Professional Documents
Culture Documents
INTRODUCTION:
Together with the Indian state of West Bengal, it makes up the ethno-
linguistic region of Bengal. The name Bangladesh means "Country of
Bengal" in the official Bengali language.
History:
European traders arrived late in the 15th century, and their influence
grew until the British East India Company gained control of Bengal
following the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The bloody rebellion of 1857,
known as the Sepoy Mutiny, resulted in transfer of authority to the
crown, with a British viceroy running the administration. During colonial
rule, famine racked the Indian subcontinent many times, including the
Great Bengal famine of 1943 that claimed 3 million lives.
Between 1905 and 1911, an abortive attempt was made to divide the
province of Bengal into two zones, with Dhaka being the capital of the
eastern zone. When India was partitioned in 1947, Bengal was
partitioned along religious lines, with the western part going to India
and the eastern part joining Pakistan as a province called East Bengal
(later renamed East Pakistan), with its capital at Dhaka.
Geography Bangladesh
Geographic coordinates: 24 00 N, 90 00 E
People Bangladesh
Government Bangladesh
Country conventional long form: People's Republic of
name: Bangladesh
conventional short form: Bangladesh
local long form: Gana Prajatantri Bangladesh
local short form: Bangladesh
former: East Bengal, East Pakistan
According to the UN 2003 data for Bangladesh, the ratio of male and
female literacy rate in Bangladesh is 100:62 (age group: 15 years and
above). School enrollment rates at the primary and secondary levels
are almost equal with girls doing slightly better. However, this rate
dramatically drops for girl students at the high-school (11 and 12
grades) and university levels as indicated in the table below.
Why girls are falling behind at the higher levels of education? There
are many reasons but there are two major ones especially in the
context of remote areas in Bangladesh. First reason is socio-
economic. Parents with limited income can’t always bear the cost of
their children’s education. Spending money on daughter’s education is
not considered to be a good investment. The general notion is, if the
son gets educated, he would support the parents when they get
older. But the daughter would get married and leave the family. The
second reason is tied with the first reason, finding a husband for the
daughter would relief the parents from further responsibilities, and
also gives them the assurance of her good future. In most of the cases
girls cannot afford to go for higher education on their own even if they
want to without the monitory support from their families.
• Only $100 can support one high school student in a remote area
for 8 months!
• Only $150 would help a women start up a small business in a rural
area
• Only $200 would buy her a sewing machine that can solve the
monitory need of the family forever!
• About $1200 can make one university graduate from a 4 yr
program!
Some British colonial administrators first pointed out that the Muslim
social stratification in India was patterned after the Hindu Caste
System. However, it remained a matter of debate how far the basic
principles of caste system (purity/pollution, commensality, endogamy,
or hereditary occupation) had determined the Muslim stratification
pattern. James Wise identified eighty castes among the Muslims as
early as the nineteenth century, while Gait found only three. The latter
noticed the clustering of social strata. The three broad clusters
included Ashraf or higher class Muslims, Ajlaf or lower class Muslims,
and Arzal or the degraded classes. The first cluster consisted of
Sayed, Sheikh, Pathan and Mughal, while the next two incorporated as
many as fifty occupational castes.
Agrarian society during the colonial time also witnessed the emergence
of a rich peasant class who happened to occupy an important position in
social stratification. At least one specific development created the
pre-condition for the emergence of rich/proto-capitalist peasants: the
market integration of Bengal agriculture with the global economy
particularly with the onset of INDIGO and JUTE cultivation. The rich
peasant class enjoyed economic wealth and power in rural society. On
the other hand, agrarian society during colonial time also went through
the process of proletarianisation/pauperisation with the consequent
emergence of landless class. While different land tenure measures
influenced the class composition of the agrarian structure and in turn
social stratification, the growing capitalisation facilitated the
emergence of agricultural wage workers. The social stratification
pattern that emerged during the colonial time comprised the superior
landed class, landed intermediaries with several layers, rich
peasants/proto-capitalists, poor peasants/sharecroppers, and
agricultural working class coming from the landless and marginal
peasants.
The following agrarian classes and groups are found to constitute rural
society with hierarchical status and prestige: capitalist farmers, rich
peasants, middle peasants, marginal peasants and the landless. The
capitalist farmers are wealthy, own land and technology, hire outside
labour and carry out cultivation for the market. Rich peasants are also
wealthy and hire outside labour but they are still engaged in cultivation.
Middle peasants are primarily subsistence cultivators with occasional
market participation and primarily depending on household labour.
Marginal peasants combine cultivation and labour sale to ensure
subsistence. The landless people are the wage workers primarily
engaged in agriculture. About three-fourths of rural households belong
to the categories of marginal peasants and landless.