Historical background of the CHT conflict Sample Clauses

Historical background of the CHT conflict. The CHT is a south-eastern bordering area of Bangladesh which was historically inhabited mostly by the ethnic communities, came from greater mountainous “‘Zomia’” region that was extended from Indochina through the Himalayas to central Asia (xxx Xxxxxxxx, 2005, cited in Xxxxxxxxx, 2015). People of this area have culturally and ethnically been distinct from the majority of Bangladeshi population, and historically it maintained a distance from the state’s governing authority (Xxxxxxxxx, 2006). Although there are eleven/twelve ethnic communities living in the CHT, three groups, namely the Chakma, Marma and Tripura form majority amongst them, accordingly. The Chakma constitutes around 50% of total non-Bengali population (Xxxxxxxxx, 2015). Xxx Xxxxxxxx (1992:96) argued that in spite of ecological and socio-cultural isolation from Bengali population, the CHT ethnic communities did not share a “particular sense of unity” amongst them. It was only after the colonial expansion to this region, they started to form “a separate identity” (ibid). The Mughal Empire, which conquered the region in 1666 and ruled until 1760, maintained “a tributary relationship” with the CHT area and it was left alone (Xxxxx, 1997:1811). Once the British colonial rule started in the Indian Sub- continent, they annexed their area of control up to the CHT for their political and economic interests (ibid:1811). The colonialists’ recognized distinct nature of the CHT and declared it as an ‘Exclusive Area’, but incorporated its traditional governance system in the state system. Three Chiefs (the Chakma, the Mong and the Bhmong) assisted by a number of Headman and Xxxxxxx became “agents of the state” who were “responsible for tax collection” of the defined areas and addressing local social problems (xxx Xxxxxxxx, 1992:109; Xxxxx et al. 2011) The Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation of 1900 was considered as a legal document that allowed a special and protective administrative status to the CHT. This is because it put strong restriction on non-ethnic people to enter into the CHT and prohibited transfer of land to Bengali people without an approval of the District Commissioner (DC). The Chapter III of the CHT Regulation 1900 gave that power to the DC, who was empowered with special authority by the Governor of Bengal (Xxxxxx and Xxxxxxx, 2015). The 1900 Regulation had strategic purposes of pacifying ethnic communities who resisted British invasion and ensuring security of the region by creating “a bu...