History of Dhaka City

The River of Burigangnga

Dhaka City formerly spelled Dacca, named Jahangirnagar during Mughal era is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. 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, had a population of over 16 million in 2011, making it the largest city in Bangladesh. It is the 9th largest city in the world and also 28th among the most densely populated cities in the world. Dhaka is known as the City of Mosques and with 400,000 cycle rickshaws running on its streets every day, the city is also described as the Rickshaw Capital of the World.



Under the 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 1971, 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 and overpopulation. In recent decades, Dhaka has seen the 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, this has reportedly made Dhaka the fastest growing city in the world. Lalbagh Fort constructed in the mid 17th century by Prince Mohammed Azam Shah, son of Emperor Aurangzeb and the Fort contains the tomb of Bibi Pari, daughter of Shaista Khan. The existence of a settlement 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. 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 Empire, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Sultanate of Bengal as well as interruption of governors from the Delhi Sultanate before being taken over by the Mughals in 1608. The development of townships and housing has resulted into a significant growth in population came as the city was proclaimed the capital (Rajmahal) of Bengal under the 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 kilometers (12 by 8 mi), with a population of nearly one million people. British East India Company in 1765 gained right to collect revenue (Diwani right) and later took over governing in 1793 when Nawabs of Bengal were forced to abdicate all their authority over Bengal, Bihar & Orissa & the city passed on to total British control. The city’s population shrank dramatically during this period as the prominence of Calcutta rose, but substantive development and modernization 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. Ahsan Manzil was once the palace of the Dhaka Nawab Family; it is now a museum. Bastion of the Lal Bagh, Dacca – 1816. 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. Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban houses the national parliament.

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 Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman held a nationalist gathering on March 7, 1971, at Ramna Racecourse. 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 Indian Army and Mitra Bahini, the Pakistani Army surrendered to the Indian Army on December 16 marking the end of the independence war of Bangladesh. As the nation’s capital, Dhaka saw a rapid and huge 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.

Geology 

Dhaka is situated in focal Bangladesh at 23°42'0?N 90°22'30?E, on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River. The city lies on the lower ranges of the Ganges Delta and spreads an aggregate zone of 360 square kilometers (140 sq mi). It comprises of eight foremost thanas – Lalbagh, Kotwali, Sutrapur, Ramona, Motijheel, Paltan, Dhanmondi, Mohammadpur, Tejgaon – and 16 assistant thanas – Gulshan, Mirpur, Pallabi, Shah Ali, Turaag, Sabujbagh, Dhaka Cantonment, Demra, Hazaribagh, Shyampur, Badda, Kafrul, Kamrangir roast, Khilgaon and Uttara. Altogether the city has 130 wards and 725 mohallas. Dhaka locale has a territory of 1463.60 square kilometers (565 sq mi); and is limited by the areas of Gazipur, Tangail, Munshiganj, Rajbari, Narayanganj, Manikganj. Tropical vegetation and damp soils describe the land, which is level and near ocean level. This leaves Dhaka vulnerable to flooding amid the rainstorm seasons attributable to overwhelming precipitation and violent winds.

Atmosphere 

Dhaka encounters a hot, wet and sticky tropical atmosphere. Under the Köppen atmosphere characterization, Dhaka has a tropical savanna atmosphere. The city has an unmistakable monsoonal season, with a yearly normal temperature of 27 °C (81 °F) and month to month implies differing between 19.5 °C (67 °F) in January and 32 °C (90 °F) in May. Around 87% of the yearly normal precipitation of 2,123 millimeters (83.5 in) happens amongst May and October. Expanding air and water contamination radiating from activity clog and mechanical waste are not kidding issues influencing general wellbeing and the personal satisfaction in the city. Water bodies and wetlands around Dhaka are confronting pulverization as these are being topped off to develop multi-storied structures and other land advancements. Combined with contamination, such disintegration of characteristic territories undermines to obliterate a great part of the provincial biodiversity.

The Dhaka district was established on August 1, 1864, and moved up to "organization" status in 1978. The Dhaka City Corporation is a self-overseeing enterprise which runs the issues of the city. Recently Dhaka City Corporation has been isolated in two regulatory part these are 1)Dhaka City Corporation-North and 2)Dhaka City Corporation-South to ensure better city offices. The fused region is separated into a few wards, which have chosen chiefs. directly These Two organizations are going by two managers. The Dhaka Education Board is in charge of managing every state-funded school and most tuition based schools except for English-medium schools and madrassahs. All madrassahs in Bangladesh are represented by a focal board while English-medium schools are under partitioned instructive and administration structures.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) was set up in 1976 and has 6,000 staff in 12 police stations.[40] With the quick populace development of the city, the power has been raised to 23,000 workforces and the foundation of 33 police headquarters has been finished and the production of another 18 police headquarters is in progress.

The city is isolated into 25 (i.e. 2011) parliamentary electorates. The two principal political gatherings are the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Ramna contains the Secretariat, which houses a large portion of the administrative services. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the Dhaka High Court are situated in the city. The Bangabhaban royal residence has filled in as the official home of the Viceroy of India, the legislative leader of East Pakistan and by and by the President of Bangladesh. The Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban, outlined by prestigious planner Louis Kahn, houses the unicameral national parliament. The Baitul Mukarram, created with a plan taking after the Kaaba of Mecca, is the national mosque. Other verifiable landmarks in the city incorporate the Bara Katra royal residence, the Lalbagh Fort, the Hoseni Dalan and the Ahsan Manzil.

To battle rising movement blockage and populace, the national government has as of late executed a strategy for quick urbanization of encompassing zones and past by the presentation of a multi-year occasion on salary assess for new development of offices and structures outside Dhaka.

Beside Chittagong, Dhaka has a water-borne sewage framework, yet this serves just 25% of the populace while another 30% are presented with septic tanks. Just 66% of families in Dhaka are served by the city water supply framework. In excess of 9.7 million tons of strong squanders are delivered in Dhaka city every year. While private and government endeavors have prevailed with regards to gathering reject far-reaching and utilizing it as fertilizer, most strong squanders are frequently dumped untreated in adjacent low-lying regions and water bodies.

Socioeconomics

The number of inhabitants in Dhaka (zones under the ward of the Dhaka city organization) remains at roughly 7.0 million. The city, in a blend with regions framing the more extensive metropolitan territory, is home to an expected 16.6 million starting at 2011. The populace is developing by an expected 4.2% every year, one of the most elevated rates among Asian urban areas. The proceeding with development reflects continuous movement from country territories to the Dhaka urban district, which represented 60% of the city's development in the 1970s. All the more as of late, the city's populace has additionally developed with the extension of city limits, a procedure that additional in excess of a million people to the city in the 1980s. As indicated by Far Eastern Economic Review, Dhaka will turn into a home of 25 million individuals constantly 2025.

The education rate in Dhaka is additionally expanding decently fast. It was assessed at 62.3% out of 2001. By 2010, the proficiency rate had gone up to 72.7%, essentially higher than the national normal of 56.5%.

The city populace is made out of individuals from for all intents and purposes each district of Bangladesh. The long-standing occupants of the old city are known as Dhakaia and have an unmistakable vernacular and culture. Between 15,000 to 20,000 of the Rohingya, Santal, Khasi, Garo, Chakma and Mandi innate people groups dwell in the city. Dhaka likewise has a substantial populace of Chinese, Korean, Indian, Burmese and Nepali exiles working in official employment in various enterprises.

Most occupants of Dhaka communicate in Bengali, the national dialect. Numerous particular Bengali tongues and provincial dialects, for example, Chittagonian and Sylheti are likewise talked by sections of the populace. English is talked by a huge section of the populace, particularly for business purposes. There is a minority Urdu-talking populace, who are relatives of dislodged Muslims from eastern India amid 1947 and looked for shelter in East Pakistan. The right populace is uncertain; albeit official figures assess no less than 40,000 inhabitants, it is evaluated that there are no less than 300,000 Urdu-speakers in all of Bangladesh, for the most part living in exile camps in Dhaka.

Islam is the prevailing religion of Dhaka's kin, of around 90% of the city honing the confidence; with a lion's share having a place with the Sunni group. There is additionally a little Shia faction and an Ahmadiya people group. Hinduism is the second-biggest religion, with around 9%, and littler networks hone Buddhism and Christianity, both of around .5% each.

It is the National Authoritative Board on building arranging, homes and assets, plot portion and development endorsements from both open and private substances. It uses the Dhaka Improvement Trust (Allotment of Land) Rule of 1969 and The Town Improvement Act of 1953, both scribed since before the Independence of Bangladesh.