Small Ethnic Groups of Bangladesh

Review: Small Ethnic Groups of Bangladesh
A Mapping Exercise
Panjeree Publications Limited
Printed by Kamala Printers87, Purna Paltan Line, Dhaka 1000, Phone 8314115
ISBN 984-8632-06-9
The book Small Ethnic Groups of Bangladesh-A Mapping Exercise retains the history and culture of ethnic people who constitute an integral part of our population. The historic, language, cultural and social testimonies of our ethnic people remain latent in the form of CDs to unfold before us. Social scientists and political scientist may have huge spice and materials in this seemingly small book. The ethnic groups of Bangladesh also enrich our traditional culture and participated in the freedom movement though it has not been widely circulate or known. This book bears the testimony of it. The writer has undergone some pains to record the history for us. This study framed in this book proceeds with three objectives such as finding out exact number of small ethic groups , estimating their size and identifying their locations and gathering selected information of demographic , educational and socioeconomic status of these groups. Though the study deals with these basic parameters, it mainly tends to tilt towards education.
Bangladesh boasts of having a rich mosaic of ethnic groups with one being outstandingly prominent –the Bangalis . The rest of the ethnic groups, a little more than 70 in number demonstrates a rich spectrum of cultural diversity and richness. The small ethnic groups together constitute less than two percent of total population of our country but this numerical insignificance should not in any way be marginalizing rather celebrates harnessed and strengthened as a force that adds to the diversity and richness of the mosaic that is Bangladesh. It is sorry to mention that our policies and practices have more often than not failed over the year to experience a strong sense of social , political and economic exclusion, lack of recognition, fear and insecurity , loss of cultural identify and social oppression. Mainstream development efforts also have mostly ignored their concerns.
Indigenous people have been living in an area from time immemorial on this soil. They are the descendants of the original inhabitants of a territory and in many cases overcome conquest or settlement by aliens. The indigenous groups consider themselves distinct from the other sections of the societies now prevailing in those territories or part of them. Due to the presence of other sections they become a no-dominant one, but they are determined to preserve, develop and transmit their ancestral territories and identity to future generations. These factors form the basis of their continued existence as people with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems.
It has been observed that small ethnic groups are located commonly among the poorest segment of a population. They engage in economic activities that range from shifting agriculture in or near forests to wage labour or even small-scale market oriented activities in rural or urban areas. SEGs can be identified in a particular geographical area by the presence of the following traits/ characteristics in a varying degree: a close attachment to ancestral territories and natural resources in the area, language often different from the national language, presence of customs and primarily subsistence-oriented production, and most importantly self identification and identification by others as members of a distinct cultural group. In fact, social and cultural identity distinct from the dominant society makes them vulnerable to being disadvantaged in the developing process.
Anthropological research has brought to light the fact that amongst the majority ethnic groups in Bengal there prevail various kinds of proscriptions and prescriptions concerning marriage, eating and drinking, and religious rituals. In prehistoric time Bengal was inhabited by Austric and Dravidian language-speaking people again among these groups the majority were speaking different Austric languages. After the invasion of Bengal by the Aryans the communication between the victor and vanquished was done in Aryan languages. Bangla has arisen as a pidgin language with an influence of Sankskrit on the same. After some time it was spoken at home and transmitted as a first language. Therefore, it becomes what is known as a creole. Of course, Bangla first got established as a Creole, then as a literary and official language.
A culture of minority particularly in the national development effort is not often found in Bangladesh and important segments of society are left without the tools to participate. However, local non-government organizations are working to fill this gap. Most ethnic minorities are incidentally trapped in social underdevelopment. Though education has been recognized as a universal and fundamental human right, quality education continues to elude indigenous learners in the Chittagong Hill Tract region of Bangladesh. Inadequate educational resources coupled with high drop out rates-with almost 20 percent of drop-outs attributed to linguistic obstacles –create an environment where inhabitants are neither benefiting from development efforts, nor are they equipped to participate in them. And Article 17 of the Bangladesh constitution stipulates that all children should receive an education that is compatible with the needs of the society- indicating that there is no legal barrier to providing education in regional languages.
Although it is well-known that Bangladesh is ethnically heterogeneous of rages, to anybody’s surprise available studies including the national census of Bangladesh could hardly answer a very fundamental question-how many small ethnic groups reside in Bangladesh? Such a startling observation prompted into this mapping exercise. In fact the exercise is a census of small ethnic groups of Bangladesh but unconventionally it is of the households rather than of the individuals as done in the case of census. The study proceeded with there-objectives such as finding out exact number of small ethnic groups in Bangladesh, estimating their size and identifying their locations and gather selected information on demography, educational and socio-economic status of these groups.
It may be assumed that in the beginning various speech communities were confined to their own enclaves, more or less unaware of the existence of other language groups in the neighbourhood or were indifferent to those. Sometimes, the boundary between two languages was knife-edged, by a hill-line, forest or river but in the case of others for practical reasons communities with different languages interacted. While linguistic pluralism was a state of mutual existence of several languages in a continuous space, it does not preclude the possibility of interconnections between one language and the other. Along the line of contact between two languages, first there developed a zone of transition in which people were bilingual. Subsequently give and take between the langue groups often resulted in systemic borrowing from one language to the other. As a result languages overtime evolved or transformed and took a new form and in cases became dead as its users picked up the language with which it came in contact.
The data generated for this study in its tabular form are about 1870 pages long. To make the data-set user friendly it has been provided in a compact disc along with an interactive program which would allow users to draw a part of the data from the whole set as desired. The disc is pocketed on the inside back cover of this booklet. The disc also includes maps showing the status of SEGs in unions throughout the country. The book to the best of our knowledge is the first comprehensive account of small ethnic groups in the region. This extensive quantitative research based on field observations should attract a wide range of users. Policy planners, politicians, social anthropologists, government administrators, students of development studies, and most importantly the small ethnic groups themselves will come to regard this as a pioneering work.


Reviewed by
Md. Masum Billah
Programme Manager: BRAC Education Program, PACE
10th floor, brac centre, 75, Mohakhali, Dhaka1212.
Phone: 9355253(residence), 01714-091431(cell)
Email: mmbillah2000@yahoo.com, mmbillah@dhaka.net