Cultural displacement and identity crisis: the experiences of Bangladeshi indigenous students in predominantly Bengali urban centres

Abstract

Following the liberation war, Bangladeshis gained freedom from the oppressive rule of Pakistan, becoming citizens of a liberated nation. However, the hard-earned freedom translated differently for its indigenous population, living mostly in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). They have been facing a gradual but steady systematic marginalization and disempowerment, making it challenging for them to survive in an ethnically Bengali majority country, shaped by a formidable presence of Bengali nationalistic beliefs and values. Due to a lack of accredited academic institutions, a shortage of qualified instructors, and subpar access to quality education in the CHT region, hundreds of aspiring indigenous students are compelled to relocate to major urban centres like Dhaka and Chittagong each year to pursue a standard quality education that promises a better future. Based on empirical data gathered from interviews with indigenous students who migrated to urban areas for higher education, the thesis argues that the unchecked dominance of Bengali nationalism in all spheres of life adversely affects the indigenous population. It leads to a systematic and discursive erasure, resulting in the marginalization and disempowerment of the indigenous people in CHT. Employing Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s concept of epistemic violence and Michel Foucault’s theory of power and knowledge, the findings indicate that dislocated indigenous students suffer from an identity crisis stemming from their cultural displacement. The crisis is further aggravated by the systemic and institutionalised exclusion of indigenous languages and cultures, as well as the stigmatisation of indigenous traditional food and cultural practices.