The bulk of the 314 thousand square kilomters in this area are flat lands near sea level. Higher land is found in Meghalaya--the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia Hills; in Nagaland--the Barail Range and the Naga Hills; in Manipur--the Manipur Hills and the Letha Range; in Mizoram--the Mizo Hills; and in the southeastern corner of Bangladesh. In between heights are found further north in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts, in Tripura and in south central Assam--the Mikir Hills.
Most of Bangladesh holds the eastern two-thirds of the shared delta of the Ganga(2) and the Brahmaputra(3) rivers. The bulk of the Brahmaputra's waters bypass the river proper starting in north central Bangladesh and flow through the Jamuna. The Ganga's main distributary is the Padma, which receives the Jamuna. A third contribution to the delta is the Meghna, which has various names in northeastern Bangladesh, and receives the Padma. The Meghna reaches the Bay of Bengal through two channels.
Two important rivers are not part of this delta: the Manipur, which flows south into Myanmar as part of the Irawaddy system, and a river that is dammed in the Chittagong Hill Tracts to produce the Karnaphili Reservoir. The area's largest natural lake is Logtak Lake in Manipur.
Nearly 175 million people lived here in 2006. The majority, nearly two in three, speak Bengali as a first language. Nearly one in ten speak Chittagonian, and more than one in 20, Sylheti. Both are sometimes considered dialects of Bengali. Another one in ten speak Bengali's close relative, Assamese. The remaining one in ten speak numerous languages.
Most of the people are Moslem: more than two-thirds. Almost three in ten are Hindus.
The cities of over a million are all in Bangladesh: Chattagam (Chittagong), Dhaka (Dacca) and Khulna.
Indo-Aryans arrived in the late first millenium C.E. Around 1000 C.E., Oriya, Bengali and Assamese were still one language. Assamese had separated by about 1400.
Before the Indo-Aryans arrived, the area was inhabited by speakers of Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman languages. Munda languages have been spoken in the area for 2,000 years or more, as probably have Mon-Khmer languages; both groups are Austro-Asiatic. Proto-Bodo was probably the language of the Assamese lowlands 2,000 years ago. At least some of the languages of the Kuki-Naga grouping moved to this area from the east, proably at least some centuries ago, as attested by a placename.(4) Both the Bodo-Garo and the Kuki-Naga groups are Tibeto-Burman.
In the 13th century, speakers of Ahom, a member of the Tai linguistic group, conquered the lower Brahmaputra valley, but over the centuries they were assimulated.
Animism was presumably practiced before the world religions arrived; there are still a few practicioners in the highlands.
Hinduism and Jainism were established before 300 C.E. Buddhism moved in from the west after the eighth century and penetrated into the high country, converting some groups as late at the 18th century. Jainism faded here as it did in many parts of India. Islam arrived by conquest after 1300. Christianity was introduced by missionaries starting in the 19th century; there are Christian ethnic groups today.
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The paraiah status of rape victims of the Pakistani army
(1) Desh means nation in Bengali.
(2) Also called the Ganges.
(3) The Brahmaputra is Asia's tenth longest river.
(4) The Chindwin River in Myanmar flows to the east of where the Chin languages now are.