The book, The Partition and The Chakmas is an unpublished and unedited compilation of the written works of Sri Sneha Kumar Chakma, the uncelebrated, forgotten and unsung hero of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). This book has been brought into publication by his son, Deepak Kumar Chakma. It highlights his active participation in the freedom struggle and his role and efforts for the merger of illegal award of CHT to Pakistan from the Indian domain. It also highlights the genesis of sufferings and problems meted out to the unfortunate Chakma population in the backdrop of partition.
The author, D.K Chakma, is the son of Mr. Sneha Kumar Chakma. He has written extensively about his father’s ideals, thoughts and writings. He did his graduation from Calcutta University with English Honors in 1976. He served in several capacities, including that of Legislative Secretary in Chakma District Council, Mizoram and in Ministry of Defense and the Indian Railway Traffic Service (Civil Services) after his graduation.
As a book reviewer, I could understand how the genesis of problems and sufferings of the Chakmas came about after the Partition of undivided India. British India was to be divided on the basis of the Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Two Nation Theory, which states that the Hindu dominion territory should remain in Hindustan and Muslim majority areas to Pakistan. India got independence on 15th August 1947 dividing into two nations – India and East-West Pakistan.
But contrary to this theory, the Bengal Boundary Commission headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe awarded Chittagong Hill Tracts to Pakistan – which was also utterly against the Independence Act of India in 1947 passed by the British Parliament. The people and the Chakma tribe who were loyal and patriotic of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) hoisted the tricolor national flag at Rangamati Headquarter in the presence of the then Deputy Commissioner, Col. G.L Hyde on 15th August 1947 (Independence Day) thinking that they were within the Indian domain. They celebrated and rejoiced this occasion just like the rest of India. In fact, the Indian flag stayed unfurled for six days from 15th August to 20th August 1947. The CHTs comprised of 97 % non-Muslim population. But all of a sudden, when the jawans of the Baluch army of Pakistan unfurled their national flag on 21st August, the people in CHT came to know that they were no more in the territory of India and the army had taken over.
Sneha Kumar Chakma played an important role to reunite CHT with India – as 97% population were non-Muslims and wanted to live with Indian brothers and sisters. He was even prepared to fight against the illegal award of CHT to Pakistan and met Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the then Deputy Home Minister of India and Pandit Nehru, the then Prime Minister of free India for military help to reunite CHT and bring them back to India taking into account the willingness of people to live with India. But he did not receive any positive response from both – rather the then PM jumped up from his chair and thundered – “Do you propose to bring India again under Foreign Rule?” The Prime Minister’s resentment made him desperate and this finally threw all non-Muslims into the mouth of the theocratic rules. SK Chakma too did go back to CHT thinking that he would be able to liberate CHT and his people.
Even before independence, in order to highlight this issue, S.K Chakma had represented many memorandums to National Congress leaders including Pandit Nehru, Hindu Mahashaba, conferences and boundary commission, but in spite of scores of repeated representations by him, they failed to address the issue, which Sri Chakma ironically termed “Himalayan blunder” leading thousands of Chakmas and non-Muslims into the age of deep darkness. Maybe Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose and even Indira Gandhi were sympathetic towards the movement, but all their sympathy and S.K. Chakma’s efforts went in vain. His (Sneha Kumar) sincere efforts in protecting the interests of CHT during and after the Indian partition have been portrayed well, which is very obvious in the power of his pen which he kept using till the very end of his life.
As of today, the people from the Chittagong Hill Tracts are the worst affected victims of partition. They do not want to be in an alien country, nor can they live as legal citizens in their own country (India) – where they are now treated as refugees. This is a terrible injustice for the eighth sister of the Northeast , a 97% non-Muslim area, which had no desire whatsoever to be thrown into Pakistan, nor was there any proper justification for this to happen, considering the fact that the area and its people had no history of trouble-making.
Allegedly, numerous gangrapes were also committed and many Chakmas were murdered. And finally, encroachment into their land commenced. The Shanti Bahini was formed in the year 1973 to forestall this encroachment, but the Chakmas who put up a brave resistance died a pitiable death. Only in 1997, a Peace Accord was signed between Sheikh Hasina’s government and the people of CHT to maintain peace and tranquility and gave limited autonomy yet to be fully implemented. Many people born after India gained independence are indifferently unaware of the part played by the Chakmas/CHT in the freedom struggle.
I would like to jot down his famous quote,
“If I tell you all that my people have faced, blood, and not tears will flow out of my eyes. Years of genocide have desensitized us. Driven out of Bangladesh, the Chakma Buddhists are a persecuted and homeless people today. The influx of these tribal refugees from the Chittagong Hill Tracts to Indian states remained unabated and most of them refusing to return home because they fear for their lives.”
These quotations show how the Chakma faced atrocities in the hands of theocratic rulers. This book also covered the writings of S.K Chakma on Buddhism as the world religion which was presented at various international seminars.
The book was written in the form of semi-biographical narrative of his inspiring life. The author has narrated all the important events in Sri Sneha Kumar Chakma’s entire life, incorporating the articles, confidential documents and letters, photographs as annexure in the book. This makes it a valuable piece of history that would definitely grace the bookshelves of readers interested in the true picture of a brave sect of people lost to the world, all by a ruthless stroke of a pen held by an indifferent Britisher called Radcliffe. But very few of these photographs are invisible.
Now, I would conclude this review by saying that the genesis of the problems of the Chakmas had been escalated in the backdrop the partition of India – following the illegal award of CHT to Pakistan which was against the wishes of the people – though they fought for the independence of India. But instead of independence, they were thrown into the hands of the theocratic ruler of Pakistan. In spite of several memorandums and presentation, the issue remained unheard and utterly neglected and had it been solved before independence with efforts from Indian leaders, Chakmas would not have been the worse victims of Radcliffe’s illegal award.
However, the CHT was an excluded area under the Government of India Act, 1935 by the British for administrative convenience, due to which the Indian leaders did not pay attention to CHT. But they still could have exerted pressure on British government over the issue. I felt some anguish as I found about the ways in which the Chakma tribe ceded to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) against their wishes and desires. I was also disturbed at how the genesis of problems following the partition made worse victims out of the Chakma people. Every effort of becoming part of India, and sincere efforts made for the freedom of India went in vain. Therefore, the Chakmas as one of the tribes, are the worst victims of the partition, especially the award of CHT to Pakistan and Government of India owes to Chakmas and other tribes for such a big blunder resulting in separation from India in spite of being non-Muslims and against the Independence Act of India 1947.