Bangladesh

From A Nation To A State

Craig Baxter

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780813328546
• eBook ISBN: 9780429981760
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Regional Studies
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In 1996, Bangladesh celebrated its 25th anniversary. When the country became independent from Pakistan in 1971, it proclaimed itself a parliamentary democracy with four goals—democracy, secularism, socialism, and nationalism. This comprehensive introduction to Bangladesh's history, polity, economy, and society reassesses its successes and failures in reaching these goals after a quarter century of nationhood. Craig Baxter traces the development of national identity in the region, first as part of India and then of Pakistan, and the slow evolution toward statehood. He also explores the formative periods of Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and British government that preceded Pakistani rule and subsequent independence. Anyone wishing to understand this poor, populous, but ambitious young nation will find this book an invaluable reference.

1
A Delta and Its People

On the alluvial plains at the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers live about 175 million Bengalis, about two-thirds of them in the independent People's Republic of Bangladesh and the remainder in the Indian state of West Bengal. Not every square mile of the territory of the two political units is delta, but the delta is home to the overwhelming majority of Bengalis, whose lives are very much affected by and dependent on the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Meghna, and other rivers such as the Karnaphuli and the Karotoya. The ancient Sanskrit name for the area, "Vanga," evolved into "Bangla" or "Bengal" and, for the new state, "Bangladesh," "Land of the Bengalis."

The story of Bangladesh covers its rivers and its people. But it also concerns two of the greatest cleavages of the Indo-Pakistani-Bangladeshi subcontinent: the division between Hindus and Muslims, which led to the partition of India in 1947; and the hostility between the two wings of Pakistan, which resulted in civil war, Indian intervention, and the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. An understanding of these two events is essential to the study of Bangladesh, as is a consideration not only of the almost two centuries of British rule but also of the Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim periods that preceded control by the Europeans. A nation cannot be separated from its past; this is eminently true of the "Land of the Bengalis." We must ask: Are the Bangladeshis Bengalis first? Do they look to their shared cultural and linguistic past? Or are they Muslims first, Muslims who, even after separation, retain a community of interests with Pakistan, especially with regard to India? We shall see that they can be either, depending on the circumstances.

Ecological Setting

Bangladesh had a population of approximately 115 million in 1993, in an area of 55,126 square miles (about the size of Wisconsin). With more than 2,000 persons per square mile, Bangladesh is the most densely populated nation in the world, with the exception of city-states like Hong Kong and Singapore. To set this number in context: For the United States to approach this density, the entire population of the world would have to live within its borders. Land per capita is about one-third of an acre, or just over 2 acres per household. The annual rate of population growth from 1980 to 1993 was 2.1 percent, a significant decrease from the annual rate of 2.8 percent from 1970 to 1980. Even at this lower rate, the population will double in about thirty-three years; if this rate continues, there will be more than 130 million Bangladeshis at the end of the century. These raw figures illustrate one of the most intractable problems facing Bangladesh: population growth (see Chapter 10).¹

Although there has been some urbanization, especially since independence, about 83 percent of the population of Bangladesh is rural. The capital, Dhaka (formerly spelled "Dacca"), is the largest city, with a metropolitan population enumerated in 1991 at about 9 million, including the industrial and port suburb of Narayanganj. This is surely an underenumeration. The World Bank estimates that by 2015 the population of Dhaka will have swollen to almost 20 million.² The only cities with populations exceeding 1 million are Chittagong, at about 5 million, and Khulna, with about 2 million. In Chapter 7 I discuss the many problems caused by urbanization.

Most of the land of Bangladesh is made up of alluvial soil deposited by the three main river systems: the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna. The Ganges rises on the southern slopes of the Himalaya in Uttar Pradesh in India and gathers the waters of a number of tributaries both from the Himalaya in India and Nepal and from the highlands of central India to the south of the river before entering Bangladesh just downstream from the Farakka Barrage. The principal outlet of the Ganges until the sixteenth century was through the Bhagirathi and Hooghly Rivers (past the modern city of Calcutta), but as this route became heavily silted the river changed its main channel eastward through what is now Bangladesh. The shift: in course opened up the eastern portion of Bengal to north Indian influence and, as we shall see in Chapter 9, has created a serious issue between Bangladesh and India, as India has diverted water from the Ganges at Farakka into the former outlet of the river through the Bhagirathi and Hooghly Rivers. There are distributaries (i.e., outlets) in India and many in Bangladesh, but the main flow of the river, known as the Padma in Bangladesh, joins that of the Brahmaputra (called the Jamuna in Bangladesh) at Goalundo, in the former Faridpur District (now Rajbari District),³ about 80 miles west of Dhaka.

The Brahmaputra rises on the northern slopes of the Himalaya and flows through Tibet (where it is known as the Tsangpo) and the Indian state of Assam before crossing the border. The Brahmaputra, too, has changed its course in relatively recent times. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, it flowed through the middle of the former (and present) district of Mymensingh, but it now flows almost directly south from its entry into Bangladesh to its confluence with the Padma (Ganges) at Goalundo. After the confluence, the Padma, with the waters of the Jamuna, joins the Meghna River a few miles north of the city of Chandpur.

The Meghna is properly so called only after it is formed at the confluence of the Surma and old Brahmaputra Rivers at Bhairab Bazar. The old Brahmaputra is what remains of the Brahmaputra after the diversion of the main stream mentioned above. The Surma rises in India in the area that has among the highest rainfalls in the world. When joined by the Padma at Chandpur, it forms an estuary with the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. Perhaps with some exaggeration, the Imperial Gazetteer of India for Eastern Bengal and Assam states that the Meghna "forms the outlet for the drainage of half of India."⁴ It rises in Sylhet District of Bangladesh and joins the Padma south of Dhaka. A phenomenon of the Meghna estuary is the extraordinary height of the tide, from 10 to 18 feet normally but rising to more than 20 in the spring, advancing at as much as 15 miles per hour. The danger to shipping during the tidal bore is very great, as is the danger from shifting sandbars. Cyclones often use a path up the Meghna, which can be as much as 10 to 12 miles wide.

These three major rivers are but the tiniest fraction of the rivers that crisscross Bangladesh. The turbulent and unruly Tista, which flows from Tibet through Bhutan and West Bengal into northern Bangladesh and there joins the Brahmaputra, has also been the subject of negotiations between India and Bangladesh, resulting in a 1983 agreement on sharing its waters.

The annual flooding of the plains of these rivers is both a blessing and a curse for Bangladesh. The deposits of rich silt replenish the fertile but overworked soil, but the damage each year can also be substantial. In a typical year, about one-tenth of the land is subjected to severe flooding and at least one-half to some inundation. Levees built along the banks are seldom effective in containing the water. The force of the floodwaters regularly rearranges the topography, creating new islands and bars and diverting the course of the rivers, often significantly. Building bridges across the major rivers is a risky enterprise, as the following year the bridge may well be over dry land, with the river a mile or more away. Ferry landings must be relocated frequently.

Yet there are also areas with insufficient water. One of the major projects since the Pakistan period is the Ganga-Kobadak irrigation system, under construction in southwestern Bangladesh. The project is designed to provide the area with a steady flow of water, yet Indian withdrawals of water at Farakka have endangered this system during the dry season and permitted salinity to progress farther inland as the steady flow of the rivers is diminished and the intrusion of saltwater from the sea cannot be countered.

The principal crops grown on this rich soil are rice and jute, with lesser amounts of oil seeds, wheat, pulses, and vegetables. Jute is the principal cash crop. Bangladesh is the largest grower of this fiber, which is used for sacking (burlap), rope, and carpet backing. Rice is the staple food, and expanding its production has been a major goal of each government of the new state. Nonetheless, Bangladesh must import food grains each year to provide even the minimum caloric levels that now exist. Although precise data are not available, it is estimated that more than 60 percent of the population eat a diet below nutritional standards. I further discuss agriculture and nutrition in Chapter 10.

In the higher land areas along the eastern border, which are less densely populated, there is the possibility of other crops. Tea is grown in Sylhet District, but it is considered of a quality below that grown in India and Sri Lanka. The Chittagong Hill Tracts, which border on India and Myanmar (formerly Burma), are sparsely populated and could potentially be used for timber, including teak, and perhaps some hill crops such as coffee, cocoa, and spices. The unsettled conditions discussed in Chapter 6 limit development, as the tribes in the tracts resent the "invasion" of their territory by settlers from the lowlands. The only feasible hydroelectric site was developed during the Pakistan period at Kaptai on the Karnaphuli River near the border between Rangamati District in the Hill Tracts and Chittagong District.

Bangladesh has few natural resources beyond its fertile soil. Natural gas has been found in abundance and is being used to generate about 40 percent of the nation's electricity (compared with about 25 percent from Kaptai) and in the manufacture of nitrogenous fertilizers. Neither gas nor electricity is yet transmitted across the Jamuna, although a project to do this is now being implemented through the building of a road and rail bridge that will also carry electrical and gas lines. Until the project is completed, the benefits of cheaper energy are limited to eastern Bangladesh. Potentially workable deposits of coal have been found in Bogra District, but their exploitation is hindered because of the danger of the mines' flooding during the monsoon period. Glass and cement manufacturing are other areas in which domestic resources might be used.

The river system provides a valuable means of transportation in almost all of the country and is especially useful when road and rail systems are interrupted by wide rivers crossed only by slow ferry journeys or are cut by the frequent flooding. Power, sail, and human-propelled vessels move goods and people on a labyrinthine system that...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Tables and Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 A DELTA AND ITS PEOPLE
• 2 HINDUS AND BUDDHISTS
• 3 BENGAL UNDER MUSLIM RULE
• 4 BENGAL UNDER THE COMPANY
• 5 BENGAL UNDER THE RAJ
• 6 TOWARD INDEPENDENCE AND PARTITION
• 7 A PROVINCE OF PAKISTAN
• 8 DEMOCRACY, AUTHORITARIANISM, LIMITED DEMOCRACY, 1972-1982
• 9 MILITARY RULE AND DEMOCRACY RESTORED, 1982-1996
• 10 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
• 11 BANGLADESH IN THE WORLD SYSTEM
• 12 DEMOCRACY OR AUTHORITARIANISM? DEVELOPMENT OR STAGNATION?
• Bibliographic Note
• About the Book and Author
• Index