Mru people are considered as the original inhabitants of the Chittagong Hills where they migrated from Arakan of Burma from the 14th-15th century.The Mru people are also known as the Mro or Murong. They introduce themselves as Mro-cha. The word ‘Mro’ stands for ‘man’ and ‘cha’ for ‘being’. Like most other indigenous people they have Mongoloid traits but are tall and strong with dark complexions.
Mru, also known as Murung , is Sino-Tibetan language and spoken by community of Mru. The Mru community of Bangladesh believe that “Torai”(the great spirit) gave all peoples-except the Mru a written language and rules to guide their social lives. Their belief is that they were excluded by some accident.
The Mro society is patriarchal. Although the father is the head of the family, the role of women in the social life is dominant. Each household has an equal voice in all village affairs. They love songs and dance. They use their hand skills to make musical instruments from bamboo.
The solitary, independent and peace-loving Mru people have lived in the Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and western Burma for centuries. Mostly they live the hill tops away from the chaos where they life off with farming. Due to the isolation, even after having a region that is rich in lumber and hydroelectric potential they lack the technology and knowledge to improve their economic conditions. For this reason they continue to live as poor. However, they pride themselves in their self-sufficiency.
Being self-sufficient only cannot solve the struggle of poverty. Most of the Mru people are illiterate and their ideology is that their God “Torai”, desires them to remain that way. The Mro students residing in the city, have to undergo tremendous hardship and need to undergo a plethora of complexities- cultural, economic and linguistic.
The ancestral land of the Mru community are grabbed by the powerful quarters for business purposes posing a threat to their way of living. Only three months ago, six Mru villages were cleared for construction of a hotel and amusement park in Bandarban’s Chimbuk area. A large portion of land was also taken away from them by a rubber company. Since their only source of livelihood is jhum cultivation it has become impossible them for survive.
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