Abstract The absence of colonial and post-colonial examinations of the conflict-ravaged Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) – a Bangladesh’s distant fringe– warranted me to explore how colonial legacy facilitated the post-colonial statist approach and majoritarian Bengali supremacists’ tendencies to exploit and subjugate the distinct CHT culture. This reconnaissance endeavour finds that the history of extortion of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT)indigenous peoples is a suitable example of racism victims, and thus it examines in the light of the colonial and post-colonial discourses. This explorative study – based on secondary sources of data – finds the very ideas of racism practices, especially identity politics, demographic politics, and women’s subjugation, are prevalent in this postcolonial (and internally colonised) terrain. Philosophy and Progress, Vol#71-72; No#1-2; Jan-Dec 2022 P 61-77.
Following the recent 2017 Rohingya influx, Bangladesh now hosts nearly one million Rohingyas. Being persecuted by the Myanmar state machinery and some local vigilantes, they fled for safe refuge in Bangladesh’s Cox's Bazar. Bangladesh sheltered them in 34 overcrowded camps located in the Teknaf and Ukhiya sub-districts of Cox’s Bazar. At present, Rohingyas are counted more than double compared to the local host population in these two areas. This study makes efforts to explicate why and how these stranded Rohingyas can be a security threat to Bangladesh. Theoretically, the study relies on security discourse; ecological and resource scarcity model; and the relative deprivation theory. Under the qualitative research approach, the researchers conducted semi-structured interviews mainly with key informants and subject experts to gather field data. The study brings out that this overpopulation has perplexed the security milieu of the country and forecasts multifaceted internal security threats. Thus, the study offers salient policy recommendations to ameliorate the crisis response by neutralizing the identified and forecasted conflictual issues. Social Science Review, Vol. 40(1), Jun 2023 Page 89-107
The survey for practical consideration is crucial in social and policy science inquiries. Several systematic reviews in the post-conflict peacebuilding literature have thus far ignored its efficaciousness. This knowledge gap motivated in developing Conflict- Affected Population Survey technique to survey the conflict-ravaged Chittagong Hill Tracts indigenous peoples for the purpose of examining peace hybridity in Bangladesh, as the quantitative part of the study. This article outlines guidelines for designing probabilistic sampling and survey procedures for a robust sequential explanatory mixed-methods case study research in a terrain where an accurate sample frame is difficult to define. The systematic methodological strategy adopted herein enabled the compilation of a comprehensive cross-sectional case study where findings are generalizable, especially the concept and model central to our thesis on indigeneity dilution.
Abstract For more than four decades (since 1978) the world has witnessed an incremental escalation of atrocities against the Rohingya minorities. The latest 2017 ethnic cleansing operation conducted by Myanmar forced around one million Rohingya population into Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar. The Rohingya minorities (mostly Muslims) experience unprecedented brutalities and are the world's most vulnerable and oppressed ethnoreligious minority. The normative analysis warrants that the rise and pervasive practice of nationalist politics and the sharp dividing line of ethnoreligious sentiment in post-World War II times undermined the Rohingya identity and their historic belonging. Moreover, the politics that centered on the ethnoreligious identity of this community have stalemated the path towards a peaceful resolution of the crisis. The summary of the Key Informant (KI) interviews along with Focused Group Discussions (FGD) conducted in Teknaf and Ukhiya sub-districts of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh help mapping the nature and dynamics of the Rohingya impasse and identify as protracted conflict. Since the likelihood of repatriation soon is found implausible rather perpetuity of the crisis is envisioned, the selected Dhaka and Cox's Bazar-based Expert Participants helped to draw some quirky policy resolutions to get it out of the orthodox nationalist-legal framework of conflict resolution.