https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0545-6595
![Sample our Global Development journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5929/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Global-Development.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The 1997 Peace Accord in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) promised to bring an end to decades of violence in the region. However, 25 years later, the region is still experiencing social conflict between indigenous Pahari people and Bengalis, who have migrated and settled in large numbers since the 1970s. This paper examines the reasons for the continuation of social conflict through a survey on community attitudes and relations. The survey findings show that the legacy of migration and conflict in the CHT is still evident in starkly different views on resources, conflict, and community relations. These findings support the argument that the migration of people with different ethnic backgrounds into regions inhabited by ethnic minorities causes competition for resources that may generate conflict and violence with long-lasting consequences.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Indigenous groups in the CHT are variously referred to as ‘Tribal people’ or ‘hill people’ (or Pahari in local language) in academic literature and in Bangladeshi public discourse. According to Gerharz, ‘Indigenous Activism in Bangladesh’, the Government of Bangladesh rejects the term ‘indigenous’ and instead uses the term ‘small ethnic communities’ in official discourse. Following Uddin, ‘Politics of Cultural Difference’, this paper will use the term Pahari.
2. Panday and Jamil, ‘Conflict in the Chittagong’; Rahman and Ali, ‘Transforming Ethnic Conflict’.
3. Nasreen, ‘The Indigeneity Question’, 139.
4. Choudhury, Islam, and Alam, ‘Micro-foundation of Conflict’.
5. Joshi and Quinn, ‘Implementing the Peace’, 871–872.
6. Ibid, 886.
7. Ibid, 879.
8. Chakma and d’Costa, ‘The Chittagong Hill Tracts’, 137.
9. Mohsin, The Chittagong Hill Tracts, 54.
10. Ullah, Shamsuddoha, and Shahjahan, ‘The Viability of the Chittagong’; Panday and Jamil, ‘Conflict in the Chittagong’.
11. Wallensteen and Joshi, ‘Developing Quality Peace’.
12. Coser, Continuities in the Study of Social Conflict, 232.
13. Mohsin, The Chittagong Hill Tracts; Chakma, ‘Structural Roots of Violence’.
14. Mohsin, ‘The Politics of Nationalism’.
15. Islam, Schech, and Saikia, ‘Climate Change Events’.
16. Chakma, ‘Structural Roots of Violence’.
17. Mohsin, The Chittagong Hill Tract.
18. Reuveny, ‘Climate Change Induced Migration’; Siraj and Ball, ‘Hunger Has Brought us’.
19. Jamil and Panday, ‘The Elusive Peace Accord’, 471.
20. Mohsin, The Chittagong Hill Tracts.
21. Ibid.
22. Joshi and Quinn, ‘Implementing the Peace’, 880, citing Mohsin, The Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh, 59.
23. Joshi and Quinn, ‘Implementing the Peace’, 885.
24. Barkat et al., ‘Socio-Economic Baseline Survey’.
25. Ibid, 159 and 162.
26. Joshi and Quinn, ‘Implementing the Peace’, 871.
27. D’Costa, ‘Marginalisation and Impunity’.
28. Panday and Jamil, ‘Conflict in the Chittagong’.
29. Choudhury et.al., ‘Conflict Mapping’; Chowdhury, ‘Survival under Threat’.
30. Teddlie and Tashakkori, Foundations of Mixed Methods, 193.
31. The Social and Behavioural Science Ethics Committee granted approval in July 2016. Project number 7226.
32. Buckingham and Saunders, The Survey Methods Workbook.
33. Maravelakis, ‘The Use of Statistics’.
34. Ibid.
35. Mohsin, The Chittagong Hill Tracts.
36. Roy, ‘Land and Forest Rights’.
37. Lee, ‘Not a One-time Event’; Suhrke, ‘Environment, Migration and Conflict’.
38. Mohsin, ‘The Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh’.
39. Islam, Schech, and Saika, ‘Climate Change Events’.
40. Homer-Dixon, ‘Environment, Scarcity, and Violence’.
41. Thapa and Rasul, ‘Implications of Changing National Policies’; Khisa and Mohiuddin, ‘Shrinking Jum’.
42. Adnan, ‘Migration, Discrimination and Land’; Chakma, ‘Structural Roots of Violence’; Panday and Jamil, ‘Conflict in the Chittagong’.
43. Siraj and Ball, ‘Hunger has Brought us’; Uddin, ‘Dynamics of Strategies’.
44. Choudhury, ‘Land Dispute Resolution’; Adnan and Dastidar, Alienation of the Lands.
45. Adnan and Dastidar, Alienation of the Lands.
46. Haque, Bangladesh Land Conflict.
47. Adnan and Dastidar, Alienation of the Lands, 77; Chakma, ‘Structural Roots of Violence’.
48. Choudhury et al., Conflict Mapping.
49. Esteban and Schneider, Polarisation and Conflict, 132.
50. Jeong, Peacebuilding in Post-conflict Societies.
51. Gundelach and Freitag, ‘Neighbourhood Diversity’.
52. Choudhury et al., Conflict Mapping.
53. Chakma and D’Costa, ‘The Chittagong Hill Tracts’.
54. Barkat et al., ‘Socio-Economic Baseline Survey’, 164.
55. Jamil and Panday, ‘The Elusive Peace Accord’.
56. Braithwaite and D’Costa, ‘Cascades of violence in Bangladesh’, 23.
57. Barkat et al., ‘Socio-Economic Baseline Survey’, 163.
58. Badiuzzaman and Murshed, ‘Conflict and Livelihood Decisions’.
59. Adnan and Dastidar, Alienation of the Lands.
60. D’Costa, ‘Journeys through Shadows’, 252.
61. Galtung, ‘Violence, Peace’, 183.
62. Braithwaite and D’Costa, Cascades of Violence: war.
63. IWGIA, The Indigenous World 2012.
64. Jamil and Panday, ‘The elusive peace accord’, 479.
65. Wallensteen and Joshi, ‘Developing quality peace’, 277.
66. Galtung, ‘Cultural violence’.
67. Chakma, ‘Structural roots of violence’.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Rafiqul Islam
Rafiqul Islam is a migration and conflict expert. He has training in Political Science, Peace and Conflict Studies and Environmental Security. Professor Islam is currently engaged in research in statelessness in the Bengali borderlands; and sustainable management of Rohingya refugee issues. Email: [email protected]
Susanne Schech
Susanne Schech is a human geographer who teaches international development studies at Flinders University in South Australia. She co-authored Culture and Development: A Critical Introduction (Wiley, 2000), edited Development Perspectives from the Antipodes (2014), and has published on a range of development issues including participation, gender justice, poverty reduction and humanitarianism. Her research on migration and mobility examines humanitarian migration and voluntary mobility of international development volunteers. Her current projects focus on temporary labour migration and on the history of humanitarianism through the lens of the League of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Email: [email protected]
Udoy Saikia
Udoy Saikia is a Social Demographer with postgraduate degrees from London School of Economics (UK), International Institute for Population Sciences (India) and Flinders University (Australia). His long-term research interests relate to population dynamics, human wellbeing and sustainable development. In his role as Team Leader and Lead Author, Associate Professor Saikia completed the research leading to the production of the UN National Human Development Report: Timor-Leste 2018 which focuses on policy pathways to achieve demographic dividend. Email: [email protected]