Tribal Peasants in Transition: Chittagong Hill Tracts

This article attempts to link the land use in the Chittagong Hill Tracts to changing political decisions from the British colonial period to that of independent Bangladesh. It traces the way in which the concrete and qualitative reciprocities that characterised the relationships of primitive peasant societies in the Hill Tracts have been replaced by the abstract and quantitative exchange relations of the market. This process of the disintegration of the pre-colonial culture and economy of the Hill Tracts and its integration into the larger market of the State has brought along with it certain problems, including the highlighting of the internal divisions within the Hill Tracts society; these are briefly touched upon towards the end of the article.