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Accepted Paper:

Historical construction of traditional authority in Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh  
Fariba Alamgir (University of East Angalia)

Paper short abstract:

The presentation aims to shed lights on the process of authority formation in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh regarding land control with a focus on the historical construction of traditional authority.

Paper long abstract:

In Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh, contestation over land by hill people is intertwined with their long political struggle against state. The armed struggle (1973-1998) of hill ethnic population in CHT ended with signing of CHT Accord in 1998. In the post Accord period, there are multiple institutions involved in the system of sanctioning property in land. In post-colonial and post-socialist societies property 'is one of the most important fields in which politico-legal institutions seem persistently to compete for authority' (Sikor and Lund 2009:10), According to Sikor and Lund (2009), recognition of property (in land) claims as legitimate also provides recognition to the institution of its own authority. Taking their argument in to account, it can be argued that in CHT multiplicity of institutions has resulted in overlapping claims of authority. This presentation focuses on historical construction of 'traditional authority' by looking at competition among institutions in legitimizing property in land. It is argued that 'Traditional authority' which was established during British colonial period through promulgation of Chittagong Regulation Act 1900 is a colonial construction. Secondly, based on the data collected through ethnographic fieldwork, it is argued that traditional authority of headman has been evaded and challenged by different institutions in different time periods (pre and post Accord). The competition among institutions is shaped by the political conflict and state's attempt to consolidates its control in CHT.

Panel P10
Rethinking the role of institutions in South Asia: historical institutionalism and path dependence
  Session 1