State Weakness and Civil Society in Bangladesh

Abstract

From 1858 to 1947, the Muslim-majority region of East Bengal, which would later become Bangladesh, formed part of colonial British India. To strengthen their control over the local population, the British colonizers relied on the zamindars, feudal landlords belonging to the Hindu faith. In 1947, East Bengal became part of Pakistan, following the two-nation theory that the Hindu and the Muslim populations of British India should live in separate states. The Pakistani government passed land reform laws that effectively abolished the zamindar system, thereby eliminating an important section of the local colonial elite (Chowdury 2010).