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Chapter Four
Drawing the Curtains: Concluding Remarks
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army, not the ministry of transport & communication, is doing these kind of activities in CHT. The army occupies the hills and develops it for tourism but the question as well as dissatisfaction raises as the Paharis are not directly being benefitted by those tourism projects and they are asked to pay when they visit their own land as well. The educational institutions built by the army are expensive and the Pahari parents do not have enough financial capabilities to send their kids to those schools.
As a result, these institutions are also not helpful for the Paharis. In contrast, there is lack of school for the Pahari children in the remote areas, let alone quality teachers. ‘Barga’ [part time] teachers who are just 8/9 pass and usually unemployed are employed/deployed as teachers in these schools.
They are given a little bit of money as salary. It is significant to mention here that, in CHT, each Pahari community has its own language. So language is a crucial factor because books are all in Bengali.
iii. The relationship between the Bengalis and the Paharis are ambiguous and distinctive in character. The Bengalis consider the Paharis as good-hearted and cordial and in a similar vein, in some context, they trust the Paharis more compared to fellow Bengalis. Females from both the Bengalis and the Paharis have quality relationships and do exchange homemade food between each other. This issue of gender dimension is clearly present at CHT. Surprisingly, the same Bengalis put fire on the houses of the Paharis and incidents of rape of Pahari girls are not uncommon by the Bengalis and the security forces. The absence of mainstream politics, inappropriate development, changing demography and above all, volatile law and order situation is sculpting the negative perceptions of the Paharis. There is a political difference between regional political parties. Political party like JSS is in favor of peace treaty whereas UPDF and JSS (Reformist) have the anti-peace treaty position. In contrast, the non-Pahari Organizations are becoming active gradually whose philosophy and/or flag bearers demands for the equal rights for all citizens of CHT. Eventually, the Bengali community has also appeared as a reckoning factor in the affairs of CHT.
iv. The Bengalis have very negative perceptions towards the Pahari political organizations as they extort regularly, often demand ransom and incidents of brutal killing are not uncommon too. The Bengalis consider these leaders of Militant Groups as the key ‘spoilers’ of CHT socio-cultural and political environment and blame them for the unstable situation in CHT.
v. Previously, the Paharis did not send their children to school. Now they are sending their children to school and thus mentality is changing over the period of time. This fact has been reflected by the female Pahari respondents and they see this factor as a very important one that contributes to the peaceful co-existence of the two groups and they also expressed for presence of the army in CHT.
vi. The Bengali settlement in CHT added a new dimension. It is responsible for the contemporary crisis. To some extent, Bangladesh tried to colonize its own land in the name of establishing cohabitants for the Paharis. Based on the military feedback, the Bengalis are settled in CHT in the late 1980s. The army officials used the stereotype narratives to address this paradigm shift.
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Interestingly, one of the army officials who belong to the Pahari community considers the Bengalis in CHT as ‘miscreant’. Thus, the Bengali settlement is entirely denied by the Paharis. Due to demographic engineering, the Paharis are now becoming the minority in their own land and on the other hand, they are facing the identity crisis as the GoB does not consider them as indigenous.
There is only one ‘Bengali’ nationhood in Bangladesh declared by the father of the nation, former foreign minister as well as Navabikram Kishore Tripura, a Secretary of GoB who was not only the Chairman of the CHTDB but also a member of Pahari community publicly said that there are no indigenous people in the country. Honorable Member of Parliament, Beer Bahadur opines the same thing. All the Pahari communities have their own kings but kings have no influence rather they see the problems of the Paharis through governmental lens, as a subject of the nation. The GoB is trying to create one and only Bengali nationhood in Bangladesh. In reality, over the period of time, different regimes/parties in power have used religion as a political tool and even now the constitution starts with ‘Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim’ which gives a wrong perception that only the Muslim live in this country. Thus the constitution itself repeatedly broke its argument.
vii. Over the decade, the army involvement in CHT is becoming a panacea not only for the administrative point of view but also for as the sole development planner and implementer in the area. They have access to the rights and lives of the people. When the Bengali settlement had created the primary tension, a large number of armies were deployed to protect them from the Paharis. The GoB allocated hilly land for them without consulting the Pahari leaders. In the meantime, the GoB legalized army presence establishing them as the main stakeholder to take the decisions over CHT development. Therefore, in order to win the heart and mind of local Paharis, Bangladesh Army has planned and undertaken different development activities in remote areas of CHT which has increased their acceptance and established cordial relationship between both the general Paharis and army. The army officials from Pahari community have also accepted that there is a cordial relation between the army and Paharis. Significantly, both the army officials and security experts opine that the GoB did not discuss before signing the peace accord and it is needed to mention here that this accord confronts the Constitution of Bangladesh. That is why, even after 20 years of Peace Accord, issues like land disputes, permanent residency, rules of business of Regional Council have not been implemented fully. In addition to that, donor agencies as well as external forces maintain good relation with the Pahari Leaders and also play vital roles in the politics of CHT.
viii. International Organizations, NGOs and other development partners are gradually assuming greater influence over the Paharis can help them with their projects. Thus, development projects in CHT brought discrimination not only for the Paharis but also for the Bengali settlers. Both the parties are living in liminal condition. One part of the analysis isn’t possible without considering the other. The Pahari students are getting more priorities than the Bengali settlers living in the hostels or any other institutes like training, scholarship and better job opportunities which has created frustration among the young Bengalis in CHT.
viii. Both the Paharis and Bengalis in CHT do not have confidence over local administration as well as on police force regarding safety and security and other day to day issues.
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ix. In the past, there was no mobile phone network and due to presence of the army and restriction, media usually do not able to give the actual news of CHT region.