Journal Article

The Chittagong Hill Tracts: A case study in the political economy of 'creeping' genocide

Levene, Mark

1999

Overview

The destruction of indigenous, tribal peoples in remote and/or frontier regions of the developing world is often assumed to be the outcome of inexorable, even inevitable forces of progress . People are not so much killed, they become extinct. Terms such as ethnocide, cultural genocide or developmental genocide suggest a distinct form of 'off the map' elimination which implicitly discourages comparison with other acknowledged examples of genocide. By concentrating on a little-known case study, that of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh, this article argues that this sort of categorisation is misplaced. Not only is the destruction or attempted destruction of fourth world peoples central to the pattern of contemporary genocide but, by examining such specific examples, we can more clearly delineate the phenomenon's more general wellsprings and processes. The example of the CHT does have its own peculiar features; not least what has been termed here its 'creeping' nature. In other respects, however, the efforts of a new nation-state to overcome its structural weaknesses by attempting a forcedpace consolidation and settlement of its one, allegedly, unoccupied resource-rich frontier region closely mirrors other state-building, developmental agendas which have been confronted with communal resistance. The ensuing crisis of state-communal relations, however, cannot be viewed in national isolation. Bangladesh's drive to develop the CHT has not only been funded by Western finance and aid but is closely linked to its efforts to integrate itself rapidly into a Western dominated and regulated international system. It is in these efforts 'to realise what is actually unrealisable' that the relationship between a flawed state power and genocide can be located.

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group,Carfax Publishing,Third World Foundation for Social and Economic Studies,Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subject: Agricultural land / Amnesty / Bangladesh / Bangladesh - ethnology / Case studies / Case Study / Continental Population Groups - education / Continental Population Groups - ethnology / Continental Population Groups - history / Continental Population Groups - legislation & jurisprudence / Continental Population Groups - psychology / Countries / Cultural genocide / Destruction / Developing countries / Development Strategies / Economic development / Elimination / Ethnic Groups - education / Ethnic Groups - ethnology / Ethnic Groups - history / Ethnic Groups - legislation & jurisprudence / Ethnic Groups - psychology / Finance / Genocide / Government / History, 20th Century / Homicide - economics / Homicide - ethnology / Homicide - history / Homicide - legislation & jurisprudence / Homicide - psychology / Humans / Indigenous peoples / Indigenous Populations / International system / LDCs / Massacres / Motivation / Native peoples / Political Economy / Political Systems - history / Political Violence / Resistance / Social Development / South Asian culture / State building / State Formation / State Power / State Society Relationship / Territories / Violence - economics / Violence - ethnology / Violence - history / Violence - legislation & jurisprudence / Violence - psychology / War Crimes - economics / War Crimes - ethnology / War Crimes - history / War Crimes - legislation & jurisprudence / War Crimes - psychology