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No Body`s People in No Body`s Land: CHAKMA Refugees from CHITAGANG HILL TRACTS
Posted on October 4, 2009 by palashbiswaskl
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No Body`s People in No Body`s Land: CHAKMA Refugees from CHITAGANG HILL TRACTS
Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time- One Hundred and NINETEEN
Palash Biswas
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/
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Refugees Pushed Back
The BDR personnel picked the refugees left and right when they were disembarked from the motor launch. The plight of these Chakma refugees seems to be …
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/jumma/refugee/refugeemr.html – Cached – Similar
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FROM INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT TO REFUGEES: THE TRAUMA OF CHAKMAS IN …
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based The Statesman regularly highlighted the issue of the plight of Chakma refugees, ups and downs in the Indo-Bangladesh relations over the Chakma issue …
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The Supreme Court had even asked the Chakmas to apply for Indian citizenship, but most of the refugees are yet to get hold of the forms. The plight of the …
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Refugees and Human Rights | Palash Speaks
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PLIGHT OF CHAKMA REFUGEES IN N.E. STATES OF INDIA. As I wrote you I paid a long visit to Arunachal, Tripura and few days in Guwahati. …
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Fundamentals of child rights: concepts, issues and challenges – Google Books Result
by Arvind Kumar – 2002 – Law – 593 pages
By the end of August 1994, 5000 Chakma refugees had been repatriated forcibly to … The same is the plight of the Tamil refugee children who are camping in …
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Chiang Mai residents fed up with red-shirt mob – Nationmultimedia.com
Do not forget the plight of Chakma refugees. We have heard about the despair of Rohinghya refugees from Burma, but we must not forget the tragedy of Chakma, …
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umesh bist
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FROM INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT TO REFUGEES: THE TRAUMA OF CHAKMAS IN …
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based The Statesman regularly highlighted the issue of the plight of Chakma refugees, ups and downs in the Indo-Bangladesh relations over the Chakma issue …
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Welcome to Films Division of Intelligent India Enterprises
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Chalachithra Acadami
Best Screen Play Writer, B.Unnikrishnan, T.K.Rajeev Kumar(Jalamarmmaram) … Documentary Film, Kalamandalam Gopi. Producer, Films Division …
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5th Annual Extramural Lecture Series
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Arunachal Pradesh
Alien Rumblings
The Chakmas find it very difficult to live in their adopted state
Ashis K. Biswas
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FOR the 65,000 Chakma settlers in Arunachal Pradesh, life has not become any easier, despite a Supreme Court stricture earlier this year, directing the state government to refrain from deporting them. The Supreme Court had even asked the Chakmas to apply for Indian citizenship, but most of the refugees are yet to get hold of the forms.
The plight of the Chakmas, who migrated from the Chittagong hill tracts of erstwhile East Pakistan in 1964, was summed up by Subimal Chakma of the World Chakma Organisation: “Our people have to secure the citizenship forms from the district commissioners at Lohit, Papumpare and Changlang.
Chakmas claim the state government is flouting the apex court’s directive to ensure security to the tribe and to help them get Indian citizenship.
Most of the people have to come from remote areas and there is no security for them.
Phuloram Chakma (50) was attacked and killed by some local toughs a few days ago at Medo while returning from work. There have been other incidents as well. As a result, we cannot go to the headquarters to get the requisite forms. The administration, which wants us to quit the state, takes no notice of our complaints.” The Chakmas claim that the state administration is flouting the apex court’s January 9 directive—to ensure security to the beleaguered tribe and to forward the forms for citizenship, filed by the Chakmas, to the Centre.
What fuels Chakma fears about a more difficult life ahead is the stand adopted by Chief Minister Gegong Apang. Sources in the Committee for the Citizenship Rights of Chakmas allege that 10 Chakma elders were rounded up at random by the state administration from Diyun recently. They were interned at the state capital, Itanagar, for a day and later taken to the chief minister’s chamber. Apang reportedly told them that it would be useless to stay on in Arunachal Pradesh as the local people resented their presence. The local tribes outnumber the Chakmas 10 to one. The elders pointed out that such matters should be discussed with the committee but Apang refused to listen. The next day the state government came out with a press note, saying the Chakmas had agreed to move out of Arunachal Pradesh provided they were given adequate land. Chakma leaders were taken unawares: “Wedon’t know on what basis the government made this claim. There was no discussion with us or our organisations.”
Arunachal Pradesh government sources, however, deny that Chakmas are being physically prevented from securing their forms. “No such complaint has been made to us nor any violence has been reported. The situation is under control,” said a state government spokesman. This despite the fact that the state government recently published an 80-page white paper on the problems posed by the Chakma and Hajong refugees. Initially, 14,000 people were settled as political refugees in Arunachal Pradesh—their numbers have now swelled to around 65,000, the paper observes. “There is nothing in common between the Chakma refugees and the tribal people of Arunachal Pradesh. The Chakmas should by rights go back to Bangladesh, not stay here.”
Chakma organisations view the matter differently. Many Chakmas have been born after 1964, making them Indian citizens by law. Local tribes often employ the Chakmas at a pittance for agricultural or other hard labour. But they have been systematically ignored or abused. After the expiry of the September 30, 1994 ‘quit Arunachal’ deadline served by the All-Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union, the government officially withdrew minimum facilities accorded to them—their schools were closed, they were thrown out of government offices, medical aid was stopped, even during emergencies. As the white paper concedes, the divergence between the official stand, which is really a crystallisation of local sentiments against the refugees, and the Chakma perspective is too wide to be ignored. The state government and the Chakmas are united on one point: only the Centre can help end the prevailing deadlock.
Given the present fluid situation at the Centre with only the BJP taking a helpful stand towards the Chakmas, Northeast observers do not see the Deve Gowda Government exerting itself unduly to solve the ethnic tangle. Which means more trouble for the Chakmas, who have been shunned in their homeland, and are being rejected by their adopted state. Says a Chakma leader: “Only if India accepts us, our survival as a distinct ethnic group will be assured. This is why we want our citizenship. If we fail, we will end up as a displaced tribe with no territory or settled address, abandoned by history.”
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?201765
Chakma people
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The Chakmas
Total population
0.7 million
Regions with significant populations
Majority populations in Bangladesh and India
In Bangladesh the Chakma’s reside in the Chittagong Hill Tracts area. Mostly found in the following Indian states: Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura
Languages
Changma or Chakma
Religion
Theravada Buddhism
The Chakmas (চাকমা or Chakma), also known as the Changma (চাংমা), are a community inhabiting the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and India. The Chakmas are the largest ethnic group in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, making up more than half the tribal population. A tribal group called Tangchangya (তঞ্চংগ্যা) are also considered to be a branch of the Chakma people. Both tribes speak the same language, have the same customs and culture, and profess the same religion, Theravada Buddhism.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
1.1 The East India Company Period
1.2 Modern time
2 Religion
3 Language
4 Culture
5 References
6 External links
[edit] History
Ethnically, the Chakmas are Tibeto-Burman, and are thus closely related to tribes in the foothills of the Himalayas. Their ancestors came from the Magadha Kingdom (now Bihar, India) to settle in Arakan and most of them later moved to Bangladesh, settling in the Cox’s Bazar District, the Korpos Mohol area, and areas of the present Mizoram. The Chakmas were historically the rulers of Chittagong Hill Tracts under the control of a king. Today, however, the power of the Chakma king, Raja Debashish Roy, is merely symbolic.
The Arakanese referred to the Chakmas as Saks or Theks. In 1546, when the king of Arakan, Meng Beng, was engaged in a battle with the Burmese, the Sak king appeared from the north and attacked Arakan, and occupied the Ramu of Cox’s Bazar.[1]
Diego de Astor, a Portuguese, drew a map of Bengal, which was published as Descripção do Reino de Bengalla in the book Quarta decada da asia(Fourth decade of Asia) by João de Barros in 1615.[2] The map shows a place called “Chacomas” on the eastern bank of the river Karnaphuli, suggesting that this is where the Chakmas used to live at that time. The Arakan king Meng Rajagri Salim Shah (1593-1612) conquered this land, and in a 1607 letter to a Portuguese merchant, Philip de Brito Nicote addressed himself as the highest and most powerful king of Arakan, of Chacomas and of Bengal.[3]
Defeated by the Arakanese, the Chakmas entered the present Chittagong Hill Tracts and made Alekyangdong, present-day Alikadam, their capital. From Alekyangdong they went north and settled in the present-day Rangunia , Rauzan, and Fatikchari upazillas of Chittagong District.
In 1666, Shaista Khan, who was then Mughal Governor of Bengal, defeated the Arakanese, conquered Chittagong, and renamed it Islamabad.[4] However, in the early days the Mughal supremacy was confined only to the plain areas of chittagong, and the Chakmas remained practically unaffected. After a few years, when a dispute developed between the Mughals and the Chakmas, the Mughals demanded tribute from the Chakmas for trading with Chittagong[5].
In 1713, peace was established, and soon a stable relationship developed between the Chakmas and the Mughals; the latter never demanded complete subjugation from the former. The Mughals also rewarded the Chakma king Sukdev, who established a new capital in his own name, in an area is still known as Sukbilash . There are still ruins of the royal palace & other establishments. Subsequently the capital was shifted to Rajanagar.
[edit] The East India Company Period
Three years after the Battle of Plassey, Mir Qasim the new Nawab of Murshidabad rewarded the British East India Company with Chittagong, Burdwan and Midnapur. On 5 January 1761 the company representative Harry Verlest took over charges of Chittagong from Subedar Mohammad Reza Khan. But the Chakma king Sher Doulat Khan who was practically independent through nominally paid tribute to the Mughals, didn’t accept the hegemony of the Company and their demand of taxes at enhanced rate. A protracted war started and it continued up to 1787. The East India Company launched four offensives against the Chakmas in 1770, 1780, 1782 and 1785. In 1785 the Company started peace negotiations with the then Chakma king Jan Box Khan, son of Sher Doulat Khan. Later in 1787 the king accepted the sovereignity of the Company and agreed to pay 500 maunds of cotton annually. The peace agreement or treaty was signed at Kolkata [6].
The main provisions of the treaty between the Governor General Lord Cornwallis and the Chakma king were as following
The East India Company recognised Jan Box Khan as the Raja of the Chakmas
It was agreed that the collection of revenue was the responsibility of the Raja
The British Government would preserve the tribal autonomy and migration from the plains would be restricted
Jan Box Khan was bound by the treaty to maintain peace in his territory.
British troops would remain in the Chakma territory not to terrify the Chakmas but to protect the land from the inroads of the fierce tribes.[7]
In 1829, Halhed then Commissioner of Chittagong reaffirmed that
“ The hill tribes were not British subjects but merely tributaries and we recognized no right on our part to interfere with their internal arrangrements. The near neighbourhood of a powerful & stable government naturally brought the Chief by degree under control and every leading chief paid to the Chittagong collector a certain tribute or yearly gifts. These sums were at first fluctuating in amount but gradually were brought to specific and fixed limit, eventually taking the shape not as tribute but as revenue to the state ”
.[8]
[edit] Modern time
Like in India, the Chakmas have lived in the modern state of Bangladesh much before it gained its independence. However, recent migrations of ethnic Bengalis into traditionally Chakma regions of Bangladesh have raised tensions in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Successive governments have dealt forcefully with Chakma uprisings, and finally ended the conflict with The 1997 Peace Treaty. The only seat of political power and identity is the “Chakma Autonomous District Counsil” in India, though it covers only 35% of the Chakmas living in Mizoram State in India.
[edit] Religion
The vast majority of the Chakma are followers of Theravada Buddhism, a religion that they have been practising for centuries. Of late, reports surfaced that several foreign and local missionaries have been trying to convert the Chakmas in to Christianity without success[citation needed]. This created resentment and upset among some Chakmas.[9][10]
[edit] Language
Main Article Chakma language.
Originally speaking a language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman family, some of the Chakmas have been influenced by neighboring Chittagonian, an Eastern Indo-Aryan language closely related to Bengali. Many linguists now consider the modern Chakma language (known as Changma Vaj or Changma Kodha) part of the Southeastern Bengali branch of Eastern Indo-Aryan language. Changma Vaj is written in its own script, known as Ojhopath.Chakma language is written in an alphabet which allowing for its cursive form, is almost identical with the Khmer character, which was formerly in use in Cambodia, Laos, Siam and southern parts of Burma.
[edit] Culture
The Chakma’s are a people with their own culture, folklore, literature,traditions. The Chakma women wear an ankle length cloth around the waist which is also called Phinon and also a Khadi wrapped above the waist. The phinon and the khadi are colourfully hand weaved with various designs, the whole designs being first embroidered on a piece of cloth known as alam. Biju, a cultural new year is the festival of Chakma People.
[edit] References
^ Sir Arthur P.Phayre, Chief Commissioner of Burma. History of Burma. p. 79.
^ [1]
^ Sugata Chakma. Parbattya Chattagramer Upajati O Sangskriti. p. 19-20.
^ Majumdar, R.C. (ed.) (2007). The Mughul Empire, Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, ISBN 81-7276-407-1, p.230
^ Saradindu Shekhar Chakma. Ethnic Cleansing in Chittagong Hill Tracts. p. 23.
^ Government of Bangladesh. The District Gazetteer of Chittagong Hill Tracts. p. 35.
^ Dr. Suniti Bhushan Kanungo, Professor of History, University of Chittagong. Chakma Resistance to British Domination 1772-1798. p. 52.
^ S.P Talukder. The Chakmas: Life & Struggle. p. 36.
^ Crosswalk.com – Bangladesh Church Burned as Four Faiths Clash
^ Baptist Militants kill Five Chakma Tribesmen
[edit] External links
Interview with the Chakma King
Stateless Chakma refugees in India
Banglapedia entry of the Chakma
Photos of the Chakma people
Encyclopedia Britannica article
[hide] v • d • eScheduled tribes of India
Asur · Baiga · Bharia · Bhil · Bhumij · Bhutia · Birhor · Bodo · Bodo-Kachari · Boksa · Bonda · Chakma · Chenchu · Dimasa · Garo · Gondi · Hmar · Ho · Karbi · Khasi · Khonds · Kol · Korwa · Kuki · Lepcha · Lodha · Mahli · Mara · Mech · Mishing · Mizo · Mog · Munda · Mudugar · Naga · Oraon · Rabari · Rabha · Reang · Santals · Sora · Tripuri
I am SORRY for not writing on rajiv Kumar`s latest film `NO BODY’S PEOPLE in NO Body`s Land’ dealing with the Pathetic plight of CHAKMA Refugee in the North East belonging originally to CHITAGANG Hill Tracts , now in Bangladesh. These Most Peaceful Buddhist tribals are now BRANDED as Illegal Immigrants and they face a HELL of Troubles specially in ARUNAHAL Pradesh.
CHITAGANG Hill Tract demography was consisted of NINETY EIGHT Non Muslim Tribal People who wanted to remain in India. Their demand was rejected . As many of the Non Muslim districts of East Bengal along with Shrihatt in Assam were gifted to Pakistan by REDCLIFF mission dictated by Manusmriti hegemoy to which the POWER was transferred eventually, CHITAGANG Hill tracts was also made a part of Pakistan which provided them a STRATEGICAL Port in the East. The demography remained NON Muslim even after the partition while the Ruling hegemony delibrately manipulated the Human Scape . Just befor INDO SINO war in 1962, they constructed a BIG DAM in CHT evicting out lacs of Chakma Tribals who influxed all over North East. Then, the Government of India, planned to create a Human wall in NEFA and rehabilated the CHAKMA Refugees in the Dense forest of NEFA along with the border of China. The Chakma people accepted the DESTINY and tried their best to live in peace and harmony. But as like the Bengali dalit Refugees scatterd all over India and even in Tripura and Assam and entire North East have become the subject of ETHNIC Cleansing, they may not chose a better option as survival strategy.
Rajiv zoomed the camera right into the Mind set of the CHAKMA Human scape beginning his journey from GOHPUR Rly station. He shot beautiful Visual Landscape, an asset of the film but Never Forget to focus on the PUZZLE how the GOVERNMENT of India run by the BRAHMIN Rulers used the Refugee Problem violeting all aspects of Human Rights!
I saw the docu film in Film division some months before and just forgot. Last DASHAMI, I visted rajiv`s home in kalikapuron the Bypass in absence of Rajiv as he was awya in bareilly to attend a Marriage party. This time the youngest son of Poet Biren Dangwal got married. I spent some time with the kids, GOLU and PRITHU once agin. The boys showed me the DVD of the film on LCD.
Meanwhile, while I write on the Chakma people, Militants of outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) have abducted six tribals from Taichakma region of south Tripura district but later released half of them, police said today.
The ultras abducted the tribals of Chakma community at gun point from their village on Wednesday but later freed three of them while demanding Rs 50,000 for the release of others, they said.
Police have launched a massive search operation in the area for safe release of the abducted tribals.
Rajiv Kumar, as I know is very calm and most clear with his concepts. It is a Film Division Project and within this limitation, it may not be dismissed as a Typical Film Division Film. Rajiv Kumar has dealt with the Landscpae and Humanscape for the First time. But his treatment is amzing. We are habitual to focus on North east with another Film Division Director, Joshy Joseph. I ahve worked with both rajiv and Joshy. They very in styles and methods of Production but NEVER fail to acomplish the agenda of a Perfect IMPRESSION with surgical Precision.
Specially Rajiv who had always been a most sincere friend since my Nainital DSB college days, has the credit to involve me in the media. Joshy has made me INDULGE in it. I knew nothing abut Film Making and had been quite unawre of the Celluloid Aesthetics until Rajiv consulted me on his task to make a film on Bihar Genocides. He just dropped in my office at grant lane in a fine morning. We went out and sat just before Lal bazar Police Head Quarter on the Foot path amidst the slumdwellers swarming around. He offered me to join his team. I was quite reluctant and he tried his best to convince me. I did not change his mind. Then, we discussed at length the Bihar genocide realities. He shot the film in Jehanabad while two genocides took place back to back. he treated the subject so correctly that he got the National award for best director in Documentary Soocil realism catagory. It was the `HORROR of Darkness’.Then he draged me in film making and I wrote the script and diologues of his First Feature film `VASEEYAT’.He got each and every man belonging to Nainital and scattered all over the country. he revived the Yugmanch Nostalgia. We worked together once again and spent a few weeks in Banaras for outdoor shooting. GIRDA, Zahoor,DK, Neeraj, IDRISH and others gathered. We had a nold friend rooted in ALLAHABAD, as our local production in charge.
Then, I worked with Joshy right in North East. We shot just three KM away from KOHIMA in Maram valey under Senapati district of Manipur. We spent a full month there. My father was ill and eventually died in 2001 when i managed to see him in death bed. But I dared not to skip the Explosive experience. This was the beginning of my North east Link.
Rajiv was working on the topic for last five years.I had interactions with Chakma refugees resettled in Tripura and originally we planned to shoot in Tripura. Rajiv also did the Location survey in Tripura. Tripura Government agreed to cooperate. But rajiv realised very soon that Chakma refugees in Tripura do not want to expose themselves as they have already adjusted in the Main stream. Meanwhile Anti Chkma Movement got momentum and rajiv decided to shoot right in Arunachal.
Just realise the reality in North east which has been ISOLATED from the mainstream of the country as we have become familiar to treat each other as FOREIGNERS!About 15,000 children in Mizoram, aged six to fourteen, are deprived of schooling even though the northeastern state is India’s second most literate after Kerala, an official report said.
“After finding that around 15,000 children, mostly tribals, are deprived of formal education, the state’s mission of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) sent education volunteers as mobile teachers in the interior villages,” a report of the Mizoram education department said.
The mobile teachers would persuade the children and their parents to enrol themselves in government schools.
According to the report, the children deprived of education were mainly concentrated in Lunglei, Lawngtlai and Saiha districts of southern Mizoram and Mamit district in the east adjacent to Tripura.
Of the 15,000 illiterate children, 40 percent were school dropouts and the remaining had never been enrolled in schools. In Mizoram, 88.80 percent of the 900,000 people are literate.
“The main reasons for staying away from educational institutions were poverty, child labour, absence of schools in their and adjacent villages and parents’ ignorance,” the report added.
It said: “Majority of the children who are not attending schools belong to Chakma and Reang (communities) as the two communities are primitive and nomadic tribes and practise ‘Jhum Cultivation’ (shifting or slash and burn cultivation).”
“It is hard to bring tribal children to schools due to their shifting from one village to another frequently,” the report added.
In the mountainous state of Mizoram, education was first initiated and popularised by the British. Missionaries were responsible for the growth and institutionalisation of education in the state, bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The first educational institution in Mizoram was initiated by missionaries in the Aizawl region in 1897. Later, three more government primary schools opened in Aizawl in 1898.
On the other hand, CHT Commission urges government to investigate grave violations of human rights of indigenous people and to fully implement the CHT Accord of 1997.
Below is an article published by: The Daily Star
The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Commission yesterday expressed grave concern over the violations of human rights of the indigenous people at Sajek in Rangamati and urged the government to investigate the incidents immediately.
“As you are aware, tension between indigenous peoples (Paharis), Bengali settlers and the army has been rising in Sajek for many years, and has reached particularly intense levels over the past year,” the commission said in a letter to the prime minister.
The letter signed by CHT Commission Co-chairs Eric Avebury, Sultana Kamal and Ida Nicolaisen was also sent to the CHT affairs ministry, Peace Accord Implementation Committee, Parliamentary Standing Committee on CHT affairs ministry, home ministry and the National Human Rights Commission.
The commission urged the government to ensure that those found responsible for violations are arrested and prosecuted and that reparations are made to the victims for their security and safety.
“On April 20 last year, a group of settlers attacked several indigenous villages, injuring people and burning down more than 70 houses, with no effective intervention by the authorities and despite the presence of nearby army camps. Subsequently, many indigenous people fled the area and lived in hiding,” said the letter.
“On August 19 the same year, Ladu Moni Chakma, aged 55, of Sajek, was killed. Although arrests have been made regarding the killing, no one has yet been charged either for the arson attacks or the killing,” it added.
“On May 6 this year, two settlers — Alkajjya and Mojibor — were allegedly kidnapped from Sajek, and their bodies recovered from the same area four days later.”
“It appears that six Pahari villagers were arrested on May 10 in connection with this incident, and since then, many Paharis have alleged continuing harassment by the army,” the letter said.
“On July 2, 2009, a group of local Paharis held a press conference in Dhaka where they made a number of allegations concerning arrests, persecution and land occupation in Sajek.”
“Following their return to their villages, they alleged that they were harassed by settlers and army personnel, and that two local people from Sajek had been arrested and questioned about the particulars of the participants of the press conference,” the letter added.
“The failure to implement key provisions of the CHT Accord, including the return of land to the indigenous peoples and the withdrawal of temporary army camps from the area is a major contributory factor to such violations,” the CHT Commission said.
To fully implement the CHT Accord of 1997, the commission urged the authorities to put an immediate end to all attacks against indigenous communities and individuals in CHT.
Brief history
Early Period
Prior to the advent of the British colonial rule, very little is known about the region’s history. It is generally assumed that prior to settling in the region, its various indigenous inhabitants were “nomads” transmigrating from one area to another. Circumstantial evidences may be supportive of this assumption – the Jhum cultivation system (also known as rotational or swidden cultivation) which was the primary livelihood means for most of the ethnic groups before they settled down for a sedentary lifestyle is basically a nomadic type of agriculture.
Although no historical facts can be given, the earliest people to arrive in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) may belong to the larger Kuki group of peoples: Lushai, Pankho, Mro, Kyang and Khumi. The subsequent migration came from the Tripura group: Murung and Tripura. The Marmas are basically from the Arakan region of the present-day Myanmar (Burma).
The origin of the Chakmas – the largest and most dominant indigenous group – is veiled in legends. According to this legend, they came from a place called Champaknagar and descendants of one of the Prince of the kingdom – Bijoygiri. But legends apart, they probably settled in the CHT at least as early as the sixteenth century – a map of that period by a Portuguese named Joao De Barros show a people called “Chakomas” living in the region, although the exact relations between the Chakomas of Barros’ map and the Chakmas could not be fully corroborated.
During the late eighteenth century when the rule of the East India Company was established in the province of Bengal, the Chakmas exerted the greatest influence and their kings exercised almost total control over indigenous society of the region.
Early contacts with the British
As a result of the victory at the battle of Plassey in 1757, the East India company became the virtual rulers of Bengal. In 1760, the then Nawab of the Province, Mir Kasim, in a secret treaty, ceded the three districts of Burdwan, Midnapore and Chittagong to the British to the authority of the Company. With the arrival of the British rule, the then Chakma chief – Jun Box Khan -agreed to pay a yearly tribute in cotton amounting to nine maunds (about 350 kg) in lieu of which he and his subjects got access to trade with the plains.
Following this agreement, Mr Henry Verelest, the representative of the East India Company at Chittagong, issued a Proclamation recognizing the jurisdiction of the Chakma Raja over “All the hills from the Pheni River to the Sangu, and from Nizampur Road (Dhaka-Chittagong Road) to the hills of the Kuki Raja (State of Mizoram, India)”.
However, peace between the British and the Chakma Chief did not last long and by 1777 a general war broke out between the two parties with Ronu Khan, the general of the Chakma King, formally declaring war against the British. The war ended in 1987 when the British had imposed an economic blockade and forced the Chakma Raja Jan Bakhsh Khan to a negotiated settlement.
However, despite this episode of war, British role in the region remained very marginal, being mainly limited to a collection of annual tax in cotton or in cash. This relative “sovereignty” of the CHT is deftly summarized in the statement of Mr. Halbed, Commissioner of Chittagong, in 1829;
“The hill tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts are not British subjects, but merely tributaries, and we have no rights on our part to interfere with their internal arrangements”.
British Rule (1860-1947)
Following the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, the Crown took over the direct administration of their Indian colonies from the East India Company. In 1860, by Act XXII, a separate district – Chittagong Hill Tracts – was curved out, with its headquarters located in Chandraghona. Captain Magrath was appointed as the first District Superintendent of the district.
In 1867 the position of the district Superintendent was changed into Deputy Commissioner by virtue of Bengal Act XXII and Captain Thomas Herbert Lewin (known legendarily as “Lubin Saab” to the Chakmas and “Thangliana” to the Mizos) was appointed as the first Deputy Commissioner. In the following year, the district headquarters was transferred from Chandraghona to Rangamati.
In 1882, the district was sub-divided into three separate Circles and a new Circle – Mong Circle – was created by curving out the Chakma Circle, in addition to the two existent Circles – Chakma and Bohmong Circle.
In 1900, the British administration enacted the CHT Regulation Act 1900 (popularly known as the CHT Manual). It laid down detailed rules and regulation for the administration of the CHT and stipulates provisions to address the particular context of the region (e.g. recognition of the Chiefs and the traditional institutions in the administrative system, the region as “special” tribal dominated area and restriction of permanent settlement and acquisition of land by the outsiders). To this day, the CHT Manual is frequently referred to and although various subsequent legislations amended many of its provisions, parts of it are still in force.
This provision of the special status of the Chittagong Hill Tracts was further underlined with the Government of India Act 1935 that designated the district as a “Totally Excluded Area”. This meant a formal recognition for the region and its indigenous inhabitants to the entitlement of specific legal provisions for their safeguards, including restriction on settlement of peoples (mainly Bengalis) from out side of the region.
Pakistan Period (1947-1971)
In 1947, the sub-continent was partitioned in two separate states on the basis of religious nationhood and Pakistan was born comprising of the areas in the eastern and western parts where Muslims were the majority. The Chittagong Hill Tracts, though overwhelmingly non-Muslim (to the extent of 97%) at that time, found itself in the new state of Pakistan. Its proximity with the Chittagong region and the greater Bengali culture are thought to be the primary reasons for its inclusion in Pakistan, although various differing versions in this regard also exist. In fact, a section of the indigenous societies of the region demanded its inclusion in India (Chakma Circle) and in Myanmar (Bohmong Circle).
The first Constitution of Pakistan in 1956 gave recognition to the special status of the CHT. This was further strengthened in 1962 when CHT was recognized as a “Tribal area” and provided with relevant constitutions guarantees. But, in a dramatic turn from the previous status, in 1964, the government revoked the special status of the CHT and henceforth the region ceased to be provided with any specific legal or constitutional safeguards.
Another very important event during the Pakistani regime is the construction of a hydro-electric dam at Kaptai in 1960, situated around 20 km downstream of Rangamati town. The dam created a huge artificial lake over an area of 1,036 square kilometers. But most importantly, it submerged approximately 40% of all cultivable lands of the region and in the process around 50,000 families (about 1/3 of the total population at that time) lost their ancestral homes.
The compensation for the victims was far from appropriate – in fact many did not receive any compensation at all – which together with the fact that the government took the decision of revoking the special status of the CHT around that time; the seeds of discontentment of the indigenous peoples of the region were sown.
The permanent loss of habitat from the Kaptai dam gave birth to another tragedy. In the absence of any compensation most of the evicted families re-settled elsewhere in the region. But a good number of them, mostly Chakmas, decided to migrate to India and where they were rehabilitated in the present-day state of Arunachal Pradesh by the Government of India. None of them received any official recognition of their status in India and are still languishing as ‘stateless people’ in Arunachal Pradesh. The Indian authorities still refuse to fully carry out the implementation of the verdict of India Supreme Court, delivered in early 1996 that recognized the Indian citizenship of these people who now number around 80,000. The entire episode still resonates deeply in collective psyche of the CHT indigenous peoples, which the Chakmas came to call the ‘Bar Parang‘ (the calamitous Great Exodus).
Bangladesh Period (1971-present)
Bangladesh emerged as an independent state on 16 December 1971 after a nine-month long war. Its birth, rooted in the ethno-centric ethos of ‘Bengali Nationalism’, the new-born country was declared as a unitary, independent and sovereign Republic, to be known as the “People’s Republic of Bangladesh”, and effectively failed to address the concerns of the CHT peoples; 1) Autonomy for the region, 2) Retention of the CHT Regulation 1900, 3) Recognition of the three Circle Chiefs and 4) Ban on the influx and settlement of people of non-indigenous ethnic communities into the region. These demands were made immediately after independence through a delegation led by Manabendra Narayan Larma, the sitting Member of Parliament from the region, when it called on Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in February 1972. Following the failure of the meeting with the Prime Minister, Larma founded a regional political party – Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samity (PCJSS) in March 1972. A military wing – Shanti Bahini – was later added to it.
In 1975, Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and almost his entire family were brutally assassinated in a military coup d’état. This particularly shocking incident and the subsequent uncertainty prevailing over the country at that time led M N Larma to go underground and to wage an insurgency against the government of Bangladesh for the rights of the CHT peoples.
The insurgency effectively continued for the next two decades, impacting severely on the fabrics of the CHT society; rapid demographic transformation resulting from government sponsored programs rehabilitating around 300,000 Bengalis from the plains that rendered the region’s indigenous peoples into minority overnight, internal displacement being as high as 70% of the total indigenous population, massive environmental destruction and refugee problems (at one point there were reportedly over 60,000 indigenous refugees who took shelter in the neighboring State of Tripura, India). The region became heavily militarized and throughout the insurgency periods, there have been repeated accusations of human rights violations that included massacres, mass tortures, sexual abuse/violence and religious intolerance against the government and the armed forces by various national and international media and human rights organizations. Many of these allegations were substantiated by neutral third party investigations – the most prominent being that of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission, which periodically published human rights reports under the title ‘Life is not Ours’.
By 1990s, a truce was declared and after prolonged negotiations, a Peace Accord was signed between the PCJSS and the Government of Bangladesh on 2 December 1997. It was expected that the Accord would finally put an end to the hostilities and conflicts and provide a certain specific guarantees as to the status and legal safeguards for the region and its indigenous populations while paving the way for future socio-economic development. However, the signing of the Peace Accord let to a divide in the indigenous movement in the CHT and to date, the Peace Accord remains largely unimplemented.
http://chtcommission.org/?page_id=85
Chakma Refugees Pushed Back from Mizoram, India
CHT
Background
Bangladeshi
Settlers
Armed
Resistance
Massacres
Genocide
Religious
Persecution
Rapes &
Abductions
Jumma Refugees
CHT Treaty
Foreign Aid
This elderly Chakma woman being moved to safety from the marauding Bangladesh military and the Bangladeshi settlers.
On 25th January 1986, an Indian Army Brigadier, a Major, a Captain with the Deputy Commissioner of Lunglei, along with a Superintendent of Police came to the refugee camp at Tagolok Bak, Mizoram, India. There were over 300 Army, BSF (Border Security Force), CRP (Central Reserve Police) and MRP (Mizo Ram Police) in strength and many Mizos who were present there. The Indian Army Brigadier held a meeting with the leaders of the Chakma refugees at the refugee camp. At first the Indian Army Brigadier made a speech in Hindi language which the Chakma refugee leaders could not understand. Then the Captain interpreted his speech in the Bengali language as follows: “You know that in the last SAARC conference held in Dhaka, there was a talk between Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Bangladesh President Ershad about your repatriation. On the basis of their talks, you will be handed over to the Bangladesh Army on 29th January, 1986 and you will have to go. You should not feel sorry for this. Rather should you be grateful to India for giving you shelter, security and ration for the last 19 months.” After his speech the Chakma refugee leaders became panicky and prayed for permission to talk with the Indian Brigadier about their problems. But the Brigadier outrightly said: “You have not the right to speak a word”.
Then after the Brigadier’s speech, the Deputy Commissioner of Lunglei on behalf of the Mizoram government spoke to the refugee leaders in broken Bengali in this manner: “You are shameless. Don’t you know that this is Mizoram, this is not your country. You can’t stay here. You should be ashamed of yourself. Do you know what is the meaning of push back? You are going to be pushed back by any means”.
Then refugee leaders tried to explain that they did not come here to stay. They would return to their homeland if their demands were fulfilled by Bangladesh. At that moment the Deputy Commissioner threateningly shouted and ordered the refugee leaders to go out.
After the Brigadier left the refugee camps, curfew orders were announced through loudspeakers throughout the refugee camps for indefinite period and no one was allowed to come out of the camps.
On the 29th January, 1986 during the early hours of the morning, before the Sunrise, all the refugee camps were surrounded and the refugees were bodily searched by the MRPs and the CRPs. At 7 or 8 o’clock in the morning the BDR (Bangladesh Rifles) party arrived in a motor launch on the western side of Tagolok Bak across the Karnafully river and took up positions at a nearby garden. Then another motor launch slowly proceeded towards the refugee camps’ wharf. The Mizo Police Superintendent gave order to the refugees to remain in the camps and not to come till further instructions. The MRPs have already rounded up the refugee camps. Then the first batch of 51 families of Chakma refugees were gathered from the camps and taken to school premises from where they were being taken towards the BDR motor launch, But the refugees realising their fate, started shouting loudly: “We don’t want to be handed over to the BDR, we are afraid of them. They will kill us!”. At this moment, the MRPs swooped down upon refugees, young and old, men, women and children were all beaten up indiscriminately and force was used to make them board the BDR motor launch. The refugee men tried to save their women and children from beatings by the MRPs, But the MRP became more furious and indiscriminate beating continued with more ferocity. As the refugees were crying for help to save them from the MRPs, refugees from other camps went to their rescue, They tried to make the MRPs understand and not to be so cruel. But the MRPs including the CRPs giving a deaf ear to their appeal, fell upon these helpless refugees just like tigers. The Mizo SP (Superintendent of Police), through a loudspeaker, gave order to shoot the refugees, and the Mizos who were also present with their catapults with marbles, threw stones at these pitiful refugees. The refugees became panicky at this hostile treatment by the Mizo people, MRPs and CRPs. They tried to run away for life. But by that time all the refugee camps were rounded up by the Indian Army and BSF personnel. They caught the fleeing refugees and handed them over one by one to the cruel hands of the MRPs and CRPs. The MRPs and CRPs tied the refugees on the necks and waists with ropes and pulled them as if they were not human beings and then handed them over to the BDR who received them with such happiness that while counting them in the motor launch they picked each one for each number.
While these refugees were being taken to an unknown place in Barkal area, they were subjected to physical tortures, young girls and women were raped. The BDR personnel picked the refugees left and right when they were disembarked from the motor launch. The plight of these Chakma refugees seems to be precarious as the Bangladesh Governments policy of extermination of the tribal people continues unabated.
For reports on the status of the implementation of the Peace Accord see Links and further reading
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/jumma/refugee/refugeemr.html
The US and the Internal Islamic Threat
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Posted GMT 9-29-2009 6:30:56
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The United States is now gradually waking up to a growing internal Islamic menace which desires to kill in the name of Islam. In the past week you have had three different cases involving Islamists who desired to kill and intimidate the people of America. In the United Kingdom the same problem exists but just like in America, under President Obama, both nations are pandering to Islam and propagating false lies about this religion. Therefore, it is time to focus on the real factors behind the growing Sunni Islamic threat within America and in other nations.
The first important factor that must be understood is that this threat comes from radical Sunni Islam and not from Shia Islam. In America and the United Kingdom you have many Shia Muslims; however, it is clear that all major global Islamic terrorism derives from radical Sunni Islam.
It is also abundantly clear that the Ahmadiyya Muslim community is not involved in terrorism because their brand of Islam is based on different interpretations and this branch of Islam suffers greatly in Pakistan and other nations, for example in Indonesia. Therefore, it is vital to understand where the focus should be because Ahmadiyya Muslims and Shia Muslims, and other branches of Islam like the Alevi, must be split from where the problem exists.
In Lebanon you do have Shia terrorist organizations however they are focused on either internal problems in Lebanon or on the situation in Israel. Also, in Yemen you have current problems with the restive Shia population but once more this is an internal matter and not based on expanding jihad and the same applies to Shia organizations in Iraq and Pakistan.
Therefore, Islamic terrorist attacks in America, India, Indonesia, Kenya, the United Kingdom, and other nations, have all been done by radical Sunni Islamists. Also, the inspiration behind these terrorist attacks is coming from the same avenue and this avenue of terrorism and global Islamic jihad can be traced back to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
B. Raman, a specialist in this field stated in the South Asia Analysis Group, paper number 1767, that “While the Deobandi extremists have been backing—openly or covertly— Al Qaeda and its ideology, the Barelvis have been uncomfortable over it. Many of them have been critical of the use of the Pakistani territory by Al Qaeda and the (International Islamic Front) IIF for their terrorist operations in other countries. They have also been worried over the implications of the message disseminated by bin Laden in January, 2006, in which he claimed that plans for another terrorist strike in the US homeland were already underway.”
B. Raman also states that “There are two main groups of Sunni sectarian organisations in Pakistan—the Sipah-e-Sahaba and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, both strongly Deobandi-Wahabi-Salafi and both members of the IIF, and the Sunni Tehrik, strongly Barelvi and anti-Deobandi-Wahabi-Salafi. Since many years, the Sipah-e-Sahaba and the LEJ have embarked on a campaign for the Arabisation and Wahabisation of the Barelvi Muslims and for removing the distorting influence of Hinduism. The Sunni Tehrik has been resisting the onslaught of the Deobandis, Wahabis and Salafis.”
Therefore, just like B. Raman points out, we can apply this to the international arena because the same forces and with Saudi financial backing, irrespective if government or organizations or wealthy individuals, is spreading the same message of hate to other nations far and wide. Yet why do nations like America, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom, and many others, allow this?
It is abundantly clear that the Muslim community in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s is very different to elements within the Muslim community today. According to B. Raman he states that “For the last fifteen years, there has been a conflict between the Deobandis and the Barelvis for the control of the mosques and their funds not only in Pakistan, but also in the UK. Previously, the Barelvis used to control the mosques in the UK frequented by immigrants from the sub-continent, but they have since been driven out by the Deobandis and Wahabis. This was the starting point for the radicalisation of the Pakistani-origin Muslims in the UK and in the other countries of West Europe. The ISI (Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence) has been supporting the Sipah-e-Sahaba and the LEJ in Pakistan as well as in West Europe.”
Therefore, it is clear that funding within Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is causing mayhem and it is obvious that you have “a war within Islam” and “an ongoing Islamic jihad” against moderate Muslims, other sects within Islam and against non-Muslims. Other channels of funding throughout the Middle East also applies but the mindset and ideological thinking is based on the same branches of Islam and it is clear where the counter-jihad must begin.
Yet amazingly, and even after September 11th, whereby nearly all Sunni Islamists were Saudi nationals; the United States destroyed a secular based nation in Iraq and ignored the greater problem. After all, how many American soldiers and other international forces have been killed by radical Saudi Islamists in Iraq or by Saudi Arabian organizations which preach jihad and hatred?
Given this, it appears that the focus of attention is based on the wrong area and even today Saudi Arabian funding is creating mayhem in mainly Muslim societies or mainly non-Muslim societies where Muslim minorities are growing.
Walid Phares, author of “The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad,” and of many other books and a senior expert in this field, stated “Petro-Islamism is also having a big impact in the higher education sector. As Walid Phares, an expert on global terrorism remarks in The War of Ideas (2007), globally, “a wave of oil funding hit university after university, college after college, and research centre after research centre. The objectives were fully ideological: further the cause of Islam, support the Palestinian cause, and plant the seeds of the concept of an illegitimate West.”
In Britain, a report about the growing rise of Islamic funding by Brunel University’s Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies highlighted the nature of the problem. The report stated that more than $491 million dollars have been spent on funding Islamic study centres and other forms of propagation. These institutions include Cambridge and Oxford, therefore, radical Islamists have gained a foothold in major circles.
I myself studied at the University of London and radical Islam was clearly a daily problem and militants were often trying to spread their hatred and propaganda. It is also noticeable that Omar Sheikh who was convicted for the beheading of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, also studied at the London School of Economics.
Getting back to the radical Sunni Islamic threat then it is vital to confront this threat openly and to stop hiding behind liberalism, moral relativism, or untold excuses for why we must understand the causes behind radical Sunni Islam. The apologist brigade, for example Karen Armstrong, and countless others, portray Islam to be a religion of peace but Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, did not show much peace towards his enemies, instead he either enslaved them, had them killed or they were exiled.
Another important factor which must not be overlooked is history. For example the Buddhist/Hindu lands which are now called Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan (especially influenced by Zoroastrianism), and other nations; all allowed diversity despite occasional bouts of religious tensions. Therefore, you had Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, Nestorian Christians, Pagans, Zoroastrians, and other faiths, all mingling together in a vast region
However, the onset of Islam changed all this because over time in both Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, the older religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism (the oldest religion), would be Islamized because of several factors.
These factors were multiple but clearly the role of Islamic jihad, dhimmitude, jizya, massive persecution, slavery, forced conversion, control of resources, and so forth, all culminated in a tide of Islamization.
Yet the leaders of these areas would also have believed that accommodation could have been met and that Islam was just another religion. However, Islam is based on victor and vanquished, and this religion is more like an ideology because it fuses religion, politics, economics, law, and the regulation of society, together and clearly non-Muslims are unequal (indeed Buddhists and Hindus are deemed to be subhuman because they are not people of the Book) in accordance with the teachings of Islam.
Even in 2009 apostates from Islam can be killed in accordance with the teachings of Mohammed and other religious believers are still suffering from Islamization. This applies to Christians being burnt alive in Pakistan, apostates from Islam being killed in Somalia, attacks against Ahmadiyya Muslims in Pakistan, persecution of Baha’is in Iran, Christian pastors being beheaded in northern Nigeria, Assyrian Christians and other minorities (Shabaks, Yazidis and Mandaean) also fear daily attacks and the same applies to the persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt.
The forces of Islamic jihad is ongoing and Buddhists face severe persecution in southern Thailand and the Chittagong Hill Tracts (also Christian and Hindu tribal’s) in Bangladesh and of course Buddhism in history always collapsed when Islamic armies conquered their lands.
I stated in a past article, that “Today, just like the 7th century, Islam is still killing apostates or persecuting them. Today, just like in the 7th century, Muslims are still waging wars against non-Muslims in countless numbers of nations. Today, just like the 7th century, Muslim fanatics are still killing fellow Muslims who are deemed to be not Muslim enough.”
“The apologists will keep on making excuses; however, it is clear that in many parts of the Islamic dominated world, that hatred still dictates. Therefore, in 2009, just like in the 7th century, non-Muslims still suffer enormous persecution and some Islamists are still dreaming of spreading Islam by the sword or by propaganda.”
Now this war against non-Muslims and moderate Muslims alike is being waged in northern Nigeria against Christians, against Ahmadiyya Muslims in Pakistan, against Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan, and against Buddhists in southern Thailand. The same also applies to countless other conflicts or nations where minorities suffer enormous persecution, for example the persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt.
This jihad is now being propagated within nations like America and the United Kingdom. Yet how can you confront your enemy when you have to play by political correctness, pander to the very same people who want to enforce Islamic Sharia law on you or have dialogue with a religion which supports killing all apostates and treating non-Muslims unequally in Islamic Sharia law?
If we ignore the past diversity of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan, then one day our civilizations may end up the same way?
After all, just like the past, religious leaders and elites within the Buddhist, Hindu, Nestorian Christian, and Zoroastrian communities did not understand the true nature of Islam. However, by the time they understood it was too late and today Buddhism in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a distant memory and the same applies to Zoroastrianism in Uzbekistan. At the same time, in the modern world Buddhism may soon be a distant memory in southern Thailand if Islamists get their way and maybe Iraq will soon have no more Mandaeans?
Walid Phares comments on recent events in America and states that “The North Carolina cell, the New York subway plot, the Dallas attempt, the Illinois case, added to the previous cases of the shooting of a soldier in Arkansas, the precedent New York cells, Georgia’s young Jihadists, all the way back to the infamous Virginia paintball network, if anything gives us the genome of what is morphing inside the country — a vast body of dispersed cells with at least one binding force — the Jihadi ideology. The question thus is to find out who is propagating the doctrines of Jihadism: who is funding it; who is protecting the indoctrination operation which leads naturally to the rise of homegrown or foreign linked, lone wolves or packs of Jihadists, Terrorists. That is the real question: where is the factory?”
Therefore, it is vital to stop major funding which is spreading radical Sunni Islam and to focus on where the threat is. It is also vital that national governments work together and that history is not forgotten. Also, more attention must be focused on persecution and injustice “within the House of Islam” and the “real Mohammed” must be told instead of the Western liberal version which is bent on appeasement and revisionism.
By Lee Jay Walker
http://www.theseoultimes.com
http://www.aina.org/news/20090929013056.htm
Chittagong Hill Tracts
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The Chittagong Hill Tracts (Bengali: পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম Parbotto Chôṭṭogram) comprise an area of 13,180 km2 in south-eastern Bangladesh, and borders India and Myanmar (Burma). It was a single district of Bangladesh till 1984. In that year it was divided into three separate districts: Khagrachari, Rangamati and Bandarban. Topographically, this is the only hill intensive area of Bangladesh.
Contents
[hide]
1 Demography
2 History
3 See also
4 Bibliography
5 References
6 External links
[edit] Demography
According to the 1991 census the population was 974,447 of which 501,114 were tribals and the rest were from different communities. The indigenous peoples, collectively known as the Jumma, include the Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Tenchungya, Chak, Pankho, Mru, Murung, Bawm, Lushai, Khyang, Gurkha,Assam,Santal and Khumi.[1]
The current population is between 1 million and 1.5 million.[citation needed] About 50% of the population are tribals and mainly followers of Theravada Buddhism. 48% of the inhabitants are Bengali Muslim settlers. The remainder are followers of Hinduism, Christianity and Animism. [1]. At the time of the partition of India in August, 1947 non MusIims constituted 98.5% of the population of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Buddhists were 85%, Hindus (mainly Tripuri tribe) 10%, Animists 3% and Muslims 1.5%
[edit] History
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See also: Chittagong Hill Tracts Conflict
Bandarban.
The early history of the Chittagong Hill Tracts is a record of constantly recurring raids on the part of the eastern hill tribes, and of the operations undertaken to repress them. The earliest mention of these raids is to be found in a letter from the Chief of Chittagong to Warren Hastings, the Governor-General, dated April to, 1777,’ complaining of the violence and aggressions of a mountaineer named Ramu Khan, the leader of a band of Kukis or Lushais ; and that they continued without any long intermission down to 1891 when the Lushai Hills were annexed to British territory. The recorded population increased from 69,607 in 1872 to 101,597 in 1881, to 107,286 in 1891, and to 124,762 in 1901. The Census of 1872 was, however, very imperfect, and the actual growth of population has probably not exceeded what might be expected in a sparsely inhabited but fairly healthy tract.[2]
When the 1901 census was taken there were no towns, and 211 of the villages had a population of less than 500, while only one exceeded 2,000. The population density, excluding the area of uninhabited forest (1,385 square miles), was 33 persons per square mile. There was a little immigration from Chittagong, and a few persons had emigrated to Tripura. The proportion of females to every 100 males was only 90 in the district-born, and 83 in the total population. Buddhists numbered 83,000, Hindus 36,000, and Muslims 5,000.[3]
The Chittagong Hill Tracts, combining three hilly districts of Bangladesh, were once known as Korpos Mohol, the name used until 1860. In 1860 it was annexed by the British and was made an administrative district of Bengal. As of today, it is a semi-autonomous region within Bangladesh comprising the districts, namely, Chengmi (Khagrachari District), Gongkabor (Rangamati District), and Arvumi (Bandarban District).
The last Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, who considered the grant of independence to India as his act of