TRIPURA COMMUNUTY IN BANGLADESH
Introduction:
The peoples of Tripura community live both in the hills and plain lands of Bangladesh. Tripura people live in the three districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts and among the plain areas, places named Comilla, Chandpur, Rajbari, Sylhet, and Fatikchari, Mirsarai, Small kumira, large kumira, and Sitakundu of Chittagong division. In the plain land the population of Tripura people is almost fifty thousand. Among the indigenous peoples only the peoples of Tripura community are scattered in Chittagong Hill Tracts and in different regions of plain land. The main reason of this is that Chittagong Hill Tracts and those different regions of plain land were within the territories of the Maharaja of Tripura. The different areas of plain land and Chittagong Hill Tracts are still witnessing the architecture of maharaja era. Some of these architectures are already recognized nationally as archaeological resources, some are occupied by a person or organization. Some are on the way of being destroyed in the absence of taking care. Overall status In the plain land the condition of Tripura people is terrible. The majority of the population is landless here. Using various tricks the outer people or institution took away their lands which they got by inheritance. The literacy rate is very low. Their financial status is also very poor. The majority of people live on by working as a laborer. The Tripura people of different regions of plain land are on the way of losing their language and traditional dresses. Tripura women of Chandpur and Comilla do not wear their traditional dress' rinai – risa’. They are now using the sari. In some region the Tripura people are still having some land and some land grabbers of the majority of the population are making various conspiracies to have those lands. These land grabbers’ appeal against the indigenous people just to harass them. The indigenous peoples are victimized financially and emotionally by these kinds of cases. The indigenous women are constantly being raped and tortured variously by the majority of the population. The majority of the population are doing various types of conspiracy and making offers so that they can grab the lands of the indigenous people. Chandpur, Comilla, Rajbari Land – In Comilla the peoples of Tripura community have been evicted out from their homestead frequently. In the name of doing forestation by the forest department, Comilla Cantonment, Bird they have been evicted from their homestead and lands. The Tripura people of Chandpur also lost their homestead for various reasons. In 1947 and 1971, they lost most of their land. In 1971, they flew to Tripura state of India and when they return from India they did not get back their lands. Their lands have been occupied by the land grabbers of the majority of the population .Because of flood, hurricane the Tripura people of Chandpur lost their lands. Now, maximum people of Chandpur are landless. Most of the people live from hand to mouth. In Comilla and Chandpur, Tripura people have started to take institutional education. A small part of the community is now conscious about the institutional education. But to the whole community this consciousness about education has not come yet. The economical problem is the main problem for the Tripura community of Chandpur and Comilla in the way of being educated. Due to financial problems the Tripura indigenous children are being deprived of the opportunity to have education. The government has declared education for all, but still the Tripura indigenous children of Comilla, Chandpur and Rajbari are outside of the government program. The majority of Tripura people from Rajbari area left Rajbari because of the lack of safety and of many aggression and violence gone to the Tripura state of India. Sitakundu, Mirsarai and kumira These people are the most miserable people in Tripura community. Most of them are living in the land of forest department or in the land leased by others. But they are the Tripura people who fought with the tiger, with the bear, and a variety of animals and owned it and made it cultivable and habitable which is now under forest department and others. They built here villages and this area is their cultivable jumland. From decades they are doing jum cultivation on this land. Taking the opportunity of being so simple the Forest Department and the land grabbers took lease over the indigenous peoples land. To make this land fit to live they fought with the nature; they gave their life, labor to make the land cultivable and from eras they are doing jum cultivation here, and now the forest department and the land grabbers unjustly took away these lands by misusing the power. Now the indigenous people have to pay to the land owners to live in their own village and to cultivate the land and the land owners use the villagers as labors with small payment. The land owners kept on the modern slavery system over the Tripura indigenous people. Now in mirsarai - Land grabbers want to evict a village of the indigenous people. The land grabbers have provision over all the villages. They are still trying to evict the villagers from the homestead. To evict the Tripura indigenous people from their homestead, various false cases are filed against them just to harass those people financially and emotionally. Due to this type of case, harassment and physical attacks many families from kumira, mirsarai and Sitakundu has been forced to leave and go away. Tripura indigenous women of this region are being tortured and often raped by the majority population. Tripura aboriginal population in Sitakundu, kumira and mirsarai is eventually ----- claim by the local people. Sylhet The Tripura indigenous people Sylhet region has been repeatedly evicted from their own land. The Ispahani tea and many other tea companies’ formatted the jumland into tea garden over eras after evicting the indigenous people. The indigenous people were also evicted from their land by the Forest Department. Forest Department occupied thousands of acres of jumland, destroyed the forest and created banabagan. The majority of Tripura in Sylhet region are landless and living in the forests of forest department as forest villagers. There is no school in these areas; for which the children of these areas are deprived of the opportunity to become educated. However, in some villages those who have their own homestead and land, send their children to school. Since, the financial status of most people is poor; so many children are being deprived from getting education. Even in this region the major population is making conspiracy and harassment to grab the land of the Tripura indigenous people. Those who are little concerned and are organizers are being harassed by one by one false cases. History and heritage In Comilla town many historical symbols are still standing as the witness of Tripura maharaja era. During the period of Tripura maharaja the name of Comilla was ‘Tripura’. In Pakistan period the name changed to 'Comilla' instead of ‘Tripura’. In present there is a cantonment market surrounding the Comilla Cantonment, earlier which was known as 'tipara market’. Till the 80’s the market was known as 'tipara market’ but after 80’s the name changed to 'Cantonment market’. Near this ‘Tipara Market’ there is another market named ‘Saber market’. In the north-west of this ‘Saber Market’ there is the Palace of ‘Queen Mainamati’. The Queen’s Bungalow has been destroyed but yet there are clear signs of it. The brick walls are still there. The Bungalow of the Queen was built on a large area and the brick walls which surrounded the bungalow are still there. It was known that there was a tunnel inside the bungalow. However, no one could find out how far the tunnel was spread and the way out of it. The palace of agartala also had a tunnel, which was used as a safe way out for the king and queen if attacked. The government has declared the bungalow of ‘Queen Mainamati’ as archaeological resource. There is a large field in front of the bungalow where every year a fair take place. However, there is lack of preservation of the Bungalow. When the fair over’s it becomes a free sanctuary for the cow and goat. |
At the bottom of the bungalow there are two lakes. There was a rumor that queen ‘Mainamati’ was a very beautiful and intelligent woman. Queen ‘Mainamati’ announced that, if anyone can dig out a large lake in a night then she will marry him. Many king from different state tried to dig the lake in one night but no one succeed. There was a giant king named ‘wave’. He started to dig the lake with thousands of demons. Queen ‘Mainamati’ saw – the demon king is going to finish of the excavation the lake in a few hours. So the queen thought of a trick and she made the sound as like as the cock does at dawn. The demons thought that their time is over so they gave up and could not dig the lake. They cleaned up their spades and left the place. Where the spades were cleaned that place also became a lake and her name is ‘Kodalya Lake’. The name of the other lake is ‘wave lake’ as it was done by the king ‘wave’. These are mere ripples and the history of these two lakes. More than 500 years ago, the Maharaja of Tripura, ‘Maharaja Dharma Manikya’ built the ‘ranir kuthi’ in the heart of Comilla city. Maharaja Dharma Manikya built this kuthi so that the maharani could spend her holidays happily here in Comilla. Till 1949, whenever the maharanis of Tripura came to Comilla they stayed in this kuthi. From the maharaja period the Tripura community people are living in Comilla town. There are still many villages where the Tripura people are living from decades following their dynasty tradition. In Comilla district the Tripura populations were evicted from their land and living a difficult life. By evicting the Tripura population from their land the Comilla Cantonment and Bird was established. Thus, in Comilla most of Tripura population is living an inhuman life as landless. The Tripura community of Comilla are not developed in education and also economically very poor; yet the Tripura maharajara took many initiatives to develop the people of different religions and nationalities in education, language and literature. In different ways the Tripura maharajas played important role in the development of Bengali language and literature from the Middle Ages. In that period Tripura maharajaras promoted many researchers and educationalists like Rabindra Nath Tagore and Jagadish Chandra Basu and many others and many educational initiatives by providing multi-yearly. The descendants of those liberal maharajas, who were great fans of education and literacy, are now in a state of losing their language and culture. Today their existence is in danger. Many developed happened to their land but not to them. Today, the language, culture and existence of the Tripura indigenous people of Comilla are on the way of destruction. For a long time the non-indigenous people are taking all the facilities which were actually given for the indigenous people. In past, because of the negligence of the government some of the archaeological monuments and historical heritage of the Tripura indigenous people went to personal or institutional hold or destructed. We demand that the government of Bangladesh have to take all the possible necessary measures to preserve all the archaeological site and historical patterns of Tripura indigenous people. The historical monuments built in Comilla by the Tripura maharajas are the country's national wealth. The whole nation has the duties and responsibilities to preserve the historical monuments as the national wealth. The preservation of these historical monuments will enrich the archaeological resources of the country. It is specified in paragraph 24 of the Constitution that "it is the country’s duty take initiative measures to protect all special artistic or historic monuments, objects or places from disfigurement, or destruction ''. Then why not the ranir kuthi would be handed over to the archeology department? In addition to historical patterns there are many other archaeological resources of the Tripura maharajas in Comilla town. They are - 1. Bir chandra Public Library and the city auditorium, 2. The Shah Suja mosque, 3.Tripura Bramma Temple, 4. Rajbari, 5. Shri Shri Raj Rajeshwari temple, 6. Lake The Tripura Bramma temple built by the Maharaja of Tripura is a traditional temple. It is known that in 1923 this temple was built. It is located in badurtala, Comilla town. The Shah Suja mosque is located in moghaltala, in Comilla City. Tripura Maharaja fought against many mughal emperors but it was only emperor Shah Suja with whom the Tripura maharaja built friendly relationship. So, as a memorial of that relationship with the mughal emperor, the Maharaja of Tripura constructed that mosque. The Tripura maharaja’s ‘royal palace’ is now being used as the Comilla district Land Office. But this area is still known as ‘Rajbari’ or ‘royal palace’ area. In Comilla district sign board it is shown as Rajbari compound that means this place is still known as the Rajbari Compound. 'Sri Sri Raj Rajeshwari kali temple’ is located in maniharpur in Comilla town. Tripura Maharaja Ratna manikya built the temple in 1113 tring / 1702 AD. 'Bir chandra Public Library and the city auditorium’ was built in 1885. It was built by the Maharaja Bir chandra manikya for which it was named after him, the ‘Bir chandra Public Library and the city auditorium’. It is located in the heart of Comilla town. In Comilla district there are a number of historical architectures of the Tripura maharajas. There are the ‘Nirmai Shiva temple’ and a large lake, about 5 km away from Sreemangol. This temple was built in 1454.Tripura maharaja built this Nirmai temple and the lake beside it to facilitate the common people. The history of the Nirmai Shiva temple is – sometimes the kuki feudal kings rebelled against the Maharaja of Tripura. The Tripura maharaja sent soldiers to stifle this kind of kuki rebellion. In this war the kukis were defeated but the Tripura commander-in-chief died in the war ground. He was the husband of Tripura princess Nirmai. At that time in India the custom of dying together prevailed. But princess Nirmai did not agree to die. Instead, she began to worship lord Shiva in that place where her husband died. She was successful in getting the bliss of lord Shiva. Tripura Maharaja built this Nirmai Shiva temple as a remembrance of princess Nirmai’s worship and also dig out a large lake at the side of the temple. The estimated population of Tripura community in plain land is, Name of area and population: Fatikchari - 15,000 Kumira, Sitakundu and mirsarai - 10,000 Comilla, Chandpur and Rajbari - 10,000 Sylhet- 7,000 Total - 42, 000 Conclusion: The Tripura population contributed a lot in these areas. Like other indigenous people they struggled and fought with the nature to make the land suitable of living and cultivation. For thousands of years the Tripura community established their empire in these regions and also established communal ties and civilization here. Bengali language got the recognition as the state language by the Tripura maharaja. This Tripura nation has an outstanding contribution in the history of Bangladesh’s liberation war. But the Tripura populations are now the victims of repression, oppression in this independent People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Today, they are constantly being evicted from their homestead and fatherland. Because of cultural appropriation they are now losing their native language and dresses. In this civilized democratic country it is essential to end up all these. Not only of the Tripura population but the constitutional recognition of all indigenous groups should be given and their political, economic and cultural rights need to be established. Only then the country will be able to rise its head as a democratic and civilized country in the world . |