Bangladesh

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is next to the North-east Indian provincial regions of India, which converges with Southeast Asia to the east. Its full name is The People's Republic of Bangla-Desh. The capital and the largest city is Dhaka (also spelled 'Dacca'). Bangladesh is surrounded on all three sides by the Republic of India (Bharat), and is in close proximity to the People's Republic of China, Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal. Its independence was fully realised after it declared it self as independent most of 1971 from Pakistan after a bloody war in which over a million people died. Later by Indian military intervention, by that time the provisional government went into exile in Calcutta, Bengal (India) which they considered their homeland to be under Pakistani military occupation. After the Instrument of Surrender, the Bengali peoples became a sovereign nation and when its founder was released from political imprisonment had returned in 1972. Present-day Bangladesh has an area of 55,126 mi² or (142,776 km²). It is bigger than Tajikistan but smaller than Nepal.

The local currency is called Taka. The official language is Bengali.

There are two main rivers in Bangladesh, the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers are holy to Hindus. There are often floods because of these two rivers.

[change] History

Islam took in shape foothold in the 13th century. Bangladesh used to be called East Bengal, after they had fought hard for a Muslim homeland in 1947 and was made a part of United Pakistan, However by 1955 its citizens were commonly referred to as East Pakistanis. Dacca was then the legislative capital of Pakistani Bengal provincial region. The peoples of East Pakistan were mostly ethnic Bengalis who had a different language and culture to the people of western Pakistani. These differences eventually led to Liberation war. On 16 December 1971, Bangladesh gained independence, with the help of allied forces against West Pakistani forces.

After the birth of Bangladesh, Bangla replaced Urdu and English as the sole national and official language, and was the language taught in schools and used in business and government. The Bangla Academy was important in this change. In the 1980s, British-style education was maintained through private English-language institutions attended by upper class children. English continued to be taught in higher education and was offered as a subject for university degrees.

At first, Arabic also lost ground in independent Bangladesh. This trend ended in the late 1970s, however, after Bangladesh strengthened its ties with Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich, Arabic-speaking countries. An unsuccessful attempt was made in 1983 to introduce Arabic as a required language in primary and secondary levels. Arabic is widely studied in Madrassas and Islamic institutions around the country for better understanding of the Quran, Hadith and any other Islamic texts.

[change] Difficulties

Despite 30 years of independence, Bangladesh is still a poor country and has problems with corruption and political troubles as the other country have. Presently more than half of the people can read and write.

Bangladesh has heavy cyclones and natural disasters, which because of carbon release at a higher ratio by Rich Country and warming the world. Due to this many lives are often lost. The country is one of the most densely populated in the world. Cyclones are very common in the Bay of Bengal during the middle of the year, particularly in the south of country in areas like Sundarban, Chittagong, Cox's Bazaar or in neighboring Myanmar and Republic of India. Despite the many storms, Bangladesh does not have a very effective storm prevention system, and cyclones usually inflict heavy damage. Therefore the rich country should come forward and help Bangladesh to have a effective storm prevention system being they are liable for all these Cyclones.