CHT COMMISSION
Dear all,
I am happy to announce that the book “Alienation of the Lands of Indigenous Peoples in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh” written by Shapan Adnan and Ranajit Dastidar is now available to be downloaded from CHT Commission’s website. The link for the book is given below:
http://www.chtcommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/CHT-Land-Study-Final1.pdf
This is a book about the ways in which the lands of the indigenous peoples (IP) or Pahari groups of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh have been relentlessly taken over by multiple agencies and groups from outside. It is not an academic volume but a general one meant for a popular readership, including all those who are concerned to do something about these problems. However, the study is based on rigorous research, including fieldwork among both Pahari and Bengali groups in the CHT, undertaken during 2010-11. It was conducted under the auspices of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission (CHTC), which seeks to contribute to the just resolution of the conflicts in the CHT in order to ensure the safety of the indigenous peoples and their lands.
Historically, the indigenous peoples had constituted the overwhelming majority of the population of the CHT. Bengalis accounted for less than 2% of the population in 1872. However, from the late 1970s, counter-insurgency operations resulted in the forced eviction of around one lakh Paharis from their lands and homesteads. During 1979-85, more than three lakh Bengali settlers were brought in from the plains of Bangladesh and placed on Pahari lands by the government, forcibly changing the demographic composition and land distribution of the CHT. This influx of migrants and land grabbing further intensified the ethnic conflict between the Paharis and the Bengalis during the 1980s and 1990a. It was formally ended in 1997 by the CHT Accord between the Government of Bangladesh and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS), the party leading the Pahari resistance.
Even though 13 years have gone by, many of the critical clauses of this peace agreement have yet to be implemented by the government. Moreover, the influx of Bengalis from outside and the grabbing of Pahari lands have continued unabated with little restriction by the authorities. Lands have been forcibly acquired by not only government agencies but also Bengali powerholders and private commercial interests with connections to the major political parties and agencies of the state. The failure of all the governments in power since the 1997 Accord to take effective measures against continuing in-migration of Bengalis and the eviction of Paharis from their lands threatens to undermine the social and political stability of the CHT. It also raises the prospects of renewed ethnic and political conflict in the region.
This book focuses on the multiple and complex mechanisms that have been used to grab Pahari lands in the CHT, inclusive of state power, illegal violence, and fraudulent manipulation of land records. Furthermore, not only the lands of the IP, but also those of ordinary Bengali settlers, have been grabbed by powerful interest groups, inclusive of private corporations, with connections to political parties, the civil administration and security forces. Such takeover of the lands of poor Bengali settlers by powerful Bengali interest groups also reflects a growing trend in intra-ethnic and classed-based land conflicts in the CHT. The use of legal and illegal means, including violence and fraud, to establish rubber, timber and horticulture plantations, as well as undertake commercial speculation in real estate, corresponds to the process of ‘primitive accumulation’ feeding into predatory forms of capitalism as well as the notion of ‘accumulation by dispossession’ under neoliberal globalization.
The concluding section of the book puts forward a wide range of policy measures aimed at (i) limiting the mechanisms and factors facilitating land alienation, as well as (ii) reducing inter-ethnic tension and conflict in the CHT. These policy recommendations are addressed to all concerned, including the government, the indigenous peoples of the CHT, progressive sections of mainstream Bengali society, donor agencies, the media, public interest organizations, pro-people NGOs, advocacy groups and activists at home and abroad.
The contents of the book are organized into four thematic chapters, as follows:
Chapter 1 introduces the study and describes how the research was designed, as well as the conditions under which fieldwork was undertaken.
Chapter 2 provides a critical review of the implementation of the CHT Accord up to 2010, specifying the significant clauses that have not yet been implemented by the government in a substantive manner. It also takes note of parallel demographic, economic and social changes in the CHT taking place independently, which might be irreversible and could make the CHT Accord increasingly irrelevant.
Chapter 3 provides detailed analysis of the multiple and complex mechanisms of land alienation at work in the CHT. The roles of the various public and private agencies involved in land grabbing are analyzed with empirical evidence, inclusive of pertinent case studies wherever adequate data are available. The analysis takes account of significant shifts in the mechanisms of land alienation from the 1970s to 2010, explaining the nature of changes before and after the Accord.
Chapter 4 provides policy analysis concerned with the prevention of further alienation of the lands of the IP of the CHT as well as the restitution of their already occupied areas. It puts forward specific policy recommendations on many critical issues, including the resolution of land conflicts, role of the controversial Land Commission, the full implementation of the CHT Accord, as well as a proposal for independent research and monitoring of critical trends in the CHT.
Author Profiles
Shapan Adnan was educated at the Universities of Cambridge and Sussex. He has been a member of the teaching faculty of the National University of Singapore and the Universities of Dhaka and Chittagong, and has held visiting research positions at the University of Oxford. His research activities have been broadly in the fields of political economy and political sociology, much of it based on ethnographic fieldwork. He has published on a wide variety of topics including: agrarian structure and capitalist development; structures of domination and resistance; alienation of lands of the peasantry and indigenous peoples; causes of ethnic conflict; determinants of fertility and migration; socio-economic and environmental impacts of development interventions; and critiques of flood control and water management. Contact email: amsa127@gmail.com
Ranajit Dastidar has studied economics at the University of Chittagong and obtained a PhD in political economy from the National University of Singapore (NUS). Besides work experience in commercial banking and NGO programmes, he has been involved in many socio-economic research projects and evaluation studies. His research interests include: impacts of technological innovation and the nature and extent of capitalist development among traditional fishing communities; forms of marginalization of indigenous peoples; and changes in the social organization of production of rural communities. Contact email: rana.dastidar@gmail.com
The Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission is independent and fully committed to an approach of constructive engagement with all stakeholders in Bangladesh. Its mandate is as follows: –
To promote respect for human rights, democracy, and restoration of civil and political rights, participatory development and land rights in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, including examination of the implementation of the CHT Peace Accord of 1997. The CHT Commission will build on the work undertaken by the original CHT Commission between 1990 and 2001.
Sincerely,
Hana Shams Ahmed
Coordinator, CHT Commission
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CHT Commission
http://chtcommission.org/
Bangladesh Secretariat
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