History
There has long been advanced civilization in what is now Bangladesh, once the eastern part of a greater
region called Bengal. There is recent evidence
of civilizations dating back to 500 BC, and there are even claims of social structures
from around 1000 BC. One of the earliest historical references to be found to
date is the mention of a land named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100BC. The
word is speculated to have come from Gangahrd (Land with the Ganges in its
heart) and believed to be referring to an area in Bangladesh. However, more concrete
proof of a political entity in Bengal starts
with Shashanka in 7th century A.D. This was followed by (though not
immediately) the Pala dynasty and the Sen dynasty. The
Pala dynasty was Buddhist while both Shashanka and the Sens were Hindus. Bengal became Islamic starting in the 13th century and
developed into a wealthy centre of trade and industry under the Mughal Empire
during the 16th century. European traders had arrived in the late 15th century
and eventually the British East India Company controlled the region by the late
18th century, from which the British extended their rule over all of India.
When Indian independence was achieved in 1947, political motivations caused it
to be divided into the Islamic state of Pakistan
and a secular India.
The Partition of India saw Bengal divided between the two new countries: a
Muslim-dominated eastern part called East Bengal corresponding to what is now Bangladesh,
and a western part, the Indian state of West Bengal.
The abolition of the Jamidari system (which divided the society into lords,
owners of property, and commoners, users of property) in East Bengal (1950) was
a major landmark in Bangladesh's
movement to a "people's state". The Language Movement of February,
1952 established the rights of the Bengali community to speak in their own
language, an event commomorated now as the International Mother Language Day.
In 1955, the government of Pakistan
changed the name of the province from East Bengal to East
Pakistan. East Pakistan was dominated and neglected by West
Pakistan, which comprised the rest of Pakistan
(West Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, and the Northwest Frontier
Province).
Under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also known as
Bôngobondhu (Friend of Bengal), Bangladesh
started its struggle for independence. The official onset followed one of the
bloodiest genocides of recent times carried out by the Pakistan army on Bengali civilians
on 25 March 1971.
After a nine months of arms stuggle agains Pakistani Army
the country got liberation on 16th December, 1971.
National Monument, Savar
