Fatwa
20. Ethnic groups
20.01 Bangladesh is ethnically ‗… highly homogeneous, with more than 98 per cent of the population being Bengali. Members of ethnic minority communities, mostly tribal peoples in the north and in the east, are often non-Muslim.‘ (USCIRF Report 2010)289 An article in the Bangladesh News dated 27 March 2008 stated that: ‗For centuries, Bangladesh has been the dwelling place of different ethnic groups. In fact, 35 smaller groups of indigenous people covering about two per cent of the total population have been living in different pockets of the hilly zones and some areas of the plain lands of the country. Their historical background, economic activities, social structure, religious beliefs and festivals make them distinctive.‘290
288 International Christian Concern (ICC), Christian Persecution Increases amid Protests in Bangladesh, 2 July 2013 http://www.persecution.org/2013/07/02/christian-persecution-increases-amid-protests-in-bangladesh/
Accessed 18 July 2013
289 US Committee on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Annual Report 2010 (p326) http://www.uscirf.gov/images/annualper cent20reportper cent202010.pdf Accessed 28 July 2012
290 Bangladesh News, ‗Ethnic groups‘, 27 March 2008 http://www.independent-bangladesh.com/ethnic-groups/
Accessed 28 July 2012
The indigenous Jumma (Pahari) peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts
20.02 The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) covers about 10 per cent of the total land area of Bangladesh; it includes the districts of Khagrachhari, Rangamati and Bandarban within the Division of Chittagong.291 An Amnesty International report of March 2004 related:
‗The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is a hilly, forested area in south-eastern Bangladesh which for many hundreds of years has been home to people from 13 indigenous tribes [collectively known as the Jumma or Pahari people]. These tribal people differ
significantly from the rest of the population of Bangladesh in terms of their appearance, language, religion and social organisation.
‗Pressure for land to cultivate and encouragement from successive governments have led to the migration of large numbers of non-tribal Bengali people to the CHT. Tribal people have viewed the movement of Bengali settlers to the CHT as a threat to their way of life and their customs and traditions.
‗Armed rebellion in the Chittagong Hill Tracts began in mid-1970s. A peace accord signed in 1997 ended the armed conflict, but human rights violations against the tribal people which began during the armed conflict have continued on a smaller scale.‘292 20.03 An Amnesty International report dated 12 June 2013, ‗Pushed to the Edge: Indigenous
Rights Denied in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts‘, stated as follows:
‗More than 15 years after an agreement guaranteeing the rights of Pahari-Indigenous Peoples to their traditional lands in Bangladesh‘s Chittagong Hill Tracts, Pahari continue to wait for their lands to be restored to them. Clashes between the Pahari and Bengali settlers who have gradually and repeatedly occupied their land are frequent ... The government of Bangladesh has remained ineffectual throughout, failing to protect the Pahari‘s right to security, their rights to traditional lands, livelihood and culture, and to effective participation in decisions that affect them.
‗Tens of thousands of Pahari crossed over to India to avoid the violence. Today it is estimated that 90,000 Pahari families remain internally displaced.
‗The [1997 Peace Accord] promises a series of reforms to restore a measure of
autonomy and promote the cultural, economic, social, civil and political rights of Pahari.
Pahari refugees returning from India and internally displaced Pahari who fled to other parts of Bangladesh or to deep forest areas in the Chittagong Hill Tracts were to be rehabilitated through provision of land, housing and rations. A Land Commission was to investigate and resolve disputes over claims to lands.10 The Accord promises to
remove all temporary army camps from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and to transfer administrative responsibility over a range of subjects – including management of land – from the central government to three Hill District Councils in the Chittagong Hill Tracts ...
However, as this report demonstrates, [the Awami League Government] has only partially met the commitments it made in the Accord.
‗The ...government has formally established the Land Commission, appointed members, and provided the Land Commission with offices and some infrastructure. However, it
291 The Mappa Ltd: Bangladesh Guide Map 2003 (hard copy)
292 Amnesty International, ‗Chittagong Hill Tracts: A Call for Justice at Mahalchari‘. AI Index: ASA 13/003/2004: 1 March 2004 http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA13/003/2004/en/3e8226e7-d5fa-11dd-bb24-
1fb85fe8fa05/asa130032004en.pdf Accessed 7 June 2012
The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 31 July 2013. 99
remains an empty shell. To date, the Land Commission has not made a single determination on a land dispute.
‗Bengali settlers have – especially since the Accord was signed – flowed into the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the pressure on land has continued ... [T]here are now regular clashes between Pahari villagers and Bengali settlers. Most of the disputes are over rights to land. The Pahari want their [communal] lands reinstated.
‗The army maintains a heavy presence in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and is viewed by Pahari as providing support for Bengali settlers and their continued encroachment on Pahari traditional lands. There are frequent reports of human rights violations, including harassment of members of Pahari political parties and human rights defenders by the army, and violent attacks by Bengali settlers against Pahari men and women. Some of the clashes are between rival Pahari political parties.‘ 293
20.04 A report by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), updated in November 2012, stated:
‗The findings of a recent socio-economic baseline survey conducted by a
nongovernmental research organization in the CHT showed the acutely disadvantaged situation of the population of the CHT, and particularly that of the indigenous peoples, as compared with the rest of the country. The report showed, among others, that only 7.8 per cent completed primary education and only 2.4 per cent completed secondary education ... About 22 per cent of indigenous households lost their lands ... The study concludes that 70 per cent of all households – twice the national average – earn less than the minimum food requirements set for Bangladesh.‘294
See the UN Economic and Social Council report, Study on the status of implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord of 1997, dated 18 February 2011, submitted by the Special Rapporteur.295
See also Section 28: Internally Displaced Persons
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Urdu-Speakers (Biharis) Background
20.05 The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) advised in a report of December 2009:
‗In 1972, following the creation of the independent People‘s Republic of Bangladesh, an estimated 1,000,000 Urdu speakers were living in settlements throughout Bangladesh
293 Amnesty International, ‗Pushed to the Edge: Indigenous Rights Denied in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts‘, 12 June 2013 (p5-7)http://www.refworld.org/docid/51bad3874.html Accessed 4 July 2013
294 International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Raja Devasish Roy, ‗Country Technical Note on Indigenous Peoples‘ Issues: Bangladesh‘, November 2012
http://www.ifad.org/english/indigenous/pub/documents/tnotes/bangladesh.pdf Accessed 4 July 2013
295 UN Economic and Social Council, Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Study on the status of implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord of 1997, E/C.19/2011/6, 18 February 2011
http://www.chtcommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/CHT-Accord-Study-Final.pdf Accessed 20 November 2011
awaiting ―repatriation‖ to Pakistan. Agreements between Pakistan, Bangladesh and India in 1973 and 1974 resulted in some 178,069 members of this community being
―repatriated‖ from Bangladesh to Pakistan between 1973 and 1993 out of some 534,792 who had registered with the International Committee for the Red Cross for repatriation.
An estimated 80,000-100,000 Urdu speakers also spontaneously moved to Pakistan.
Many of those who have not been ―repatriated‖ continue to live in Government- established camps and settlements in Bangladesh, while a growing number have integrated into Bengali communities throughout the country.
‗According to recent estimates, the Urdu-speaking community in Bangladesh numbers some 250,000 persons, with over 151,000 residing in 116 open camps and settlements.
Exact figures are not available given that no census of the Urdu-speaking population in the country, especially those persons living outside the camps and settlements, has been carried out.‘296
20.06 A paper from Interdisciplinary.net, Conceiving Collectivity: The Urdu-speaking ‗Bihari‘
Minority and the Absence of ‗Home‘, 2009, reported that:
‗The ―Urdu-speaking community‖ in Bangladesh could be considered a ―linguistic diaspora‖. The descendants of over one million Urdu-speaking Muslims who migrated from India to East Bengal (then East Pakistan) following the country‘s creation in 1947
… they are distinguished from the Bengali speaking majority largely through language.
Many had fled violence in North Indian states such as Bihar (as well as Utter Pradesh, Orissa and others), and the label ―Bihari‖ has been used in reference to the
descendents of these migrants in the region ever since. Controversially sharing certain linguistic and cultural similarities with the ruling (West Pakistani) Punjabi elite these migrants gained increasing influence in the new state …. They ―came to be known as conduits of the West Pakistani ―colonialists‖, who were not to be trusted‖ …. Cultural, linguistic and political tensions culminated in the Liberation War of 1971. Following the country‘s Liberation, the entire Urdu-speaking community were branded enemy
collaborators and socially ostracised. Thousands were arrested or executed, while others, having been dispossessed by the state and fearful for their lives, were forced to flee …. A once strong sense of Diasporic unity‘ was now constructed in different terms.
―The community‖ had been displaced for a second time, but now ―within‖ the land that had become their ―home‖. They were once again ―othered‖ but not as a result of their own actions (emigration) as much as the events that took place around them.‘297
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