The population of Bangladesh is close to 160
million, making it the most densely populated country in the world, with
the exception of several city-states. On a per sq km basis, it is three times
more populated than Indian and seven times more populated than China.
Nevertheless, what is not well known is that there are several other sizable
areas in the world which are just crowded- Java(Indonesia’s principal island),
for example, has a population density equal to Bangladesh’s.
Despite the density of population, rural
Bangladesh is only beginning to feel crowded. There aren’t endless sprawls of
depressing slums and industrial wastelands, mainly because land is too precious
to sprawl over and industrial development is still fairly low. The countryside
is green and lovely and the air is clean. Anyone flying from Kathmandu or Delhi
will see a market visual difference in the air quality.
The country’s family planning program has been
remarkably successful. Fertility rates have declined dramatically, from 6.3
births per women in 1975 to 3.4% by 1993. The average desired family size
is now under three children. The average population growth rate was down to
2.3%in 1995 and was well below the economic growth rate. The use
of contraceptives grew from 19% in 1981 to 45% in 1995, significantly
higher than in India. Despite this successful decline in population growth, the
country’s population is expected to double in another 35 to 40 years,
eventually leveling off between 230 and 280 million people. Perhaps because of
their country’s bloody birth, the proud nationalism of Bangladeshis extends to
their concept of themselves as a people. It seems a bit forced, but some
academics here argue that Bangladeshis have always been a separate
cultural and even racial unit on the subcontinent. This is somewhat fancifully
stretched to include the tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and is used
as a justification for their forced integration into the main stream culture.
It took the Aryan invaders 1000 years to tame the jungles of the
Genetic plain and reach Bengal, and on the way the meat-eating warriors evolved
into contemplative Hindus. It is claimed that the jungles of the delta but were
not initially conquered. Here, their culture developed and, as one author
put it, ‘unlike many other Dravidian tribes the bangs…were intelligent, imaginative
eand nomadic’. The late arrival of the by now less aggressive Brahmin culture
resulted in integration with the locals, rather than conquest and outcast
status as happened to other aboriginal tribes on the subcontinent. The
Bangladeshi pride in ancestry is balanced by the Islamic slant of intellectual
life which tends to deny the achievements of the preceding Buddhist and
Hindu cultures. The antipathy to Hinduism isn’t just religious it was the Hindu
zaminders’ lifestyle of ‘wine and women’ isn’t approved of(nor is song in some
fundamentalist circles), and the Tantric overtones of Buddhism are regarded as depraved.
Bangladesh has been a melting pot of peoples and culture for a very long time.
Peoples from Myanmar and the Himalaya, Dravidians (the
original inhabitants of the subcontinent), and the invading Aryans made up
the first blend of people here. With the arrival of the Mughals, people
from all over the Islamic world settled here. The Dravidians, with their racial
origins in the Deccan Plateau, are mainly Hindus and constitute about 12%
of the population. The Muslims, who make up 87%, are of Dravido-Aryan origin.
The original tribal people still exist, mainly in the Chittagong Hill
Tracts, though they now number less than 1% of the total population. Many
of the tribes have been converted to Christianity, although animism still
strongly influences their beliefs and practices.
The Tibet-Burmese inhabitants are mainly Buddhists
and less than 1% of the population is Christian. The Muslims and Hindus
have a cultural affinity with West Bengal and speak Bangla,while the Buddhists
have their own distinct culture and dialects related mainly to that of
Burma and tribal culture of eastern India. Apart from the tribal people, the
Christian people here mostly have Portuguese names and are usually
English-speakers.
The family sticks together, even in the more
westernized middle classes, and most people have a ‘home village” to which
they return on weekends or holidays. This so pervasive that an
unquestionable excuse for, say, your laundry not being returned on time is
‘the room boy has gone to his home village’. The tribal population of
Bangladesh numbers almost one million. They live generally in the hilly
regions north of Mymensingh, the Sylhet area, and more than half a million
are concentrated in the wooded Chittagong hill Tracts. Others live in
urban areas such as Chittagong and cox’sBazar. The tribes living in the
Hill Tracts of Chittagong include the Chakmas, Moghs, Mrus, Murungs,
Lushais, Kukis, Bams, Tripuras, Saks, Tangchangyas, shandus, Banjugis and
the Panhars. The Chakmas constitute the major tribe here, and next to
them are the Moghs, who are also found in Cox’s Bazar and the Khepupara
region near Patuakhali. These tribes are sometimes collectively known as
Jhumias, from jhum, their method of slash-and-burn agriculture. Because
vast areas of their territory now lie under the waters of Kaptai Lake, and
because of land appropriation by plains settlers,their sustainable 10 year
rotation of cultivation has been cut to there, which doesn’t give the
forest time to regenerate properly. The tribes in the Sylhet Hills-the
Khasis, pangous and the Mnipuris – usually havetheir settlement on the hilly
frontier area at the foot of the Khasi-Jaintia Hills. Some of them have
become businesspeople and jewelers in Sylhet. The Garos, Hanjongis, Hadis,
Dahuis, Palais and the Bunas live in the hilly regions north of Mymensingh
in Haluaghat, Sreebardi, Kalmaknda and the Garo Hills, and some live west
of Mymensingh around the Madhupur forests. Other tribal groups, such as
the Santals, Oraons, Hus, Mundus and Rajbansis, are scattered in urban
settlements in Rangpur, Dinajpur, Bogra, Rajshahi, Noakhali, Comilla and
Bakerganj. The tribes in the Mymensingh Hills were originally nomads from the
eastern states of India and this in the Chittagong Hill Tracts originate
from Myanmar. The tribal groups have their own distinct culture, art,
religion beliefs, superstitions, farming methods and attire. Many of the tribes
are Buddhist, though some still retain their animist religion which,
to some extent, has been influenced by Hinduism. Centuries ago, the
offering of human sacrifices was part of the ritual of some tribes who
believed that slaying another man endowed the slayer with the victim’s attributes.
Rice and wine are staple food of these hill people, but include in the tribal
menu are snakes, beetles, crabs, fish, snails, pigs, dogs, buffaloes,
deer, ants, and chickens. Many of the tribes influenced by Hinduism, along
with the Chakmas, Moghs and Marmas who are Buddhist, cremate their dead.
Others, such as the Khasis, bury their dead and place headstones on their
graves. The dwellings of the hill people are usually bamboo huts, either on
stilts or flat on the ground, and their farming methods are ancient. Some still
retain curious traditional customs such as the stone-lifting ceremony of
the Khasis, which may have originated from Tibet or even the northern
mountain areas of Pakistan. Many of the tribes still have very little
contact with the outside world, but as modern civilization begins to
encroach on their territories, more and more of the younger villagers are
moving to the urban areas for employment. The Chakmas, for instance, now
make saris and tribal jewellery and have established or joined weaving
industries. They have begun to accept western education and clothing, and
even use western medicine in lieu of herbs and mantras. Within the
broad racial group of the plains people who make up the vast majority of
Bangladesh are subgroups who, although apparently integrated into the
culture, continue to live strikingly different lives. The Baurs, for
example, are wandering beggars whose sexual freedom is abhorred by the
mainstream, but they are good musicians and are welcomed at wedding and
parties..bmp)
.bmp)
