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Santal Community in Bangladesh: a Socio- Historical Analysis

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Santal Community in Bangladesh: a Socio- Historical Analysis Asian of Journal Humanity, Art and Literature; Volume 5, No 2/2018 ISSN 2311-8636 (p); 2312-2021 (e) Santal Community in Bangladesh: A Socio- historical Analysis Md. Shamsuddoha*, Ms. Rifat Jahan Lecturer, Bangladesh Studies, BRAC Institute of Languages, BRAC ISSN: 2311-8636 (Print) University. Dhaka-1212, BANGLADESH ISSN: 2312-2021 (Online) URL: http://i-proclaim.my/archive/index.php/ajhal/article/view/228 Licensed: ABSTRACT Source of Support: Nil The Santals are one of the most ancient indigenous communities in Bangladesh. Many historians denote them as No Conflict of Interest: Declared the earliest settlers in greater Bengal. They mainly belong to Austro-Asiatic group of pre-Aryan settlers. Being the *Email for correspondence: indigenous community of the country, they should have [email protected] been more influential and developed. But the reality is different. Santals are deprived of stately rights and privileges in many aspects. It has a historical legacy of isolation and clash. As Santals live isolated from mainland people, proper attention was never given to them. Rather they were tortured and oppressed both by colonial and post-colonial rulers, which led them to launch many resistances. But ultimately those resistances could not completely stop the deprivation. In spite of all these challenges, Santals are still struggling to uphold their socio-cultural tradition. The absence of written document in Santal society created a paucity of information in the reconstruction of their history. Therefore, secondary source was mainly used in this research. This study tries to explore the social customs, livelihood and cultural features of Santal community keeping a special focus on the historical development. It indicates that they have historically been deprived in many ways, but they are still able to uphold their distinct cultural features in most of the cases. Keywords: Bangladesh, Culture, History, Indigenous Community, Santal INTRODUCTION Bangladesh is one of the most diversified countries of the world. It has diversity in many aspects, viz., ethnicity, culture, language, religion, tradition and so on. These diversities have created a composite culture in Bangladesh. Indigenous peoples or Adivasis are one of the most significant contributors of this diversified culture. But often the rights of Adivasis are being violated, and their identity goes under threat in many ways. Here indigenous people, pro-indigenous scholars and UNO are in favour of an open definition whereas the authorities of different countries are in favour of the denial of the identities of many indigenous communities by narrowing down the criteria. This is also reflected in the following statement of Jeff J. Corntassel where he said, “Debate within global forums over establishing definitional standards for indigenous peoples versus an unlimited right of indigenous self-identification has exposed something of a dilemma over standard setting in international law. Requiring strict, definitional standards excludes some indigenous i-Proclaim | AJHAL Page 89 Shamsuddoha and Jahan: Santal Community in Bangladesh: A Socio-historical Analysis (89-100) groups from the very protections they need while reifying their identities.” (Corntassel, 2003). Therefore it is important to discuss the term Indigenous or Adivasi first. Adivasi is a Sanskrit word which contains two parts where the first part ‘adi’ means original and ‘basi’ or ‘vasi’ means inhabitant. Indigenous is considered as the closest synonym of Adivasi. Tone Bleie noted to define Adivasi as “The numerous Adivasi communities who populated greater Bengal when the European colonists arrived qualify to be recognized as indigenous peoples” (Bleie, 2006). Here one thing is noted that the group of people who used to exist even in pre-colonial era and still exist with distinct identity is known as Indigenous community. Mesbah Kamal emphasized on culture to define Adivasis which makes them different from others. He stated: “ ‘Adivasi’ means such a group of people who are more or less organized in a region having a cultural unity and whose members feel that they are included in the same cultural unit.” (Kamal, 2007). Some scholars focused on the perspective as the basis of defining Indigenous, because it varies a lot. So they mainly emphasized on the relativity of perception whereas some other stated that only indigenous people should have the right to define themselves (Bodley, 1999). This school of thought mainly focuses on self-identification. On the contrary, in many countries, authorities tend to characterize Adivasi people as ‘small tribe’ or ‘small ethnic group’. Thus, the way of defining Indigenous or Adivasi differs from one to another and country to country. Keeping this in concern, ILO Convention No. 169 adopted in 1989 defined Indigenous more inclusively and elaborately. In its Article No. 1 it states: tribal peoples in independent countries whose social, cultural and economic conditions distinguish them from other sections of the national community and whose status is regulated wholly or partially by their own customs or traditions or by special laws or regulations; peoples in independent countries who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonization or the establishment of present state boundaries and who irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions. (ILO, 2013) This is how various international organizations have tried to protect the right of indigenous communities by enlarging the prospect of their living and hope. But worldwide, their position is not that much satisfactory. Although Indigenous are 370 million or approximately 5% of the world’s population, but they are 15% of the world’s poor. It clearly indicates the disadvantaged condition of the indigenous community. In case of Bangladesh, the condition is more severe. Here they are not only poor but also deprived of their rights. Sometimes their identity goes under question (Gerharz, 2014). This is even more applicable for Santals of Bangladesh. To some extent, their condition is more vulnerable. The ruthless attacks on Santal community during last few years portray their vulnerability. In 2009, some land-grabbers attacked a Santali village of Naogaon district and destroyed 74 houses where police and authority remained passive even after protest done by indigenous, civil society and human rights organisations (Iva, 2009). This sort of violation of human rights did not stop there. Another attack took place in 2015. On 24 January 2015, Land grabbers attacked Santali village in Dinajpur. In this incident at least 65 houses were vandalized and looted. And many false cases were filed against many Santal people (Chowdhury & Chakma, 2016). Even in recent time, an attack on Santals took place in Gobindagonj, Rangpur about the ownership of a land. Rangpur Sugar Mill authorities, supported by local influential people, locked in a bloody clash over this land Page 90 Volume 5, No 2/2018 | AJHAL Asian of Journal Humanity, Art and Literature; Volume 5, No 2/2018 ISSN 2311-8636 (p); 2312-2021 (e) with indigenous Santals on November 6 and November 7, 2016, which caused the death of three Santal men. Later on December 16, 2016, a Gaibandha district administration investigation has found the Gobindaganj Santals' claims valid on their ancestral lands in the Rangpur Sugar Mills area (Hasan M. , 2016). Many researchers and writers explained that the land was for Santals (Partha, 2016). This is how the rights of Santals are violated in many ways which is contributing to the disintegration of their traditional culture. So it is very important to secure the right and culture of Santals for the sake of the traditional diversity that Bangladesh has been carrying for centuries. We believe a comprehensive socio-cultural analysis will play a significant role in this process. The present work is an attempt towards that. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY This research aims to explore the socio-cultural practices of Santals from different dimensions focusing light on the historical development of their community. It will also focus on the changes and challenges emerging in the traditional life of them due to penetration of different interest groups as well as the wave of modernization. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The present research is a combination of socio-cultural and historical analysis where cultural tradition has been described focusing on historical progress. Although the present study often depends on the empirical observation in Dinajpur and Rajshahi Districts, but it tries to explore the overall culture of Santals in Bangladesh. The unavailability of Santals’ ancient script has created a paucity of primary source in this attempt. Hence we relied on oral myths, chapters of scholarly books, articles, periodicals, census, governmental and nongovernmental report and so on. ANALYSIS Bangladesh is considered as a melting pot of various ancient races. At present, many of them are known as indigenous communities. There are over 54 groups of indigenous communities, covering about 2% of the total population, have been living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and in different pockets in the plains along with Bengalis, the majority population of the country (Chowdhury & Chakma, 2016). According to the census report 2011, there are 1586141 ethnic populations living in Bangladesh who cover 1.10% of its total population (BBS, 2011). Santals are 8.96% of the total ethnic population and 0.09% of the entire population of the country. Approximately, 143425 Santal people are living in different districts of Bangladesh. The following chart shows the district wise distribution of Santal community in Bangladesh. Following table shows that most of the Santal people live in the Northern region of Bangladesh whereas more than one-third of them live only in Dinajpur. Since Santals live in different areas, therefore their culture varies from place to place. Nevertheless, the fundamental beliefs and customs remain same in all over the country.
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