Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Hum.), Vol. 63(1), 2018, pp. 39-58 BANGALI ANTHROPOLOGIST AMONG 'PAHARI' COMMUNITIES: RESHAPING AND RELOCATING 'SELF' IN THE FIELD WORK Zobaida Nasreen* Abstract Research on indigenous people by a non-indigenous researcher is always a challenging and sensitive task. Especially in the Chittagong Hill Tract (CHT), a Bengali researcher is always treated as an ‘outsider’ due to the historical background of CHT. Due to the prolonged conflict over 25 years the CHT became highly politicized and was drawn into the armed conflict between Bangladesh army and Shanti Bahini (SB), the armed wing of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS) in varied and complex ways. The relationship between ‘Pahari (Bengalis in the CHT call all Indigenous people collectively as Pahari)-Bengali’, ‘Bengali- Bengali’ is always contested in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The contested relationship contributes to the dynamics of politics of the CHT that the CHT researchers mostly overlooked in their discourse of ‘Bengali –Pahari’. However, this paper explains how I myself grew up within some constructions, and how this has affected my position on research about the CHT. However, while discussing the points in locating the fields, I want to make the point that doing field work in one’s home country is never an easy endeavour, where there are challenges of the ‘insider- outsider’ dilemma, trust-distrust and negotiations between the researcher and participants belonging to different cultural backgrounds, all of which shape the outcome of everyday fieldwork. It also highlights how one can do fieldwork in the midst of the potentiality of ever present terror, fear and violence. Introduction This paper analyses the negative representation of the indigenous people which was propelled by rumours and incorrect information during a time of media censorship in the CHT. This also highlights how my subject position was affected in response to these stereotypes that I was socialised in. There are the three different constructions about the indigenous community that are prevalent in Bangladesh: as part of the national narrative of beautiful Bangladesh and yet that there are no 'adibasi' in Bangladesh: as having a negative image in terms of food, clothing, housing; not being civilised, and terrorists and members of left liberal civil society; and as activist indigenous women and as victims of state and army violence through the lens of 'Pahari' vs Bangali which is limiting and skewed. This paper explains how I myself * Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Dhaka E-mail: [email protected] 40 Zobaida Nasreen grew up within these three constructions, and how this has affected my position on research about the CHT. ‘You people eat snake, pork, frog and dog’s meat, how come?’ This was one of the most common questions that most of my indigenous friends encountered in their childhood when they met any Bangali. The representations were derogatory in the text books, i.e. they represented the indigenous people as 'primitive'.1For example stating that 'Mro Upajati' people kills cows because they believe that their religious text has been eaten by cows. Text books were the only source of information about these ‘non-Bangali’ people. But the old stories have been replaced by new representations or prejudices. For example, the indigenous food 'nappi' (dry fish paste) is regarded negatively by Bangali people because of its strong smell. Regarding their dress, the distinction made between 'modern' and cultural dress is negative toward indigenous culture. The design of' indigenous housing is also negatively represented in the text book, leading my niece to ask me, "Won’t these houses look funny if they are highly elevated?". She had read in her text book that ‘In general, the houses of Tripura are better elevated than the houses of Chakma and Marma’ (Bangladesh and Global Studies, class V, p.100). Why Chakma and Marma houses are highly elevated is not explained in the book. Regarding indigenous modes of agricultural production, the text book states "The method that they follow in cultivation is called "Jhum". At present, they are getting used to the usual process of cultivation". (Bangladesh and Global Studies, class VIII, p.102). From the perspective of Bangali people ‘Jhum’ (Slash and Burn) cultivation is depicted with negative connotations as an 'unusual' process. These representations of indigenous people are not limited to the text books. Banglapedia, the National Encyclopaedia of Bangladesh, under the heading 'Tribal culture' uses derogatory language to describe the indigenous people: "Some tribes living in the deep forests of the Chittagong Hill Tracts still wear tree leaves as their only dress ... The tribals eat everything except their totems. The Garos do not eat cats as the cat is their totem. Maghs, Chakmas and Khasias do not eat beef, and Garos do not drink milk. Magh and Chakma men and women are fond of smoking. Their favourite dishes are those that are sour and are made of dried prawns. Oraons eat rats, eels, potatoes and khesari pulses. Alcohol made of fermented rice is every tribe's favourite drink"2. Representations such as these have created a mindset among Bangali people which has led to an interpretation among them that ‘diversity’ stands for ‘other’ and 1 Social Science, text book for class III, 'upazatider kotha' published by Bangladesh Text Book and Curriculum Board, 1983, p. 87 2 http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php? title 'Tribal_Culture', last visit 12.2.2015 Bangali Anthropologist Among 'Pahari' Communities 41 ‘exotic’. For example, because the majority of Bangali Muslims treat pork as a religiously prohibited food, they look down on the fact that the indigenous people in the CHT eat pork. The Chakma writer Suvra Jyoti Chakma has protested about these representations by stating that the representation of the indigenous people in the text book for children should have been done in consultation with indigenous people. On the other hand, SB had always been portrayed in the media as a 'terrorist group’ responsible for the death of Bangali soldiers. This representation fanned Bangali nationalism against the indigenous people in the CHT. These representations are important in my research in order to understand the way institutional representations about the CHT people have influenced the attitudes of non-indigenous people outside the CHT. Foucault3 uses the term ‘discipline’ to refer to a type of power that is exercised by means of disciplinary institutions such as schools, prisons and hospitals. They present the mechanisms of domination as normal, natural and even desirable, which Foucault termed as ‘normalisation’. Power however is productive and not simply a negative force whose sole function is repression. He treats power as a net- like organization of relationships running through the whole social body. This analysis enables us to see that power is not concentrated in the state apparatus. The state has to rely on other knowledge-producing apparatuses to render its functioning possible. These knowledge-producing apparatuses could be the way these disciplinary organisations in CHT create an atmosphere of fear or the threat of violence to ensure subordination. Before CHT accord, outside of the official sources, the ‘Jummo Bulletin’ (a bulletin published by JSS) was the only source of news but it was not available in all places in Bangladesh. The army did not allow circulation of the bulletin to ordinary people even in the CHT. The people who visited after the massacres, wrote academically and presented CHT issues as Bengali-'Pahari'. After the peace accord was signed the situation had changed and now it is much better in terms of the spread of information, which is now faster through various social media (face book, twitter or other forms of online activism, on-the-spot reporting). Recently, 'Thengari’ (‘My Bicycle’ 2015) is the first feature film made completely in the Chakma language, directed by Aung Rakhine. The film centres on indigenous people, mainly the Chakma community. However, ‘My Bicycle’ will not see a commercial release inside Bangladesh since it was censored by the censorship authorities. Still others guess that ‘My Bicycle’ was censored due to its 'unfavourable' portrayal of the army. ‘My Bicycle’ is seen as a critique of state and army violence from the perspective of those who are considered to be “terrorists”, and it is the other stereotype of the CHT.4 3 Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, New York, Vintage Books, 1979 4 The Daily Star, Dhaka, 2 April 2015 42 Zobaida Nasreen Research on indigenous people by a non-indigenous researcher is always a challenging and sensitive task5. Gaining the trust of the people and access to the community is crucial especially when the researcher belongs, as I do, to the group (Bangali) that has been dominating and exploiting them and against whom they were fighting. Moreover, I am from Noakhali, the place where most of the Bangali settlers came from. I have spent a lot of time earning trust and I had to substantially revise and re-formulate my research plan. I spent approximately nine months in my different field areas and from the outset I sought the help and support of indigenous friends and acquaintances and the top leaders and leading organizations of the indigenous people. In some cases where it was necessary, my indigenous friends and associates accompanied me on field trips in the CHT. Re-shaping the Self in the Field In early October 2012, I returned to Bangladesh from the UK and was planning to do fieldwork for my PhD research. However, the political environment of the CHT (as the neighbouring district of Cox's bazar had communal strife a week before I went there) led me to reconsider my decision. Instead I decided to interview individuals in Dhaka who had been involved with the CHT issue for a long time (academics, activists, political leaders and some journalists).