Official name of the country is People’s Republic of Bangladesh. It is located in South Asia, bordered by India on all sides except for the far southeast, where it borders Myanmar and by the Bay of Bengal in the south. It makes up an ethno-linguistic region of Bengal along with India’s West Bengal. Dhaka is the capital city of the country and is also the largest city. Dhaka is a hub of all political, religious and cultural affairs.
The official language is Bangla 'Bangladesh' in Bangla means the “Country of Bengal”. The present day borders were established during the partition of India and Bengal in 1947. During the partition period, the region was known as East Pakistan, being a part of the the than newly formed nation Pakistan. It was separated from the western wing by 1,600 km of Indian Territory. West Pakistan dominated East Pakistan; leading to economic negligence, political exclusion, linguistic and ethnic discrimination resulting in agitation. The agitation led to outburst which led to the independence of Bangladesh through the Liberation War in 1971. On 16 December, 1971, the Pakistan Army surrendered to the Freedom Fighters of Bangladesh and ally, an Indian Brigade, in Dhaka.
The new born state after independence suffered from natural disasters, famines, poverty, military coups and political turmoil. Democracy was restored in the nation in 1991 followed by relative calm an economic progress. Bangladesh follows a parliamentary democracy model, having an elected parliament, known as Jatiyo Sangshad. Direct elections are staged normally after every five years and a citizen aged 18 or over can vote in the election.
The parliamentary building of Bangladesh is named - the Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, designed by renowned architect Louis Khan. At present, the parliament has 345 members which include 45 reserved seats for women. The leader of the government is the Prime Minister who forms the cabinet and is responsible for running the regular affairs of the state. The President appoints the Prime Minister who must be a MP and command the confidence of the majority of the parliament members. Though the President is constitutionally the head of the state; it is nevertheless a ceremonial post.
During the tenure of the caretaker government (interim government), which is responsible for holding a free and fair election and transfer the power, the power of the President expands substantially. The caretaker government members have to be non-partisan who are given three months time to accomplish their tasks. The caretaker government system was innovated and pioneered during the election in 1991, and later institutionalized in 1996 through the 13th constitutional amendment.
Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and ninth most populous country. Even though United Nations acclaimed Bangladesh for achieving a great progress in human development, high poverty rate persists in the country. The county geographically stands astride of the fertile Delta of Ganges – Brahmaputra. It is also subject to cyclones and annual monsoon floods.
Bangladesh has been listed as one of the Next Eleven economies. The country is also member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Commonwealth of Nations, D-8, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Non Aligned Movement and BIMSTEC. It still faces a number of challenges including bureaucratic and political corruption, overpopulation, poverty, economic competition relative to the world and hydrologic shocks that results from the ecological vulnerability to climate change. Amartya Sen, a Nobel laureate economist, in 2011 said, “Bangladesh is now doing better on almost every one of these social indicators than India is doing".
The foreign policies carried out in Bangladesh are moderate with heavy dependence of diplomacy from the multinationals, particularly the United Nations. Bangladesh joined Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations in 1974. Since then, it has been elected two terms, in 1978 – 79 and 2000 – 01, to serve on the Security Council. Bangladesh played the leading role in founding the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in the 1980s, which sought to expand relations with other states from the South Asia. A Bangladeshi held the post of Secretary General for two occasions since the foundation of SAARC.
