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[replace with] Chakmas, The the largest ethnic group
[replace with] of Bangladesh. They also call
[replace with] themselves Changmas. They are
[replace with] concentrated in the central and
[replace with] northern parts
[replace with]  of
[replace with] the chittagong hill tracts where
[replace with] they live amidst several other
[replace with] ethnic groups. Exact population
[replace with] figures are lacking but the most
[replace with] reliable estimates put their number
[replace with] at 140,000 in 1956 and 230,000 in
[replace with] 1981. According to the 1991
[replace with] population census, there were about
[replace with] 253,000 Chakmas. More than 90
[replace with] percent of them are concentrated in
[replace with] rangamati and khagrachhari
[replace with] districts. About 100,000 Chakmas
[replace with] also live in India, particularly in
[replace with] the states of Arunachal, Mizoram and
[replace with] Tripura. Small groups have settled
[replace with] in other countries as well.
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[replace with] Historical Background:
[replace with]
[replace with] The first written reference to Chakmas of the
[replace with] Chittagong Hill Tracts dates from
[replace with] about 1550 AD when the Portuguese
[replace with] map maker Lavanha indicated on the
[replace with] earliest surviving map of Bengal
[replace with] that Chakmas lived in a settlement
[replace with] on the karnafuli river. Two main
[replace with] theories have been put forward about
[replace with] the earlier history of Chakmas. Both
[replace with] assume that they migrated to their
[replace with] present homeland. The most
[replace with] convincing theory links Chakmas with
[replace with] central Myanmar and arakan, and with
[replace with] groups such as the Sak (Chak, Thek)
[replace with] who live in the Chittagong hills and
[replace with] Arakan. The other theory, for which
[replace with] historical evidence is lacking,
[replace with] assumes that Chakmas migrated to the
[replace with] Chittagong hills from Champaknagar
[replace with] in northern India. In the late
[replace with] eighteenth century, Chakmas were
[replace with] found not only in the Chittagong
[replace with] Hill Tracts but also in other hilly
[replace with] areas of the present-day districts
[replace with] of chittagong and cox's bazar.
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[replace with]
[replace with] It was only after the annexation of the
[replace with] Chittagong Hill Tracts by the
[replace with] British (1860) and the promulgation
[replace with] of rules, which forbade hill
[replace with] agriculture (jhum, shifting
[replace with] cultivation) in Chittagong district
[replace with] that these Chakma cultivators (and
[replace with] other hill cultivators such as the
[replace with] marma) moved east to the Chittagong
[replace with] Hill Tracts. In the precolonial
[replace with] period, the Chittagong Hill Tracts
[replace with] had not been part of any state,
[replace with] although they had long been
[replace with] influenced by the waxing and waning
[replace with] of power centres in Tripura (to the
[replace with] north), Arakan (to the south) and
[replace with] Bengal (to the west). In the
[replace with] seventeenth and eighteenth
[replace with] centuries, the Mughal empire
[replace with] collected tribute (cotton) from the
[replace with] area through local intermediaries.
[replace with] One of the most prominent of these
[replace with] intermediaries was the Chakma chief
[replace with] residing in an elevated landmass in
[replace with] the Karnafuli river channel. His
[replace with] family had considerable landholdings
[replace with] in the plains of Chittagong, ie,
[replace with] inside Mughal territory, and resided
[replace with] in rangunia.
[replace with]
[replace with] When the British took control of the plains in
[replace with] the mid-eighteenth century, they
[replace with] continued the arrangement, and when
[replace with] they annexed the Chittagong hills a
[replace with] century later, they made the Chakma
[replace with] chief responsible for tax collection
[replace with] in the central region of the new
[replace with] possession. Two other chiefs were
[replace with] made responsible for the southern
[replace with] part (the Bohmong chief) and the
[replace with] northern part (the Mong chief). The
[replace with] Chakma chief, now a colonial grandee
[replace with] endowed with the personal title of
[replace with] raja and some of the trappings of
[replace with] indirect rule, moved to Rangamati,
[replace with] the capital of the new district
[replace with] which the British named Chittagong
[replace with] Hill Tracts. The colonial tax system
[replace with] also gave new powers to old
[replace with] functionaries at the local level (talukdar,
[replace with] dewan, khisa) which came to form the
[replace with] Chakma gentry. The Chittagong Hill
[replace with] Tracts Regulation of 1900 formalised
[replace with] this system and also stressed the
[replace with] fact that the area, though
[replace with] administered from calcutta, was not
[replace with] a regular part of Bengal. Its
[replace with] administrative system, land rights,
[replace with] and closure to outside settlers all
[replace with] set it apart from the rest of
[replace with] Bengal. This status was reconfirmed
[replace with] in the 1930s, when the region was
[replace with] declared an excluded area under the
[replace with] Government of India Act. After
[replace with] decolonisation (1947), the
[replace with] Chittagong Hill Tracts were
[replace with] incorporated into East Pakistan and
[replace with] later (1971) Bangladesh. The special
[replace with] administrative status of the
[replace with] Chittagong Hill Tracts was
[replace with] continued, and the Regulation of
[replace with] 1900 was never clearly rescinded,
[replace with] despite piecemeal mutations. For
[replace with] this reason, the office of the
[replace with] Chakma (and Bohmong and Mong) chief
[replace with] survives till today.
[replace with]
[replace with] In 1906, a hydroelectric project was proposed
[replace with] to be built, using the flow of the
[replace with] water in the Karnafuli river. But it
[replace with] was not until the 1950s that the
[replace with] plan took shape and a large
[replace with] hydroelectric project was
[replace with] commissioned at kaptai, a riverside
[replace with] village close to Rangamati. When the
[replace with] Kaptai dam was completed in 1960, a
[replace with] big lake formed in the Karnafuli
[replace with] valley, flooding many villages and
[replace with] leading to the great exodus (or Bara
[replace with] Parang, as the Chakmas call it).
[replace with] About 100,000 people are thought to
[replace with] have fled the waters, most of them
[replace with] Chakmas. Many settled elsewhere in
[replace with] the district, including reserved
[replace with] forest areas, but in 1964, tens of
[replace with] thousands sought refuge in India.
[replace with]
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[replace with] Chakmas felt that their grievances were not
[replace with] taken seriously by the authorities,
[replace with] first in Pakistan and then in
[replace with] Bangladesh. This led to an armed
[replace with] conflict between the PCJSS (Parbatya
[replace with] Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti, or
[replace with] United People's Party of the
[replace with] Chittagong Hill Tracts) founded in
[replace with] 1972, and the Bangladesh armed
[replace with] forces. The PCJSS, led mainly by
[replace with] Chakmas, signed a peace agreement
[replace with] with the Bangladesh government in
[replace with] 1997.
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[replace with] Socio Economic Aspects:
[replace with]
[replace with] Traditionally, the Chakma lifestyle was
[replace with] closely linked with hill agriculture
[replace with] or shifting cultivation (jum in
[replace with] Chakma and jhum in Bengali). Living
[replace with] in settled villages, they would
[replace with] cultivate plots on surrounding hills
[replace with] for some years, then leave them
[replace with] fallow to recuperate naturally.
[replace with] Chakmas also cultivated land in
[replace with] river valleys. They had a
[replace with] well-developed system of land
[replace with] rights, which differed sharply from
[replace with] those in the plains (see land
[replace with] tenure).
[replace with]
[replace with] According to early observers, the living
[replace with] standard of cultivators in the
[replace with] Chittagong hills was relatively
[replace with] high. rice, cotton and vegetables
[replace with] were important crops. The bamboo was
[replace with] essential as building material. The
[replace with] bamboo had so many other uses that
[replace with] the Chakma lifestyle has been
[replace with] described as a 'bamboo civilisation'.
[replace with] In the colonial period, social
[replace with] differentiation grew as an elite
[replace with] developed, basing its lifestyle on a
[replace with] share of the government tax and on
[replace with] educational achievements. In the
[replace with] twentieth century, population growth
[replace with] made hill cultivation more
[replace with] problematic mainly because fallow
[replace with] periods had to be shortened - and
[replace with] more Chakmas had to find
[replace with] non-agricultural jobs.
[replace with]
[replace with] Their problem was intensified by the
[replace with] government policy of transmigration.
[replace with] From the late 1970s, hundreds of
[replace with] thousands of poor Bengali lowland
[replace with] cultivators were brought to the
[replace with] Chittagong hills under military
[replace with] protection. Land scarcity increased
[replace with] sharply, and Chakmas (and other hill
[replace with] people) saw their lifestyle
[replace with] threatened further. Many were forced
[replace with] into low-income wage labour (e.g. on
[replace with] new rubber plantations); over 50,000
[replace with] fled their country and lived on
[replace with] doles in refugee camps in Tripura
[replace with] (India) from 1986 till their
[replace with] repatriation in 1998.
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[replace with] Social System:
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[replace with] Chakmas distinguish themselves from
[replace with] surrounding groups by their
[replace with] language. Although there are
[replace with] indications that Chakmas used to
[replace with] speak a Tibeto-Burman language,
[replace with] their present language is
[replace with] Indo-European. It is closely related
[replace with] in structure to Chittagonian Bengali
[replace with] from which it differs by a distinct
[replace with] vocabulary. Most Chakmas are
[replace with] bilingual and speak Chakma and
[replace with] Bengali; many know other regional
[replace with] languages as well. The Chakma
[replace with] language has its own script,
[replace with] although today this is not commonly
[replace with] used and Chakma is now usually
[replace with] written in Bengali letters. Chakma
[replace with] literature runs from the oral
[replace with] traditions of the gengkhuli singers
[replace with] through literary periodicals (the
[replace with] first of which was Goirika started
[replace with] in 1936) to modern poetry. Another
[replace with] modern art form in which Chakmas
[replace with] made their mark is painting.
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[replace with] The vast majority of Chakmas are Buddhists,
[replace with] and they form the largest Buddhist
[replace with] population in Bangladesh. Integrated
[replace with] in their Buddhist practice are older
[replace with] religious elements, such as worship
[replace with] of the powers of nature. One of
[replace with] their annual highlights is the Bizu
[replace with] festival held in Chaitra, the last
[replace with] month of the Bengali year.
[replace with] Culturally, the Chakmas are in many
[replace with] ways more Southeast Asian than South
[replace with] Asian. They know neither the dietary
[replace with] restrictions nor the strict gender
[replace with] segregation of their Bengali
[replace with] neighbours. [Willem Van Schendel]
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