Bangladesh has been erroneously attributed a homogeneous agrarian structure by unwarranted extrapolation from surveys made in Comilla district. Data from the 1940s suggests greater differentiation in the North and West. This was compounded by the control of East Bengal by West Pakistan which resulted in a counter‐productive drain of the rural surplus, so restricting capital to the ‘antediluvian’ forms used in moneylending, trade or land leasing, rather than capital used in productive agriculture. The development of the petty bourgeoisie and landlords was thereby restricted and the emergence of an East Bengali bourgeoisie prevented.