What was bangladesh formerly known as

Tilly's analysis is too reductionist with regards to the emergence of Bangladesh, since the state and its corresponding institutions were not formed with the primary objective of war-mongering. Indeed, East Pakistan's need for India's aid in fighting West Pakistan in demonstrates that warfare was mainly an afterthought for the would-be Bengali nationstate.

Therefore, the rise and consolidation of Bangladesh from a "nation" and a "state" into a nation-state primarily required a strong sense of Bengali national identity, while the Indo-Pakistani War of , which ultimately resulted in Bangladesh's independence, was only the final event that solidified its status as an independent entity.

The Indian subcontinent is home to a wide variety of ethnicities and cultures, so language became an increasingly distinctive mark of identity as regions began to view themselves as distinct from each other due to the declining unifying authority of the British Raj.

In many ways, this process is analogous to Mann's European theory of nation formation based on vernacular languages and the decline of the unified Catholic Church. Therefore, both India and Pakistan were faced with the inherent paradox of attempting to consolidate various regional identities into a unified national identity.

However, East Pakistan diverged from the overall path of West Pakistan and began to develop a unique regional identity at odds with West Pakistani goals that would eventually emerge in as the independent nation-state of Bangladesh. Given the region's history, it is not surprising that the first major conflict between East and West Pakistan occurred over language. Soon after independence, the Basic Rules Committee of West Pakistan called for a single national language, Urdu, that would serve all official purposes in all of Pakistan 4.

This proposal was unpopular in both sections of Pakistan, because it seemed that Urdu-speakers, an intellectual elite and population minority, were implicitly declaring their culture as superior to all others. It seemed that Urdu-speakers, an intellectual elite and population minority, were implicitly declaring their culture as superior to all others.

The Bengali language was in a unique position compared to other languages of Pakistan commonly spoken in the West, such as Punjabi or Sindhi, because it was used by a majority of citizens and was the foundation of a cultural elite both geographically and historically separate from the Urdu-speaking aristocracy in the West 6.

In addition, Bengali was capable of having institutional status because it had a strong literary tradition from intellectuals during the British Raj. In contrast, languages of West Pakistan, aside from Urdu, were generally confined to villages and developed multiple dialects.

These proposals were summarily rejected by the ruling government of West Pakistan. Therefore, the "nation" and the "state" were separate since East Pakistanis read: Bengalis formed their own "limited imagined community" 10 on the basis of common language and ethnicity, while they officially remained as part of the Pakistani state without distinctive political representation. Based on a demographic analysis alone, the only cultural commonality between the two sections of Pakistan was their overwhelming Muslim-majority population.

West Pakistan attempted to capitalize on this fact and unify both halves under the banner of Islam. Unfortunately, West Pakistan's rationale for rejecting East Pakistan's language counterproposal only served to further drive a wedge between the two sections. Urdu-speakers claimed that since all of Pakistan was established as an "Islamic Republic", it should represent Muslim culture as best as possible.

Urdu was linguistically related to and was written in the same script as the traditional Islamic languages of Arabic and Persian. As a potential compromise, West Pakistan suggested significantly "reforming" the Bengali language so it would have less of its Hindu influence. For these reasons, it became increasingly apparent that Pakistan's national identity predicated on religious commonality was insufficient for unifying the country.

To complicate matters further, the government of West Pakistan attempted to institute its "reforms" of Bengali despite protests in the East that the program threatened Bengali culture and identity. For a short time, schools taught Bengali written in Arabic script rather than its original unique script , and attempted to replace Sanskrit-derived words with those from Arabic or Persian.

Bengali nationalism again became stronger as a result of language conflict, and began to supersede any possible religious similarities between the East and West. In this way, the rise of Bangladesh also deviates slightly from the Mann's theory. In Mann's analysis, an important factor in creating national consciousness in European states was the presence of a common religion like Calvinism, Catholicism, etc. Indeed, East Pakistanis increasingly viewed themselves as primarily Bengali rather than Pakistani.

This sentiment was strengthened even further by West Pakistan's revival of the national language issue in The original conflict had never been resolved, and in January , the Muslim League the ruling party, based in West Pakistan suddenly declared that Urdu would be the sole official language. East Pakistanis understandably felt disenfranchised from the political process. In clear defiance of West Pakistani orders, students in Dhaka University held a mass protest against the proposal on February 21, Police fired on the crowd, resulting in the deaths of 26 and various injuries for an additional people.

The martyred students were glorified as those who died in defense of their mother tongue, Bengali. They did not want to be subject to the whims of a government in West Pakistan that seemed to discard their preferences. In contrast, West Pakistanis were increasingly characterized as evil and oppressive. As a result, citizens of East Pakistan began to celebrate their Bengali heritage to an even greater extent. For example, obscure traditions such as Bengali New Year became celebrated by the majority of the population, and people would gather annually at Shaheed Minar to remember the fallen students and sing ethnic Bengali songs.

Moreover, "traditions" of honoring student martyrs were essentially invented after the language conflict; this further highlights that although the concept of a distinct Bengali nation was "imagined", it was by now firmly entrenched in the minds of East Pakistanis. As a result of the first language conflict in , a new East Pakistani political party called the Awami League had been formed in that would serve as a counterweight to the Muslim League of West Pakistan.

The major reason that Bengalis were denied adequate representation in the government was the existence of a strong executive branch established under British rule. In this system, the vast majority of political power was concentrated in the civil service and the military, as these two arms were primarily responsible for implementing laws.

Indeed, racial discrimination played a role in the selection of civil servants and soldiers. Punjabis are known as fierce warriors because of their immense height inherited from their Afghani tribe ancestors, and their religion's focus on bravery and strength in battle.

Indeed, "in Punjabi society, a respect for military precision, administrative talent… and Western social practices were dominant". The formation of the Awami League also represents the first expression of a desire for the Bengali nation to be married to the concept of regional autonomy. The Awami League ran on a platform of federalism, the devolution of powers and advocated reforming the political system to give East Pakistan and by extension, ethnic regions in both sections of Pakistan adequate representation in all branches of government.

In this sense, this event was a precursor to the consolidation of the Bangladeshi nation-state. Nevertheless, it is important to note that at this point in history, East Pakistanis had no desire to be independent from West Pakistan. Bengali national consciousness was undoubtedly thriving, but East Pakistani leaders had still not conceived the idea of separating themselves completely from West Pakistan. They were primarily concerned with autonomy, and having their preferences represented adequately in a democratic fashion.

So far, this study has attempted to demonstrate that nationalism was the primary factor in causing the development of an East Pakistani regional identity separate from that of a unified Pakistan between and However, the cry for an independent Bengali nation-state only began towards the end of this period. The next section of this study will attempt to provide an alternative to Tilly's theory of nation-state formation by illustrating that the primary user of violence in Bangladesh's case was India, an external rather than internal force.

East Pakistan was part of the Bengal region of India and was under the rule of the same empire who ruled over central India. During the petition and independence of British India, the Muslim-dominated regions of Bengal and Punjab were separated from India and awarded to Pakistan for it was a Muslim state.

The region was in an odd position because it was separated from the rest of the country by a 1,mile stretch of Indian territory. It was also linguistically and ethnically different from Pakistan. The region suffered political and economic neglect from the rest of the country for 24 years, leading to political unrest and coups as the military constantly overthrew elected governments.

Political leaders in the province began rallying for the separation and creation of an independent state. The separatist Awami League Party won all the parliamentary seats, in the —71 elections, further fueling the calls for secession. West Pakistan sent the military to quell the secessionists, but India responded by sending its troops to support the secession of Bangladesh. Their hostility stems in part from differences over who played a greater role in the country's independence struggle - Hasina's father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, or Khaleda Zia's husband General Ziaur Rahman.

They sank their differences when military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad was in power from to , but they have been uncompromising rivals ever since. TV is the leading medium. State-run BTV has national terrestrial coverage and privately-owned satellite channels are widely watched. Media tend to be polarised, aligning themselves with one or other of the main political factions. Some key dates in the history of Bangladesh:.

The two provinces are separated from each other by more than 1, km of Indian territory. He suspends the constitution and political parties. Government of Bangladesh. Image source, Getty Images.