Bangladesh
(
help
·
info
)
(
Bengali
: বাংলাদেশ
ˈbaŋlad̪eʃ
Bangladesh
), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh (
Bengali
: গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ
Gônoprojatontri Bangladesh
) is a
country
in
South Asia
. It is bordered by
India
on all sides except for a small border with
Burma
to the far southeast and by the
Bay of Bengal
to the south. Together with the Indian state of
West Bengal
, it makes up the ethno-linguistic region of
Bengal
. The name Bangladesh means "Country of Bengal" in the official
Bengali language
.
The borders of the region that constitutes present-day Bangladesh were established in the
Partition of India
when the region became the
eastern wing
of newly formed
Pakistan
. The pairing, based on their common religion of
Islam
, proved geographically awkward since an expanse of foreign Indian territory,
km( mi)
wide, separated the two wings. Subjected to political and linguistic discrimination as well as economic neglect at the hands of
West Pakistan
, the Bengalis of
East Pakistan
declared independence in . After a
liberation war
, with help from India and the
Soviet Union
, Bangladesh was born. In spite of its liberation narrative, Bangladesh's development has since been marred by political turmoil, with fourteen different heads of government and at least four
military coups
.
Bangladesh is among the most densely populated countries in the world and has a high poverty level. Geographically the country straddles the fertile
Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta
and is subject to annual
monsoon
floods and
cyclones
. The government is a parliamentary democracy which has been suspended under emergency law since January . Bangladesh is a member of the
Commonwealth of Nations
,
SAARC
,
BIMSTEC
, the
OIC
, and the
D-
.
As the World Bank notes in its July Country Brief, the country has made significant progress in human development in the areas of
literacy
, gender parity in schooling, and reduction of population growth.
|