Epilogue

Abstract

Everyday life goes on, but it is changing — and not for the better. Not only is the fertility of the land decreasing — land upon which too many people’s existence is already dependent — but the hill people’s right to the land itself is being disputed. As a result of the building of the Kaptai dam in the Chakma region, the hill people had already been forced to squeeze more closely together; yet because there were still fifteen times more people per square mile on the plains than in the Hill Tracts the government concluded — without taking into consideration the ecological differences of the two areas — that there should still be ample opportunity for landless Bangalis to settle in the hill region. As early as 1960, therefore, the government began to settle additional people in the outer edges of the Tracts. Still, the immigration policy became legalized only in 1964, when the restrictions imposed by the British on non-indigenous peoples were lifted, while at the same time the Hill Tracts were declared off-limits for foreigners.