>Worldbruce at 14:48, 23 September 2021

2021-09-23T14:48:40Z

New page

{{short description|Bangladeshi politician}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Manabendra Narayan Larma
| native_name = মানবেন্দ্র নারায়ণ লারমা<br>𑄟𑄚𑄧𑄝𑄬𑄚𑄴𑄘𑄳𑄢𑄧 𑄚𑄢𑄠𑄧𑄚𑄴 𑄣𑄢𑄴𑄟
| constituency_MP = Chittagong Hill Tracts-1
| parliament = Bangladesh
| term_start = 1973
| term_end = 1975
| predecessor = ''Constituency Established''
| successor = [[Upendra Lal Chakma]]
| birth_date = 15 September 1939
| birth_place = [[Naniarchar Upazila|Naniarchar]], [[British India]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1983|11|10|1939|09|15|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Khagrachari]], [[Bangladesh]]
| death_cause =
| nationality = [[Bangladesh]]i
| party = [[Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti]]
| spouse =
| children =
| relatives = [[Shantu Larma]] (brother)
| alma_mater = [[Chittagong College]]
| occupation = [[Teacher]], [[lawyer]] and [[politician]]
}}
'''Manabendra Narayan Larma''' (September 15, 1939 - November 10, 1983), also known as '''M.N. Larma''', was a [[Jumma People|Jumma]] [[Chakma people|Chakma]] [[politician]] and [[Member of Parliament]] of [[Bangladesh]]. A leading proponent of the rights of the people of the [[Chittagong Hill Tracts]], he was the founding leader of the [[Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti]] (United People's Party of the Chittagong Hill Tracts) and its armed wing, the [[Shanti Bahini]].<ref name="VA">{{cite book |author=Bushra Hasina Chowdhury |title=Building Lasting Peace: Issues of the Implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord |url=http://acdis.illinois.edu/publications/207/publication-BuildingLastingPeaceIssuesoftheImplementationoftheChittagongHillTractsAccord.html |publisher=Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security (ACDIS), University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign |year=2002 |access-date=2009-04-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705074417/http://acdis.illinois.edu/publications/207/publication-BuildingLastingPeaceIssuesoftheImplementationoftheChittagongHillTractsAccord.html |archive-date=2010-07-05 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="BPD">{{cite book |last=Kader |first=Rozina |year=2012 |chapter=Larma, Manabendra Narayan |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Larma,_Manabendra_Narayan |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref><ref name="F1">
{{cite book |author=Nagendra K. Singh |title= Encyclopaedia of Bangladesh |pages=229 |publisher=Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd. |year=2003 |isbn=81-261-1390-1}}</ref>

==Early life==
Manabendra Narayan Larma was born on 15 September 1939 at Maorum (Mahapuram) village, which is now drowned under the Kaptai Lake of [[Kaptai Dam]]. He belonged to the [[Chakma people|Chakma tribe]], which inhabits the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and the neighbouring [[India]]n states of [[Mizoram]] and [[Tripura]].<ref name="F">
{{cite book |author=Nagendra K. Singh |date=2003 |title=Encyclopaedia of Bangladesh |publisher=Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd. |pages=222–223 |isbn=81-261-1390-1}}</ref> He graduated in 1963 from the [[Chittagong College|Government College]] in [[Chittagong]], completed his [[Bachelor of Education]] degree in 1968 from the [[Comilla]] Teachers' Training College and [[L.L.B|law degree]] in 1970 from the [[Chittagong]] [[Law College]]. Larma began working as a lawyer in the [[Chittagong District]] of [[East Pakistan]].<ref name="BPD"/> He became active in politics as a student, helping to organise a Hill Tracts students conference in 1963 and working for the rights of proper compensation of the people of the Hill Tracts displaced by the [[Kaptai Dam|Kaptai Hydroelectric Project]] and uprooted from their homestead and villages.<ref name="VA"/><ref name="BPD"/> He was arrested on February 10, 1963 under the East Pakistan Public Security Ordinance by police. He was released after two years of incarceration on March 8, 1965.<ref name="BPD"/>

==Political career==
After his release, Larma worked to unite and politically organise the various ethnic groups and tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.<ref name="BPD"/> In the 1970 elections, he was elected to the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly as an independent candidate.<ref name="BPD"/> After the [[Bangladesh Liberation War|creation of Bangladesh]], Larma sought the recognition of the rights of the people of the Hill Tracts and regional autonomy. He was the lone representative of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the inaugural national legislature.<ref name="VA"/><ref name="BPD"/> He opposed the drafted [[Constitution of Bangladesh]], which made official the primacy of [[Culture of Bengal|Bengali culture]] and did not recognise the non-Bengali ethnic groups and tribal communities living in Bangladesh.<ref name="VA"/><ref name="F"/> Larma's demands were rejected by the country's founding leader [[Sheikh Mujibur Rahman]], who reportedly said that the tribal peoples should adopt Bengali culture and identity and threatened to forcibly settle Bengalis in the Hill Tracts and convert the local people into a minority in their own province.<ref name="VA"/><ref name="A">
{{cite book |author=Shelley, Mizanur Rahman |title= The Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh: The untold story |pages=129 |publisher=Centre for Development Research, Bangladesh |year=1992}}</ref> Larma continued to fight for the rights of the indigenous people and is quoted as saying:

{{quote|Under no definition or logic can a [[Chakma people|Chakma]] be a [[Bengali people|Bengali]] or a Bengali be a Chakma. A Bengali living in Pakistan cannot become or be called a [[Punjabi people|Punjabi]], [[Pashtun people|Pathan]] or [[Sindhi people|Sindhi]] and any of them living in Bangladesh cannot be called a Bengali. As citizens of Bangladesh we are all [[Bangladeshi people|Bangladeshis]] but we also have a separate ethnic identity, which unfortunately the [[Awami League]] (the then-ruling party) leaders do not want to understand.<ref name="F"/><ref name="Z">
{{cite book |author1=Stephen May |author2=Tariq Modood |author3=Judith Squires |title= Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Minority Rights |pages=136–37 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=0-521-60317-X}}</ref>}}

===Shanti Bahini===

[[File:Flag of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS).png|thumb|250px|Flag of Shanti Bahini|right]]
On February 15, 1972 Larma founded the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS), seeking to build an organisation representing all the [[Jumma People]]s of the Hill Tracts. Larma was elected to the [[Jatiya Sangsad]], the national legislature of Bangladesh as candidate of the PCJSS in 1973.<ref name="BPD"/> When Larma's continued efforts to make the state recognise the rights of the Jumma peoples failed, Larma and the PCJSS began organising the [[Shanti Bahini]] (Peace Corps), an armed force operating in the Hill Tracts area, which began attacking state forces in 1977.<ref name="VA"/>
<ref name="BPD"/><ref name="F1"/><ref name="SB">{{cite book |last=Kader |first=Rozina |year=2012 |chapter=Shanti Bahini |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Shanti_Bahini |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> Being the main leader of the PCJSS and the Shanti Bahini, Larma consequently went underground, into hiding from state security forces.<ref name="F1"/><ref name="SB"/> However, factionalism within the PCJSS weakened Larma's standing and he was assassinated on November 10, 1983.<ref name="BPD"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larma, Manabendra Narayan}}
[[Category:Chakma people]]
[[Category:People from Chittagong]]
[[Category:Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti politicians]]
[[Category:1941 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:Bangladeshi Buddhists]]
[[Category:Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict]]
[[Category:History of Chittagong Division]]
[[Category:Chittagong College alumni]]
[[Category:1st Jatiya Sangsad members]]

Manabendra Narayan Larma - Revision history

>Worldbruce at 14:48, 23 September 2021