Lecture by Nasrin Siraj, PhD candidate, Social and Cultural Anthropology Department, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.
Historically, the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) within today’s nation state Bangladesh have been inhabited by a dozen of distinct ethnic groups. The independence of these hill peoples ended long before Bangladesh was declared as a nation state in 1971. But the 1980s mark a critical moment when the political situation in the CHT worsened ultimately: The governmental launch of a huge relocation programme of Bengali people from the lowlands into the hill areas caused a series of genocides, armed conflicts, and displacements. Human rights organisations define the present situation as de facto military rule in which, ironically, both locals and immigrants feel uncertain, insecure, and excluded.
This lecture focuses not so much on the complex historical political developments, but on how people with different ethnic identities as well as socio-economic and political positions have been living under these processes of state, nation, and border making. In her lecture, Nasrin Siraj will present ethnographic material that she collected during field research in the CHT.
The speaker will talk on Zoom; we will broadcast the lecture in our auditorium.
