Subjects, Citizens, and Refugees: Tragedy in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, 1947-1998

Cross-border refugee movements have international dimensions involving the country of origin and the host country. This book studies the refugee problem originating in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of the then East Pakistan and now Bangladesh. The hill people of this region, mostly Buddhists, under the Pakistanies and Bangladeshis suffered cultural, religious, and economic persecution and ethnic cleansing and sought refuge in India. This book focuses on this post-colonial, post-1947 period, both during the Pakistani and Bangladeshi era with a view to probe the origin of the refugee problem and its subsequent development. It also looks into the refugee experience and goes into the humanitarian and applied dimension of the problem. The book concludes with the author's insight on how such humanitarian emergencies can be anticipated and steps initiated to prevent it so as to minimize the sufferings of forced migration.