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Bangladesh-Two Nations Concept, 1930-47

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Ruins of Mainamati, center of a seventh- and eighth-century Buddhist kingdom, near modern Comilla
Courtesy Bangladesh Ministry of Information

The political tumult in India during the late 1920s and the 1930s produced the first articulations of a separate state as an expression of Muslim consciousness. Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1873-1938), an Islamic revivalist poet and philosopher, discussed contemporary problems in his presidential address to the Muslim League conference at Allahabad in 1930. He saw India as Asia in miniature, in which a unitary form of government was inconceivable and community rather than territory was the basis for identification. To Iqbal, communalism in its highest sense was the key to the formation of a harmonious whole in India. Therefore, he demanded the creation of a confederated India that would include a Muslim state consisting of Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Sind, and Baluchistan. In subsequent speeches and writings, Iqbal reiterated the claims of Muslims to be considered a nation "based on unity of language, race, history, religion, and identity of economic interests."

Iqbal gave no name to his projected state; that was done by Chaudhari Rahmat Ali and a group of students at Cambridge University who issued a pamphlet in 1933 entitled "Now or Never." They opposed the idea of federation, denied that India was a single country, and demanded partition into regions, the northwest receiving national status as "Pakistan." They made up the name Pakistan by taking the P from Punjab, A from Afghania (Rahmat's name for the North-West Frontier Province), K from Kashmir, S from Sind, and Tan from Baluchistan. (When written in Urdu, the word Pakistan has no letter i between the k and the s.) The name means "the land of the Paks, the spiritually pure and clean." There was a proliferation of articles on the theme of Pakistan expressing the subjective conviction of nationhood, but there was no coordination of political effort to achieve it. There was no reference to Bengal.

In 1934 Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) took over the leadership of the Muslim League, which was without a sense of mission and unable to replace the Khilafat Movement, which had combined religion, nationalism, and political adventure. Jinnah set about restoring a sense of purpose to Muslims. He emphasized the "Two Nations" theory based on the conflicting ideas and conceptions of Hinduism and Islam.

By the late 1930s, Jinnah was convinced of the need for a unifying issue among Muslims, and the proposed state of Pakistan was the obvious answer. In its convention on March 23, 1940, in Lahore, the Muslim League resolved that the areas of Muslim majority in the northwest and the northeast of India should be grouped in "constituent states to be autonomous and sovereign" and that no independence plan without this provision would be acceptable to the Muslims. Federation was rejected and, though confederation on common interests with the rest of India was envisaged, partition was predicated as the final goal. The Pakistan issue brought a positive goal to the Muslims and simplified the task of political agitation. It was no longer necessary to remain "yoked" to Hindus, and the amended wording of the Lahore Resolution issued in 1940 called for a "unified Pakistan." It would, however, be challenged by eastern Bengalis in later years.

After 1940 reconciliation between Congress and the Muslim League became increasingly difficult. Muslim enthusiasm for Pakistan grew in direct proportion to Hindu condemnation of it; the concept took on a life of its own and became a reality in 1947.

During World War II, the Muslim League and Congress adopted different attitudes toward the British government. When in 1939 the British declared India at war without first consulting Indian politicians, Muslim League politicians followed a course of limited cooperation with the British. Officials who were members of Congress, however, resigned from their offices. When in August 1942 Gandhi launched the revolutionary "Quit India" movement against the British Raj, Jinnah condemned it. The British government retaliated by arresting about 60,000 individuals and outlawing Congress. Meanwhile, the Muslim League stepped up its political activity. Communal passions rose, as did the incidence of communal violence. Talks between Jinnah and Gandhi in 1944 proved as futile as did the negotiations between Gandhi and the viceroy, Lord Archibald Wavell.

In July 1945 the Labour Party came to power in Britain with a vast majority. Its choices in India were limited by the decline of British power and the spread of Indian unrest, even to the armed services. Some form of independence was the only alternative to forcible retention of control over an unwilling dependency. The viceroy held discussions with Indian leaders in Simla in 1945 in an attempt to decide what form an interim government might take, but no agreement emerged.

New elections to provincial and central legislatures were ordered, and a three-man British cabinet mission arrived to discuss plans for India's self-government. Although the mission did not directly accept plans for self-government, concessions were made by severely limiting the power of the central government. An interim government composed of the parties returned by the election was to start functioning immediately, as was the newly elected Constituent Assembly.

Congress and the Muslim League emerged from the 1946 election as the two dominant parties. The Muslim League's success in the election could be gauged from its sweep of 90 percent of all Muslim seats in British India--compared with a mere 4.5 percent in 1937 elections. The Muslim League, like Congress, initially accepted the British cabinet mission plan, despite grave reservations. Subsequent disputes between the leaders of the two parties, however, led to mistrust and bitterness. Jinnah demanded parity for the Muslim League in the interim government and temporarily boycotted it when the demand was not met. Nehru indiscreetly made statements that cast doubts on the sincerity of Congress in accepting the cabinet mission plan. Each party disputed the right of the other to appoint Muslim ministers.

When the viceroy proceeded to form an interim government without the Muslim League, Jinnah called for demonstrations, or "direct action," on August 16, 1946. Communal rioting on an unprecedented scale broke out, especially in Bengal and Bihar; the massacre of Muslims in Calcutta brought Gandhi to the scene. His efforts calmed fears in Bengal, but the rioting spread to other provinces and continued into the following year. Jinnah took the Muslim League into the government in an attempt to prevent additional communal violence, but disagreement among the ministers rendered the interim government ineffective. Over all loomed the shadow of civil war.

In February 1947, Lord Louis Mountbatten was appointed viceroy and was given instructions to arrange for the transfer of power. After a quick assessment of the Indian scene, Mountbatten said that "India was a ship on fire in mid-ocean with ammunition in her hold." Mountbatten was convinced that Congress would be willing to accept partition as the price for stopping bloodshed and that Jinnah was willing to accept a smaller Pakistan. Mountbatten obtained sanction from London for the drastic action he proposed and then persuaded Indian leaders to acquiesce in a general way to his plan.

On July 14, 1947, the British House of Commons passed the India Independence Act, by which two independent dominions were created on the subcontinent and the princely states were left to accede to either. Throughout the summer of 1947, as communal violence mounted and drought and floods racked the land, preparations for partition proceeded in Delhi. The preparations were inadequate. A restructuring of the military into two forces took place, as law and order broke down in different parts of the country (see Pakistan Era , ch. 5). Jinnah and Nehru tried unsuccessfully to quell the passions that neither fully understood. Jinnah flew from Delhi to Karachi on August 7 and took office seven days later as the first governor general of the new Dominion of Pakistan.

Data as of September 1988

Background		Europeans began to set up trading posts in the area of Bangladesh in the 16th century; eventually the British came to dominate the region and it became part of British India. In 1947, West Pakistan and East Bengal (both primarily Muslim) separated from India (largely Hindu) and jointly became the new country of Pakistan. East Bengal became East Pakistan in 1955, but the awkward arrangement of a two-part country with its territorial units separated by 1,600 km left the Bengalis marginalized and dissatisfied. East Pakistan seceded from its union with West Pakistan in 1971 and was renamed Bangladesh. A military-backed, emergency caretaker regime suspended parliamentary elections planned for January 2007 in an effort to reform the political system and root out corruption. In contrast to the strikes and violent street rallies that had marked Bangladeshi politics in previous years, the parliamentary elections finally held in late December 2008 were mostly peaceful and Sheikh HASINA Wajed was reelected prime minister. About a third of this extremely poor country floods annually during the monsoon rainy season, hampering economic development.
Location		Southern Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and India
Area(sq km)		total: 143,998 sq km land: 130,168 sq km water: 13,830 sq km
Geographic coordinates		24 00 N, 90 00 E
Land boundaries(km)		total: 4,246 km border countries: Burma 193 km, India 4,053 km
Coastline(km)		580 km
Climate		tropical; mild winter (October to March); hot, humid summer (March to June); humid, warm rainy monsoon (June to October)
Elevation extremes(m)		lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m highest point: Keokradong 1,230 m
Natural resources		natural gas, arable land, timber, coal
Land use(%)		arable land: 55.39% permanent crops: 3.08% other: 41.53% (2005)
Irrigated land(sq km)		47,250 sq km (2003)
Total renewable water resources(cu km)		1,210.6 cu km (1999)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)		total: 79.4 cu km/yr (3%/1%/96%) per capita: 560 cu m/yr (2000)
Natural hazards		droughts; cyclones; much of the country routinely inundated during the summer monsoon season
Environment - current issues		many people are landless and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land; waterborne diseases prevalent in surface water; water pollution, especially of fishing areas, results from the use of commercial pesticides; ground water contaminated by naturally occurring arsenic; intermittent water shortages because of falling water tables in the northern and central parts of the country; soil degradation and erosion; deforestation; severe overpopulation
Environment - international agreements		party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note		most of the country is situated on deltas of large rivers flowing from the Himalayas: the Ganges unites with the Jamuna (main channel of the Brahmaputra) and later joins the Meghna to eventually empty into the Bay of Bengal
Population		156,050,883 (July 2009 est.)
Age structure(%)		0-14 years: 34.6% (male 27,065,625/female 26,913,961) 15-64 years: 61.4% (male 45,222,182/female 50,537,052) 65 years and over: 4% (male 3,057,255/female 3,254,808) (2009 est.)
Median age(years)		total: 23.3 years male: 22.9 years female: 23.5 years (2009 est.)
Population growth rate(%)		1.292% (2009 est.)
Birth rate(births/1,000 population)		24.68 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Death rate(deaths/1,000 population)		9.23 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)
Net migration rate(migrant(s)/1,000 population)		-2.53 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Urbanization(%)		urban population: 27% of total population (2008) rate of urbanization: 3.5% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)
Sex ratio(male(s)/female)		at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.9 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.94 male(s)/female total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
Infant mortality rate(deaths/1,000 live births)		total: 59.02 deaths/1,000 live births male: 66.12 deaths/1,000 live births female: 51.64 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
Life expectancy at birth(years)		total population: 60.25 years male: 57.57 years female: 63.03 years (2009 est.)
Total fertility rate(children born/woman)		2.74 children born/woman (2009 est.)
Nationality		noun: Bangladeshi(s) adjective: Bangladeshi
Ethnic groups(%)		Bengali 98%, other 2% (includes tribal groups, non-Bengali Muslims) (1998)
Religions(%)		Muslim 83%, Hindu 16%, other 1% (1998)
Languages(%)		Bangla (official, also known as Bengali), English
Country name		conventional long form: People's Republic of Bangladesh conventional short form: Bangladesh local long form: Gana Prajatantri Banladesh local short form: Banladesh former: East Bengal, East Pakistan
Government type		parliamentary democracy
Capital		name: Dhaka geographic coordinates: 23 43 N, 90 24 E time difference: UTC+6 (11 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
Administrative divisions		6 divisions; Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet
Constitution		4 November 1972; effective 16 December 1972; suspended following coup of 24 March 1982; restored 10 November 1986; amended many times
Legal system		based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Suffrage		18 years of age; universal
Executive branch		chief of state: President Zillur RAHMAN (since 12 February 2009) head of government: Prime Minister Sheikh HASINA Wajed (since 6 January 2009) cabinet: Cabinet selected by the prime minister and appointed by the president elections: president elected by National Parliament for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); last election held on 11 February 2009 (next scheduled election to be held in 2014) election results: Zillur RAHMAN declared president-elect by the Election Commission on 11 February 2009 (sworn in on 12 February); he ran unopposed as president; percent of National Parliament vote - NA
Legislative branch		unicameral National Parliament or Jatiya Sangsad; 300 seats elected by popular vote from single territorial constituencies; members serve five-year terms elections: last held 29 December 2008 (next to be held in 2013) election results: percent of vote by party - AL 49%, BNP 33.2%, JP 7%, JIB 4.6%, other 6.2%; seats by party - AL 230, BNP 30, JP 27, JIB 2, other 11
Judicial branch		Supreme Court (the chief justices and other judges are appointed by the president)
Political pressure groups and leaders		Advocacy to End Gender-based Violence through the MoWCA (Ministry of Women's and Children's Affairs) other: environmentalists; Islamist groups; religious leaders; teachers; union leaders
International organization participation		ADB, ARF, BIMSTEC, C, CP, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, MINURCAT, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OIC, OPCW, SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNAMID, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMIT, UNOCI, UNWTO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
Flag description		green field with a large red disk shifted slightly to the hoist side of center; the red disk represents the rising sun and the sacrifice to achieve independence; the green field symbolizes the lush vegetation of Bangladesh
Economy - overview		The economy has grown 5-6% per year since 1996 despite inefficient state-owned enterprises, delays in exploiting natural gas resources, insufficient power supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms. Bangladesh remains a poor, overpopulated, and inefficiently-governed nation. Although more than half of GDP is generated through the service sector, nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the single-most-important product. Garment exports and remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas, mainly in the Middle East and East Asia, fuel economic growth. In 2008 Bangladesh pursued a monetary policy aimed at maintaining high employment, but created higher inflation in the process.
GDP (purchasing power parity)		$226.4 billion (2008 est.) $214 billion (2007 est.) $201.5 billion (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP (official exchange rate)		$84.2 billion (2008 est.)
GDP - real growth rate(%)		5.8% (2008 est.) 6.2% (2007 est.) 6.4% (2006 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP)		$1,500 (2008 est.) $1,400 (2007 est.) $1,300 (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP - composition by sector(%)		agriculture: 19.1% industry: 28.6% services: 52.3% (2008 est.)
Labor force		70.86 million note: extensive export of labor to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Malaysia; workers' remittances estimated at $4.8 billion in 2005-06. (2008 est.)
Labor force - by occupation(%)		agriculture: 63% industry: 11% services: 26% (FY95/96)
Unemployment rate(%)		2.5% (2008 est.) 2.5% (2007 est.)
Population below poverty line(%)		45% (2004 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share(%)		lowest 10%: 4.3% highest 10%: 26.6% (2005)
Distribution of family income - Gini index		33.2 (2005) 33.6 (1996)
Investment (gross fixed)(% of GDP)		24.3% of GDP (2008 est.)
Budget		revenues: $8.825 billion expenditures: $12.54 billion (2008 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices)(%)		8.9% (2008 est.) 9.1% (2007 est.)
Stock of money		$9.294 billion (31 December 2008) $8.444 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of quasi money		$37.98 billion (31 December 2008) $32.35 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of domestic credit		$47.03 billion (31 December 2008) $40.1 billion (31 December 2007)
Market value of publicly traded shares		$6.671 billion (31 December 2008) $6.793 billion (31 December 2007) $3.61 billion (31 December 2006)
Economic aid - recipient		$1.321 billion (2005)
Public debt(% of GDP)		39.4% of GDP (2008 est.) 43% of GDP (2004 est.)
Agriculture - products		rice, jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, tobacco, pulses, oilseeds, spices, fruit; beef, milk, poultry
Industries		cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light engineering, sugar
Industrial production growth rate(%)		6.9% (2008 est.)
Current account balance		$1.032 billion (2008 est.) $856.8 million (2007 est.)
Exports		$15.44 billion (2008 est.) $12.47 billion (2007 est.)
Exports - commodities(%)		garments, jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood
Exports - partners(%)		US 21%, Germany 13.2%, UK 8.6%, France 6.3%, Netherlands 4.7% (2008)
Imports		$21.51 billion (2008 est.) $16.67 billion (2007 est.)
Imports - commodities(%)		machinery and equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, foodstuffs, petroleum products, cement
Imports - partners(%)		China 14.7%, India 14.7%, Kuwait 7.5%, Singapore 7.1%, Japan 4.1% (2008)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold		$5.789 billion (31 December 2008 est.) $5.278 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Debt - external		$22.83 billion (31 December 2008 est.) $21.23 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home		$5.971 billion (31 December 2008 est.) $5.261 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad		$97 million (31 December 2008 est.)
Exchange rates		taka (BDT) per US dollar - 68.554 (2008 est.), 69.893 (2007), 69.031 (2006), 64.328 (2005), 59.513 (2004)
Currency (code)		taka (BDT)
Telephones - main lines in use		1.39 million (2009)
Telephones - mobile cellular		45.75 million (2009)
Telephone system		general assessment: inadequate for a modern country; fixed-line telephone density remains less than 1 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular telephone subscribership has been increasing rapidly and has reached 30 per 100 persons domestic: modernizing; introducing digital systems; trunk systems include VHF and UHF microwave radio relay links, and some fiber-optic cable in cities international: country code - 880; landing point for the SEA-ME-WE-4 fiber-optic submarine cable system that provides links to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia; satellite earth stations - 6; international radiotelephone communications and landline service to neighboring countries (2008)
Internet country code		.bd
Internet users		556,000 (2008)
Airports		17 (2009)
Pipelines(km)		gas 2,597 km (2008)
Roadways(km)		total: 239,226 km paved: 22,726 km unpaved: 216,500 km (2003)
Ports and terminals		Chittagong, Mongla Port
Military branches		Bangladesh Defense Force: Bangladesh Army (Sena Bahini), Bangladesh Navy (Noh Bahini, BN), Bangladesh Air Force (Biman Bahini, BAF) (2009)
Military service age and obligation(years of age)		16 years of age for voluntary military service; 17 years of age for officers (both with parental consent); conscription legally possible in emergency, but has never been implemented (2008)
Manpower available for military service		males age 16-49: 41,199,340 (2008 est.)
Manpower fit for military service		males age 16-49: 24,946,041 females age 16-49: 31,409,069 (2009 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually		male: 1,538,865 female: 1,666,670 (2009 est.)
Military expenditures(% of GDP)		1.5% of GDP (2006)
Disputes - international		discussions with India remain stalled to delimit a small section of river boundary, exchange territory for 51 small Bangladeshi exclaves in India and 111 small Indian exclaves in Bangladesh, allocate divided villages, and stop illegal cross-border trade, migration, violence, and transit of terrorists through the porous border; Bangladesh protests India's fencing and walling off high-traffic sections of the porous boundary; a joint Bangladesh-India boundary commission resurveyed and reconstructed 92 missing pillars in 2007; dispute with India over New Moore/South Talpatty/Purbasha Island in the Bay of Bengal deters maritime boundary delimitation; after 21 years, Bangladesh resumes talks with Burma on delimiting a maritime boundary
Refugees and internally displaced persons		refugees (country of origin): 26,268 (Burma) IDPs: 65,000 (land conflicts, religious persecution) (2007)
Electricity - production(kWh)		22.99 billion kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - production by source(%)		fossil fuel: 93.7% hydro: 6.3% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (2001)
Electricity - consumption(kWh)		21.38 billion kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - exports(kWh)		0 kWh (2008 est.)
Electricity - imports(kWh)		0 kWh (2008 est.)
Oil - production(bbl/day)		6,426 bbl/day (2008 est.)
Oil - consumption(bbl/day)		95,000 bbl/day (2008 est.)
Oil - exports(bbl/day)		2,612 bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - imports(bbl/day)		87,660 bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - proved reserves(bbl)		28 million bbl (1 January 2009 est.)
Natural gas - production(cu m)		17.9 billion cu m (2008 est.)
Natural gas - consumption(cu m)		17.9 billion cu m (2008 est.)
Natural gas - exports(cu m)		0 cu m (2008)
Natural gas - proved reserves(cu m)		141.6 billion cu m (1 January 2009 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate(%)		less than 0.1% (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS		12,000 (2007 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths		fewer than 500 (2007 est.)
Major infectious diseases		degree of risk: high food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in some locations water contact disease: leptospirosis animal contact disease: rabies note: highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in this country; it poses a negligible risk with extremely rare cases possible among US citizens who have close contact with birds (2009)
Literacy(%)		definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 47.9% male: 54% female: 41.4% (2001 Census)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)(years)		total: 8 years male: 8 years female: 8 years (2004)
Education expenditures(% of GDP)		2.7% of GDP (2005)