Bangladesh (
i;
;
বাংলাদেশ,
pronounced: [ˈbaŋlad̪eʃ] (
listen),
lit. "The country of Bengal"), officially the
People's Republic of Bangladesh (গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ
Gônôprôjatôntri Bangladesh), is a country in
South Asia. It shares land borders with
India and
Myanmar (Burma).
Nepal,
Bhutan and China are located near Bangladesh but do not share a border with it. The country's maritime territory in the
Bay of Bengal is roughly equal to the size of its land area.
[9] Bangladesh is the world's
eighth most populous country.
Dhaka is its capital and largest city, followed by
Chittagong which has the country's largest port.
Bangladesh forms two-thirds and the eastern part of the greater
Bengal region.
[10] Bengali is its official language and
lingua franca.
Bangladeshis include people of different ethnic groups and religions.
Bengalis make up 98% of the population. The politically dominant
Bengali Muslims make the nation the world's third largest
Muslim-majority country. Most of Bangladesh is covered by the
Bengal delta, the largest delta on Earth. The country has 700 rivers and 8,046 km (5000 miles) of inland waterways.
Highlands
with evergreen forests are found in the northeastern and southeastern
regions of the country. Bangladesh has many islands and a coral reef. It
is home to the
Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world. The country's
biodiversity includes a vast array of plant and wildlife, including critically endangered
Bengal tigers, the national animal.
The Greeks and Romans identified the region as
Gangaridai, a powerful kingdom of the historical
subcontinent,
in the 3rd century BCE. Archaeological research has unearthed several
ancient cities in Bangladesh, which had international trade links for
millennia.
[11] The
Bengal Sultanate and
Mughal Bengal transformed the region into a cosmopolitan
Islamic imperial power between the 14th and 18th centuries. The region was notable for its
muslin and silk trade. As part of
British India, the region was influenced by the Bengali renaissance and played an important role in anti colonial movements. The
Partition of British India made East Bengal a part of the
Dominion of Pakistan. It was renamed as
East Pakistan and witnessed the
Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. After independence, a
parliamentary republic was established. A
presidential government
was in place between 1975 and 1990, followed by a return to
parliamentary democracy. The country has also been affected by poverty,
natural disasters, hunger,
dominant party systems and
military coups.
Bangladesh is a
middle power and a major
developing nation. Listed as one of the
Next Eleven, it has the
46th largest economy. It is one of the
largest textile exporters
in the world. Its major trading partners are the European Union, the
United States, China, India, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. With its
strategically vital location between South, East and Southeast Asia,
Bangladesh is an important promoter of regional connectivity and
cooperation. It is a founding member of
SAARC,
BIMSTEC, the
Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation and the
Bangladesh Bhutan India Nepal Initiative. It is also a member of the
Commonwealth of Nations, the
Developing 8 Countries, the
OIC, the
Non Aligned Movement, the
Group of 77 and the
World Trade Organization. Bangladesh is one of the largest contributors of
United Nations peacekeeping forces.
Courtesy by wikipedia.org
