Page 1 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 03
April 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 67
The People without a Country: A Study
of Chakmas of Arunachal Pradesh
Adidur Rahman; Dr. K. C. Das
1PhD. Scholar, AUDC, Diphu.
2Asso. Prof. Deptt. of Pol. Science.
AUDC, Diphu
adidurrahman7@gmail.com ; kcdas2@gmail.com
ABSTRACT- The word statelessness has long been
recognized as an important problem in
international law. Nowhere the problem of
statelessness is more acute than in South
East Asia. The Sri Lankans, Tibetan,
Afghani etc. in India, Burmese in Thailand
and in Bangladesh, Vietnamese refugees in
Cambodia and many ethnic Chinese in all
parts of South East Asia are currently
stateless and thus especially vulnerable the
same type of human rights abuses as those
suffered by the Chakmas of Arunachal
Pradesh. The Chakmas are the victims of the
partition of the country. They were
displaced from their original inhabitant and
migrated to Northeast India. They were
rehabilitated in NEFA by the Government of
India but still fighting for citizenship status.
The present paper examines the
statelessness of the Chakmas of north-east
India especially in Arunachal Pradesh. It
tries to analyze the origin of the problem of
migration of the Chakmas from Erstwhile
East-Pakistan of Chittagong Hill Tracts
(CHT) to Mizoram and Tripura and
rehabilitation in NEFA (now Arunachal
Pradesh). It examines the causes of
reactions from the Arunachali indigenous
tribes, the All Arunachal Pradesh Students
Union and from the State Government. The
paper concludes with study of the role of the
Chakma organizations, the Union
Government and the Supreme Court in their
fight for acquiring Indian citizenship status
of Chakmas.
Key Words- Chakma, Displacement,
Migration, Refugee, statelessness.
Introduction:
The migrations, refugees and statelessness
are the words which were widely used in
international spheres during the Second
World War. Since then the displacement of
people and communities has been one of the
challenges facing the statelessness of people
in different parts of the world. It obviously
renders people homeless and is being
deprived of their places of abode. In Indian
sub-continent several thousand of people
have been affected by displacement and
living a stateless refugee life after the
partition of the sub-continent. At the time of
partition of the country, the Northeast of
India is territorially organized in such a
Page 2 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 03
April 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 68
manner that ethnic and cultural specificities
were ignored during the process of
delineation of state boundaries, giving rise
to discontentment and assertion of one’s
identity. The region has experienced
massive displacement, migration and
refugee problem causing statelessness in the
wake of independence including the
Chakmas of present Arunachal Pradesh.
Methodology: The present study adopted
multi method approaches of research, which
include historical, descriptive. The primary
sources include the firsthand information
from the informants belonging Chakmas and
extensive field works. The secondary
sources such as relevant books, journals,
periodicals and various websites have also
been used in the study.
Objectives:
1. To study the process of migration and
rehabilitation in NEFA.
2. To assess the extent of opposition of the
Chakmas by the local Arunachali Tribes,
Students Organization, and the state
Governments.
3. To know the present role of the Chakma
organizations, Union Government and the
Supreme Court of India on the issue.
Concept of Statelessness - In general, a
person is referred to as a stateless person
when he does not possess the nationality of
any state. All individuals who have lost their
original nationality without having acquired
another are in fact, stateless person. He does
not possess or enjoy those rights which are
conferred to a person in international law.
Even a stateless person is not essentially
recognized a refugee with status. In order to
eliminate the position of a person from
becoming a stateless, a few attempts have
been made. The first such type of attempt
was the Convention on the Conflict of
Nationality Laws, 1930 was adopted which
provided under Article 1 that the
Contracting States agree to accord
nationality to a person born in their territory
who would otherwise be stateless. The
provision could not prove effective to solve
the problem of statelessness.
However, considering the
gravity of the problem of statelessness, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
1948 provided under Article 15 that each
person is entitled to have nationality and
which cannot be taken or snatched
arbitrarily. Subsequently, two more
Conventions relating to the status of
stateless person was adopted. The first
Conference was convened in 1954 by the
Economic and Social Council to regulate
and improve the status of stateless persons.
The Convention defined the term stateless
person as a person who is not considered as
a national under the operation of its law. It
gave such person judicial status but no
provision was made to reduce or eliminate
statelessness. The second conference was
held in1961 and adopted a convention on the
Reduction of Statelessness. More
importantly, the convention classifies the
ways in which a person who would
otherwise be stateless can acquire or retain
nationality through an established link with
a state by birth or descent.
In addition to these, in 1996
the UN General Assembly called on United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Page 3 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 03
April 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 69
(UNHCR) to encourage agreement to the
two international conventions on
statelessness and to assist government with
technical and legal advice on their
nationality legislation. The efforts of the
UNHCR were commendable in this regard.
In fact, the UNHCR’s association with
stateless person is founded on the well built
links between statelessness and
displacement of the persons. For example,
(a) Displacement can be the reason of
statelessness; (b) Displacement can be a
corollary of statelessness ;(c) Statelessness
can be a barrier to the decree of refugee
problem.
Despite of all these efforts,
there are millions of stateless persons around
the world. Ten million people worldwide
have no nationality, leaving them in a legal
limbo. This was stated by the UNHCR chief
Antonio Gutierrez launching a campaign “ I
Belong” to eradicate statelessness within a
decade. He reported that, “every 10 minutes
a new stateless person is born.” describing
the situation as “absolutely unacceptable and
anomaly in the 21st century.” It may be
because the determination of nationality
question is still within the competence of
each state. The case of the Chakma refugees
who are still living a stateless life in the state
of Arunachal Pradesh may be cited here.
Migration of Chakmas- The Chakmas of
Arunachal Pradesh belong to a tribal group
which has for centuries inhabited the CHT
of Bangladesh (earlier East-Pakistan). The
aboriginal dwelling place of the Chakma
was found in CHT. Since the beginning of
the 19th century following natural calamities
and socio-political disturbances the
Chakmas were disintegrated and displaced
from their original abode and started living a
scattered refugee life in different parts of
Assam, Tripura, and Mizoram and
Arunachal Pradesh. After the partition of the
Country, the Chakmas which remained in
East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) was
displaced massively. The displacement was
caused primarily due to the construction of
the Kaptai hydroelectric project over the
river Karnaphuli in 1962 with its funding
from USAID (United States Agency for
International Development). About 40
Per cent of the best agricultural land of CHT
was submerged due to the commissioning of
this dam. The project displaced about
100,000 indigenous people comprising
about one-third of the total indigenous
Chakma people who were forced to evacuate
the designated area. Finding no shelter, the
Chakmas along with other community had
left the CHT of East Pakistan and took
shelter in India as refugee.
Rehabilitation in NEFA:-The Chakmas
migrated in a hopeless and pathetic
condition to the Mizo district of Assam and
Tripura from the CHT of erstwhile East
Pakistan. According to the Government of
India estimate, by the middle of 1964, at
least 1, 40,000 persons including Chakma
and Hajongs consisting of 2902 families had
migrated to Assam. The then Government of
Assam expressed their inability to settle
such a large number of migrants in the state
and requested for their shifting to other
places. Even the Government of Tripura did
not encourage these displaced Chakmas to
settle in the state despite request from
Chakma leaders. During that time a
suggestion was made that a substantial
