Asia | From rags to stitches

As it turns 50, Bangladesh is doing well, despite its politicians

But the prospects for the next few years look troubling

IN COLONIAL TIMES the eastern half of Bengal was one of the poorest parts of British India. After independence and partition in 1947, it became one of the poorest bits of Pakistan. And after it declared itself an independent country, Bangladesh, in 1971, it became poorer still, as the rump of Pakistan fought a savage war to retain it, destroying a big share of its few assets and killing many of its best and brightest.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “From rags to stitches”

Bright side of the moonshot: Science after the pandemic

From the March 27th 2021 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Asia

Illustration of national flags, including those of the US, the UK, South Korea, Japan and Australia, tucked into a crisscrossing lattice

Can Donald Trump maintain Joe Biden’s network of Asian alliances?

Discipline and creativity will help, but so will China’s actions

An alleged North Korean soldier after being captured by the Ukrainian army

What North Korea gains by sending troops to fight for Russia

Resources, technology, experience and a blood-soaked IOU


FK Arkadag's Didar Durdyev runs during a Turkmen football championship game

Is Arkadag the world’s greatest football team?

What could possibly explain the success of a club founded by Turkmenistan’s dictator


After the president’s arrest, what next for South Korea?

Some 3,000 police breached his compound. The country is dangerously divided

India’s Faustian pact with Russia is strengthening

The gamble behind $17bn of fresh deals with the Kremlin on oil and arms

AUKUS enters its fifth year. How is the pact faring?

It has weathered two big political changes. What about Donald Trump’s return?