Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world with a population of almost 180 million within an area of 148,461 square kilometres (57,321 sq mi), making it one of the most densely populated countries on Earth. Bangladesh shares land borders with India to the north, west, and east, and Myanmar to the southeast. It has a coastline along the Bay of Bengal to its south and is separated from Bhutan and Nepal by the Siliguri Corridor, and from China by the Indian states of West Bengal and Sikkim to its north. Dhaka, the capital and largest city, is the nation's political, financial, and cultural centre. Chittagong is the second-largest city and the busiest port of the country.
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world with a population of almost 180 million within an area of 148,461 square kilometres (57,321 sq mi), making it one of the most densely populated countries on Earth. Bangladesh shares land borders with India to the north, west, and east, and Myanmar to the southeast. It has a coastline along the Bay of Bengal to its south and is separated from Bhutan and Nepal by the Siliguri Corridor, and from China by the Indian states of West Bengal and Sikkim to its north. Dhaka, the capital and largest city, is the nation's political, financial, and cultural centre. Chittagong is the second-largest city and the busiest port of the country.
The territory of present-day Bangladesh was ruled by successive Hindu and Buddhist dynasties in antiquity. Following the Muslim conquest in 1204, the region came under Bengal Sultanate and Mughal rule. As the largest subdivision of the Mughal Empire, Bengal became a major commercial centre, known for its textile industry and agricultural output. The Battle of Plassey in 1757 began British colonial rule, which lasted nearly two centuries; colonial policies redirected wealth from Bengal to Britain, while the region itself suffered repeated deadly famines. After the partition of India in 1947, East Bengal became the eastern wing of the newly formed Dominion of Pakistan and was later renamed East Pakistan.
During more than two decades of political and economic marginalisation under the government based in West Pakistan, East Pakistan saw growing civil unrest that culminated in the 1948–52 language movement, 1969 mass uprising and the 1971 non-cooperation movement. Following the Pakistani military's Operation Searchlight, the Bangladesh Liberation War began. The Mukti Bahini, aided by Indian forces, fought a war of independence, during which Pakistani forces carried out the Bangladesh genocide; Bangladesh became a sovereign nation on 16 December 1971. After independence, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led the country until his assassination in 1975; Ziaur Rahman, who later came to power, was himself assassinated in 1981. The 1980s were dominated by the dictatorship of Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who was overthrown in a mass uprising in 1990. Since the restoration to parliamentary democracy in 1991, national politics has largely dominated between the Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina, and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Khaleda Zia. After more than 15 years of autocratic rule, Hasina was ousted in another mass uprising in 2024.
Bangladesh is a unitary parliamentary republic based on the Westminster system. It has South Asia's second-largest economy and is one of the largest contributors to United Nations peacekeeping operations. Bangladesh consists of eight divisions, 64 districts, 497 upazilas, and 4,599 union councils. It is home to the largest mangrove forest in the world and hosts one of the world's largest refugee populations. Bangladesh faces challenges in corruption, human rights concerns, political instability, and the effects of climate change. It is currently included among the forty-four least developed countries by UNCTAD, though is scheduled for graduation in 2026. Bangladesh is a member state of SAARC and other regional and international organisations.
Etymology
The etymology of Bangladesh ("Bengali country") can be traced to the early 20th century, when Bengali patriotic songs, such as Aaji Bangladesher Hridoy by Rabindranath Tagore and Namo Namo Namo Bangladesh Momo by Kazi Nazrul Islam, used the term in 1905 and 1932 respectively. Starting in the 1950s, Bengali nationalists used the term in political rallies in East Pakistan.
The term Bangla can refer to both the Bengal region and the Bengali language. The origins of the term Bangla are unclear, with theories pointing to a Bronze Age proto-Dravidian tribe, and the Iron Age Vanga Kingdom. The earliest known usage of the term is the Nesari plate in 805 AD. The term Vangala Desa is found in 11th-century South Indian records. The term gained official status during the Sultanate of Bengal in the 14th century. Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah proclaimed himself as the first "Shah of Bangala" in 1342. The word Bangāl became the most common name for the region during the Islamic period. Sixteenth century historian Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak mentions in his Ain-i-Akbari that the addition of the suffix "al" came from the fact that the ancient rajahs of the land raised mounds of earth in lowlands at the foot of the hills which were called "al". This is also mentioned in Ghulam Husain Salim's Riyaz-us-Salatin.
The Indo-Aryan suffix Desh is derived from the Sanskrit word deśha, which means "land" or "country". Hence, the name Bangladesh means "Land of Bengal" or "Country of Bengal".
History
Early history
The first great indigenous empire to cover the territory was the Maurya Empire (c. 320–185 BC). Following its decline, the kingdom of Samatata arose, which was a tributary state of the Gupta Empire (c. 319–c. 540 AD). Harsha (606–47 AD) drew Samatata into its loosely administered political structure. The Buddhist Pala Empire ruled the region from 750 to 1150 AD. It was overthrown by the Hindu Sena dynasty, which ruled the territory until the Muslim conquests led by Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji of the Ghurid dynasty in 1204.
Medieval period
Bengal was then incorporated into the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526 AD). In 1341, the independent Bengal Sultanate was established by Fakhruddin Mubarak Shah. Two dynasties ruled the independent Sultanate of Bengal consecutively, the Hussain Shahi dynasty and the Ilyas Shahi dynasty, with a brief reign of the House of Ganesha. Amid geographic expansion and economic prosperity, it was regarded by European and Chinese visitors as the "richest country to trade with". The Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in 1576. By the 18th century, the Bengal Subah emerged as one of the wealthiest provinces of the empire and was described as the "Paradise of Countries" and the "breadbasket of India". The region was a major global exporter and producer of cotton textiles (muslin in particular), silk and shipbuilding. Following the decline of the Mughal Empire in the early 1700s, the region became a semi-independent state under the Nawabs of Bengal, founded by Murshid Quli Khan in 1717.
British colonial rule
On 23 June 1757, the state led by Siraj-ud-Daulah was defeated by the British East India Company in the Battle of Plassey—which helped establish colonial British rule over Bengal and the wider Indian subcontinent. Bengal's economy became connected to the Industrial Revolution at the expense of an extraordinary capital flight and deindustrialisation following colonial extraction and the collapse of the Bengali textile industry. Estimates of deaths during the Great Bengal famine of 1770 range from one to ten million, killing up to one-third of the total population of the Bengal Presidency.
As a part of Pakistan
In the aftermath of direct British rule for nearly two centuries, the borders of modern Bangladesh were established with the partition of Bengal between India and Pakistan by the Radcliffe Line during the partition of India on 15 August 1947, when the region became East Bengal as the eastern and most populous wing of the newly formed Dominion of Pakistan—alongside West Pakistan. The western and eastern wings of the newly formed Pakistan were geographically separated by a distance of over 1,000 miles, which became the root cause of deep economic inequality. Khawaja Nazimuddin was East Bengal's first chief minister with Frederick Chalmers Bourne its governor. The All Pakistan Awami Muslim League was formed in 1949. In 1950, the East Bengal Legislative Assembly enacted land reform, abolishing the Permanent Settlement and the zamindari system. The Awami Muslim League was renamed as a more "secular" Awami League in 1953. The first constituent assembly was dissolved in 1954. The United Front coalition led by A. K. Fazlul Huq swept aside the Muslim League in a landslide victory in the 1954 East Bengali legislative election. East Bengal was renamed East Pakistan in 1956 as part of the One Unit Scheme under the new constitution, and the province became a vital part of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.
Amidst rising cultural and societal differences, the brutal government crackdown on the 1952 Bengali language movement to establish Bengali as the official language of Pakistan spurred Bengali nationalism and pro-democracy movements. Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956. The Pakistan Armed Forces imposed martial law in 1958, following a coup d'état, with Ayub Khan establishing a dictatorship for over a decade. A new constitution was introduced in 1962, replacing the parliamentary system with a presidential and gubernatorial system (based on electoral college selection) known as "Basic Democracy". In 1962, Dhaka became the seat of the National Assembly of Pakistan, a move seen as appeasing increased Bengali nationalism. In 1966, Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman announced a six-point movement for a federal parliamentary democracy.
Ethnic, linguistic, and cultural discrimination was common in Pakistan's civil and military services, in which Bengalis were under-represented; leading to East Pakistan forging a distinct political identity. Authorities banned Bengali literature and music in the state media. The Pakistani government practised extensive economic discrimination against East Pakistan, including the refusal for foreign aid allocation. Despite generating 70% of Pakistan's export revenue with jute and tea, East Pakistan received much less government spending. Notable economists from East Pakistan, including Rehman Sobhan and Nurul Islam, demanded a separate foreign exchange account for the eastern wing, also pointing to the existence of two different economies within Pakistan itself, dubbed the Two-Economies Theory. The populist leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested for treason in the Agartala Conspiracy Case and was released during the 1969 uprising in East Pakistan which resulted in Ayub Khan's resignation. General Yahya Khan assumed power, reintroducing martial law.
After the Pakistan Government's poor response to the 1970 Bhola Cyclone which left over 500,000 people dead, Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, a prominent political figure who had previously led multiple rebellion against the British Raj, was the first ever Bengali to declare independence of East Pakistan in a massive public rally on 23 November 1970 but it was not officially recognized. After the December 1970 elections, the Bengali-nationalist Awami League won 167 of 169 East Pakistani seats in the National Assembly. The League claimed the right to form a government and develop a new constitution but was strongly opposed by the Pakistani military and the Pakistan Peoples Party led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
The 7 March Speech of Mujib led to a non-cooperation movement. The autocratic Pakistani government then initiated Operation Searchlight on 25 March 1971 in response. While Mujib was arrested by the Pakistani Army on 26 March 1971, freedom fighter Major Ziaur Rahman publicly broadcast the independence of Bangladesh on behalf of Mujib. A nine-month-long bloody liberation war ensued, during which a genocide of ethnic Bengalis occurred. The culmination of the war established Bangladesh as a sovereign nation following Pakistani surrender on 16 December 1971.
Independent Bangladesh
The Constitution of Bangladesh was enacted on 4 November 1972. Following independence, the Mujib-led government faced allegations of corruption and mismanagement during a period of lawlessness and economic crisis. Efforts to establish One-party socialism and a large famine in 1974 led to Mujib's assassination in 1975 following a significant decline in his popularity. The presidency was then transferred to Ziaur Rahman, who re-established public order, industrialised agriculture, founded the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and initiated the creation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. Ziaur Rahman founded the Bangladesh Nationalist Party on 1 September 1978. Following Rahman's assassination in 1981, the ensuing decade was a military dictatorship under Hussain Muhammad Ershad that saw infrastructural development, devolution reforms, privatisation of nationalised industries and the declaration of Islam as the state religion in 1988.
After the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1991, power alternated between Khaleda Zia of the BNP and Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League, an era dubbed the Battle of Begums—which shaped national politics until 2024. The country under Sheikh Hasina's leadership saw economic progress alongside criticism over democratic backsliding, corruption, and human rights abuses. Hasina won her second, third and fourth consecutive terms in the 2014, 2018 and the 2024 general elections; the 2014, 2018 and 2024 elections were criticized by opposition parties and outside observers over boycotts, violence, and restrictions on political competition. Following a July Uprising against the authoritarian government, Hasina was forced to resign and flee to India on 5 August 2024. An interim government was formed in August 2024, with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as the Chief Adviser. After the 2026 general election the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) returned to power with Chairman Tarique Rahman being inaugurated as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh on 17 February 2026. Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami became the main opposition party.
Since the early 1990s, driven by free market policies and economic liberalisation measures, Bangladesh's economy has grown rapidly, driven in part by its large textile industry, which is the second-largest in the world. It has emerged as the second-largest economy in South Asia, surpassing the nominal GDP per capita of neighbouring India since 2018. Bangladesh has reduced its poverty rate, which has gone down from 80% in 1971, to 44.2% in 1991, and all the way down to 18.7% in 2022. Its Human Development Index growth during the 21st century was surpassed only by China. As part of the green transition, Bangladesh's industrial sector emerged as a leader in building green factories, with the country having the largest number of certified green factories in the world. It has also given shelter to over a million Rohingya refugees fleeing the Rohingya genocide since 2017, which has strained its resources and highlighted its humanitarian commitments.
Geography
Bangladesh is in South Asia on the Bay of Bengal. It is surrounded almost entirely by neighbouring India, and shares a small border with Myanmar to its southeast, though it lies very close to Nepal, Bhutan, and China. The country is divided into three regions. Most of the country is dominated by the fertile Ganges Delta, the largest river delta in the world. The northwest and central parts of the country are formed by the Madhupur and the Barind plateaus. The northeast and southeast are home to evergreen hill ranges.