Dhaka The Ancient Capital

he world's most densely populated cites. The Old City of Dhaka was founded in the 17th century (1610AD) as the Mughal capital of Bengal. It was called Jahangir Nagar (City of Jahangir) and served as the centre of the worldwide Moslin trade. The modern city, however, developed chiefly under British rule in the 19th century. After the partition of British India, Dhaka became the administrative capital of East Pakistan, and later, in 1971, the capital of independent Bangladesh. During the intervening period, the city witnessed widespread upheaval and turmoil, including many impositions of martial law, political uprisings and mass civil disobedience movements, and the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Modern Dhaka is the centre of political and cultural life in Bangladesh, and serves as one of the two principal economic and industrial centers of the country, along with the southern port city of Chittagong. Dhaka hosts the headquarters of several major non-governmental agencies in the developing world, including the international development organization BRAC, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning development institution "Grameen Bank" and the medical research institute ICDDR,B. The city has the most developed urban infrastructure in the country, however it suffers from chronic urban problems of poverty, pollution and overpopulation due to increasing rural-to-urban migration in Bangladesh. The city is modernizing its transport and communications, and has been attracting large volumes of foreign investments in recent years. Dhaka has also emerged as one of the fastest growing cities in the world.