Chakma people

The Chakma, also known as the Changma, are a tribe inhabiting the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. "The Chakma population today is estimated to be around 550,000 people, but it is spread over 3 different countries. The majority (approx. 300,000 people) are located in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. This population spills over into neighboring areas of southwest Mizoram State in India, where another 80,000 Chakmas live, & Burma (Myanmar) which has 20,000 Chakmas. In addition to the earlier 30,000, Tripura State in India has also some 50,000 Chakma refugees who fled Bangladeshi Army operations... in 1988. Another group of Chakmas, now numbering around 100,000 people, is found in the foothills of the Himalayas in Arunachal Pradesh. "; "The Chakmas are Buddhists & officially follow... Theravada... Buddhism, as practiced by the Chakmas, is... a mixture of southern & northern (Mahayana) forms, with a touch of Hinduism & aspects of shamanism & animism thrown into the mix.

History

Ethnically, the Chakma are Tibeto-Burman, and are thus closely related to tribes in the mountains of eastern India and much of Myanmar. Their ancestors came from Arakan and settled in Cox's Bazar and Korpos Mohol, the name which was used for the Chittagong Hill Tracts until 1860. The Chakma were historically the rulers of Chittagong under the control of a king. Today, however, the power of the Chakma king, Devasish Roy, is no more than an association chief.

Like the neighbouring Bengalis, the Chakma have lived in the modern state of Bangladesh since it gained its independence. However, recent migrations of ethnic Bengalis into traditionally Chakma regions have raised tensions in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Successive governments have both dealt with and incited violence in the region, interrupted only by short-lived ceasefires.

Religion

The vast majority of the Chakma are followers of the Hinyana sect of Theravada Buddhism, a religion that they have been practising for centuries, which was syncretised with Animist and Hindu beliefs.

Language

Originally speaking a language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman family, the Chakma have been heavily influenced by neighboring Chittagonian, an Eastern Indo-Aryan language closely related to Bengali. Many linguists now consider the modern Chakma language (known as Changma Vaj or Changma Kodha) part of the Southeastern Bengali branch of Eastern Indo-Aryan languages. Changma Vaj is written in its own script, known as Ojhopath.

Affliction of the chakmas

British period

Throughout the British period the 1900 CHT Act functioned as a safe guard for the Jumma people prohibiting migration of the non-indigenous people to the C.H.T.

Historical Blunder

In 1947 Radcliffe ceded the C.H.T. district to Pakistan, when the Indian subcontinent was partitioned on the basis of religion into Islamic Pakistan and secular India, though the district was 98.5% Buddhist and Christian, and against the express wishes of the Jumma people. On the 15th of August 1947, Chakma youths under the leadership of Sneha Kumar Chakma hoisted the Indian tricolour at Rangamati, while in the south; the Marmas hoisted the Burmese flag at Bandarban. Six days later the Pakistanis lowered the Indian tricolor at gunpoint.

Pakistani subjugation

From the beginning the Pakistanis discriminated against the Jumma people, in jobs, business and education. The Government of Pakistan amended the 1900 Act several times, against the wishes of the Jumma people. The Government then constructed a dam on the Karnaphuli River at Kaptai, inundating 1036 square kilometers of land and displacing about one lakh Chakmas. It was these Chakmas who were resettled in Arunachal Pradesh. Then came the liberation struggle of the Bangladeshis against Pakistan in 1971. The Jumma people did not participate in this liberation struggle; neither did they side with the Pakistanis, as did the Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh. As soon as the Pakistanis withdrew, the Mukti Bahini went on the rampage against the Jummas in the C.H.T.

Shantibahini

On the 15th of February 1972, a delegation of the Jumma people led by M.N. Larma called on Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and asked for autonomy for the CHT, retention of the CHT, regulation of 1900, recognition of the three rajas of the Jumma people, and a ban on the influx of non-Jummas into the CHT. All these demands were rejected, and in March 1972, M.N. Larma formed the Jana Samhiti Samiti (J.S.S)

In the late 1970s, President Zia started settling Bangladeshis from the plains in the CHT. In the beginning the Government did not make this public. It was only much later that the Government acknowledged this. The settlement was very cleverly implemented, by settling the plains people in-between the tribal villages. By 1981 Bangladeshis from the plains equal to more than one-third the population of tribals, had been resettled in the C.H.T. When peaceful overtures to the Government failed, the J.S.S. took to arms, and started an armed wing, the Shanti Bahini, on 7th January 1973.

The first attack of the Shanti Bahini was on a police post at Bilaichari on the 5th of May 1976. Initially the Shanti Bahini started their actions with weapons left behind by the Pakistani army. Later they were able to procure weapons from across the border where they set up camps. It is reported that the Shanti Bahini had got some training from the Myanmarese army and some Shanti Bahini cadres disguised as Myanmarese soldiers were also trained by the Chinese. Meanwhile in the C.H.T. a series of skirmishes took place between the Bangladesh army and the Shanti Bahini. The Bangladesh army was first inducted in C.H.T. in October 1976. The civilian population in the C.H.T. suffered insurgency for more than 20 years. While the army committed several atrocities against the Jumma people, the Bangladeshi settlers suffered at the hands of the Shanti Bahini.

While conducting counter insurgency operations, the Jumma people were often detained and tortured. There were extra judicial executions, tortures and rapes. It is reported that the Shanti Bahini killed 343 army and police personnel. The army killed 268 insurgents, while 238 Jumma people were killed. The Shanti Bahini killed 1054 Bangladeshi settlers, despite the protection given to them by the Government. From these figures it can be seen that the Shanti Bahini were holding their ground and even had an advantage over the army.

During this period there was a Government-sponsored attempt at converting the Jumma people to Islam. This was organized by Al-Rabita, a Saudi Government funded NGO. The Jamaat-e-Islami a religious and fundamentalist group worked in close liaison with the army. Besides trying to convert the Jumma people to Islam, there have also been several incidents of destruction of religious institutions.

By 1986 more than 50 Buddhist temples were burnt. Since 1980 there have been 13 instances of massacres of the Jumma people by Bangladeshi settlers with the security forces looking on. Frustrated at the attacks of the Shanti Bahini, the Bangladeshi settlers began to take it out on the Jumma people. The figure of Jumbo people killed by the Bangladeshi settlers and the security forces has been grossly reduced. Actually in each of the 13 massacres listed, more than 60 to 70 innocent Jumma people were killed. In many cases the dead bodies were not even recovered. Ultimately a large number of Jumma people, unable to bear the atrocities fled to Tripura. They migrated in waves. They were unfortunately not given refugee status by the United Nations. This was indeed very unfortunate. The Rohingyas, who were driven out by Myanmar, and the supporters of Aung San Su Kyis League for Democracy driven out by Myanmar were both granted refugee status by the UNHCR. The hapless Chakmas who had fled from their homeland were housed in slums of bamboo shacks, without sanitation and minimum standards of cleanliness. I had seen these camps and was ashamed that human beings were being kept in such primitive conditions. Their allowance was a pittance, barely enough to keep body and soul together.

Peace treaty

In 1997 after Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League came to power, after protracted negotiations a peace treaty was signed between the Jana Samhati Samiti, which was a total sell out of the Jumma people. The Bangladesh Government did not accept the main issue of returning the Bangladeshi settlers from the C.H.T. All that was conceded was that the C.H.T. would have a tribal head who would have the status of a Cabinet Minister. His deputy would however be a settler from the plains! Naturally a faction of the JSS refused to accept this agreement, and remained behind in India. The 50,000 odd refugees who had been treated so shabbily trekked back to the C.H.T. only to find that the Bangladeshi settlers were even more firmly entrenched than before. Despite several meetings in 1997, the year the Jumma refugees trekked back, and in 1998, 1999 and 2000 the agreement could not be finalized. The Government has till date, not transferred to the Regional Council, powers provided under the accord. As a result the Government is still directly administering the CHT. The Land Commission which was to oversee the resettling of the refugees on their respective homesteads and land has not yet been set up. Only 29 of the 500 military camps have been withdrawn from the C.H.T. Bangladeshi Muslims from the plains continue to be settled in the C.H.T.

When Sheikh Hasina started the peace talks with the JSS, the opposition party of Khaleda Zia opposed the talks and the agreement later arrived at. In 2001, Khaleda Zia's party the B.N.P. won the elections in a coalition with the Jamaat-e-Islami. The Jumma people were naturally supporters of Sheikh Hasinas party, the Awami League. The minority Hindus were also supporters of Sheikh Hasina. With the victory of the BNP, a wave of violence was unleashed against the Hindus as well as the Jumma people, for having supported the Awami League. The latest in a series of such incidents is the attack on Madarbania village near Ukhia. This is a small village of Chakmas wedged between the hills and the sea. A temple, which had been constructed by the Chakmas, was destroyed in a cyclone in 1994. When they tried to rebuild it after some years, the Bangladeshi Muslims objected.

The local Awami League M.P. intervened and negotiated an agreement. As soon as the B.N.P. party came to power, the local Bangladeshi Muslims attacked the Chakmas of the village when they were laying a foundation stone for their Buddhist temple. This led to a riot in which one Muslim was killed. In the retaliation that followed, the local government looked aside as the mob attacked the village. All the males of the village ran away to the forest. A Chakma woman Chanio Chakma has come forward and testified in the district court at Cox’s Bazaar. Several Chakma women were raped. Chanio Chakma courageously beat off her attackers and has filed a complaint against 11 named attackers all of whom are supporters of Khaleda Zia’s B.N.P.

It is quite clear now that there is no hope for the Chakma people leaving in CHT. There was no hope from the time that Jawaharlal Nehru, agreed to let Pakistan have the C.H.T, after promising Sneha Kumar Chakma, the representative of the Parbattya Chattogram Jana Samity, that the Bengal Boundary Commission had no jurisdiction over the C.H.T. Sneha Kumar Chakma had met Sardar Patel, and Jawaharlal Nehru in July 1947 and was promised by both, that C.H.T. would remain with India.

Then on the 18th of July 1947, when the Indian Independence Act was published, it showed that Radcliff had not listened to the submissions of the two Hindu members of the Bengal Boundary Commission, Justice Bijon Mukherjee and Charu Biswas, that C.H.T should be with India. Sneha Kumar ran to Delhi after hoisting the Indian Tricolor at Rangamati on the 15th of August 1947, to meet the Indian leaders to try and revise the decision of Radcliffe.

He met Sardar Patel, who told him that he was with him but he should meet Jawaharlal Nehru. It took 50 days for Sneha Kumar Chakma to meet Nehru. When he finally got an audience and told Nehru the C.H.T. should be with India, and the Chakmas were ready to fight for this and would India help with arms, Nehru got up in anger and shouted "Do you propose to bring India under foreign rule again?" That decision sounded the death knell for the hapless Chakmas.

Vocabulary

The following is a list of the transliterated version of Chakma words:

• Biju (Changma New Year)
• Juh! (Good morning!, greeting in general)
• Ashidbad. (Thanks.)
• vei (brother)
• bhon (sister)
• buji (sister-in-law)
• bonoi (brother-in-law)
• aju (grandfater)
• nanu (grandmother)
• ma (mother)
• bab (father)
• nobowh (bride)
• nojameih (bridegroom)
• sowr (father-in-law)
• surih (mother-in-law)
• hudhoom (relatives)
• kudhu (where)
• idhu (here)
• ageh (before)
• poreh (later)
• muih (I)
• tuih (you)
• te (he/she)
• amih (we)
• tumih (you)
• tarah (they)
• henjan agosh? (How are you?)
• Muih gom aghong. (I am fine.)
• Tuih honna? (Who are you?)
• Tawh nangan hi? (What is your name?)
• Tuih huttun? (Where are you from?)
• Tuih gom agoch? (Are you alright?)
• Tuih hudu jor? (Where are you going?)
• Muih bazarot jangor. (I am going to the market.)
• Muih zangor (I am going.)
• Tuih zor (You are going.)
• Te zar. (He/she is going.)
• Amih zer. (We are going.)
• Tumih zor. (You are going.)
• Tarah zadond. (They are going.)
• Muih zang. (I go.)
• Tuih zash. (You go.)
• Te zaï (He/she goes.)
• Amih zei (We go.)
• Tumih zo (You go.)
• Tarah zand. (They go.)
• Aama deshchan varih dowl. (Our country is very beautiful.)
• hiyong (eaten finished, past)
• hangor (eating currently)
• hem (will eat in future)
• jiyong (went in the past)
• jangor (going)
• jem (will go in future)
• Muih toreh hospang. (I love you.)
• Muih tore gompang. (I like you.)
• marry (mela)
• Hee hobor? (what's up?)

External links

• Refugees within,refugees without(by Sanjoy Hazarika)
• bible writte in chakma language
• Stateless Chakma refugees in India
• Petiton to the Indian government for citizenship of Chakma refugees
• Photos of the Chakma people