Bangladesh

F

Culture

Bangladeshi culture is, in many respects, inseparable from that of greater Bengal. Beginning in the early 19th century a majority of the most widely read and admired Bengali writers and artists, Hindu as well as Muslim, worked for a time in the Indian metropolis of Calcutta (now Kolkata). Thus began the Bengal Renaissance, a cultural movement among Bengalis in Calcutta that reached its height in the early 20th century. After the capital of British India was moved from Calcutta to New Delhi in 1911, Calcutta continued to be a center of Bengali culture.

The writers of the Bengal Renaissance were the pioneers of modern Bengali literature. Poet Michael Madhusudan Datta broke with established tradition to write Bengali poetry in the blank verse style, and the novelist and essayist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote what is considered the first Bengali novel, Durgeshnandini (1865). The Hindu writer, artist, and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore (in Bengali, Ravīndranātha Thākura) earned distinction as the first non-European writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, in 1913 for his volume of poems Gitanjali (Song Offerings, 1910). Several contemporaries of Tagore also gained recognition for their works. Most notably, Kazi Nazrul Islam became the first widely acclaimed Muslim Bengali writer. Today he is revered in Bangladesh as the voice of Bengali independence and nationalism. Common themes in many Bengali works include rural life, class conflict, and human struggle. See also Indian Literature.

Painting, sculpture, and architecture were strongly influenced by Muslim rule in the region during the 16th and 17th centuries (see Islamic Art and Architecture). Modern painting was pioneered by Zainul Abedin, Kamrul Hassan, and S. M. Sultan, among others. Their abstract and realist paintings achieved international renown, including Abedin’s black-and-white sketches of the Calcutta famine of 1943. Many of their works are part of the permanent collection of the Bangladesh National Museum.

Classical, light-classical, devotional, and popular music enjoy a wide following in Bangladesh. Classical forms include Hindustani devotional songs (see Indian Music). The principal schools of classical Indian dance, including bharata natyam and kathakali, are performed by professional dance troupes of Bangladesh (see Indian Dance). The manipuri is a traditional and widely popular devotional dance that has both classical and folk forms. Bengali folk dances are commonly performed during festivals and other special occasions. Folk music styles include baul, devotional songs that often combine Hindu and Muslim themes and are performed by wandering mystics. Traditional musical instruments of Bangladesh include the banshi (bamboo flute), dhole (wooden drums), and dotara (a two-stringed instrument).

---

---

G

Libraries and Museums

Cultural institutions are concentrated in Dhaka, which is the site of the Bangla Academy (1972), devoted to the promotion and development of the Bengali language and literature. The country’s largest library is part of the University of Dhaka, and the Bangladesh National Museum, also in Dhaka, is noted for its art and archaeology collections. The Varendra Research Museum, controlled by the University of Rājshāhi, is an important center for archaeological, anthropological, and historical research.

IV

Economy

First as part of British India and then of Pakistan, the area now constituting Bangladesh suffered from chronic economic neglect. The region produced large quantities of agricultural goods, including most of the world’s jute, but received little investment in such basic items as transportation facilities and industrial plants. Much of the industrial investment, particularly in jute manufacturing, was made by West Pakistani-owned firms. After Bangladesh gained independence, the government took over most of the assets owned by West Pakistanis. Today most of these firms remain government-owned; a program to privatize them has made little progress.

Bangladesh’s vast reserves of natural gas, many just recently discovered, hold great potential for the country’s future economic development. However, the government’s reluctance to sanction gas exports to India and its reputation for rampant corruption have tended to discourage foreign investment. Foreign direct investment in Bangladesh has been minor relative to most other countries in Asia.

Bangladesh’s gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated at $60 billion in 2005. Agriculture contributed 20 percent of the GDP, industry (including manufacturing) contributed 27 percent, and services contributed 53 percent. In 2004 Bangladesh’s budget included $4.90 billion in expenditures and $5.58 billion in revenues.

A

Labor

The civilian labor force of Bangladesh was estimated in 2005 to include 63.9 million people. Agriculture (including fishing) employs 62 percent of the workers, while 10 percent worked in industry and 24 percent in services. Unemployment and underemployment are significant problems in the country.

B

Agriculture

Agriculture in Bangladesh consists mostly of subsistence farming on small farms. Per-capita output tends to be low. Rice, of which two or three crops can be grown each year, is the leading food crop in all areas and accounts for most of the cultivated area. Some 40 million metric tons were harvested in 2005, placing Bangladesh among the world’s leading producers of rice. High-yielding varieties of rice are cultivated as part of a government initiative to increase the country’s self-sufficiency in food grains. Other cereal crops, notably wheat, have grown in importance since the 1980s, and the area of land under wheat cultivation continues to increase. Pulses, an important source of protein in most Bangladeshi diets, are also cultivated. Other crops include various oilseeds (mainly for cooking oil), potatoes, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, bananas, mangoes, and pineapples.

The principal cash, or export, crop is jute (a plant used to make burlap and twine), grown throughout the annually flooded portions of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta; the amount of jute harvested in 2005 was about 801,000 metric tons. Tea, also a valuable cash crop, is grown almost exclusively in the northeast, around Sylhet. Cattle and buffalo are numerous, raised for dung (a source of fuel), hides (for leather), and meat.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain