Dhaka << DAK uh >> (pop. 11,237,217) is the capital, largest city, and commercial and industrial center of Bangladesh. Dhaka, formerly spelled Dacca, lies on the Buriganga River.
The old section of Dhaka, called the Sadarghat, includes the city’s main shopping district and a busy outdoor market known as the Chauk. The Sadarghat has many mosques (Muslim houses of worship), some of which are hundreds of years old. Large numbers of poor families live in crowded slums in the Sadarghat. Middle-class and wealthy people make up most of the population of Ramna, one of the city’s fastest growing areas. Ramna lies on the northern edge of Dhaka. It is the home of the University of Dhaka and has many tree-lined streets, a park, and a shopping district.
The central location of Dhaka helped it become the nation’s commercial and industrial center. Factories operate in many parts of the city and its suburbs. The Dhaka area’s major products include cotton fabrics, glass, leather, metals, sugar, and jute, a plant fiber used in making rope and certain fabrics.
Settlers from south Asia founded Dhaka in the A.D. 600’s. In 1608, the city became the capital of Bengal, a province of the Mughal Empire (see Mughal Empire). Dhaka came under British control in the mid-1700’s as part of India. India gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, and part of it—including what is now Bangladesh—became the independent nation of Pakistan. Dhaka was named the capital of the Pakistani province of East Pakistan. In 1971, civil war in Pakistan led to the establishment of East Pakistan as an independent nation, Bangladesh, with Dhaka as the capital.
