Chittagong Hill Tracts

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Flag of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Flag of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

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

[edit] Population

The population is between 1 million and 1.5 million. About 50% of the population are tribals and mainly followers of Theravada Buddhism. 45% of the inhabitants are Bengali Muslim settlers. The remainder are followers of Hinduism, Christianity. and Animism.

The local tribes, collectively known as the Jumma, include the Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Tenchungya, Chak, Pankho, Mru, Murung, Bawm, Lushai, Khyang, and Khumi.

[edit] History

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Bandarban.
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 19or. 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.[1]

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 is a little immigration from Chittagong, and a few persons have emigrated to hill Tippera. The proportion of females to every l00 males was only 90 in the District-born, and 83 in the total population. Buddhists numbered 83,000, Hindus 36,000, and Musalmans 5,000.[2]

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 [Hagracuri (Khagrachari) Hill District], Gongkabor (Rangamati Hill District), and Arvumi (Bandarban Hill District).

During the 1970s and 80s, there were attempts by the Government to resettle the area with Bengali people. These attempts were resisted by the tribals, who, with the latent support of neighbouring India, formed a guerilla force called Shanti Bahini. As a result of the tribal resistance movement, successive governments turned the Hill Tracts into a militarised zone. A good source of information on Shanti Bahini and, indeed, on the Chittagong Hill Tracts people, is the letter to the editor of the New York Times by Professor Bernard Nietschmann published on October 25, 1986 (archived by the Fourth World Documentation Project) at the Center for World Indigenous Studies website.

The Bangladesh military and settlers have been accused of committing genocides against the minority tribal people with silent support from the law enforcers.[3] One often citied incident took place in 1992 in Mallya[4] and / or Logang[5]. The Bangladeshi army, too, have been accused of numerous human rights violations within the Hill Tracts, and their personnel have been accused of torture, killings and abduction. Amongst these, the disappearance of Chakma political activist Kalpana Chakma in 1996 attracted widespread condemnation.

Following years of unrest, an agreement was formed between the Government of Bangladesh and the tribal leaders which granted a limited level of autonomy to the elected council of the three hill districts.

The 1997 Peace Treaty signed between the then Sheikh Hasina Government and the Jana Shanghati Shamiti or Shanti Bahini has been opposed by the opposition parties as well as a fraction of the tribal rebels. Opposition parties of the time argued the autonomy granted in the treaty ignored the Bengali settlers. The successive Khaleda Zia government promised to implement the peace treaty, despite their opposition to it during the previous government's term. According to the Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs, a Peace Treaty between Government of Bangladesh and Parbattya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti was signed on 2nd December 1997. [6]

[edit] See also

[edit] Trivia

The Chittagong Hill Tracts are also known as Jumland, and the population is Jummo/Jumma

[edit] References

  1. ^ Chittagong Hill Tracts - Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 10, p. 319.
  2. ^ Chittagong Hill Tracts - Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 10, p. 320.
  3. ^ External website providing a complete dossier about the undeclared 1980-1997 war against the Jummas
  4. ^ Chittagong Hill Tracts at a Glance; May 1997; A Conclusion Report: International Peace Conference on Chittagong Hill Tracts WORKING TOWARD PEACE.
  5. ^ Human rights in the Chittagong Hill Tracts; February 2000; Amnesty International.
  6. ^ Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs

[edit] External links

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