Essay on Bangladesh: An Outstanding Essay on Bangladesh

Last among the nations to emerge on the Indian subcontinent after a brief, brutal war in 1971 with Pakistan, of which it had been a part since 1947, Bangladesh (liter­ally Bengal country and formerly known as East Pakistan) is a small, impoverished and overcrowded nation. Before inde­pendence it was separated from Pakistan’s western region (formerly known as West Pakistan) by some 920 miles (1,554 km) of Indian Territory; its political link to West Pakistan was based largely on religious grounds.

Dissimilar in most other cultural traits (language, food habits, literary tradi­tions and history), the eastern wing of Pakistan had lived its 24 years of existence in relative neglect, and exploitation. With only one-sixth of the area of Pakistan (54,000 sq. miles or 148,000 sq. km) but over half of its population (now close to 127 million), the new nation faced seemingly insurmountable problems of exploding population, grinding poverty and lack of overall development. Unable to feed itself, it relied heavily on food, material, and technical aid from many countries, includ­ing India, which had helped it to win freedom from Pakistan.

Physical Characteristics:

Nearly all of the land surface of Bangladesh is below 50 feet (15 meters) above sea level and consists of a flood plain of the Ganga-Brahmaputra Rivers and their tributaries. The delta is ac­tive and continually silting. The only hilly areas are bordering India where land rises to about 1,000 feet (304 meters), and in the southeastern section near Burma border where the relief is between 500 to 2,000 feet.

The climate is everywhere warm and humid. Rainfall is plentiful, varying be­tween 70 inches (1,778 mm) annually in the west and 100 inches (2,540 mm) in the east; the regime controlled by the two monsoon seasons but most precipitation falls during the summer monsoons.

Nature has also dealt harshly with Bangladesh. The nearly flat topography is subjected to annual flooding. To the south, the country lies open to the passage of tropical storms which periodically bring large scale destruction to the densely set­tled southern sections of the deltaic plains of the three big rivers: Padma (local name for Ganga), Jamuna (local name for Brahmaputra), and Meghna, and their in­numerable tributaries.

The November 1970 typhoon, which took as many as half a million lives and destroyed 400,000 homes, was among the greatest natural dis­asters of the 20th century. Similar, if not quite as devastating, events are a common and nearly an annual phenomenon.

Cultural Patterns:

Ethnically, Bangla­desh is one of the most homogeneous nations: 98 percent of the population con­sists of Bengali speakers. The Bengalis— both Muslims and Hindus—are justly proud of their linguistic culture, for Ben­gali language possesses a far richer and maturer literature than most other Indo- European languages. Islam is the predominant religion; and Muslims from 88 percent of the population.

The Hindu minority is substantial, consisting of nearly 11 percent of the total population and composed primarily of the under­privileged sections, who have, at times, been immigrating to the neighboring In­dia. There was a mass exodus of nearly 10 million persons to India during the 1971 War of Independence with Pakistan con­sisting almost entirely of the Hindus who felt insecure to remain within the country.

Most of them have since returned back, but a small trickle continues to immigrate to the adjoining states of West Bengal, As­sam, Meghalaya and Tripura in India. During recent years many have immi­grated to cities including the West Bengal in India and India’s capital city of New Delhi.

Economy and Resources:

Agriculture is the dominant sector of economy. Nearly all of the cultivatable area (about 74 per­cent of its total land) is under crops—rice and to a lesser degree wheat for subsis­tence; jute and tea for cash. Jute is the mainstay of the economy, producing a substantial part of its export earnings. It is Bangladesh’s important export surpassed only recently by ready-made garments which became Bangladesh’s leading export in 1988.

Tea is another export item. Con­ditions for rice cultivation are ideal— ample rainfall, high temperatures, very fer­tile alluvial soils, and almost level topography. Although two to three crops of rice are raised, low yields and high population densities (now approaching 2,230 persons per sq mile or 6,862 per sq km) have made the country chronically a food deficit area.

During the 1970s and 1980s the “Green Revolution” helped boost rice production dramatically through increased acreage in high-yielding varieties of rice. The expansion of wheat as a second grain crop also allowed dietary di­versification. Although the country approached self-sufficiency in food grains in the mid 1980s, increasing population re­mains a serious problem. The Malthusian threat of hunger still looms over a nation already given to recurrent famines, persist­ent malnutrition, poverty, and typhoons.

The cultivation of jute (produced as a commercial crop) occupies land that could otherwise be used for rice. It s production related to the low-wage hand labor so abundantly available, has suffered lately in competition with the introduction of syn­thetic fibers into the world market. Lacking in most minerals, Bangladesh’s modest resources of peat, natural gas and timber await exploitation as the nation’s energies are spent on combating problems of overpopulation and economic underde­velopment.

The capital and port city of Dhaka (6.1 million) is centrally located in the delta region. Famous for its fine Muslims and other handicraft industries in the 17th century, it has been a historic/politico-regional center of Bengal. At the time of India’s partition, the city contained nearly one-half of its jute manufacturing mills; now it is the premier industrial center of Bangladesh containing besides jute mills, sugar factories, oil pressing mills, and a few glass and cement factories.

The jute and cotton textile industry has since undergone considerable expansion. Textiles (ready- made garments, and jute manufactured material) account for nearly two-thirds of country’s exports that pass through Dhaka. Chittagong (2 million) is the country’s other major port.

Khulna with a population approaching one million is an important commercial and manufacturing center in the southern region, and Rajshani (over half a million) and Mymensingh are other regional market centers located in the western and eastern parts of the country.

Prospects:

Bangladesh is a sad paradox. The country possesses rich, fertile land ca­pable of producing several subsistence and commercial crops, but ever increasing population and relative neglect have left the country poor and underdeveloped. An assessment of its future prospects is diffi­cult to make. Some diversification of the economy is possible. Most mineral wealth, modest though it may be, remains un­tapped.

Natural gas reserves might be used in the production of fertilizers. The forest products’ industry can be also developed. Diversification of commercial and subsis­tence crops can relieve pressure on jute, tea, and rice. Fishing as an important re­source and a major export, can be further expanded. But population remains a seri­ous problem.

Currently, Bangladesh stands close to the bottom of the world’s coun­tries in economic development, along with such nations as Chad and Bhutan, which contain only a tiny fraction of its popula­tion. The country suffered grievously during its war of independence. Millions streamed across the border into neighbor­ing India. Disruption of transport and of thousands of villages and settlements added to the misery and horror that followed the war from which the country has not since completely recovered.

Since the 1960s the issue of population planning has been taken seriously by the administration. Through its own efforts and the help of international donors (Bang­ladesh is one of the largest recipient of international aid in population control), there has been a noticeable decline in the average annual increase in population from 2.6 percent a year during the 1960s and 1970s to 2.3 percent between 1980 and 1995, and by 1999, it had fallen below 1.8 percent a year. During the late 1990’s, Bangladesh made major efforts to meet the food needs of its growing population, and the country is now largely self-sufficient in its food requirements.