About
Bangladesh
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Bangladesh, on the northern coast of the Bay of Bengal, is surrounded by
India, with a small common border with Myanmar in the southeast.
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What is now called Bangladesh is part of the historic region of Bengal, the
northeast portion of the Indian subcontinent. Bangladesh consists primarily of
East Bengal (West Bengal is part of India and its people are primarily Hindu)
plus the Sylhet district of the Indian state of Assam.
The earliest reference to the region was to a kingdom called Vanga, or Banga (c.
1000 B.C.). Buddhists ruled for centuries, but by the 10th century Bengal was
primarily Hindu. In 1576, Bengal became part of the Mogul Empire, and the
majority of East Bengalis converted to Islam. Bengal was ruled by British India
from 1757 until Britain withdrew in 1947, and Pakistan was founded out of the
two predominantly Muslim regions of the Indian subcontinent. For almost 25 years
after independence from Britain, its history was part of Pakistan's.
West Pakistan and East Pakistan were united by religion (Islam), but their
peoples were separated by culture, physical features, and 1,000 miles of Indian
territory.
