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The Making of Political Forests in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh: the State, Development and Indigeneity

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The Making of Political Forests in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh: the State, Development and Indigeneity THE MAKING OF POLITICAL FORESTS IN THE CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS, BANGLADESH: THE STATE, DEVELOPMENT AND INDIGENEITY KHAIRUL CHOWDHURY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES OF YORK UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO APRIL 2014 © Khairul Chowdhury 2014 Abstract This dissertation offers an anthropological and genealogical account of forests and social forestry, in particular the way they came to be constituted over time in one particular social- ecological context of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh. It draws on ethnographic fieldwork to examine how discourses of forest and forest relations in CHT since British rule have changed and shaped agrarian relations of the hill peoples and their relations to power. As such, this dissertation explores forest history in relation to an ‘ethnically’ different and ‘small group’ of population living within a nation-state so as to understand how nature/environment is constituted as a terrain of governmental power, subject formation, and state building. The analysis is informed by Michel Foucault’s ideas of discourse, power and knowledge; Peter Vandergeest’s and Nancy Peluso’s theory of territorialization and political forests; K. Sivaramakrishnan’s critical work on the production of colonial state, society, and knowledge in a forested region of colonial Bengal, and Tania Li’s and Arun Agrawal’s theoretical and ethnographic work on governmentality, indigenous communities, and resource struggles. The chapters of this dissertation are organized around the political regimes of Britain, Pakistan and Bangladesh, highlighting continuities and discontinuities in the making and remaking of political forests. Throughout the chapters, there run several underlying themes: opposition to jhum cultivation; development; environmental change; and social forestry. These overlapping themes take distinct forms in relation to the discourse of political forests at each conjuncture of a particular historical development. Through this analysis, this dissertation argues that the ethnic conflicts in CHT are rooted in the policies and practices of political forests, in particular industrialization of forest resources that resulted in the dispossession and marginalization of hill ii peoples. However, the persistence of the conflict is primarily due to counter-insurgency developments, especially ‘social forestry.’ The dissertation illustrates how hill peoples’ political opposition to the state and forestry programs through insurgency and alternative development have, in fact, helped to create and expand political forests. While many scholars write accurately but too generally about the land issue as the crux of the prolem ethnic conflict and insurgecy in CHT, this dissertation explains not just that land is problem, but why and how land is problem. In sum, this dissertation contributes to the rich scholarship in South Asian historical political ecology, with a focus on Bangladesh and the emerging field ‘Zomia Studies.’ The dissertation aims to deepen our understanding of the relations between violence, forests and development in CHT and addresses the absence of ethnographic research on ethnic conflict in the CHT in general, and on issues of its forests and lands in particular in Bangladesh. iii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to Shammi Akter, my loving wife, and to Somprite W. Chowdhury, my wonderful daughter. I could not have done this without them. iv Acknowledgements This dissertation has taken me a long time to complete and I have accumulated many personal debts over the years. Therefore, it is time for me to acknowledge and show my appreciation for the support and kindness that I have received. First and foremost, I am deeply appreciative of the kindness and friendship shown to me by the hill peoples of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). Though I cannot list the names of many wonderful individuals, I hope this dissertation in some small ways may be of use and interest to forest villagers in the Reserved Forests as well villagers in Mouzas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Those who I can name include Raja Devasish Roy, the Chakma chief; Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, the Chairman of the Regional Council; Amlan Chakma, ex-executive Director of Taungya; Dr. Paras Khisa, a member of Taungya; Dipayan Khisa, an indigenous political activist; Ganendu Bikas Chakma, a prominent author of CHT; and Goutam Dewan and Sudatta Bikash Tanchangya of the Committee for the Protection of Forest and Land Rights (CPFLR). I would like to express my sincere thanks to these wonderful individuals for their time and help during my fieldwork in CHT. The Forest Department, in particular the Dhaka Head Office, Lama Divisional Office, and Matamuhuri Range Office, was extremely supportive of this dissertation research, providing me with support as well as access to field sites and office documents. Deputy Chief Conservator of Forest Haradhan Bonik, and Assistant Conservators Mamuhda Rokhsana Sultana and Abdullah Abraham Hossain, were exceedingly helpful in securing the permission of the Forest Department for this research. Nasim Aziz, IUCN, Bangladesh and Shamshul Haq Chowdhury, Ranger, Matamuhuri Forest Range, helped enormously with ideas and resources. v The staff of the following libraries and archives helped me to find books, documents, and reports: Forest Library, Dhaka Head Office; National Archives, Dhaka; The Deputy Commissioner Office Library, Rangamati; Tribal Cultural Institute, Rangamati; Regional Council Office Library, Rangamati; Head Office Library, Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation, Dhaka; Forest Research Institute Library, Chittagong; Dhaka University Central Library, Dhaka; and Resource Sharing Department, Scott Library, York University, Toronto. This research was facilitated by financial assistance I received from the International Development Research Centre (Doctoral Research Award), Canada, and from the Faculty of Graduate Studies (Fieldwork Cost Fund) of York University. This research also benefited from opportunities of work and intellectual engagement at the York Centre for Asian Research as well as through an internship program of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada with Research and Development Collectives, Dhaka. My greatest debt is to Shubhra Gururani, my supervisor throughout my doctoral program. Shubhra has been a constant intellectual inspiration, and has offered me invaluable advice each step of the way. I am deeply grateful for her support, guidance and encouragement over the years, and for the insightful critical perspectives she brought to my work. I am also grateful to Peter Vandergeest and Malcolm Blincow, my supervisory committee members, for their intellectual contributions to this dissertation as well as for their encouragement and support. In particular, I have benefited immensely from Peter Vandergeest’s thoughtful discussion and provocative comments during my writing of this dissertation. I have enjoyed warm friendship and incredibly generous support from Malcolm Blincow throughout my doctoral program. In the Department of Anthropology at York University, Professors Daniel Yon, Daphne Winland, Albert Schrauwers, David Murray and Naomi Adelson, have facilitated my program in vi various ways that deserves many thanks. My fellow graduate students and friends Caglayan Ayhan-Day, Radhika Johari, Amanda Latimer, Nadine Quehl, and very specially Karl Schmid and Ian Cosh, helped to sustain me in the program. I wish to thank to Sadat Reza, a fellow graduate student of the Department of Economics, York University, for friendship and support for my research. In Bangladesh, I am grateful to Haji Boshir and Ms. Bosir of Chokoria, Cox’s Bazar for their hospitality, and Ahmed Kamal, Mesbhah Kamal, Abul Barakat and Sadeka Halim at the University of Dhaka and Ar Raji at the University of Chittagong for their support for my research. Special thanks to Kamal Ahmed Chowdhury, Abdul Gani, Hasan Bakth Chowdhury, Belayeth Hussain, and Anwar Hossain in the Department of Sociology; Narayan Chandra Saha in the Department of Forestry; and Abul Fozol Zakaria in the Department of Anthropology at Shah Jalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet. Thanks to Arafat Alam and Nipom Chakma for their work as research assistants during the fieldwork, and to Al-Amin Rabbi, Sebok Kumar Saha and Golam Kabir for their assistance during and after the fieldwork. Mohamad Jahirul Islam at the Department of Criminology and Police Science, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, deserves a special mention; he worked as a research assistant after my fieldwork and helped to collect resources during my writing of this dissertation. I am immensely grateful to Tania Li, my MA supervisor at Dalhousie University, and Kerry Chamber and Animesh Dutta, my friends and fellow graduates of Dalhousie University, for their enduring support, care and encouragement. Finally, there are Amena Chowdhury, my mother, Shammi Akter, my wife, and Sompritee Chowdhury, my daughter. I could not imagine accomplishing any of this without you. Thank you so much for being with me! vii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication .....................................................................................................................................
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