RELOOKING AT STRUCTURAL CONSTRUCT OF CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS CONFLICT THROUGH ZOMIA LENSE

S. M. Mahbub-Ul-Alam

Abstract

The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh hosts one of South Asia’s unique and complex ethnic conflicts. Traditional literature mostly attributes it to factors like: underdevelopment, Bengali in-migration, and ethnonationalist movements. Despite extensive development interventions and political space created through the 1997 CHT Agreement (CHTA), lasting peace remains elusive. This article alludes that these explanations are insufficient to account for the perpetuating conflict and proposes an alternative lens: the historically embedded Zomia consciousness, a statelessness-oriented political culture among CHT tribes that predates the modern Bangladeshi state. Drawing on James C. Scott’s Zomia paradigm, historical information, government reports, and extensive analysis of information from primary (largely from long personal experiences) and secondary sources, this study synthesizes developmental, political, historical, and security perspectives with upland Southeast Asian statelessness paradigm. The article contends that the core obstacle to peace is the clash between the Bangladeshi state’s governance imperatives and the autonomy-seeking behavior of the ethnic people of CHT—manifested through resistance to state institutions, intra-tribal political fragmentation, and continued reliance on armed non-state actors. A blended conceptual model is presented through Zomia paradigm. The study concludes that peacebuilding in CHT requires asymmetric governance, trust-building, hybrid legal frameworks, and meaningful recognition of autonomy aspirations grounded in Zomia political culture.

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Year

2026

Author(s)

S. M. Mahbub-Ul-Alam

Journal Name

Osmani Papers

Volume, Issue

1, 1

Pagination

23-45

Article Type

Paper

DOI: 10.67844/vxbpm3

Keywords: CHT, Zomia, Statelessness, Autonomy, CHTA, Armed Groups, GOB, Intra-tribal Fragmentation. 

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