The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), being the traditional homeland of 11 indigenous communities and the most strategic region of a sovereign country Bangladesh with an independence of only 35 years or so, has witnessed its second bloodbath in the form of an insurgency against intruding settlers after the country’s nine months of bloody liberation war against Pakistan.

The historic partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan (Bangladesh was East Pakistan) was on the basis of religious majority, India being a Hindu majority with a large population of ethnic indigenous communities and Pakistan being a Muslim majority, which was somewhat indifferent to diverse ethnicity and religious diversity.

Fully conceptualizing the future danger of their survival in the hand of a country which was indifferent to diverse ethnicity, cultures and to a lesser extent religions and given the fact that CHT was dominated by the eleven non-Muslim indigenous communities late up to the 20th century, the indigenous people of the CHT desired it (CHT) be set up as an autonomous region under the greater Indian constituency.

The Constituent Assembly of India – Vol. II (http://parliamentofindia.nic.in/ls/debates/vol7p1g.htm) opines, “It is obvious that the (Chittagong) Hill Tracts should not go to East Bengal (East Pakistan/Bangladesh) in view of its predominantly non-Muslim population.

The people themselves are strongly averse to inclusion in Bengal. They desired that the area should be set up as an autonomous district”. However, to the much displeasure and helplessness of the CHT indigenous people, CHT was included in East Bengal/East Pakistan.

The biggest attack on the lives, lands and existential survival of the 11 indigenous communities of the CHT under the then discriminative Pakistani Government was the construction of the Kaptai hydroelectric dam in (1959-61) which submerged livestock, houses and a large portion of cultivatable lands of the indigenous people. The most pathetic outcome was that these indigenous people were not compensated and rehabilitated properly. As a result, in the eyes of the CHT general public, it was seen as a discriminatory act of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the then Islamic Government of Pakistan.

After a nine-month of bloody war, East Pakistan with the generous help of greater India, got independence from West Pakistan in 1971 and came to be known as Bangladesh. Soon after the birth of a democratic sovereign country – Bangladesh, the indigenous people of CHT hoped and dreamed that it (Bangladesh), which fought for its own ethnical identity and language in which indigenous people also took part, would not repeat the same ethnic discriminatory superiority and supremacy over other minor ethnic communities.

But sadly the reality of their hope and dream of living freely and peacefully in the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh came to an abrupt dramatic end when the Legislative Assembly drafted and adopted the Constitution of Bangladesh in an exclusive Bengali and Islamic character. The Late Manabendra Narayan Larma, a member of the Legislative Assembly, who was the lone representative of the 11 indigenous people of CHT, opted for a Constitution that is inclusive to all racial groups, languages, religions and cultures. He was unsuccessful in his attempt though.

Knowing that the newly drafted and adopted Constitution of Bangladesh does not reserve provisions for the safeguarding of ethnic identities, languages, cultures and religions of the CHT indigenous people, a group of indigenous intelligence led by Late Manabendra Narayan Larma proposed the idea of setting up the CHT region as an autonomous region with the minimal self power of safeguarding the distinct identities, languages, cultures and religions of the CHT indigenous people to the then President Sheik Mujiboor Rahman. Not only that the proposal was turned down with utter disregard but the then President was also alleged to have threatened the group with flooding the CHT with Bengali Islamic intruding settlers, which he actually did.

These cited fragmented incidents of the recent past started to give rise to fear and impatience in the minds of the indigenous people of CHT in one hand and instinct determination to safeguarding their distinct ethnic and religious identities on the other. And this gave birth to an indigenous nationalism – Jumma (a generic term referring to all the 11 indigenous communities of the CHT).

With repeated failures in ethnic clemency and the continuous destructive flooding of Islamic Bengali intruding settlers accompanied by an armed convoy of a third or more of the total army of Bangladesh into CHT, the land of the Jummas, the helpless Jumma people had no choice left but to take arms into their hands with the sole purpose of resisting ethnic cleansing and safeguarding their distinct ethnic identities, languages, cultures and religions.

Obviously, the question of taking arms and engagement into a bloody insurgency for more than two decades in a democratic country could not have arisen had the then Government of Bangladesh (GoB) paid a little heed to the plight of the Jumma people, the sons of the CHT soil, then and there.

After years of ethnic and religious persecution against the Jumma people, a long awaited peace accord was signed between the GoB and the Jumma people in 1997. The accord was expected to empower the Jumma people in the safeguarding of their distinct ethnic and religious identities. But sadly the accord turned out to be a preplanned layout of manipulating the Government initiated hidden policy of ethnic cleansing and Islamization of the CHT region with the vital clauses of the Peace Treaty yet to be implemented.

To add credence to this hidden Islamic policy, so-called journalists, researchers and even historians like Mohammed Zainul Abedin and M.B.I. Munshi have tried their best in trying to undermine this Peace Treaty by reproaching and blaming the so-called ‘allies of foreign power’ of the CHT Jumma people as the sole reason behind the Jumma insurgency in the CHT. Due to their one-sided arguments, their recent writings and all the so-called researched books and booklets they might have written on CHT lack impartiality and kind of direct personal experiences of what’s really going on in CHT.

Such impartial and not-true-in-fact writings on CHT only make its real situation messed up in the minds of innocent liberal readers. In one of my last articles written in response to Mr. Zainul Abedin’s article ‘Stop Propaganda on CHT’ I pointed out some of those messed up and one-sided ideas and falsified information which were the obvious results of the writer’s own confused mind.

In fact, none of their so-called historical and researched writings touched upon the pathetic plight of the oppressed and suppressed Jumma people. In stead, without a sense of responsibility they opted to label these repressed people who have been struggling for their own survival as ‘foreign mercenaries’ and ‘secessionists and terrorists’ of CHT.

Much of their arguments were focused as to who were/are the sons of the CHT soil. With their own fabricated and often one-sided historical statistics, they came out with the conclusion that the Bengali Muslims are the sons of the CHT soil.

But every time, they fail to mention and explain why historical statistics and census reports show that in 1941 the ethnic Bengali (Islamic settlers come decades later) population in CHT was only 1.5%, 6.29% in 1951 and 11.77% in 1961. However, recent writings of Mr. Abedin and Mr. Munshi seemed to suggest that the Bengali Muslims dominated the CHT from 12th to 18th centuries. If that was the case then, how come that their number is reduced to only 1.5% in the early 20th century?

One doesn’t have to go so far into history, if one with impartiality and knowledge in logics looks back the immediate past, it would be clear as to who were/are the real sons of the CHT soil. None but the Jumma people are the sons of the CHT soil. It was due to this historical fact that the now defunct 1900 Regulations was introduced which bars outsiders settling into CHT, the land of the Jummas.

It’s to be noted that the ethnic Bengali Muslim permanent residents of CHT have peacefully co-existed with the majority Jumma indigenous people for centuries. It was only when the illegal Bengali Muslim settlers started to migrate to CHT from other poverty stricken parts of Bangladesh that this century-old peaceful co-existence began to collapse.

Such writings of extremist mental predicaments also try to justify the illegal Bengali Muslim settlement into CHT within the framework of the country’s Constitution which allows a Bangladeshi citizen to move freely anywhere in the country. With a wrong interpretation of this particular constitutional right, the writers seem to suggest that it would not be considered illegal and violations of human rights if a Bangladeshi citizen forcefully grabs and confiscates lands, house and private property of another fellow citizen – a naked truth happening in CHT.

If this is the case then probably Bangladesh would be the only democratic country in the world where citizens live a life of ‘Strength is Might’ – the Law of the Jungle. In a democratic country, it’s the duty and responsibility of the government to protect the private lands, houses and properties of its citizens. But sadly the Jumma people of CHT are deprived of this democratic constitutional right.

After arguing for CHT as an integral part of Bangladesh, confused writers like M.B.I. Munshi again accept the fact that military occupation of CHT is a reality when he writes “…the Bangladesh military occupied the area under President Ziaur Rahman and which continues to this day” whereas his own colleague Zainul Abedin writes “Bangladesh is not an occupation power in CHT. It can deploy its troops anywhere within its territory”.

Such kind of confused contradictory write-ups only confuse the mind of the innocent liberal readers. However, the reality is that the international liberal community is no longer ignorant of the fact that the CHT is under illegal Bengali army occupation and that CHT is the world’s most militarized zone where every five/six Jumma indigenous people have one army as their shooter.

Again, writers like Mr. Munshi claim that the implementation of all the provisions of the CHT Accord would only ‘undermine Bangladesh sovereignty and control of the area (CHT)’, which is why the Khaleda Government has not implemented ‘all the provisions of the Accord’. As Prajnalankar Bhikkhu has pointed out to Mr. Abedin who was of the similar opinion, Mr. Munshi too has no knowledge of political science and public administration. The CHT Accord was signed by a Peoples’ Government which was democratically elected by the people of Bangladesh.

Whichever government it might be, the successive government is bound to abide by any deal left unfinished by the previous government. But however, Bangladesh democracy works the other way round which is why the country remains one of the poorest and corrupted democratic countries of the world.

It’s simply unnecessary and illogical for the part of the writers to reproach and blame the so-called ‘allies of foreign power’ for the ongoing unrest in CHT. When writing on CHT, much time is needed to focus on the pathetic reality of the recent past and the present. When thousands of Jumma indigenous people were forced to flee their beloved homeland in the 1980s, they had no choice but to take refuge in India. Out of humanitarian basis and under international obligation, the Government of India (GoI) offered its moral support to these repressed people.

When the existential survival of the Jumma indigenous people was under threat in their own homeland, the GoI felt pity and morally supported their struggle in resisting the illegal Bengali Muslim intruding settlers to CHT, the heartland for the Jumma insurgency. The Jumma insurgency was not to undermine Bangladesh sovereignty and its territorial integrity. Rather it was a struggle for the rightful and peaceful existence of the Jumma people in CHT in the democratic country Bangladesh.

Perhaps understanding this reality, the Awami League Government opted for a political solution to the CHT conflict, a solution which empowers the Jumma people for their rightful and peaceful existence in their traditional homeland, CHT. But however, it and its successive BNP Government so far failed to live up to the expectations of the Jumma people in particular and the Bangladesh general public as a whole.

Now that the country’s General Election is nearing amidst the ongoing political uncertainty, the Jumma people of CHT and the country’s liberal public would like to see a future democratic liberal government which will look into the past and present pathetic plight of the CHT and its oppressed Jumma people and thus putting an end to the undeclared military rule of CHT and discrimination, aggression, oppression, suppression and repression of its indigenous Jumma people – the very neglected citizens of the country.

The Writer is a graduate research student, Thailand. Email:  mointawla@hotmail.com