Dhaka

Dhaka is the capital city of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, designated as such by the Constitution of 1972 and located on the banks of the Buriganga River in the central deltaic region of the country. It is the seat of all three branches of the Union government — the executive headquartered at the Bangladesh Secretariat, the unicameral Jatiya Sangsad (National Parliament) housed in Louis Kahn's celebrated Sangsad Bhaban at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, and the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. As a constituent unit of governance, the city is administered by two corporations — Dhaka North City Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation — created by the splitting of the erstwhile Dhaka City Corporation in 2011 under the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009. Dhaka District falls within the Dhaka Division, one of the eight administrative divisions of Bangladesh.

The city carries deep historical weight. It served as the Mughal provincial capital of Bengal Subah from 1610, when the Mughal subahdar Islam Khan made it the seat of government and named it Jahangirnagar after Emperor Jahangir. Under the British Raj it became the short-lived capital of the province of Eastern Bengal and Assam during the first Partition of Bengal (1905–1911). After the Partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the provincial capital of East Bengal (later East Pakistan). It was the epicentre of the Bengali Language Movement of 1952, commemorated each 21 February as International Mother Language Day (proclaimed by UNESCO in 1999), and the site of Operation Searchlight on 25 March 1971, which precipitated the Bangladesh Liberation War. Pakistani forces surrendered at Dhaka's Ramna Race Course on 16 December 1971, marking the birth of independent Bangladesh.

In its contemporary role, Dhaka anchors Bangladesh's foreign relations and global engagement. It hosts the headquarters of the Bangladesh ministries of Foreign Affairs and Commerce, and numerous resident diplomatic missions and UN agency offices. It is closely associated with the regional architecture of South Asia: the foundational SAARC Charter was adopted at Dhaka on 8 December 1985, formally establishing the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. As of 2026 Dhaka is among the world's most densely populated megacities, with the broader metropolitan area exceeding 20 million inhabitants, and is a hub of the ready-made garment (RMG) export industry that drives the national economy.

For the BCS examination, Dhaka recurs across the Bangladesh Affairs and International Affairs papers. Candidates are tested on its founding date as Mughal capital (1610), the 1905 and 1947 administrative reorganisations, the 1952 Language Movement and 1971 Liberation War landmarks, and its hosting of the 1985 SAARC summit. In the 'Bangladesh in the World' and global-institutions courses the typical question angle links Dhaka to SAARC's establishment, UNESCO's Mother Language Day recognition, and its status as a diplomatic capital. Aspirants should also note the 2011 bifurcation into North and South City Corporations, a frequent local-government and constitutional-administration question.