Bangladesh, named after Bangla (Bengali), the language of most of its inhabitants other than a few small ethnic or tribal people, a small in area but large in population South-Asian country. The history of Bangladesh is the eternal history of collision between oppressors and oppressed. 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, it was divided in a predominantly Muslim Pakistan and a predominantly Hindu India.
Bengal was thus divided into an eastern part called East Pakistan and a western part, the Indian state of West Bengal. East Pakistan was dominated and frequently neglected by West Pakistan and tensions turned into a struggle for independence in 1971. In March, the attempted repression of this movement resulted in the deaths of millions of Bengalis and a refugee problem that led to Indian intervention in December and, subsequently, independence from Pakistan on 16th December has brought today’s Bangladesh.
Bangladesh 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. 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 Himalayas. Bangladesh’s alluvial soil is highly fertile but vulnerable to both flood and drought. In Bangladesh hills rise above the plain only in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (highest point: the Keokradong at 1,230 m) in the far southeast and the Sylhet division in the northeast.
Straddling the Tropic of Cancer, climate of Bangladesh 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 Bangladesh very often. Dhaka is the country’s capital and largest city, other major cities include Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna and Sylhet. Apart from very small countries such as Singapore and Bahrain, Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world.
The Bangladeshi population is relatively homogenous and consists of about 98% ethnic Bengali, who speak Bengali or Bangla. Urdu-speaking, non-Bengali Muslims from other regions of India such as Bihar, as well as various tribal groups who live mostly in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the southeast, comprise the remainder. Most Bangladeshis (about 83%) are Muslims, but Hindus constitute a sizable (16%) minority. There are also small number of Buddhists, Christians, and animists. Bengali, a member of the Indo-Aryan languages and written in a script similar to Devanagari, is the official national language although English is largely used in official and business purposes.
In Bangladesh, the president is the head of state and holds a largely ceremonial post, with real power held by the prime minister, who is head of government. The prime minister is appointed by the president and must be a member of parliament (MP) whom 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 Bangladeshi parliament is the House of the Nation or Jatiya Sangsad, whose 300 members are elected by popular vote for five-year terms of office. The highest judiciary body in Bangladesh is the Supreme Court.
Tele-density in Bangladesh is not that high and now mostly covered by several cell-phone companies. While calling Bangladesh, you need to put + 88 as country code. Calling Bangladesh from abroad is quiet cheap using VOIP because several phone cards are available on World Wide Web. Bangladesh calling rates starts from 8 cents in most pc to phone services on net. Several prepaid calling card and phone card companies are available to call both to and from Bangladesh.
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