Manabendra Narayan Larma also acquainted as M N Larma in short is the pathfinder for the indigenous people which include both the hill people and other ethnic groups existing in plain areas of Bangladesh. He is the voice raiser for the realisation of the rights of the indigenous people. He was a fighter and pole star who made the indigenous people realize about their identity and rights. He is the organizer of the guerrilla force named ‘Shanti Bahini' to seek the recognition and rights of autonomy in Chittagong Hill Tracts.
In his whole life, he has served as the leader of jumma people and till this day, M N Larma is considered as the pioneer of the hill people. He is not only an inspiration for the hill people alone but for the oppressed and marginalized people too. He always worked for the repressed and afflicted communities. The present generation try to follow the ideals of this great human being. He is the one who made the people aware of their rights.
M N Larma was born on 15 September, 1939 in Mohapuramvillage, Burighat Mouza situated in Naniarchar, Rangamati. His nickname was Manju. His father is Chitta Kishore Chakma and mother Subhashini Dewan. He belongs to the Chakma group.Among the 4 siblings he’s the third one and his younger brother Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma ( Santu ) is at present serving as the chairman of Anchalik Parishad, Chittagong Hill Tracts.
M N Larma was a teacher, a lawyer and politician in his career life. He finished his primary education from Mohapuram Junior High school and passed his matriculation from Rangamati GovtHigh School in 1958. He completed both his intermediate and graduation from Chittagong Govt College subsequently in 1960 and 1965. Then he joined as an assistant school teacher in Dighinala High School in the year of 1966 and continued to complete his B.Ed in 1968 and again in 1970, he passed as a LLB graduate from Chittagong Law College thereafter within time he also worked as head teacher in Chittagong Railway Colony High School. M N Larma started his marriage life with Pankajini Chakma in the year of 1971.
In his childhood, his family was one of the sufferers along others whose lands were drowned under the Kaptai Lake when the Kaptai Dam project also known as Kaptaj hydroelectric project was executed by the govt to fulfill the demand of electricity.Thousands of jumma families were uprooted from their land losing their thousand acres of land overall.
There is a narrative by his elder sister Jyotiprabha Larma that when they were leaving their home for good for the kaptai dam project, he was seen holding a pellet of soil from their land to keep the soil as memory of the land. The adoration and piety that one should hold for his mother tongue, motherland was visible in him from the very early age.
His political life mainly started from his student life when he started to raise voice to get the proper compensation that the people deserved who were evicted from their land for the hydroelectric project and the govt didn’t keep it’s promise to give the compensation. He was arrested in February, 1963 by the then East Pakistan for trying to held conferences with the hill students and for supplying leaflets raising voice for their rights since 1961. In 1965, the govt released him after two years of incarceration with conditions. He had joined the Pahari ChatraParishad in 1956 and Chatra Union in 1958. He had been very active in his political life. He was also engaged in Bakshalmovement.
M N Larma was elected as Member of Provisional Assembly in 1970 when the election in East Pakistan happened. Also when Bangladesh got it’s independence in 1971 after nine months of bloody war and with the sacrifice of the people of Bengal, it became a country of sovereignty introducing it as a independent country in the world. The speech of the father of nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 7th march, 1971 encouraged many people of Bengal as well as the indigenous people to fight for their motherland to be free from the oppression, discrimination and torture of the West Pakistanis. Many indigenous people also sacrificed their lives and some helped the freedom fighters in the hillbilly areas to continue their fights. The indigenous people had the hope to have their own rights too when the country was independent.
M N Larma founded the representative group named ParbatyaChattagram Jana Samhiti Samiti in 1972 for the purpose of realization of rights of the Hill Tracts people and worked as it’s General. He worked to unite all the ethnic groups making them aware of their rights.
After the creation of Bangladesh, he sought for the recognition of the indigenous people in the parliament. He submitted the four point charter of demand which consisted about the autonomous power with separate legislature in CHT to the then Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman which was reportedly rejected in 1972.
When in 1972, the parliament adopted the article 6 of the Bangladesh Constitution which talked about all the people living in Bangladesh as Bengali people ignoring the identity of all other indigenous groups. M N Larma walked out from the parliament in the protest of it on 31 October. The Hill people were threatened to adopt Bengali culture and to ger converted into their province by settling the plain Bengali people in the hill region. M N Larma said in one of his speeches that:
‘Under no definition or logic can a Chakma be a Bengali or a Bengali be a Chakma. A Bengali living in Pakistan can not become or be called a Punjabi, Pathan or Sindhi and any of them living in Bangladesh can not be called a Bengali. As citizens of Bangladesh we are all Bangladeshis but we also have a separate ethnic identity which unfortunately the Awami League leaders do not want to understand.’
The debate regarding the imposition of Bengali identity to the indigenous groups is still very much authentic and questionable. The state itself ignored the recognition of indigenous people as a separate sect then and still the struggle and demand is going on which seems to be more ignored by the Govt. as they are now introduced as ethnic minority.
Manabendra narayan Larma after founding the PCJSS group, got elected as candidate in Jatiya Sangsad in 1973. The struggle and attempts for the recognition of identity and rights went on till the death of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975when all the hopes were drowned in disappointment. The PCJSS group was forming in the meantime and the group and M N Larma founded Shanti Bahini which was an armed force to continue the fights for recognition of indigenous people and he eventually started to go underground being undetected by the then Govt. He was later assassinated on 10th of November, 1983 when factualism was created in the group weakening his position when he was in his 40s under a betrayal attack made in Panchari upazila of Khagrachari.
He fought for the separate autonomy in CHT Hill Tracts under the Bangladesh Govt. to have the people have their own rights. He not only raised voice for the hill people but also for all the oppressed including women, farmers, laborers who are still marginalised. When the legal demand of own identity was rejected, he followed the path of armed force. Any groups of people can take inspiration from him and take the lesson to fight for own rights. He fought for a democratic and a progressive country. Manabendra Narayan Larma is a leader to follow forhis contribution in patriotism and to fight for own rights till death. He is considered as the father of Jumma people who showed the path and the ideals to never give up and who made all the indigenous people as well as others aware of rights and recognition.
Written by Priase Chakma
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