Dhaka (Bangla: ঢাকা, ; formerly known as
Dacca and Jahangir Nagar, under Mughal rule), is the capital of Bangladesh
and the principal city of Dhaka District
. Dhaka is a
megacity
and one of the major cities of South Asia.
Located on the banks
of the Buriganga
River
, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, has a population of
over 12 million, making it the largest city in Bangladesh.
It is the
most densely
populated city in the world and forms the
world's
9th largest agglomeration. Dhaka is known as the
City of
Mosques and renowned for producing the world's finest
muslin. Dhaka is also known as the
Rickshaw
Capital of the World . Approximately 400,000 cycle rickshaws
run each day. As a cosmopolitan city, Dhaka has been the center of
Persio-Arabic and Western cultural influences in the eastern
Indian Subcontinent. Today it
serves as one of the prime centers for culture, education and
business in the region.
Under Mughal rule in the 17th century, the city was known as
Jahangir Nagar. It was a provincial
capital and a center of the worldwide muslin trade.
The modern city,
however, was developed chiefly under British
rule in the 19th century, and became the second-largest city in
Bengal
after Calcutta
(presently
Kolkata). After the
Partition of Bengal in 1905,
Dhaka became the capital of the new province of
Eastern Bengal and Assam but lost
its status as a provincial capital again after the partition was
annulled in 1911. After the
partition
of India in 1947, Dhaka became the administrative capital of
East Pakistan, and later, in 1972, the
capital of an independent Bangladesh. During the intervening
period, the city witnessed widespread turmoil; this included many
impositions of
martial law, the
declaration of Bangladesh's independence,
military suppression, devastation
during war, and natural calamities.
Modern Dhaka is the center of
political,
cultural and
economic life in Bangladesh. Although
its urban infrastructure is the most developed in the country,
Dhaka suffers from urban problems such as pollution,
congestion, and lack of adequate services
due to the rising population. In recent decades, Dhaka has seen
modernization of
transport,
communications and public works. The city is attracting large
foreign investments and greater volumes of commerce and trade. It
is also experiencing an increasing influx of people from across the
nation.
History
The existence of urbanized settlements in the area that is now
Dhaka dates from the 7th century. The city area was ruled by the
Buddhist kingdom of
Kamarupa and the
Pala Empire before passing to the control of the
Hindu Sena dynasty
in the 9th century.
The name of the city may have derived after
the establishment of the Goddess Dhakeshwari
's temple by Ballal Sena
in the 12th century. Dhaka and its surrounding area was
identified as
Bengalla around that period. The town itself
consisted of a few market centers like Lakshmi Bazar, Shankhari
Bazar, Tanti Bazar, Patuatuli, Kumartuli, Bania Nagar and Goal
Nagar. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the
Turkic and
Pashtun governors descending from the
Delhi Sultanate before the arrival
of the Mughals in 1608.
The development of townships and a significant growth in population
came as the city was proclaimed the capital of Bengal under Mughal
rule in 1608. Mughal
subahdar Islam Khan was the first administrator of the
city. Khan named the town "Jahangir Nagar" (
City of
Jahangir) in honor of the Mughal emperor
Jahangir, although this name was dropped soon after
Jahangir's death. The main expansion of the city took place under
Mughal general
Shaista Khan. The city
then measured 19 by 13 kilometres (12 by 8 mi), with a
population of nearly one million people. The city passed to the
control of the
British East
India Company in 1765 after the
Battle of Plassey.
The city's population
shrank dramatically during this period as the prominence of
Kolkata rose, but substantive development and modernisation
eventually followed. A modern civic water supply system was
introduced in 1874 and electricity supply launched in 1878. The
Dhaka Cantonment was established
near the city, serving as a base for British and Bengali
soldiers.
During the abortive
Partition
of Bengal in 1905, Dhaka was declared to be the capital of the
newly established state of
East
Bengal and Assam, but Bengal was reunited in 1911. Following
the
Partition of India in 1947,
Dhaka became the capital of
East
Pakistan. The city witnessed major communal violence following
the partition of India. A large proportion of the city's
Hindu population departed for India,
while the city received a large influx of
Muslims. As the center of regional
politics, however, Dhaka saw an increasing number of political
strikes and incidents of violence. The adoption of
Urdu as the sole
official
language of Pakistan led to protest marches involving large
crowds. Known as the
Bengali
Language Movement, the protests resulted in Pakistani police
firing which killed a number of peaceful student demonstrators.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Dhaka remained a hotbed of
political activity, and the demands for autonomy for the Bengali
population gradually gained momentum.
The
1970 Bhola cyclone devastated
much of the region, killing an estimated 500,000 people. More than
half the city was flooded and millions of people were marooned.
With
public anger growing against ethnic discrimination and poor cyclone
relief efforts from the central government, Bengali politician
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman held a
nationalist gathering on March 7, 1971 at the Race Course
Ground
. An estimated one million people attended
the gathering, leading to the March 26 declaration of Bangladesh's
independence. In response, the
Pakistan
Army launched
Operation
Searchlight, which led to the arrests, torture and killing of
thousands of people. After nine months of bloody battle with
Bangladeshi Forces, the Pakistani Army surrendered to the
Mitra Bahini on December 16 marking the end of
the independence war of Bangladesh. As the nation's capital, Dhaka
saw a rapid and massive growth of the city population in the
post-independence period, as migrant workers from rural areas
across Bangladesh moved to the city. The growth of commerce and
industry along with the city's population has created further
challenges to services and infrastructure.
A real estate boom has
followed the expansion of city limits and the development of new
settlements such as Uttara
, Mohammadpur
, Bashundhara, Mirpur
and Motijheel.
Geography
Dhaka is
located in central Bangladesh at , on the eastern banks of the
Buriganga
River. The city lies on the lower reaches of the
Ganges Delta and covers a total area of
.
It
consists of eight principal thanas –Lalbagh
, Kotwali
,Sutrapur
, Ramna
, Motijheel, Paltan, Dhanmondi
, Mohammadpur, Tejgaon
– and 16
auxiliary thanas – Gulshan
, Mirpur
, Pallabi
, Shah Ali, Turaag, Sabujbagh
, Dhaka Cantonment,
Demra
, Hazaribagh
, Shyampur, Badda
, Kafrul
, Kamrangir char
, Khilgaon
and Uttara
. In
total the city has 130 wards and 725
mohallas.
Dhaka district has an area of
1463.60 square kilometres (565 sq mi); and is
bounded by the districts of Gazipur
, Tangail
, Munshiganj
, Rajbari
, Narayanganj
, Manikganj
. Tropical vegetation
and moist soils characterise the land, which is flat and close to
sea level. This leaves Dhaka susceptible to flooding during the
monsoon seasons owing to heavy rainfall and
cyclones.
Climate
Dhaka experiences a hot, wet and humid tropical climate. Under the
Koppen climate
classification, Dhaka has a
tropical wet and dry climate. The
city has a distinct
monsoonal season, with
an annual average temperature of 25
°C
(77
°F) and monthly means varying
between 18 °C (64 °F) in January and 29 °C
(84 °F) in August. Nearly 80% of the annual average rainfall
of 1,854 millimeters (73 in) occurs between May and
September. Increasing air and water pollution emanating from
traffic congestion and industrial waste are serious problems
affecting public health and the quality of life in the city. Water
bodies and
wetlands around Dhaka are facing
extinction as these are being filled up to construct multi-storied
buildings and other real estate developments. Coupled with
pollution, such erosion of natural habitats threatens to destroy
much of the regional biodiversity.
Civic administration
The Dhaka municipality was founded on August 1, 1864 and upgraded
to "
corporation" status in
1978. The
Dhaka City
Corporation is a self-governing corporation which runs the
affairs of the city. The incorporated area is divided into several
wards, which have elected commissioners. The
mayor of the city is elected by popular vote every
five years, and the post is presently held by
Sadeque Hossain Khoka. The
Dhaka Education Board is responsible
for administering all
public
schools and most private schools with the exception of
English-medium schools and
madrassah.. All
madrassahs in Bangladesh are governed by a central board while
English-medium schools are under separate educational and
governance structures.
Cresent lake at night
The
Dhaka Metropolitan
Police (DMP) was established in 1976 and has 6,000 personnel in
12 police stations. With the rapid population growth of the city,
the force has been raised to 23,000 personnel and the establishment
of 33 police stations has been completed and the creation of
another 18 police stations is underway.
The city is divided into 10 parliamentary constituencies. The two
main political parties are the
Awami League and the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Ramna contains the
Secretariat, which houses most of the government ministries.
The
Supreme Court of
Bangladesh and the
Dhaka High
Court are located in the city. The
Bangabhaban palace has served as the official
residence of the
Viceroy of
India, the
governor of East Pakistan
and presently the
President of
Bangladesh.
The Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban
, designed by renowned architect Louis Kahn, houses the unicameral national parliament.
The
Baitul
Mukarram
, developed
with a design resembling the Kaaba
of Mecca
, is the
national mosque. Other historical
monuments in the city include the Bara
Katra palace, the Lalbagh Fort
, the Hoseni
Dalan
and the Ahsan Manzil
.
To fight rising
traffic
congestion and population, the national government has recently
implemented a policy for rapid
urbanisation of surrounding areas and beyond by
the introduction of a ten year holiday on
income tax for new construction of facilities and
buildings outside Dhaka.
Aside from Chittagong
, Dhaka is the only city in the country with a
water-borne sewage system, but this serves only 25% of the
population while another 30% are served with septic tanks. Only two-thirds of
households in Dhaka are served by the city water supply system.
More than 9.7 million tonnes of solid wastes are produced in Dhaka
city each year. While private and government efforts have succeeded
in collecting garbage city-wide and using it as
manure, most solid wastes are often dumped untreated
in nearby low-lying areas and water bodies. Dhaka has one of the
highest rates of death from infectious disease of any city in
Asia.
Dhaka Skyline
Economy
Dhaka is the commercial heart of Bangladesh. The city has a growing
middle class population, driving the market for modern consumer and
luxury goods. The city has historically attracted a large number of
migrant workers.
Hawkers, peddlers,
small shops,
rickshaw transport, roadside
vendors and stalls employ a large segment of the population —
rickshaw-drivers alone number as many as 400,000. Half the
workforce is employed in household and unorganised labour, while
about 800,000 work in the
textile industry.
Even so, unemployment remains high at 23%. According to
CityMayors Statistics, Dhaka's Gross
Municipal Product (GMP) registered at $52 billion in 2008. With an
annual growth rate of 7.6%, the GMP is projected to rise to $110
billion by 2020. The annual per capita income of Dhaka is estimated
at $500, with 48% of households living below the
poverty line, including a large segment of the
population coming from the villages in search of employment, with
many surviving on less than $10 a day.
Bangabandhu International Conference
Centre
The main
commercial areas of the city include Farmgate, New
Market, Gulshan and Motijheel, while
Tejgaon
and Hazaribagh are the major industrial areas.
Bashundhara-Baridhara is a developing economic area that will
include high-tech industries, corporations and a large shopping
mall in about 5 years. The
Export
Processing Zone in Dhaka was set up to encourage the export of
garments, textiles and other goods. Dhaka has two EPZ's. They are
home to 413industries, which employ mostly women. The
Dhaka Stock Exchange is based in the
city, as are most of the large multinationals including
Citigroup,
HSBC
Bank Bangladesh,
JPMorgan Chase,
Standard Chartered
Bank ,
American Express,
Chevron,
Exxon Mobil,
Total,
British Petroleum,
Unilever,
Nestle,
DHL Express,
FedEx and
British American Tobacco.
Large local conglomerates such as
Concord
Group,
Rangs Group,
Beximco Group,
Summit
Group,
Navana Group and
Rahimafrooz also have their corporate offices
located in Dhaka.
Microcredit also began
here and the offices of the Nobel Prize winning
Grameen Bank and
BRAC
are based in Dhaka. Urban developments have sparked a widespread
construction boom; new high-rise buildings and
skyscrapers have changed the city landscape.
Growth has been especially strong in the finance, banking,
manufacturing,
telecommunications
and services sectors, while tourism, hotels and restaurants
continue as important elements in the economy of Dhaka.
Demographics
title=Urban growth in Dhaka City
(1972–2001)
The population of Dhaka city (areas under the jurisdiction of the
Dhaka city corporation) stands at approximately 7.0 million.
The city, in combination with localities forming the wider
metropolitan area, is home to an estimated 12.8 million as of
2008. The population is growing by an estimated 4.2% per annum, one
of the highest rates amongst Asian cities. The continuing growth
reflects ongoing migration from rural areas to the Dhaka urban
region, which accounted for 60% of the city's growth in the 1960s
and 1970s. More recently, the city's population has also grown with
the expansion of city boundaries, a process that added more than a
million people to the city in the 1980s. According to Far Eastern
Economic Review, Dhaka will become a home of 25 million people by
the year 2025.
The literacy rate is estimated at 62.3%.The city population is
composed of peoples from virtually every region of Bangladesh. The
long-standing inhabitants of the old city are known as
Dhakaia and have a distinctive dialect and culture.
Between 15,000 to 20,000 of the
Rohingya,
Santal,
Khasi,
Garo,
Chakma and
Mandi
tribal peoples reside in the city. Dhaka also has a large
population of Chinese, Korean and Indian expatriates working in
executive jobs in different industries.
Nearly every resident of Dhaka speak
Bangla, the national language. Many
distinctive Bangla dialects and regional languages such as
Chittagonian and
Sylheti are also spoken by segments of the
population.
English is spoken by a
large segment of the population, especially for business
purposes.
Islam is the dominant religion
of Dhaka's people, with a majority belonging to the
Sunni sect. There is also a small, but growing
Shia sect, and a
Ahmadiya community.
Hinduism is the second-largest
religion and smaller communities practice
Buddhism and
Christianity. In recent years
there have been rising levels of religious violence.
Culture
As the most populous city of Bangladesh, Dhaka has a vibrant
cultural life. Annual celebrations for
Independence Day (March 26),
Language Martyrs' Day
(February 21) and
Victory
Day (December 16) are prominently celebrated across the city.
Dhaka's
people congregate at the Shaheed Minar
and the Jatiyo
Smriti Soudho
to remember the national heroes of the liberation
war. These occasions are observed with public ceremonies and
rallies in public grounds. Many schools and colleges organize
fairs, festivals and concerts in which citizens from all levels of
society participate.
Pohela Baishakh, the
Bengali New Year, falls annually on April 14 and is popularly
celebrated across the city.
Large crowds of people gather on the streets
of Shahbag
, Ramna Park and the
campus of the University of Dhaka
for celebrations. The most popular dressing
style for women are
sarees or
salwar kameez, while men
usually prefer western clothing to the traditional
lungi. The Muslim festivals of
Eid ul-Fitr ,
Eid
ul-Adha & Hindu festival
Durga
Puja witnesses widespread celebrations across the city.
For much of recent history, Dhaka was characterised by roadside
markets and small shops that sold a wide variety of goods. Recent
years have seen the widespread construction of shopping malls,
multiplex, hotels and
restaurants attracting Dhaka's growing middle-class and wealthy
residents. Along with
Bangladeshi
cuisine and
South Asian
variants, a large variety of
Western and
Chinese cuisine is served at numerous
restaurants and eateries. Though restaurants offering multinational
cuisine and fastfood chains like
KFC,
Pizza Hut etc have opened up in the city but
unique Dhakai delicacies like
Glassey,
Hajir
Biriani(Haji's
Biriani),
Fakhruddin
Biriani,
Mama Halim,
Borhani etc are still
very popular amongst Dhakaiyas. These delicacies are even offered
to state guests. Dhakai
Bakarkhani is the
traditional food/snack of the people of old Dhaka.
It is famous for its
quality and taste and it was highly praised by the Royal court of
the Mughal Empire in Delhi
.
Despite the growing popularity of music groups and rock bands,
traditional
folk music remains
widely popular. The works of the national poet
Kazi Nazrul Islam and national anthem
writer
Rabindranath Tagore have
a widespread following across Dhaka. The Baily Road area is known
as
Natak Para (Theater Neighborhood) which is the center
of Dhaka's thriving theater movement. Indian and Western music and
films are popular with large segments of Dhaka's population. This
area is also credited for the revival of the
Jamdani due to the many local saree stores selling
and promoting these locally hand-made age old traditional Bengali
sarees. Jamdanis are 100% hand weaved and originate from the
Persian and Mughal era. Jamdanis are produced by a traditional high
quality cottage industry, which is slowly dying out due to the slow
production process. A single medium range Jamdani saree may take as
long as 3 months to complete.
Bangladesh Betar is the state-run
primary provider of radio services, and broadcasts a variety of
programming in Bangla and English. In recent years many private
radio networks, especially FM radio services, have been established
in the city such as Radio Foorti FM 88.0, Radio Today FM 89.6,
Radio Amar FM 101.6 and ABC Radio FM 89.2.
Bangladesh Television is the state-run
broadcasting network that provides a wide variety of programmes in
Bangla and English. Cable and satellite networks such as
Ekushey Television,
Channel I,
ATN Bangla,
RTV,
NTV and
STAR
TV are amongst the most popular channels. The main offices of
most publishing houses in Bangladesh are based in Dhaka. The
Prothom Alo and
The Daily Ittefaq are the most
popular amongst the large number of Bangla language dailies,
periodicals and other publications in the city.
The Daily Star and
The Independent are the
largest English-language dailies published. Although
cellular phone are gaining popularity, less
than 10% of households have telephone access.
Transport
Cycle rickshaws and
auto rickshaws are the main mode of transport,
with close to 400,000 rickshaws running each day – the largest
number for any city in the world. However, only about 85,000
rickshaws are licensed by the city government. Relatively low-cost
and non-polluting cycle rickshaws nevertheless cause
traffic congestion and have been banned
from many parts of the city. Public buses are operated by the
state-run
Bangladesh Road Transport
Corporation (BRTC) and by private companies and operators.
Scooters, taxis and privately owned automobiles are increasingly
becoming popular with the city's growing middle class. The
government has overseen the replacement of two-stroke engine taxis
with "Green taxis" locally called CNG, which run on
compressed natural gas.
Dhaka has 1,868 kilometers (1,161 mi) of paved roads. It
is connected to the other parts of the country through strong
highway and railway links.
Highway links to the Indian cities of
Kolkata and Agartala
have been established by the BRTC which also runs
regular bus services to those cities from Dhaka.
The
Kamalapur Railway Station
, Airport Railway Station
and the Cantonment Railway Station are
the main railway stations providing trains on suburban &
national routes operated by the state-run Bangladesh Railway. Bangladesh Railway
also runs a regular train service between Dhaka and Kolkata. The
Sadarghat Port on the banks of the
Buriganga River serves the transportation of goods and passengers
upriver and to other ports in Bangladesh.
Dhaka has domestic
air links to Chittagong, Sylhet, Cox's Bazar
, Jessore
, Barisal
, Saidpur
and international air links to major cities
around the world. The Zia International Airport
is the largest and busiest in the
nation. It handles nearly 52% of the country's international
and domestic arrivals and departures.
Education
Dhaka has the largest number of schools, colleges and universities
of any Bangladeshi city. The education system is divided into 4
levels: Primary (from grades 1 to 5), Secondary (from grades 6 to
10), Higher Secondary (from grades 11 to 12) and tertiary. The five
years of lower secondary education concludes with a Secondary
School Certificate (SSC) Examination. Students who pass this
examination proceed to two years of Higher Secondary or
intermediate training, which culminate in a Higher Secondary
Certificate (HSC) Examination. Education is mainly offered in
Bangla, but English is also commonly taught and used. A large
number of Muslim families send their children to attend part-time
courses or even to pursue full-time religious education, which is
imparted in Bangla and
Arabic in
madrasahs.
There are
52
universities in Dhaka. The
Dhaka
College is the oldest institution of higher education in the
city and amongst the earliest established in
British India, founded in 1840. Since
independence, Dhaka has seen the establishment of a large number of
public and private colleges and universities that offer
undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as a variety of doctoral
programs.
The University of Dhaka is the largest public university in the nation with
more than 30,000 students and 1,300 faculty staff. The
university has 18 research centers and 70 departments, faculties
and institutes.
Eminent seats of higher education include
the Jahangirnagar
University and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and
Technology
(BUET). The
Dhaka Medical College and
the
Sir Salimullah
Medical College are amongst the largest and most respected
medical schools in the nation. Dhaka's college campuses are often
hotbeds of political conflicts. Protests and strikes, and violence
amongst police, students and political groups frequently disrupt
public university campuses.
Media & Communications
- Postal Service: The Bangladeshi postal service, commonly known as
Bangladesh Post Office,
headquartered in Dhaka, is responsible for providing postal service
in throughout the country.
- Print and publication: Dhaka is home to the
major newspapers and publications of Bangladesh's outspoken,
diverse and privately owned press. Some of the major publications
based in Dhaka include the country's oldest newspapers,
Daily Ittefaq, Daily Azad, Manabzamin, Daily
Janakantha, Daily Prothom
Alo and so on. The major English newspapers include The Daily Star, The Independent, The Bangladesh Observer,
New Age and The Financial
Express. Popular weekly newapapers and magazines include
Holiday, The Star, Dhaka Courier, Anandaloke and
Saptahik 2000. Other major magazines and publications
include Forum,
Ice Today, The Executive
Times, Energy Bangla, Annanya and
Computer Jagat.
- News Agency: The national
news agency of Bangladesh is Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha. BSS handles
national news including the activities of the government,
diplomatic affairs, socio-political happenings, economy, finance,
sports, culture, law and parliamentary affairs. Newspapers
throughout the country, radio and television authorities, and some government
agencies subscribe to the news service of BSS.. The first
privately-owned news agency in Bangladesh Eastern News Agency was established in Dhaka in
March 1970. Another private
sector news agency United News of Bangladesh was launched in 1988
in Dhaka with the Associated Press
(AP) of the United
States
as its principal anchor.
Sports
Cricket and
football are the two most popular sports
in Dhaka and across the nation. Teams are fielded in intra-city and
national competitions by a large number of schools, colleges and
private entities. The
Mohammedan Sports Club
and
Abahani are two of the most
famous football and cricket teams, maintaining a fierce
rivalry.
Dhaka has the distinction of having hosted the first official
test cricket match of the Pakistan
cricket team in 1954 against India.
The Bangabandhu
National Stadium
was formerly the main venue for domestic and
international cricket matches, but now exclusively hosts football
matches. It is a potential host for the opening ceremony of
the
2011 Cricket World Cup as
well as host to 6 matches to be played in Bangladesh. The
Bangladesh Sports Control
Board, responsible for promoting sports activities across the
nation is based in Dhaka.
Dhaka also has stadiums largely used for
domestic events such as the Sher-e-Bangla Mirpur Stadium
(in Mirpur), the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium and the
Outer Stadium Ground.
The
Dhaka University Ground
hosts many intercollegiate tournaments.
Further reading
References
External links
in Dhaka. Other private radio stations like Radio
Foorti, Radio Today, Radio Amar etc. are also headquartered in
Dhaka.
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