History

Remnants of civilisation in the greater Bengal region date back four thousand years, when the region was settled by Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, and Austro-Asiatic peoples. The exact origin of the word 'Bangla' or 'Bengal' is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from Bang, the Dravidian-speaking tribe that settled in the area around the year 1000 BC.

After the arrival of Indo-Aryans, the kingdom of Gangaridai was formed from at least the seventh century BCE, which later united with Bihar under the Magadha and Maurya Empires. Bengal was later part of the Gupta Empire from the third to the sixth centuries AD. Following its collapse, a dynamic Bengali named Shashanka founded an impressive yet short-lived kingdom. After a period of anarchy, the Buddhist Pala dynasty ruled the region for four hundred years, followed by a shorter reign of the Hindu Sena dynasty.

Islam was introduced to Bengal in the twelfth century by Sufi missionaries, and subsequent Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the region. Bakhtiar Khilji, a Turkish general, defeated Lakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal. The region was ruled by dynasties of Sultans and feudal lords for the next few hundred years. By the sixteenth century, the Mughal Empire controlled Bengal, and Dhaka became an important provincial center of Mughal administration.

Europeans in Bengal

Portuguese traders and missionaries were the first Europeans to reach Bengal in the latter part of the fifteenth century. They were followed by representatives of the Dutch, the French and the British East India Company. The Mughal Subahdar of Bengal Kasim Khan Mashadi completely destroyed the Portuguese in the Battle of Hoogly (1632). About 10,000 Portuguese men and women died in the battle and 4,400 were sent captive to Delhi.

During Aurangzeb's reign, the local Nawab sold three villages, including one then known as Calcutta, to the British. Calcutta was in fact Britain's initial foothold on the Indian subcontinent and remained a focal point of their activity. The British gradually extended their commercial contacts and administrative control beyond Calcutta to the rest of Bengal.

British Rule

The British East India Company gained official control of Bengal following the Battle of Plassey in 1757. This was the first conquest, in a series of engagements that ultimately lead to the expulsion of other European competitors, the defeat of the Mughals and the consolidation of the subcontinent under the rule of a corporation. Calcutta (now Kolkata) on the Hooghly became a major trading port for the muslin and jute produced in Dhaka and the rest of Bengal.

Scandals and the bloody rebellion known as the Sepoy Mutiny prompted the British government to intervene in the affairs of the East India Company. In 1858, authority in India was transferred from the Company to the crown and the rebellion was brutally suppressed. Rule of India was organised under a Viceroy and continued a pattern of economic exploitation. Famine racked the subcontinent many times, including at least two major famines in Bengal.

The British Raj was politically organised into seventeen Provinces (of which Bengal was one of the most significant) most headed by a Governor. For a brief period in the early twentieth century, an abortive attempt was made to divide Bengal into two zones, West Bengal and East Bengal & Assam.

Creation of Pakistan

The independence movement throughout British-controlled India began in the late nineteenth century and gained momentum during the twentieth century. Bengali politicians played an active role in Gandhi's Congress Party and Jinnah's Muslim League, exposing the opposing forces of ethnic and religious nationalism. By exploiting the latter, the British intended to distract the independence movement, for example by partitioning Bengal in 1905 along religious lines (the split only lasted for seven years). At first the Muslim League sought only to ensure minority rights in the future nation. In 1940 the Muslim League passed the Lahore Resolution which envisaged one or more Muslim majority states in South Asia. Non-negotiable was the inclusion of the Muslim parts of Punjab and Bengal in these proposed states. The stakes grew as a new Viceroy Mountbatten was appointed expressly for the purpose of effecting a graceful British exit. Communal violence in Noakhali and Calcutta sparked a surge in support for the Muslim League, which won a majority of Bengal's Muslim seats in 1946. At the last moment Suhrawardy and Sarat Chanderbose came up with the idea of an Independent and Unified Bengal state, which was endorsed by Jinnah. This idea was vetoed by the Indian National Congress.

British India was partitioned and the independent states of India and Pakistan were created in 1947; the region of Bengal was divided along religious lines. The predominantly Muslim eastern half of Bengal became the East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan) state of Pakistan and the predominantly Hindu western part became the Indian state of West Bengal.

Pakistan's history from 1947 to 1971 was marked by political instability and economic difficulties. In 1956 a constitution was at last adopted, making the country an 'Islamic republic within the Commonwealth'. The nascent democratic institutions foundered in the face of military intervention in 1958, and the government imposed martial law between 1958 and 1962, and again between 1969 and 1971.

Almost from the advent of independent Pakistan in 1947, frictions developed between East and West Pakistan, which were separated by more than 1,000 miles of Indian territory. East Pakistanis felt exploited by the West Pakistan-dominated central government. Linguistic, cultural and ethnic differences also contributed to the estrangement of East from West Pakistan.

When Mohammad Ali Jinnah died in September 1948, Khwaja Nazimuddin became the Governor General of Pakistan while Nurul Amin was appointed the Chief Minister of East Bengal. Nurul Amin continued as the Chief Minister of East Bengal until 2 April 1954. The abolition of the Zamindari system in East Bengal (1950) and the Language Movement were two most important events during his tenure.

The Language Movement

In 1948, Jinnah declared in Dhaka that Urdu and only Urdu shall be the state language of Pakistan. This sparked protests in East Bengal (later East Pakistan), where Bengali language was spoken by most of the population.

The movement reached its peak in 1952. On February 21, 1952, Pakistan Police and Army fired on students protesting for equal status of Bengali, near the Dhaka Medical College. Several protesters were killed, and the movement gained further support throughout the East Pakistan. Later, the Government agreed to provide equal status to Bengali as the state language of Pakistan, a right later codified in the 1956 constitution.

1971: Independence

Great differences began developing between the two wings of Pakistan. While the west had a minority share of Pakistan's total population, it had the maximum share of revenue allocation, industrial development, agricultural reforms and civil development projects. Pakistan's military and civil services were dominated by the fair-skinned, Persian-cultured Punjabis and Afghans. Only one regiment in the Pakistani Army was Bengali. And many Bengali Pakistanis could not share the natural enthusiasm for the Kashmir issue, which they felt was leaving East Pakistan more vulnerable and threatened as a result.

After the Awami League won all the East Pakistan seats of the Pakistan's National Assembly in the 1970-71 elections, West Pakistan opened talks with the East on constitutional questions about the division of power between the central government and the provinces, as well as the formation of a national government headed by the Awami League.

The talks proved unsuccessful, however, and on March 1, 1971, Pakistani President Yahya Khan indefinitely postponed the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan.

On March 4, a group of students, lead by Abdur Rob, of Dhaka University raised the new (proposed) flag of Bangla.

On March 7, there was a historical public gathering in Paltan Maidan to hear the guideline for the revolution and independence from Shaikh Mujib, the frontier leader of movement that time. Though he avoided the direct speech of independent as the talks were still on table, he influenced the mob to prepare for the separation war. After a military crackdown by the Pakistan army later that month, Sheikh Mujib Mujibur Rahman was arrested and the political leaders dispersed, mostly fleeing to neighbouring India where they organised a provisional government. The Eighth East Bengal Regiment under the leadership of Major Ziaur Rahman revolted against the Pakistan Army and took up the Bangladesh flag as its mainstay on the night of March 26 - March 27, 1971. Major Zia declared, on behalf of the Great Leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the independence of Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Government was formed in Meherpur, adjacent to Indian border. As fighting grew between the army and the Bengali Mukti Bahini ('freedom fighters'), an estimated ten million Bengalis, mainly Hindus, sought refuge in the Indian states of Assam, Tripura and West Bengal.

The crisis in East Pakistan produced new strains in Pakistan's troubled relations with India. The two nations had fought a war in 1965, mainly in the west, but the refugee pressure in India in the fall of 1971 produced new tensions in the east. Indian sympathies lay with East Pakistan, and on December 3, 1971, India intervened on the side of the Bangladeshis. On December 16, 1971, Pakistani forces surrendered, and the Country of Bangla was established the following day, formally changing its name to Bangladesh on January 11, 1972 and becoming a parliamentary democracy under a constitution. Shortly thereafter on March 19 Bangladesh signed a friendship treaty with India.

Post-Independence

In January 1975, economic and political difficulties led to Sheikh Mujib's assumption of the presidency with greatly increased powers and also annulled the multi-party system by creating one party rule. On August 15, 1975, he was killed in a military coup.

Following two further coups (November 3 and November 6), Major General Ziaur Rahman emerged as de facto ruler, assuming the presidency in April 1977. In May 1981, Zia in turn fell victim to a failed coup attempt; ten months later, on March 24, 1982, Lt. General Hossain Mohammad Ershad took power, holding office until his resignation (December 6, 1990).

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Khaleda Zia, General Zia's widow, won power in the elections held in February 1991. The next election in June 1996 was won by the rival Awami League under Mujib's daughter Sheikh Hasina. In 2001, a four-party alliance including Khaleda Zia's BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, returned to power after a landslide victory in the polls.

In January 2007, following widespread violence, a caretaker government was appointed to administer the next general election. The country had suffered from extensive corruption, disorder and political violence. The new caretaker government has made it a priority to root out corruption from all levels of government. To this end, many notable politicians and officials, along with large numbers of lesser officials and party members, have been arrested on corruption charges. The caretaker government claims to be paving the way for free and fair elections to be held before the end of 2008.