Bangladeshবাংলাদেশ

The Bengal delta has been farmed and traded for more than two thousand years. The fortified city at Mahasthangarh, near Bogura, dates back to at least the third century BC. From the eighth to twelfth centuries the Buddhist Pala kings ruled Bengal and built vast monasteries such as Somapura Mahavihara at Paharpur, a centre of learning for scholars from across Asia; the Hindu Sena dynasty followed.

Turkic conquerors reached Bengal around 1204, and from the fourteenth century an independent Bengal Sultanate built brick mosques in a local style with curved roofs, of which Bagerhat's Sixty Dome Mosque is the finest survivor. Islam spread widely in the east of the delta, often through Sufi preachers who cleared forest and settled farmers. In 1608 the Mughals made Dhaka the provincial capital; its muslin was prized across the world.

After the battle of Plassey in 1757 the East India Company took Bengal, and Calcutta, not Dhaka, became the centre of British India. Eastern Bengal became the rural hinterland, growing jute and rice for Calcutta's mills and markets. A short-lived partition of Bengal in 1905 made Dhaka a provincial capital again until 1911. In 1947 the eastern, Muslim-majority half of Bengal became East Pakistan, separated from West Pakistan by more than 1,500 km of India.

Tensions with the West Pakistani elite grew over language, money and power. When Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League won a majority in the 1970 elections and was denied office, the army launched a crackdown in March 1971. The nine-month Liberation War, with Indian intervention in December, ended with Pakistan's surrender on 16 December 1971. The cost was enormous: estimates of the dead range from hundreds of thousands to three million, with millions of refugees.

Independent Bangladesh faced famine in 1974, the assassination of Sheikh Mujib in 1975 and military rule until 1990. Democracy then alternated between Khaleda Zia's BNP and Sheikh Hasina's Awami League, whose rule from 2009 became increasingly authoritarian. Student protests over job quotas in July 2024 grew into a mass uprising; hundreds were killed and Hasina fled to India on 5 August. An interim government led by Muhammad Yunus organised elections in February 2026 — check the current government.

In 1948 Pakistan's leaders declared that Urdu alone would be the national language, although most Pakistanis spoke Bangla. Students in Dhaka protested, and on 21 February 1952 police fired on a demonstration at Dhaka University, killing several people. The Language Movement that followed forced the recognition of Bangla in 1956 and became the seed of Bengali nationalism.

The Shaheed Minar, the martyrs' monument near the university, is the focus of commemoration each 21 February, when crowds walk barefoot at midnight to lay flowers. In 1999 UNESCO declared the date International Mother Language Day. Few countries owe their existence so directly to a language, and Bangladeshis are proud that their national anthem and India's were both written by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.

Bengali identity blends Muslim faith with a shared Bengali culture that also belongs to Hindus in West Bengal: the Bengali New Year, Pohela Boishakh, with its processions and red-and-white clothes; the poetry of Tagore and of Kazi Nazrul Islam, the national poet; and folk music such as the mystical songs of the Bauls. Debates over how far the nation is Bengali and how far Muslim run through its politics.

Bangla, written in its own script related to Devanagari, is spoken by almost the entire population, alongside dialects such as Sylheti and Chittagonian that can be hard for other Bangla speakers to follow. Indigenous peoples in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the north, including the Chakma, Marma, Garo and Santal, speak their own languages and have long campaigned for recognition.

About nine in ten Bangladeshis are Muslim, making it one of the largest Muslim-majority countries. Islam in the delta spread largely through Sufi saints, and their shrines (mazar) remain central to popular faith: the tomb of Shah Jalal in Sylhet, who arrived in the fourteenth century, draws pilgrims from across the country, and Friday evenings at many shrines bring music and devotion.

Hindus, about 8 per cent, are the largest minority, with temples in Old Dhaka's Shankhari Bazar, the Dhakeshwari temple that gave the city its name according to tradition, and the terracotta temples of Puthia and Kantajew. Durga Puja is the main Hindu festival. Buddhists, mostly among the Indigenous peoples of the Hill Tracts and around Chattogram, and a small Christian community complete the picture.

The Bauls, wandering minstrels who follow a syncretic mystical path drawing on Sufi and Hindu devotional traditions, are the best-known expression of Bengal's shared spirituality; their songs, especially those of Lalon Fakir, are sung across the country and were recognised by UNESCO. Their festivals near Kushtia in March and October draw thousands.

Religion also carries political weight. The constitution names Islam the state religion while also referring to secularism; Islamist parties have gained influence since 2024; and attacks on minorities, secular bloggers and religious shrines have occurred. For visitors the rules are straightforward: modest dress, shoes off at mosques, temples and shrines, visits outside prayer times, and discretion during Ramadan.

Bangladesh is almost entirely delta, formed by the Ganges (called the Padma here), the Brahmaputra (Jamuna) and the Meghna, together with hundreds of smaller rivers. They carry more than a billion tonnes of sediment a year from the Himalaya, building new land (char islands) and eroding old. Most of the country lies less than ten metres above sea level.

The monsoon from June to October floods a fifth or more of the land in a normal year, and far more in bad ones. Floods bring fertile silt and fish into the fields, which is why rice and fish are the heart of the diet, but they also destroy homes and crops. Cyclones from the Bay of Bengal have caused some of the deadliest disasters in history, notably in 1970 and 1991; early warning and shelters have since cut the death toll dramatically.

Rivers are the old highways. Wooden boats, ferries and multi-deck launches still link Dhaka's Sadarghat to the south, and the paddle steamers once known as the Rocket carried passengers to Barisal and Khulna. The Padma Bridge, opened in 2022 at a cost of about US$3.6 billion and funded domestically after the World Bank withdrew, cut hours from journeys to the south-west and now carries a railway too.

In the far south-west lie the Sundarbans, shared with India, the largest mangrove forest in the world. Tidal channels, mudflats and forest shelter Bengal tigers, spotted deer, estuarine crocodiles and river dolphins. The forest protects the coast from storm surges but is threatened by salinity, shipping and industrial projects. Visitors explore it only by boat, with licensed operators and forest guards.

Bengal's literary tradition is one of Asia's richest. Rabindranath Tagore, who managed family estates in what is now Bangladesh and wrote many works there, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Kazi Nazrul Islam, the 'rebel poet', wrote fiery verse against colonialism and injustice and is buried in Dhaka. The annual Ekushey Book Fair in February, around Language Day, is among the largest book fairs in South Asia.

Textiles carry the country's craft reputation. Mughal Dhaka's muslin was so fine it was called 'woven air'; its production died under British rule but revival projects have recreated it. Jamdani, a handwoven cotton sari with patterns inlaid on the loom, is UNESCO-listed and still made in villages near Dhaka. Nakshi kantha, embroidered quilts made from old saris, tell stories in stitches.

Street culture is colourful. Cycle-rickshaws, perhaps a few hundred thousand in Dhaka alone, are decorated with painted panels of film stars, birds, mosques and landscapes; rickshaw art was recognised by UNESCO in 2023. Trucks and buses carry similar ornament. Music ranges from Baul and folk songs to the band scene that grew in Dhaka from the 1980s.

Cinema, known as Dhallywood, produced popular melodramas for decades and now competes with streaming; independent directors have won attention at international festivals. Cricket is the national passion, and matches at Mirpur fill the stadium with noise. Food, poetry and argument are the core of social life, often over endless cups of sweet tea at a roadside stall.

Bangladesh has changed faster than most outsiders realise. Once dismissed as a 'basket case', it has grown at 5–7 per cent a year for two decades, overtaken India and Pakistan on some social indicators, and cut poverty sharply. Life expectancy, girls' schooling and child survival improved dramatically, helped by NGOs such as BRAC and by microcredit, pioneered by Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank.

The engine is garments. About four million workers, most of them women, make clothes for global brands, making Bangladesh the world's second-largest apparel exporter after China. The 2013 Rana Plaza collapse, which killed more than 1,100 workers, led to international safety accords and inspections, though wages and conditions remain contested. Remittances from workers in the Gulf and Malaysia are the other pillar.

Dhaka, with more than 20 million people in its metropolitan area, is among the densest cities on Earth. Its traffic is legendary; the first metro line opened in 2022 and an elevated expressway followed. Air pollution, waterlogging and fires in crowded buildings are daily hazards. The Rohingya crisis since 2017 has added about a million refugees in camps near Cox's Bazar, supported by international aid that has been shrinking.

Politics has been turbulent since the July 2024 uprising: an interim government, trials of former officials, reform commissions and an election in February 2026 that returned the BNP to power — check the latest. Relations with India cooled after Hasina took refuge there, while ties with Pakistan and China warmed. For visitors, the changes show in new infrastructure, a young and connected population and a society debating its future openly.