Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Three decades ago, I argued in my doctoral thesis (Class and Ethnicity in the Hills of Bangladesh, 1990) that ethnic conflicts in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) emerged as a consequences of British, Pakistani, and Bengali colonialism, modernization, and development projects undertaken by the international aid agencies. The conclusion of the thesis was that the Indigenous peoples (IP) of the CHT have very little chance to survive as societies, as human populations if the Bangladesh Government continues to follow the present patterns of violence directed against them. The government is not likely to modify its destructive and genocidal policies in the hills because of strong support it receives from donor countries and international aid agencies. It was also predicted that the IP’s in the CHT, especially those who live in rural areas will be totally eliminated, and may literally be exterminated in massacres, and their lands will be taken over by the Bengali settlers. The native elites will be assimilated into Bengali society, culture, and religion. As a final result the whole IP population will disappear without any outside interference or protest. Based on contemporary scholarly research works on the CHT IPs, and my occasional fieldwork in the area, this paper explores whether those arguments and predictions made about thirty years ago are still valid and relevant.