Chakmas

Why in news?

• Political leaders and NGOs belonging to the Chakma community have sought Prime Minister’s intervention to stop the “illegal National Register of Citizens (NRC)” being conducted by the Mizoram government to identify alleged foreigners.

About Chakmas

• The Chakma people, are a native group from the eastern-most regions of the Indian subcontinent, they are the largest ethnic group in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region in southeastern Bangladesh, and in Mizoram, India (Chakma Autonomous District Council), they are the second largest ethnic group, and in Tripura, India, they are the fourth largest ethnic group, and having sizable population in other parts of Northeast India.

• Chakmas are known to be a tribe of South-East Asia.

• They have first migrated to Arakan Hill of Myanmar and then Chittagong Hill tracts of Tripura.

• A major part of them however migrated to Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh in course of time from their original home land.

• Linguistically Chakma language is mixed with some words of Indo-Aryan language, Tibeto-Chinese and mainly Arakan language.

• Chakma have their own script in Burmese alphabets, though not in use, rather Bengali script is being used being easy to learn.

• Most Chakma people are adherents of Theravada Buddhism.

Prelims Question

Q.Chakma community is seen in
a. Rajasthan
b. Madhya Pradesh
c. Tripura
d. Andhra Pradesh

Answer to the Prelims Question