Barishal

 Travel in Barishal

 

 

History

Barisal City Areal view

 

• Barisal was a semi-independent area in the Mughal period because of heavy fighting between them and Hindu chiefs. In course of time, it fell under the Bengal Nawabs, the last being Raja Nakuleswar Bose and then colonial British India, later passed to East Pakistan at independence and finally Bangladesh.

• The central city of this region is the city of Barisal. It is one of the biggest river ports in Bangladesh. It is a city with nearly 0.38 million people and a divisional headquarters, medical college, cadet college, some pharmaceutical industries, textile industries and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority's head office. Barisal is fast growing city of the country stands on the Kirtankhola River. Country's first short landing and take off airport has been completed in Barisal and a private Airlines named Air Bengal has begun its regular air flight between Dhaka Tejgaon Airport and Barisal.

• The city is sometimes called the "Venice of the East" or the "Venice of Bengal".

Population

Demographics

• According to provisional results of the 2011 national census, the population of Barisal (areas under the jurisdiction of the Barisal city corporation) stands at 328,278. By gender, the population was 51.63 male and 48.37 percent female.

• The literacy rate among the urban people of Barisal is 75.3%. which is significantly higher than the national average of 56.5%.

• Most of the people in Barisal are the Bengali people, as is the case in most of Bangladesh. The long-standing inhabitants of the city are known as Barisaliya and they have a distinctive dialect. Apart from them.The city population is composed of people from neighboring Upazilas and districts (Patuakhali, Bhola, Pirojpur, Jhalakati, Barguna).

Languages

• There are four major languages spoken in Barisal

1. Standard Bengali, which is the administrative language and thus mainly used in academia and offices.
2. Barisali dialect, which is commonly spoken by almost all the native peoples of Greater Barisal region (Barisal Division), is considered as a dialect of Bengali which does not have a written form.
3. English, which is held in high esteem and is used by the educated elite.
4. Marginalised Bengali, a cocktail language of Northern Bengali dialects spoken by migrant workers such as service holders, domestic servants, rickshaw peddlers and other menial labourers from different parts of Bangladesh living and working in Barisal.

Religion

Religion in Barisal City in 2011
Religion			Percent
Islam			89.3%
Hinduism			9.7%
Others			1%

• The majority of Barisal's people are Muslims (89.30%), mainly Sunni Islam Hanafi. Other religious groups include Hindus (9.7%), and very few numbers of other religions, mainly Christians (.98%) and Buddhists (0.01%).

• Since end 2015, the Catholic minority has its own Roman Catholic Diocese of Barisal.