Jumma people

The Jumma people is a collective term for the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts region of present-day Bangladesh. They include the Chakma, Marma, Tripuri, Tanchangya, Chak, Pankho, Mru, Bawm, Lushai, Khyang, Gurkha, Assamese, Santal, and Khumi.[1]

The name jumma ("jum farmer") is derived from jum cultivation, or slash-and-burn farming.[2] It is a reappropriated term originally used by outsiders.[3] They are also known as Pahari, which simply means "hill people".[4]

The Jummas are native speakers of Tibeto-Burman languages, unrelated to Bangla spoken by ethnic Bengalis. Religiously they are distinct as well, most being Buddhist, some Hindu and some are Christianized, with only a small number of having converted to Islam. In addition, they have retained some traditional religious practices.[5]

Persecution by Bengalis

Bengali settlers and soldiers have raped native Jumma (Chakma) women "with impunity" with the Bangladeshi security forces doing little to protect the Jummas and instead assisting the rapists and settlers.[6]

The indigenous Buddhist and Hindu Jummas of Sino-Tibetan background have been targeted by the Bangladeshi government with massive amounts of violence and genocidal policies as ethnic Bengali settlers swamped into Jumma lands, seized control and massacred them with the Bangladeshi military engaging in mass rape of women, massacres of entire villages and attacks on Hindu and Buddhist religious cites with deliberate targeting of monks and nuns.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Van Schendel, Willem (2001). Willem van Schendel, Erik J. Zurcher, ed. Identity Politics in Central Asia and the Muslim World. I.B.Tauris. p. 141. ISBN 978-1860642616.
  2. ↑ Roy, Rajkumari Chandra Kalindi (2000). Land Rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. IWGIA. p. 28. ISBN 978-87-90730-29-1.
  3. ↑ Ghanea-Hercock, Nazila; Xanthaki, Alexandra; Thornberry, Patrick (2005). Minorities, Peoples and Self-determination. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 115. ISBN 90-04-14301-7. It differentiates them from their plains neighbours and was initially used in a derogatory manner.
  4. ↑ International Labour Office (2000). Traditional occupations of indigenous and tribal peoples: Emerging trends. International Labour Organization. p. 78. ISBN 978-92-2-112258-6.
  5. ↑ Samaddar, Ranabir (2003-07-04). Refugees and the State: Practices of Asylum and Care in India. SAGE Publications. p. 251. ISBN 978-81-321-0377-6.
  6. ↑ McEvoy, Mark (3 April 2014). "Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh – rapists act with impunity". Survival International - The movement for tribal peoples.
  7. ↑ Iqbal, Jamil M. (2 November 2009). "The fate of the Chittagong Hill Tracts tribes of Bangladesh". In Defence of Marxism.
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