CHT History

02 March 2010
Posted in General

Early Period: Prior to the advent of the British colonial rule, very little is known of 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 which was the primary livelihood means for most of the ethnic groups before they settle down for a sedentary lifestyle is basically nomadic type of agriculture.

Although no historical facts can be given, the earliest people to arrive in the 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 Chittagong Hill Tracts at least as early as 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.

By the time 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.

The 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 – reached in an agreement to pay a yearly tribute in cotton amounting to nine maunds (about 350 kgs) 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 recognising 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 for 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 to 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, restriction of permanent settlement and acquisition of land by the outsiders...). To this day, the CHT Manual is frequently referred to – 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 do equally 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 by when CHT was recognized as a “Tribal area” and provided with relevant constitutions guarantees. But, in a dramatic about 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 at some 20 kilometers 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 for ever.

The compensation for the victims were far from appropriate – in fact many did not receive any compensation at all – which together with the fact that 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 absence of any compensation, as mentioned above, 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 about their status in India and are still languishing as ‘stateless people’ in Arunachal Pradesh, not to speak that they continue to be subjects of ‘pogroms’ by the local inhabitants, allegedly in collusion with the authorities of the State (Province). The latter still refuses 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 as 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 out of government sponsored programme of rehabilitating around 300,000 Bengalis from the plains that rendered the region’s indigenous peoples into minority overnight, internal displacement touching 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 neighbouring 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 Amsterdam based “CHT Commission” – which were subsequently published under the title ‘Life is not Ours’.

By 1990s, a truce was declared and after prolonged negotiations, a Peace Accord was signed between the JSS and the Government of Bangladesh on 2 December 1997. The Accord finally puts an end to the hostilities and conflicts and provides 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 (for more information and analysis on the post-Accord period, please see the ‘Background Note on the Peace Building).

Important Historical Dates

Source : IWGIA