Bangladesh HistoryEssay Preview: Bangladesh HistoryReport this essayBangladesh has the dubious distinction of being the most densely populated country in the world and one of the poorest. Roughly 85 percent of its population lives in villages, where there is a frequent possibility of natural disasters such as floods, severe storms or tidal waves. Around two-thirds of the people live on agriculture and there is little industry. Illiteracy is at an unacceptable high; only 38.1 percent of the population, age 15 or older, can read and write. Of these, the ratio of males to females is 2:1. The per capita income is $380, which may not take account of lots of economic transactions in the countryside because they are barter transactions or do not enter the government statistics.
On the plus side, despite the apparent economic misery, the people always seem tremendously interested in public affairs and eager to know what appears in the press or over the radio and television, even though only a small segment can afford a television set. The people are ethnically homogeneous, 98 percent of them speaking Bengali, which is the national language, mandatory in all government offices; English is understood by the elite and serves also as an official language. Most of the press as well as radio and television broadcasting is consequently in Bengali although the small English-language press — newspapers and weeklies — has an influence far out of proportion to its circulation numbers.
The predominant religion is Islam (88.3 percent), with Hindus (10.5 percent) as the principal minority, adherents of Buddhism, Christianity and others account for 1.2 percent. Officially, the Republic of Bangladesh is a secular democracy with everyone above the age of 18, regardless of race, religion or gender having the right to vote. An amendment to the constitution adopted in 1988 established Islam as the state religion. Also in practice, Islam is supported by the government, which disallows any criticism of it in the media. However, despite the religious affinity with the Islamic world, culturally Bangladeshis feel closer to the speakers of the Bengali language in the Indian part of Bengal, sharing with them the rich cultural traditions manifested in literature, music and the arts. The press and media reflect such a love among the citizens of Bangladesh and regularly publish special articles and features on Bengali culture.
The Bangladeshis, according to a 2007 report by the Bangladesh Council of Christian Scientists (BCCS), comprise about 13 percent of the country’s 1.3 million Muslims. The majority of the citizens of Bangladesh are the descendants of Buddhists, who settled in the region at a time when Buddhism was more prevalent. The Bangladeshis, said to be of between 10 and 20 percent Bengali descent, were educated mostly in Indian schools.
In 2004, BCS conducted a survey on religion and the Bangladesh government. According to the survey, approximately 80 percent of Bangladeshis believe they are atheists, while less than 9 percent of the general population believe they are Muslims. For Muslim and Buddhist immigrants in both countries, belief in India is closely tied with the government’s policies, particularly the 2002 National Religious Foundation Act, which was passed to legalize the religion in 2010.
“This is an evolving issue, as Buddhists and Hindus are the more likely to come to Bangladesh over traditional and secular conditions,” said Sivaji Ghatakar, chairwoman of the Bangladesh National Council of Christian Scientists. “We see this change as a change in Bengali’s attitudes toward India’s political and business traditions and the social and political importance of religion.” Muslim and Buddhist activists on the ground protested during the visit by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which drew many Buddhist leaders in the country to come to Dhaka, with many demanding the government’s apology to Bangladesh.
Rural Bangladeshi Hindus (Buddhidharma) in the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka as seen by Reuters
“The media and the Muslim-owned media are often critical of the state of faith in Bangladesh. Sometimes in public discourse people say the same things about Islam but in reality Bangladesh is in a civilizational war,” said Ajay Gopal Sajul, president of the Ashoka Congress movement in Bangladesh and co-founder of the Bangladesh Christian Network. “People take the same view to criticize religious practices of Islam and there may be people being held in a similar position on Bangladesh’s religious freedom, due to this conflict.”
Buddhidharma leaders expressed skepticism about efforts aimed at promoting social justice. At the end of the third decade of the 19th century, the religion of Buddhism had the upper hand in some of major cities, like New Delhi, Bengaluru, Manipur and Lucknow. However this was not enough to prevent their continued influence on political and social life in the country. While Bangladesh’s most prominent and influential Buddhist leaders in India are known as the Ashokanas (fathers of Buddhism), the Bengali religion is also regarded in some quarters as being a divisive issue. At the annual convention of the Hindu Society of Gujarat in 2009, Ashokanas were blamed for creating communal politics in the southern state; in 2002, former President Jawaharlal Nehru’s government said the state had reached a “political point of diminishing significance in Bangladesh.”
Buddhism is one of the religious traditions in India. On the one hand, its religious traditions date back to Indian scriptures. In the Indian context, Christianity was initially regarded as a very controversial religion due to its teachings emphasizing simplicity. However, it became more popular with the state’s Muslim community in the late 2000’s, which grew in importance following the British-American invasion of India in 1947 and then spread to the Himalayan regions. Hindus also adopted various denominations, which later spread to other nations, like Eastern Buddhism and Hinduism. In the 21st century, Buddhism is in a difficult position in Bangladesh due to its political and social position. It is considered a political state. However, Bangladesh still has two major religions: Hinduism and Buddhism, which has the widest geographical diversity among the seven nationalities, and