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Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 2
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh
Introduction
Indigenous people, no matter where they inhabit or used to inhabit, have always. The
situation of the indigenous people in the world is not encouraging. In our country, the existence
of the indigenous people is nothing but fighting each and every single day for their land and way
of life. It all started since the construction of Kaptai Dam to get hydroelectric power. The flood
created by this huge 11,000 km2 water body has washed away living places of countless
indigenous people in Chittagong Hill Tracts and forced many to immigrate to India. Still today,
the locals in those areas have not got any compensation for this loss (Varsi, 2008).
Recently, the issue of indigenous people has come into light with the incumbent
governments effort to amend constitution. If the amendments are passed, the constitution would
formally deny the existence of any indigenous people in this country. No doubt it is going to be a
further step to obstruct the hopes of the indigenous people living in this country.
It is not only the government but also the individuals of the country who are not much
concerned about indigenous rights. Many a time the teenagers and the youths living in city areas
of Bangladesh hold discriminatory ideas about the indigenous people.
While preparing my questionnaire, I tried to keep it in my mind. I am going to
conduct a survey on the idea the young hold about indigenous culture and for doing so I will try
to look into the respondents thoughts from different viewpoints. As culture is a pretty complex
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 3
thing and greatly dependant on numerous factors, my questionnaire will no doubt fail to some
extent to judge the indigenous culture from a holistic point of view. However, through my
questions I will try to have idea about the knowledge the young have about indigenous culture
and the way they interpret different cultural components. After that I will try to come up with a
conclusive idea that my questionnaire will enable me to do.
In addition, the research I am going to do is mainly going to be based on primary
sources. For doing so I have prepared a questionnaire to get respondents idea on some key
issues. It is always a hard task to measure and get a good understanding about what idea people
really hold on a subject. Reaching to the respondents and making them understand the issues a
questionnaire deals with is even harder when we deal with a relatively unfamiliar issue. The
issue of my research is the youths perception about the indigenous people and from my
experience I feel that it is really going to be a hard task for me as a big portion of the young
people still remains in complete darkness about the issue of indigenous peoples right, minority
oppression and ethnic discrimination.
It is needless to say that in almost all of the cases young generations lack of
knowledge is the major reason why they misinterpret the indigenous culture. Although the young
nowadays are adopting some indigenous ingredients (especially outfits and ornaments) in their
lifestyle, I believe it is purely something pushed by the fashion houses of the country to create
new trends in fashion. So, this popularization of indigenous culture cannot be deemed as a love
for indigenous culture.
When we think of getting peoples idea on a subject or issue it is always better to
judge the idea from different perspectives. While preparing my questionnaire, I tried to keep it in
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 4
my mind. I am going to conduct a survey on the idea the young hold about indigenous culture
and for doing so I will try to look into the respondents thoughts from different viewpoints. As
culture is a pretty complex thing and greatly dependant on numerous factors, my questionnaire
will no doubt fail to some extent to judge the indigenous culture from a holistic point of view.
However, through my questions I will try to have idea about the knowledge the young have
about indigenous culture and the way they interpret different cultural components. After that I
will try to come up with a conclusive idea that my questionnaire will enable me to do.
Indigenous People
Indigenous peoples, or Natives, are ethnic groups who are native to a land or region,
especially before the arrival and intrusion of a foreign and possibly dominating culture. They are
a group of people whose members share a cultural identity that has been shaped by their
geographical region. A variety of names are used in various countries to identify such groups of
people, but they generally are regarded as the "original inhabitants" of a territory or region. Their
right to self-determination may be materially affected by the later-arriving ethnic groups.
The adjective indigenous has the common meaning of "from" or "of the original
origin". Therefore, in a purely adjectival sense any given people, ethnic group or community
may be described as being indigenous in reference to some particular region or location
(Wikipedia).
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 5
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 6
parts of the world indigenous communities faced alteration of lifestyle and deprivation from
rights. The practice still prevails in many parts of the world till today (McColley, 1988).
Situation of Bangladeshi Indigenous Peoples
Like other parts of the world, indigenous peoples in Bangladesh are the most
disadvantaged, neglected and vulnerable people in the country. The Bangladesh government does
not have any formal policy for the development of indigenous populations. Indigenous peoples
have often faced eviction from their homelands in the name of development projects and
conservation such as dams, eco-parks, protected areas, reserve forest and even the establishment
of military bases on their ancestral and community land. Their land has been taken without their
consent. Their culture is treated as inferior in the country.
Over the years the indigenous peoples experienced a strong sense of social, political
and economic exclusion, lack of recognition, fear and insecurity, loss of cultural identity, and
social oppression. Mainstream development efforts have either ignored their concerns and/or had
a negative impact on them. Often issues and actions that affect them are not discussed with these
communities or organizations representing them. Thus they are subjected to stark socioeconomic deprivation. Mass relocation of non-indigenous people in the traditional adivasi/ethnic
minority areas has also caused land-grabbing, leading to livelihood displacement among the
indigenous peoples.
Grabbing the lands of indigenous peoples and minorities is the State policy in
Bangladesh. The government itself grabs the lands and also remains mute witness to land
grabbing by the mainstream Bengali populations who use different methods, including forging
documents and forcibly ousting indigenous peoples from their lands.
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 7
It is widely accepted that indigenous women are most vulnerable section of the
indigenous society. Indigenous women are traditionally considered as occupying a lower socioeconomic and political standing than their men, and they are encountering various forms of
human rights violation. Indigenous womens status is low in terms of the rights to inheritance,
legal and political rights, decision-making powers and other spheres. Indigenous women, except
Garo and Khasi women of matrilineal communities, have no rights to inheritance to property.
Questionnaire Analysis
During my survey I interviewed 25 female and 25 male. Most of them were between
the ages of 19-24. From the survey I got the idea about their overall view towards the indigenous
communities of Bangladesh.
Question 1: How many indigenous communities are there in Bangladesh?
25
20
15
10
5
0
40-45
20-25
30-35
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 8
they were given and the vertical axis graphs the respondents respective answers to the options.
The chart shows that 24 respondents think that there are 20-25 indigenous communities in our
country where 17 respondents think that there are 30-35 indigenous communities in our country.
Only 9 respondents know that there are 40-45 indigenous communities living in our country. So,
it is clear that very few of the young people know about all the indigenous communities of
Bangladesh.
Question 2: How do you view the indigenous people of Bangladesh?
25
20
15
10
5
0
Like us
Peace-loving
Terrorists
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 9
Question 3: What is your idea about what indigenous people think about Bangladesh?
25
20
15
10
5
0
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 10
20
15
10
5
0
Civilized
Little civilized
Not civilized
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 11
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Yes
No
No Idea
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 12
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Chittagong hill tracts Sylhet
Rajshahi
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 13
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Yes
No
Question 8: Do you ever feel a bit anxious when you think about visiting indigenous
communities?
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 14
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Yes
No
Question 9: Are you comfortable with making friendship with an indigenous person?
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 15
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Yes
No
Question 10: Do you know about the 11000 km2 flood created by Kaptai Dam that devastated
the habitats of the majority of indigenous communities?
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 16
50
40
30
20
10
0
Yes
No
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 17
50
40
30
20
10
0
Yes
No
From all the responses I have got from the respondent unveil a definite truth and it can
only be termed as an ethnocentric view about the indigenous peoples who inhabit in our country.
There can be various reasons behind this ethnocentric view and I would rather prefer to deal with
the findings along with some likely reasons behind these.
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 18
A majority of respondents (18 out of 50) believe indigenous people are terrorists. It
undoubtedly sounds a misconception or at least misinterpretation as no such occurrences
happened to say so. It is true once the indigenous group in CHT took part in armed
protests but it was a fight for earning their rights and lands but nothing to be called as
terrorism. The good thing is that almost 50% respondents (24 in number) believe
Indigenous people are human beings like us.
Another misconception many people hold about the indigenous people was also evident
in my survey. Except for 16 respondents, all other believe the tribal people of our country
do not think they belong to this country. In this age of satellite channels, many fail to
separate facts from fantasy. Maybe this is the reason why without being holding such an
unfriendly attitude, indigenous people are blamed for people who hate the country.
Sometimes people also mingle some other examples from other parts of the world and
view indigenous people all over the world from a same ground.
The major discriminatory view I have found from the respondents indigenous
communities is the thinking that they are less civilized than us and though the indigenous
people face a lot of discriminations, majority of the respondents poses no idea about it at
all. The reason is pretty clear, the young in our country lack proper knowledge about
what is going on in the country and they also judge the notion of civilization from an
ethnocentric point of view. When we talk about civilization nowadays, we only associate
the tools and products that make up our daily living. Otherwise, the respondents would
surely know that indigenous people are more civilized in many cases than us.
Many respondents portrayed their poor knowledge about the indigenous communities and
some are even fearful about visiting the indigenous lands because of the lack of security.
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 19
We need to ask where these tendencies are pushing us forward. If such thing goes on
practiced, we can only hope to make an ever increasing gap in between us and the
indigenous people.
Finally, when many people lack proper knowledge and understanding, it becomes hard
for them to see the reality. The responses from my survey showed teenagers and
youngsters in our city areas have eyes obscured by misinformation, misinterpretation and
even misguidance when they look at indigenous culture and communities,
Conclusion
I believe it is time for all of us not only for youths to judge things from different
points of views. If we like to see us as civilized beings, we must learn to judge things from
impartial grounds. When we talk about discrimination, culture or the fate of indigenous people,
we fail to see things from the points of indigenous people. For this reason, it should be our first
priority to change our view to see the reality. If we fail to understand the reality, no doubt
government will get the opportunity to practice so many discriminatory practices and there
would always be gainers out of these. Everything else being the same, we need to see all people
as same irrespective of their race, color or ethnicity. Otherwise, the notion We are civilized
would be the biggest lie.
References
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2011, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples#cite_note-worldbank410-2
Magne Ove Varsi (November, 2008). BANGLADESH: Indigenous People Still Face
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 20
Teenagers and Youths Ethnocentric view towards the Indigenous people of Bangladesh 21