointed by the President amidst chaos in Bangladeshi politics.

A general election was held in Bangladesh on 29 December 2008. The two key parties in the election were the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by Khaleda Zia, and the Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina. The Awami League formed a fourteen-party grand alliance (Mohajot) including Ershad's Jatiya Party, while the BNP formed a four-party alliance which included the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami. The election was originally scheduled for January 2007, but it was postponed for an extended period due to protests by the opposition and threats of general boycott.

The election resulted in a landslide victory for the Awami League-led grand alliance, which won 263 seats. The main rival four-party alliance led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh received only 32 seats, with the remaining 4 going to independent candidates.

The seats in Jatiya Sangsad:

Grand Alliance:
Bangladesh Awami League 230
Jatiya Party 27
Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal 3
Workers Party of Bangladesh 2
Liberal Democratic Party 1
Four Party Alliance:
Bangladesh Nationalist Party 29
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh 2
Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) 1

President: Professor Dr Iajuddin Ahmed. He took oath as President of the Republic on 6 September 2002. Dr Ahmed is a man with a long prestigeous academic career. He has a Swedish connection, in that he was a Visiting Professor at Uppsala University in 1984.

Prime Minister: Sheikh Hasina Wajed (Awami League). Prime Minister 1996–2001. (Photo to the left)

Leader of the Opposition: Khaleda Zia (Bangladesh Nationalist Party, BNP), (photo to the right) was Prime Minister during the period 1990–1996, and 2001–2006.

Other important political leaders:
Hussain Mohammad Ershad (Jatiyo Party)
Ali Khan (Jamiat-e-Islami)

History: The history of Bangladesh has been one of extremes, of turmoil and peace, prosperity and destitution. The earliest mention of Bangladesh is found in the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. In the 5th and 6th centuries B.C. came the Aryans from Central Asia and the Dravidians from Western India. Then came the Guptas, Palas and Senas, who were Buddhist and Hindus. From the 13th century A.D. the Buddhist and Hindus were swamped by the flood of Muslim invaders and the tide of Islam upto l8th century. Sometimes there were independent rulers like the Hussain Shahi and llyas Shahi dynasties while at other times they ruled on behalf of the imperial Mughal seat of Delhi.

From 15th century the Europeans – Portuguese, Dutch, French and British traders – exerted an economic influence over the region. British political rule over the region began in 1757 A.D.when the last Muslim ruler of Bengal was defeated at Plassey.
After the end of the British rule In1947 the country was partitioned into India and Pakistan. Present Bangladesh became the Eastern Wing of the then Pakistan. But the movement for autonomy for East Pakistan started within a couple of years because of linguistic and cultural difference and economic disparity between the two wings. The seeds of independence were sown through the Language Movement of 1952 to recognize Bangla as a state language.

Ultimately then, the East Pakistan emerged as a sovereign and independent state of Bangladesh in 1971 after nine month-long war of Liberation (starting on 26 March 1971) under the leadership of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He led the country for only four years.

In 1975 he was assasinatedin a conspiracy by the military. The following 15 years was marked by regimes dominated by the military. The Army chief H M Ershad took over in 1982 and was the leadre of the country untill 1990 when he was forced to resign following protest actions from the combined opposition. Ershad was later tried and convicted on corruption issues. General elections were held, and Khaleda Zia, widow after the late President Ziaur Rahman (who was murdered in 1981), and leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, became Prime minister.

In the elections of 1996 Awami League, the party of the assasinated Mujibur Rahman, won an overwhelming victory and Mujib´s surviving daughter Sheikh Hasina Wajed became new Prime minister. The party got an absolute majority in Parliament.
During its tenure justice has finally started to proceed concerning the conspiracy to kill Sheikh Mujib in 1975. A large number of the conspirators were tried, and were convicted to death sentence. Many of them are staying abroad, though, and the Bangladeshi government has asked several countries for their extradition.

The opposition accused constantly, from 1996 onwards, the Prime minister to act undemocratically, boycotted for two years the sessions at Jatiya Sangsad and initiated a violent struggle outside parliament with bandhs and hartals in an effort to force Sheikh Hasina and her government to resign before its time was over.

In spite of the campaign the Awami League government finished its term, and a neutral caretaker government could take over in July, 2001, to prepare fresh elections in October. In these elections the ruling Awami League lost bitterly to the alliance led by Khaleda Zia. She headed a government with 60 ministers, out of which two came from Jamaat-e-Islami, the rest belonged to BNP. No representatives for the other two alliance parties.

State of emergency In October 2006 a caretaker authority took over power from the BNP-led government, in order to prepare for new elections scheduled for the 22 January 2007. Bangladesh introduced this type of caretaker system before elctions in 1991 after military president Hossain Mohammad Ershad was toppled through a people's uprising led jointly by Khaleda and Sheikh Hasina. The system, designed to prevent ruling parties from rigging polls, is considered to have worked generally well in three elections.

However, as President Iajuddin Ahmed (with his good relations to the ruling party BNP) assumed leadership over the caretaker authority, this was not accepted by the opposition parties. During violent protests over this issue dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured, and the opposition parties swore to boycott the polls if they were not postponed. The protests finally made President Ahmed to resign from the role as leader of the caretaker authority 0n 11 January 2007, and at the sanme time a state of emergency was declared in Bangladesh. Troops were sent out on the streets (see photo to the right).

Basic rights were suspended and a technocratic caretaker government appointed. Some 40,000 low-level gangsters and political thugs have since been detained, as also several senior members or accomplices of the two political parties that have ruled Bangladesh, one of the world's most corrupt countries, for the 16 years since its last military government. Read an article, ”Everybody but the politicians is happy”, in the Economist 8 February 2007 about the new political situation in the country. Read the article

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Last updated 2010-01-26

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Bangladesh