The Santals who made the hills their home
Beyond the plain lands in northern and northeast Bangladesh, people from the Santal community have also been living in the hilly terrains under Panchhari upazila of Khagrachhari district for decades.
Around 400 people from 70-80 Santal families live in three neighbourhoods in Kanungo Para (village), each under a five-member council led by a chief known as a Manjhi or Karbari.
Over the past decades, the Santals in Panchhari have been rebuilding their lives while maintaining their own culture and traditions for generations.
Living in the hills for so long has turned their daily lives and livelihoods much different from that of the Santals in the plainlands, giving their village a unique feel, as witnessed during a recent visit.
Their food, clothes, and houses all have adapted to local influence.
Santals in plain lands usually eat parboiled rice, but here people eat non-boiled (atap) rice. They also consume local hill foods like nappi (fermented fish paste), sutki (dried fish), Bashkorol (bamboo shoots), and sour leaves, like other hill communities.
Their clothing has changed as well. Women often wear the ‘thami’, a traditional attire among hill communities.
Their houses are also built differently, using bamboo, stick frames, and mud plaster to suit the uneven hill land, instead of heavy mud houses like in the plains.
To communicate with people from other hill communities locally, many Santals have also learnt to speak Chakma, Marma and Tripura languages. However, among themselves, the Santals still speak Santali, their native language.
They also still celebrate their main festivals -- Sohrai, Dashai, and Baha Parab.
Sohrai is celebrated after the autumn harvest to honour livestock and cattle for their role in traditional agriculture.
Dashai, which is held during the Bangla months of Ashwin or Karthik and often coincides with Durga Puja, is observed in remembrance of a historic event of grief among the community.
Baha Parab is a vibrant traditional festival of flowers celebrated during spring.
Akash Santal Murmu, the Karbari of the main neighbourhood in Kanungo Para, looks after around 40 families by helping them resolve problems and leading the social events.
While there is no documented history about how Santal people came to Panchhari, village elders said they were brought to the Chittagong Hill Tracts during British rule to work on roads, railways, and tea gardens.
According to Manik Murmu, a local researcher, the British authorities had moved some Santals to CHT from Dumka and Hazaribagh in India in a move to scatter people from the community across the region and thereby break their unity following the Santal Rebellion (also known as Santal Hool) of 1855-56.
Under the revenue system of the East India Company, the Santals had their lands forcibly taken, money lent to them at exorbitant rates beyond their ability to repay. As such, they were forced into bonded labour for generations, cultivating the zamindar’s land for meagre wages.
As a reaction to this oppression and exploitation of the community, the rebellion, led by brothers Sidhu Murmu and Kanhu Murmu, took place between June 30, 1855, and January 3, 1856, until it was eventually suppressed by martial law proclaimed by the East India Company.
Many Santals later fled to escape torture. Some ended up in Chattogram and Rangamati and settled there for work.
When the Kaptai Dam was built in 1960, farmlands and homes of local Santal community in Rangamati went under water.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Like other hill communities, Santal families received no proper help or compensation from the government. Later, they were forced into the deep hill forests in the Khagrachhari region to survive.
“I still remember all of our family’s land was lost overnight when the dam flooded Rangamati,” said Budhini Saotal, 90, a village elder.
Another elder, Sipahi Soren, aged more than 90, recalls: “I was married off in a hurry because the few Santal families left were fleeing from Rangamati after the dam took our lands.”
The elders said they later moved to Panchhari and cleared the dense jungle to build their homes and farms.
However, their plight did not change.
Over time, much of the land they had cleared was taken away through trickery or bought very cheaply by others. Today, much of the Panchhari town sits on land originally cleared by Santals, yet the Santal people themselves still live in remote areas, working as daily wage labourers.
“Our community lost everything, again and again, over the generations. We had to rebuild our lives from the scratch every time, but the constant struggle kept our community poor,” said Manik Murmu.
“In the entire village, only around seven or eight families still own farmland. The rest survive on low daily wages. Education is another struggle. Since we live far from towns, many never got to go to school, and many children drop out early due to financial constraints,” he also said.
Manik also said the community faces identity issues. Santal surnames like Murmu, Tudu, Hasda, Kisku, Soren, Hembrom, or Mardi are not recognised by other local groups. To make their background clear, many are forced to use “Saotal” as their last name (such as Manik Saotal or Akash Saotal).
Also, Santals in CHT are not officially listed as a hill community under local laws, so they miss out on government support for indigenous groups.
Young people from the community recently formed the Santal Students’ Forum to work together to protect their basic rights and unite their community.
On June 9, 2024, the forum members met with local officials to fix problems with resident application forms.
“Since the Santals came to the CHT during the British era, they are not recognised as one of the region’s original indigenous communities. Although they are a disadvantaged community living in the hills, they were not included in the list of 12 recognised ethnic groups due to certain criteria,” said Nyo Hla Mong, director of the Institute of Cultural Affairs of Small Ethnic Groups in Khagrachhari.
“As a result, they face exclusion from employment opportunities, political representation and other areas. This makes it difficult for members of the community to improve their socio-economic conditions and move forward,” he added.
And yet, despite the odds, the spirit of the uprising led by Sidhu-Kanhu continues to guide the community forward and thrive, staying true to their roots.
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