THE FACTORS LEADING TO OUTWARD MIGRATION OF THE CHAKMAS FROM CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS

Abstract

Chittagong and its hill tracts has been historically the homeland of various tribal groups. Such that when the British annexed the tracts, to suit their administration various laws were promulgated to protect and declared excluded it from generally laws applicable to the plains. These same laws were more or less similar to the hills tribal areas in different parts of British India. In fact, the tribal leaders of CHT having feared to be part of Islamic state choose to be with the liberal side, India. However, partition came with different story leaving the tribals to struggle for their political future. Unlike India, the then East Pakistan choose to subdue, if not abolished, the British protectionist policy for the Hill Tracts. Following the extremist policy, the new Pro Islamic State chose development policies harming the tribal demography. The Chakma being the largest tribal communities faced the atrocity of State the most. There, the present study analysed on how various state sponsored programmes had affect the tribal in CHT leading to outward migration as a result of - dam projects, non-tribal resettlement in tribal areas, counter insurgency programme.