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BGDH: Bangladesh Hompage
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in
South Asia. It is surrounded by India on all sides except for a small border
with Myanmar to the far southeast and the Bay of Bengal to the south. Together
with the Indian state of West Bengal, it makes up the ethno-linguistic region of
Bengal. The name Bangladesh means "Country of Bengal" and is written as ????????
and pronounced ['ba?lad?e?] (help·info) in the official Bengali language.
Bangladesh is a product of the partitioning of British India starting with the
1947 partition which made it the eastern wing of Pakistan. This pairing based on
common religion (Islam) proved geographically awkward, as a distance of some
1,600 kilometres (1,000 mi) separated the two regions. Subject to political and
linguistic domination as well as economic neglect, Bengalis gained their
independence in 1971 in a civil war with help from India at the end of the war.
In spite of its liberation narrative, Bangladesh's development has since been
marred by political turmoil, with fourteen different heads of government and at
least four military coups.
Bangladesh is among the most highly and densely populated countries in the
world. The population is generally poor, rural and Muslim. Geographically, the
country straddles the fertile Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta and is subject to annual
monsoon floods and cyclones. The government is a secular parliamentary democracy
which has been suspended under emergency law since January 2007. Bangladesh is a
member of the Commonwealth of Nations, SAARC, BIMSTEC, the OIC and the D-8.
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