The contours of academic and political discourse relating to the Chakma-Mizo relations or connections are not only confusing but also often misleading. A lot has been written about the Chakma and Mizo communities separately but not them together. Did they have any social, political, economic and military relations in the past? If yes, how old and how deep were these relations? This book answers these questions.
The book deals with the cultural heritage of the Mizos. The mizo system of economy was the political and legal system which controlled the social behaviour as well as the military strategies. Personal relationship of the husband and wife, chief and the slaves, father and the children, individual and society that helped flourishing of distinctive Mizo culture in the gerontocratic social order has been depicted in a simple and crisp language.
Located in the domain of cultural politics, the book with rich ethnographical data from Mizoram, a lesser known and understood state, brings the community, state and culture to centre-stage, along with family and stratification of the sociological discourse in education. The book argues for a re-look at school education in Mizoram, besides providing critical insights into the North East region as a whole. It also points to the dilemmas of development in that region and suggests possible ways out of the impasse. Marking a significant departure from conventional thinking on education as 'human capital' as reflected in North-East Vision: 2020, the book strongly advocates the need for critical pedagogies based on learning from conflict; inculcating the values of tolerance and compassion as a precursor to peace; reconceptualising `development, not merely as 'economic' but as indicator of national happiness and valuing lives equally besides respect for traditional institutions, thus marking a break from the much resented paternalism that underpins all state interventions in education. One of the first studies of its kind regarding experience and practice of education, the book makes an important contribution to the role that education can play to usher in peace and promote respect for differences.
his is the first ever book written about the history of the Chakmas of Mizoram in Northeast India. It also deals with their contemporary issues. Highly useful for researchers, scholars, politicians, and anyone who is interested in knowing the Chakma tribe.
This book, based on extensive field research, examines the Indian state’s response to the multiple insurgencies that have occurred since independence in 1947. In reacting to these various insurgencies, the Indian state has employed a combined approach of force, dialogue, accommodation of ethnic and minority aspirations and, overtime, the state has established a tradition of negotiation with armed ethnic groups in order to bolster its legitimacy based on an accommodative posture. While these efforts have succeeded in resolving the Mizo insurgency, it has only incited levels of violence with regard to others. Within this backdrop of ongoing Indian counter-insurgency, this study provides a set of conditions responsible for the groundswell of insurgencies in India, and some recommendations to better formulate India’s national security policy with regard to its counter-insurgency responses. The study focuses on the national institutions responsible for formulating India’s national security policy dealing with counter-insurgency – such as the Prime Minister’s Office, the Cabinet Committee on Security, the National Security Council, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Indian military apparatus. Furthermore, it studies how national interests and values influence the formulation of this policy; and the overall success and/or failure of the policy to deal with armed insurgent movements. Notably, the study traces the ideational influence of Kautilya and Gandhi in India’s overall response to insurgencies. Multiple cases of armed ethnic insurgencies in Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, and Nagaland in the Northeast of India and the ideologically oriented Maoist or Naxalite insurgency affecting the heartland of India are analysed in-depth to evaluate the Indian counter-insurgency experience. This book will be of much interest to students of counter-insurgency, Asian politics, ethnic conflict, and security studies in general.
Little is know about the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh (CHT), an area of approximately 5,089 square miles in southeastern Bangladesh. It is inhabited by indigenous peoples, including the Bawm, Sak, Chakma, Khumi Khyang, Marma, Mru, Lushai, Uchay (also called Mrung, Brong, Hill Tripura), Pankho, Tanchangya and Tripura (Tipra), numbering over half a million. Originally inhabited exclusively by indigenous peoples, the Hill Tracts has been impacted by national projects and programs with dire consequences. This book describes the struggle of the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts region to regain control over their ancestral land and resource rights. From sovereign nations to the limited autonomy of today, the report details the legal basis of the land rights of the indigenous peoples and the different tools employed by successive administrations to exploit their resources and divest them of their ancestral lands and territories. The book argues that development programs need to be implemented in a culturally appropriate manner to be truly sustainable, and with the consent and participation of the peoples concerned. Otherwise, they only serve to push an already vulnerable people into greater impoverishment and hardship. The devastation wrought by large-scale dams and forestry policies cloaked as development programs is succinctly described in this report, as is the population transfer and militarization. The interaction of all these factors in the process of assimilation and integration is the background for this book, analyzed within the perspective of indigenous and national law, and complemented by international legal approaches. The book concludes with an updateon the developments since the signing of the Peace Accord between the Government of Bangladesh and the Jana Sanghati Samiti (JSS) on December 2, 1997.
What does it mean to be 'stateless' in the modern postcolonial context? This fascinating study addresses this complex question through the case of the Chakma refugees in Arunachal Pradesh. The largely neglected social history of the ethnic Buddhist Chakmas, whose homeland is the Chittagong Hill Tracts (in the present day Bangladesh), carries the multiple imprints of partition, dominant development paradigm and religious persecution. As refugees in the strategically sensitive and disputed territory of Arunachal Pradesh in India's Northeast, they are locked in an intractable conflict over land and resources with the indigenous Arunachalis, themselves marginalized and alienated from the rest of the country.Setting a new dimension in refugee studies, the arguments in this book are developed on the framework of oral narratives, incorporating the self perceptions of both the Chakmas as well as the Arunachalis who host them. The book critically analyses national and international official documents and policy statements and demonstrates the absence of legal-institutional and legislative structures to address the concerns of refugees. It throws into relief the sharp contestations over nationalism, citizenship and ethnicity in South Asia, both at the level of political movements and academic discourse. It sheds new light on the outcomes of partition, boundary making and state formation, as well as dominant development models by examining the everyday experiences of these communities.This book will be a useful resource for scholars and students of politics, international relations, sociology, anthropology and history. It will also help policy makers and lawyers.
