Eva Gerharz: „The Construction of Identities: The Case of the Chitta ...

Construction of Identities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts
Every one of the different ethnic groups in the Hill has a language of its own. Nowadays
most of the people are at least bilingual as they have to understand Chittagonian 138 or Bengali
when they communicate with Bengalis or, in some cases, with Hill People not belonging to
their own group. The different languages are more or less connected to each other. Most of
them belong to the Tibeto-Burmese linguistic family, like Tripura for example. The Marma
language can considered to be a form of the Arakanese language in Burma in the spoken as
well as in its written form (Bernot 1960). A second group is the Kuki-Chin group, to which
the oral languages of the Pankhua, Bawm, Kheyang, Khumi, Lushai and Kuki belong. Interesting
about these groups is that the Kuki for example neither learnt other languages nor
allowed others to learn their language; the Khumi even believed that if they learn another language
they will lose the power to resist evil (Mohsin 1997, 17ff). This characteristic can be
related to the fear of being threatened by others, illustrated by Shelley’s assertion that the
Khumi build their houses on tree-tops on the top of the hills. The villages are protected by a
bamboo wall. Nobody is allowed to enter without their permission (Shelley 1992, 61). The
Lushai were extremely ferocious until they were pacified and Christianised by the British
(Mohsin 1997, 18). Illustrated here is the extreme exclusiveness of the different, especially
the smaller groups. These characteristics show that they had lived very isolated from others
without contact or, as Löffler (1968) shows, in multiethnic communities where their own
identity was greatly emphasised. This is indeed an important issue for identity construction as
the rejection of contact with others is strongly related to a very strong feeling of belonging
together within the group (Elwert 1989, 448).
As my contact during the field research was concentrated mainly on Marma and Chakma, I
would like to emphasise the case of the latter here . Bernot (1960, 145f.) writes: “Very little is
known concerning the ancient Chakma language. Nowadays, men and women of this group
speak Bengali, only or more precisely the Chittagonian Bengali ... their ancient writing was
very near to that of the Burmese – though nowadays they use Bengali writing – ... The
Chakma group appears to be an example of a Mongoloid group giving up its own language to
the benefit of the Indo-European”. According to my own data this is not true. Language was
an issue which interested me a lot, and I asked several times about it. My interview partners
explained that the Chakma language is still used among members of the group besides Chittagonian
dialect, which is especially favoured among those who have a close relationship to
Chittagong (because of business for example). Additionally I realised, thanks to my infor-