The book reveals the faces of Bangladesh’s hidden and unrecognized ethnic communities and allows us a peak into their daily lives and different aspects of their existence and culture. The album features portraits of individuals from various ethnic communities and depicts key aspects of their lives including their often gruelling working conditions, their colourful and eclectic cultural rituals and traditions as well as their continuing struggle for recognition of their basic rights.

This book is a perfect guide for those seeking a visually appealing and approachable introduction to Bangladesh’s ethnic communities. It presents one of the most comprehensive listings of and introduction to ethnic communities in Bangladesh—80 communities in the tea gardens and 43 in the plains outside the tea gardens and those in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The album is clearly a labour of love and the product of a long and exhaustive research process.

One community that is particularly highlighted are the tea communities of Sylhet, Maulvibazar, Hobiganj and Chittagong, where inhabitants represent ethnic communities from throughout the subcontinent, the descendants of indentured labourers who were brought to Bangladesh by the British tea garden owners to work the land. This book transcends the superficial scenic beauty of these locations and delves deeper into the realities of their lives and their continued exploitation and marginalization.

The key message of this book is clear: Bangladesh’s small and little-known ethnic communities contribute to Bangladesh’s cultural diversity and richness and should be recognized, celebrated and protected. Their vulnerability and oppression must be acknowledged and alleviated so that Bangladesh can move towards a path of just and inclusive development.

Lack of political protection is a common problem that the religious minorities and excluded groups face in Bangladesh where ‘Islam’ is the state religion and all people are identified as ‘Bangalees’. Besides, the ethnic conflicts between the indigenous peoples and the Bengalee settlers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) have not been resolved. Explaining factualevidences, the author also stresses the actions that the state and other actors should adopt to exploreway forward and opportunities for change.

Philip Gain, the author, surveys the links between the socially and economically marginalized and excluded population and political governance in Bangladesh. The author provides a map of the excluded groups in Bangladesh and examines the factors leading to political and social exclusions.

This paper [now updated and published by Society for Environment and Human Development] was first published by Manohar Publishers and Distributors in Delhi, India in 2015 in ‘Political Institutions and Conflict: Essays from Bangladesh and India’.

By Philip GainEnglish,
PBK 80 pages, 2015
Price: Tk. 150 US$5

“The most romantic corner of the country” the CHT, very different from the Ganges-Brahmaputra Meghna (GBM) floodplains and delta, “is beset with environmental and social problems,” observes Prof. Haroun Er Rashid, the geography guru and a contributor to the report. He stresses on the fragility of the region and warns, “If resources of the CHT continue to be used unwisely, as at present, the environment will degrade severely in the next ten years. To prevent that bleak future every resource—trees, rocks, water, soil etc.—will have to be used in a sustainable manner.” Other contributors reinforce Prof. Rashid’s contention.

Different chapters of the report deal with geography and environment, forests, official and illegal logging, plantation [economy], environmental impacts of development projects [Karnaphuli Paper Mill and Kaptai Hydroelectricity in particular] land grabbing, serfdom in the colonial reserves, pillage of the reserved forests (special attention to Reingkhyong, Kassalong, Sangu, and Matamuhuri reserved forests), village common forestry (VCF), bamboo [with an attention to its flowering and rat flood], traditional use of medicinal plants, wildlife [animals and birds] and their threats,  brick-burning, invasion of tobacco, timber and furniture trade, water, stone mining, houses, traditional foods of the indigenous peoples, and impacts of militarization.

An annotated bibliography of books, reports and documentary films on the CHT and the glossary, concepts, and theories relating to the CHT bring useful practical tips for further research and investigation on the CHT environment. We believe this report will guide people to understand the ecological disaster that has happened in the CHT. At the same time, it comes as an eye-opener to the state and the majority who can still play the role in saving the last bits and pieces of nature and repairing the nexus of nature and human beings.

Contributors to the Book: Prof. Haroun Er Rashid, Jenneke Arens, Raja Devasish Roy, Raja Tridiv Roy (late), Philip Gain, Sudibbya Kanti Khisha, Sardar Nasiruddin, M. Monirul H. Khan, Ronald R. Halder, Sayam U. Chowdhuruy, Buddhajyoti Chakma, Partha Shankar Saha, Prof. Sadeka Halim, Asfara Ahmed, Han Han, A.K.M. Muajjam Hossain Russel, Tahmid Huq Easher, Shekhar Kanti Ray, Md. Safiullah Safi, Syeda Nusrat Haque, Supriyo Chakma, Alimul Haque, Robert Alec Lindeman, Asif Khan, Tania Sultana, Ushing Prue, Nimaprue Marma, Ching Mo Sang, Lucky Chakma, and Ainud Sony.

Edited by Philip Gain
English PBK 368 pages, 2013
Price: Tk. 500 US$20

Bangladesh is amazingly green. However, at the same time, it is a forest-poor country. Officially, 18% of the country (2.6 million hectares) is public forestland. This is the same area of land mass recorded as forestland when the Forest Act of 1927 was framed. However, in reality, approximately only 6% is said to be covered by forests. This includes plantations of 403,458 ha since 1873. According to the Forest Department estimate of 2001, it controls 10.3 per cent of the land surface.

This book, a compendium, is about the forests of Bangladesh and the peoples who live there and how they are affected by the continued pillaging of our forest resources. Most of the adivasis of Bangladesh lived in the forests at one time. The forests were their commons and they had no trouble making a living out of jum (slash and burn or swidden) agriculture, hunting, and gathering. But today, the state has taken control of what used to be their ancestral land. The state laws, rules, and institutions no longer recognize their communal ownership. The state has also sponsored the migration and settlement of Bangalees into the forests that has caused severe environmental degradation and has displaced communities indigenous to the forests. Development projects and monoculture plantations on the forestland have also progressively exhausted the forest resources and deprived the forest dependent communities of their free access to the commons.

The Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD), from its inception in 1993, has paid special attention to issues concerning forests and forest-dwelling communities who are faced with enormous difficulties as a result of the degradation of forests, the denial of customary rights and the invasion of monoculture plantations. Since the publication of the second edition of this book in 1998, the damaging practices on forestland have escalated up to the point of no return. SEHD has continuously documented the consequences of these damaging practices with special emphasis on plantation projects and has engaged a great deal of its time and resources in working with indigenous communities. Although it was too late in many respects, the international financial institutions (Asian Development Bank and World Bank) did eventually stop funding plantation projects in Bangladesh since 2007. However, irrecoverable damage had already been done. The adivasis or indigenous peoples continue to face hostility from the state and witness their access to land and forest resources continue to diminish.

The third edition, enriched with many new reports, stories, and analyses, will help its readers better understand forest related issues as well as the life and struggle of the peoples who still cling to the forests materially, culturally, and psychologically.

A galaxy of researchers, writers, and journalists who have contributed write-ups and reports to this book present facts, anecdotes, and analyses about the degradation of forests, its underlying factors, and how the forest dependent communities are severely threatened on their ancestral land.

Contributors to the book: Kibriaul Khaleque, Ph.D. (late), Philip Gain, Raja Devasish Roy, Mohiuddin Farooque Ph.D. (late), Mizanur Rahman (late), Brother Jarlath D’Souza, Abigail Haworth, Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan, Amy Koenig, Partha Shankar Saha, Shekhar Kanti Ray, and Debashish Majumder.

Publication Details

Published: 2013
Language: English
Paperback: 284 pages
Edited by: Philip Gain
Price: Tk.300 / US$15

Land is like gold in Bangladesh. Per capita cultivable land in the country is about 0.2 acres, which is one of the lowest in the world. The forest, another vital need of Bangladesh is also very limited.  In 1927, when the Indian Forest Act of 1878 was revised, and which is still in force in the Indian sub-continent, Bangladesh was around 20 per cent covered by forests. But the cover has now shrunk to about 6%. Per capita forest land in Bangladesh has come down to .022 hectares, which is said to be the lowest in the world. The annual deforestation rate in the country is alarming—3.3% compared to 0.6% in South Asia.

The miserably limited forest resources and rapid deforestation have severe impacts on forest dwelling ethnic people. Plantations and other development activities are making their life difficult instead of giving them economic salvation. Who is responsible for this precarious condition? Who can save the last stands and the forest people? How do the forest people relate to the trees? What are their rights?

A host of contributors have attempted to provide answers to these questions in the book, Bangladesh: Land, Forest and Forest People. The writers who include anthropologists, environmentalists, lawyers, journalists and human rights activists who have all merged into one voice: Bangladesh’s forest and forest people need care and protection.

Publication Details

Published: 1998 (2nd edition)
Language: English
Paperback: 187 pages
Editor: Philip Gain
Price: Tk.250 / US$10

This is a report of a national conference on issues concerning the ethnic communities of Bangladesh. The report compiles information and reflections on Adivasi issues such as their identity question; constitutional recognition; civil, political and cultural rights; land rights; access to education; and customary rights over forest resources. The conference was a follow-up of a number of national events and research on Adivasi issues. Four organizations—Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD), National Adivasi Roundtable Conference Committee (NARTCC) that was formed at the end of a SEHD seminar, London-based Minority Rights Group (MRG); and Bangladesh Indigenous and Hill Peoples’ Association for Advancement (BIHPAA) jointly organized the national roundtable conference from 18 to 20 December 1997.

Publication Details

Published: 1996
Language: Bangla
Paperback: 76 pages
Editor: Philip Gain and Shishir Moral
Price: Tk.100 / US$5