Bangladesh

 

         Bangladesh is a small country nestled between India to the north and west and Myanmar to the east.  The history of Bangladesh is a relatively short and tumultuous one.  To understand the 40+ year history of present day Bangladesh, it is important to understand that what the world now calls Bangladesh was once part of the British Empire, as far back as 1757.  This was the year when the British East India Company set up a permanent presence in the area. The British remained the controlling power in the region until the British exited the area and partitioned this part of their empire along religious lines.  This effort formed the countries of India and Pakistan.  The religion of India is overwhelmingly Hindu while the predominant and official religion of Pakistan is Muslim.  The British faced the problem of what to do with Bengal, which is the region we now know as Bangladesh.  The problem the British faced is that both Pakistan and the region of Bengal were predominately Muslim, and between these two areas was India.  The British settled on forming Bangel into East Pakistan, which would be governed by Pakistan.  Problems began immediately, even though these two regions were Muslim they were different people.  Pakistan is made up of Punjabi and Pashtun people, while the people in East Pakistan identify themselves as from an Asian descent.  The government in Pakistan treated the people from East Pakistan as lesser than themselves and hoarded resources.  The people of Bengal began an uprising to make Bengali the official language of East Pakistan, after years of protests and political unrest the Pakistani government relented and in 1956, Bengali was recognized as an official language.  The next 15 years would see a stronger movement in East Pakistan to become more independent from Pakistan.  The culmination of this led to a declaration of independence from Pakistan on March 27, 1971.  With military intervention from India,  the new country of Bangladesh was formed on December 16, 1971, after over 90,000 Pakistani forces surrendered to the Indian forces.  The next four decades would prove to be just as tumultuous for one of the world's newest countries.  Several political parties are locked into a continuous struggle for power which leaves most of the population in unending poverty.  In the last couple of years, Islamic Extremism has started to take hold in parts of Bangladesh, making the lives of the average Bangladeshi even more difficult.