ChakmaRaj

Pre-British and Pre-Mughal Period

From about the beginning of the first quarter of the second millennium AD, most parts of Bangladesh other than the Chittagong Hill Tracts were included within empires and kingdoms or other highly formalized political or administrative systems in the nature of states. The Hill Tracts, in contrast, had comparatively non-formalized or less formalized self-governing systems, which were considered to be independent. These consisted of mainly of small kingdoms, chiefdoms and smaller chieftaincies.

British Tributary (1787-1860)

Prior to annexation into Bengal as a district in 1860, neither the Mughals nor the British are known to have had any direct influence or rule over the CHT. Although the British East India Company took over the administration of Bengal in 1760, its sphere of influence did not come to be directly felt in the CHT until the nineteenth century. By the 1780s, most of the major chiefdoms and chieftaincies of the CHT were partly formalized and converted into British tributaries (like that of the Chakma Raja), while the smaller headships (e.g., of the Mro) became de-recognised, except as headmen of smaller standing and authority. The status of the CHT peoples as tributaries was retained, at least as late as 1829, but thence onward, the process of transition from tributary to colony started in earnest, but the process nevertheless spanned nearly a century from 1787 (the year of the Treaty between Chakma Raja Jan Bux Khan and British Governor General Lord Cornwallis ) to 1860 (in which year the CHT was declared a “district” within Bengal). The process of annexation of the CHT is thus described in government records:

“[In] 1829 Mr. Halhead, the Commissioner [of Chittagong] stated that the hill tribes were not British subjects, but merely tributaries, and that he recognised no right on our part to interfere with their internal arrangements. The near neighbourhood of a powerful and stable Government naturally brought the Chiefs by degrees under our influence, and by the end of the eighteenth century every leading chief paid to the Chittagong Collector a certain tribute or yearly gift, to purchase the privilege of free trade between the inhabitants of the hills and the men of the plains. These sums were at first fluctuated in amount, but gradually were brought to specified and fixed limits, eventually taking the shape, not of tribute, but of revenue paid to the State.”

Chiefdom under British Supervision (1860-1937)

Until 1860, most of the CHT was administered by the Chakma and Bohmong Rajas and their subordinate officials variously styled as Dewan, Roaja, Ahun, Kheja (Khisa), Phaingsi, Debaing and Rupsa. In 1882, a third Chief, the Mong Raja, was recognized. No official of the British government (or earlier that of the Mughal governor of Bengal) was posted in the CHT and hardly anything was known about the CHT, until the period after 1860. However, from 1787 t0 1860, the revenue and judicial authoriti es in Chittagong purported to authorise a precarious authority over a minuscule section of the CHT population whenever they voluntarily subjected themselves to such authority, which happened only if they had trade, landholdings or other interests in the plains that required facilitation. Thus, the trade tributes of the Chiefs – which facilitated trade between the hills and the plains – were paid to the Collector of Chittagong, as were royalties on forest produce. However, the Collectorate of Chittagong did not otherwise have anything to do with the CHT administration of the rajas, chiefs and sub-chiefs.

Chakma Chiefdom in Recent History (1937 to Today)

From 1860 to 1937, most of the day-to-day CHT administration continued to be vested upon the rajas and their officials, although the role of the central government – exercised through the Superintendent, and later, Deputy Commissioner and subordinate officials – in policy matters and administration of law and order and criminal justice, among other things, grew at the expense of the role of the traditional system of rajas, headmen and karbaries.

In 1937, the many crucial matters CHT administration were transferred to new officials called sub-divisional officers (“SDOs). However, the advisory prerogatives of the Chakma Raja and the other two rajas was institutionalised, obliging the Deputy Commissioner to “consult the Chiefs on important matters affecting the administration of the CHT”. In the 1950s, elections to the legislative bodies were introduced for the first time. Elections to local government bodies, including District Councils were held for the first time in the 1960s. In 1989, district-level councils were introduced, now called the Hill District Councils (“HDCs”). After the signing of the CHT Accord of 1997 – which ended more than twenty years of armed conflict for self-rule – a regional council for the entire CHT, and a separate Ministry of CHT Affairs were established.

The three rajas’ role in administration has changed over the centuries, as described below. Whilst the entire administrative apparatus of the CHT was at one time led by the rajas and their officials, now administrative functions are shared with the elected councils and functionaries from the Bangladesh Civil Service. However, the role of the rajas in Land & Revenue Administration, Administration of Justice and their constitutional prerogative of providing advice – such as to the Deputy Commissioner, the Hill District Councils, the CHT development Board (a statutory development authority) and to the Advisory Committee of the CHT Affairs Ministry – are still retained. Thus, the rajas still play a vital role in administration and development, apart from their direct role in land, revenue and justice administration, including through their headmen, who are the heads of units known as mauzas, and perform functions of a land and revenue officer and local judge, trying “tribal” matters and minor criminal and civil justice matters.

References:

• Raja Bhuvan Mohan Roy, “History of the Chakma Raj Family”, in Muhammed Ishaq, Bangladesh District Gazetteers: Chittagong Hill Tracts, Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, Dhaka, 1975, p. 35.
• R.H. S. Hutchinson, An Account of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, Calcutta, 1978, pp. 8, 9; Muhammed Ishaq, Bangladesh District Gazetteers: Chittagong Hill Tracts, Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, Dhaka, 1975, p. 28.
• CHT District Gazetteer, op, cit., pp. 252, 253. See also, Rajkumari Chandra Roy, Land Rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh, IWGIA Document No. 99, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA, Copenhagen, 2000, pp. 38-44. See also, Memo No. 421 dated 12 November, 1868 from Lord H. Ulick Browne, Officiating Commissioner, Chittagong to the Secretary to the Government of Bengal, Political Department from Selections from records of the Government of Bengal: Correspondences on the Revenue Administration of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Calcutta, Bengal Secretariat Press, 1887 , p. 2, Chakma Rajas’ Archives, Rangamati.
• CHT Gazetteer, op. cit., p. 253.
• In Memo No. 596 dated 31 August 1872, from H. Hankey, Officiating Commissioner of the Chittagong to the Officiating Secretary to the Government of Bengal (see above for full reference), Hankey wrote thus (at paragraph 3): “The Hill Tracts of Chittagong were formed into a separate district under a Superintendent in 1860, but its capabilities and resources were not known …..”. He writes further (at paragraph 9): “For some cause or other, the Hill Tracts seems to have been regarded as a sort of terra incognita, the detailed particulars of which it would be impossible to acquire.”
• Memo No. 421 dated 12 November, cited in footnote 21 above.