History of Bangladesh

Bangladesh occupies the eastern part of the Ganges–Brahmaputra delta in South Asia. This article is the section hub for this site’s history coverage: it sets out the chronology that the individual articles treat in detail, states the conventions this site uses, and records the points on which the sources used here disagree.

Conventions used in this section

Dates are Gregorian. Events conventionally dated in the Bangla calendar are also given in that calendar where a source does so. Every statistic and office-holding carries an explicit "as of" date, because an undated figure is not verified.

Naming conventions for the events of 1971 vary between sources; this article uses the term Liberation War, while recording the alternative names in circulation and the sources that use them (see Disputed points).

Ancient Bengal (to c. 1200 CE)

The earliest territorial units recorded for the Bengal delta include Vanga, Suhma, Samatata and Harikela, and the earliest urban centre identified in Bangladesh is Pundranagara, whose ruins are identified with Mahasthan in Bogra district ¹. Bengal was incorporated into the Maurya and Gupta imperial systems in the ancient period, and the Pala dynasty then ruled Bengal and Bihar for about four centuries from the middle of the 8th century CE, followed by the Senas, who ruled for a little over a century ¹². See Ancient Bengal, Pala Empire, Sena Dynasty.

The Bengal Sultanate (c. 1204–1576)

Muslim rule in Bengal began with Bakhtiyar Khalji’s conquest of Nadia, which the retrieved Banglapedia entries date to 1204–1205 ³. The independent sultanate was founded and consolidated by Shamsuddin Iliyas Shah (1342–1358), who first united Satgaon, Lakhnauti and Sonargaon, gave the united territory the name Bangalah and its people the name Bangali ⁴. The sultanate ended with the fall of Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah, the last Husain Shahi sultan, in 1538 ⁵. See Bengal Sultanate.

Mughal Bengal and the Bengal Subah (1576–1757)

Mughal subjugation followed the battle of Rajmahal on 12 July 1576, after which Afghan resistance continued for at least three decades ⁵. The province, the Subah Bangala, was headed by a subahdar, also called nazim, while a separately appointed diwan controlled revenue administration ⁵. Bengal’s subahdars stayed in office longer on average than those of other provinces — more than six years against generally below four years elsewhere ⁵. See Mughal Bengal.

Company rule and the colonial period (1757–1947)

The East India Company’s position in Bengal was transformed by the battle of Palashi on 23 June 1757 ⁶. By farman of 12 August 1765 the emperor appointed the Company Diwan of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa on condition of an annual tribute of twenty-six lakhs of rupees ⁶. The Permanent Settlement of 1793 made zamindars and talukdars permanent proprietors with revenue fixed permanently, while denying cultivating raiyats the same privilege ⁷. See Battle of Plassey, Company Rule in Bengal, Bengal Presidency.

The Bengal Renaissance

Nineteenth-century Bengal saw what Banglapedia describes as the social, cultural, psychological and intellectual changes of the period, resulting from contact between British officials and missionaries on the one hand and the Hindu intelligentsia of Calcutta on the other, and associated with institutions including the College of Fort William (1800) and Hindu College (1817) ¹⁵. See Bengal Renaissance.

The partitions of Bengal

The province was partitioned in 1905 during the viceroyalty of Lord Curzon and reunited in 1911 ⁸. In 1947 the province was divided into two halves along broadly the same geographical lines, Hindu-majority West Bengal joining the Indian Union and Muslim-majority East Bengal joining Pakistan ⁹. See Partition of Bengal, 1905, Partition of 1947 and East Pakistan.

East Pakistan (1947–1970)

East Bengal became the eastern wing of Pakistan and was renamed East Pakistan ⁹. The language question was raised immediately after Pakistan’s creation, and the movement that began in 1948 reached its climax in the killings of 21 February 1952 and ended with Bangla recognised as a state language in 1956 ¹⁰. See Bengali Language Movement.

The 1971 conflict

The National Assembly election of 7 December 1970 was held on a turnout of 57.68 per cent of 29,479,386 voters for 300 seats; the Awami League contested 162 seats and won 160, with 74.9 per cent of the votes cast ¹⁶. Banglapedia’s account of the war records the Awami League as having won 167 of 169 seats, a figure the two entries do not reconcile (see Disputed points). The military crackdown of the night of 25 March 1971 began the armed conflict, which ended with the surrender at Ramna Racecourse at one minute past 5 p.m. on 16 December 1971 ¹¹. An exile government was formed on 10 April 1971, and took its oath at Baidyanathtala in Meherpur on 17 April 1971 ¹¹.

Bangladesh since 1972

The Constitution was adopted on 4 November 1972 and came into force on 16 December 1972; as of the retrieved entry it has undergone seventeen amendments and changes ¹². The Constitution is published by the Government of Bangladesh ¹³. See Post-Independence Bangladesh.

Sources

Sources are listed in the front matter of this file with their tier and access date. This article draws on Tier 2 curated encyclopedic and peer-reviewed material and one Tier 1 official source (the Constitution as published by the Government of Bangladesh).

Related articles

Ancient Bengal · Pala Empire · Sena Dynasty · Bengal Sultanate · Mughal Bengal · Battle of Plassey · Company Rule in Bengal · Bengal Presidency · Bengal Renaissance · Partition of Bengal, 1905 · Partition of 1947 and East Pakistan · Bengali Language Movement · Bangladesh Liberation War · Post-Independence Bangladesh

Disputed points

The positions below are reported as their holders state them. This reference does not take a position on the disagreement, and none of the positions is presented as the default.

The naming of the 1971 conflict. Sources do not use a single name. Banglapedia titles its entry "War of Liberation, The" and uses "war of liberation" ¹¹; the same entry also uses "genocide" for the crackdown of 25 March 1971 ¹¹. Peer-reviewed literature also uses "liberation war" ¹⁴. This article adopts Liberation War as its convention and records the alternatives rather than resolving which name is correct. [disputed]

Casualty figures for 1971. Estimates of the total death toll differ by orders of magnitude and are presented here only as attributed estimates. A peer-reviewed study summarises previous estimates ranging from 50,000–100,000 and 300,000 to 3 million, which it describes as the official estimate provided by Bangladesh; the same study estimates excess deaths among the 9.9 million refugees who moved to India at approximately 562,915 (95% confidence interval 323,562–802,268) ¹⁴. No single figure is stated in this site’s own voice. See Bangladesh Liberation War for the full set of attributed estimates. [disputed]

The Awami League’s 1970 seat tally. Two Banglapedia entries give different figures for the same election: the "Election" entry records 162 seats contested and 160 won out of a 300-seat National Assembly ¹⁶, while "War of Liberation, The" records 167 seats out of 169 ¹¹. The two entries do not reconcile, and the difference is not explained by the retrieved pages. [disputed]

Sources

16 sources cited. Tiers: T1 official or primary, T2 scholarly or curated, T3 media of record.

1. Pala Dynasty — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Pala_Dynasty
2. Sena Dynasty — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Sena_Dynasty
3. Bakhtiyar Khalji — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Bakhtiyar_Khalji
4. Iliyas Shah — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Iliyas_Shah
5. Subahdar — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Subahdar
6. Palashi, The Battle of — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Palashi,_The_Battle_of
7. Permanent Settlement, The — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Permanent_Settlement,_The
8. Partition of Bengal, 1905 — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Partition_of_Bengal,_1905
9. Partition of Bengal, 1947 — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Partition_of_Bengal,_1947
10. Language Movement — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Language_Movement
11. War of Liberation, The — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/War_of_Liberation,_The
12. Constitution — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Constitution
13. The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh — Laws of Bangladesh, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of Bangladesh (T1, accessed 2026-09-19). https://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-367.html
14. Death toll among the Bangladeshi refugees of the 1971 war — PLOS ONE 20(4): e0320760 (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0320760
15. Bengal Renaissance — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Bengal_Renaissance
16. Election — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Election

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Every factual claim above is attributed to a numbered source. Figures marked “as of” were retrieved on that date. Not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.