No ambiguity this time

July 4, 2016

Taj Hashmi

Although some Bangladeshi politicians till the recent past had been in a denial mode about the presence of any ISIS elements in the country,
the latest terror attack in Bangladesh has spelled out with no ambiguity that it was ISIS, which was behind the killing of 28 people at the Holey
Artisan caf at Gulshan, Dhaka. For some strange reasons, despite ISIS claims, the US State Department attributed the attack not to ISIS but to
al Qaeda. However, as the standoff continued within two hours of the attack ISIS posted gruesome pictures of victims inside the caf to
Amaq (its media agency), and claimed it had killed 20 hostages. Interestingly, the number corroborates what we get from various
Government agencies.
Now, its not the time to debate whether ISIS, al Qaeda, or some purely homegrown terrorists were behind the latest attack. In view of the
ongoing unresolved killings of bloggers, writers, intellectuals, non-Muslim priests, traders, and ordinary people since early 2013, one believes
more than one group of terrorists and criminals including law-enforcers have been involved in these killings. Surprisingly, by now the police
have arrested more than 10,000 suspects from across the country, in the name of countering terrorism. One knows the real motive of these
arrests. Even British weekly Economist has recently exposed the ill motive of the police. But the police do it with total impunity. And the
impunity of the protectors of law leads to terrorism and anarchy.
One cant deny the existence of various Islamist terrorist killer groups in Bangladesh, such as the pro-ISIS Jamaat ul Mujahedeen Bangladesh
(JMB), and the pro-al Qaeda Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT). Again, terrorism isnt a primeval cause or the original sin; its a reactive force, an
ideology-driven violent political alternative. Terrorism could be totally anarchic, and nihilistic by nature, unexplainable by any rational
argument or discourse. As leading experts on terrorism have explained, suicide terrorism is a rational behaviour, which is often beyond the
comprehension of normal people. We cant win against terrorism unless we understand the phenomenon.
Thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims have had exposures to the Afghan Jihad, Taliban, al Qaeda, and of late, to the ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Hundreds of Bangladeshi men (and some women) have already joined the ISIS in Syria. Marginalized and angry people from higher echelons of
society have been traditionally swelling the ranks of Islamist terrorists for the last thirty-odd years. None of the 9/11 terrorists were poor,
madrassa-educated people. Almost all the terrorists leaders (with a few exceptions) have been secular-educated engineers, doctors, and
technocrats. No wonder all the terrorists killed in the Gulshan Attack were from secular-educated upper middle class/rich families. Thus
Islamist terrorism isnt a derivative of Islam or madrassa education!
Since politicians anywhere dont know everything, they shouldnt pretend to be super intellectuals; they should speak less, and learn more
from their own or foreign experts. Terrorism is one such area, which isnt as simple as a short story by Chekov or Tagore. It has apparently all

the similarities with crime, but simultaneously very different from crime as well. While criminals deny and hide their crime, terrorists brag
about their violent acts mass killings and destructions and often make false claims. Terrorism survives with the oxygen of publicity. So,
terrorism isnt a problem to be resolved or tackled by police, or even a smart SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) Team of America, let alone
by the military. In sum, terrorism isnt a problem of law and order, to be resolved by law enforcers. Terrorism is more than 90 percent political,
social, economic and psychological; less than 10 percent may be motivated by deviant religious ideology or practices.
Unfortunately, leaders belonging to the ruling parties either deny the existence of any Islamist terror groups in the country both the BNP and
Awami League suffer from this syndrome or, they invent some scapegoats from the opposition parties (sometimes total strangers) to
implicate them in terror attacks. The staging of the Joj Miah drama by the BNP-Jamaat Government in 2004 is still fresh in our memory. The
police falsely implicated one Joj Miah in the infamous Grenade Attack on Sheikh Hasinas rally in Dhaka on 21 August 2004 (that killed 24
people and injured around 300). Innocent Joj Miah spent four years in prison. Mutual name calling by Bangladeshi politicians as proxies of al
Qaeda and ISIS is also counterproductive. This sort of irresponsible behaviour is divisive, and makes counterterrorism ineffective, difficult, and
farcical.
Although the PM in her latest address to the Nation in the wake of the Gulshan Attack didnt mention BNP-Jamaat as promoters of terrorism,
yet one takes her following assertion with a grain of salt: Theyve taken a path of terrorism after having failed to win the hearts of people
through the democratic process. Ones not sure about who are these people! Did these terrorists ever try democratic process in the past?
The not-so-hidden innuendo is unnecessary, and uncomforting. Even leaders subtle name calling at each other at this grave hour of national
crisis and emergency is likely to backfire, to the detriment of effective counterterrorism (CT).
At the end of the day, Bangladesh must admit international Islamist terrorist outfits are actively engaged in killing people in the country, and
they are NOT through yet. Most importantly, the Government and people concerned must realize poor Bangladesh cant afford CT operations.
CT has cost America billions of dollars, and the cost is going up and up. Bangladesh cant afford it, which would cost the country many times
more than the cost of making 100 Padma Bridges. So, the country must find out ways to eliminate terrorism at the roots, or before it even
sprouts up. It needs sustained anti-terrorism measures through good education system, equitable distribution of wealth and opportunities, and
transparent government (if not real democracy).
Bangladesh needs a foreign policy in conformity to the countrys geopolitical and domestic interests. Agreeing to send mercenary soldiers in
support of Saudi Arabia was unnecessary. This policy must have angered various Islamist terror groups in Middle East and beyond. Many
experts at home and abroad believe Bangladesh has a very subservient foreign policy vis--vis India. Im not going to catalogue here in how
many different ways Bangladeshs mighty neighbour has angered and humiliated Bangladesh since its emergence in 1971. The way Indias
former Foreign Secretary Sujata Singh intervened into the domestic politics of Bangladesh on the eve of the January 2014 Elections was
disgusting, and tells a million tales in this regard.
While democracy, accountability and equality before the law have almost disappeared from the country, the polity has already been
thoroughly Islamized or Arabized having most primitive and extra-Islamic institutions. Last but not least, terrorism isnt all about poverty.
Its not a backlash of the poor, but a weapon of the weak. Weak and marginalized young men and women who want to achieve something for
their country, nation, race, or religion. One doesnt doubt that they are misguided. Any society, which promotes pre-modern values, glorifies
death, not life, and provides no peaceful alternative for change and improvement become a safe haven for terrorism, anarchy, and nihilism.
Bangladesh has potentials to turn either way, toward democratic civility, or totalitarian proto-fascism. The latter promotes state-terrorism, and
nurtures non-state terrorist actors under the aegis of terrorist outfits like al Qaeda, and Islamic State.
In sum, Bangladeshi politicians, analysts, intellectuals, and media should do the following three things for the sake of durable peace and order
in the country: a) never ever deny the existence of terrorism, as there is hardly any country without terrorists or terrorist sympathizers, in the
post-9/11 world; b) never ever cry wolf or raise false flags about impending terrorist attacks; and c) never ever think of gaining political
leverage by falsely implicating political rivals or personal adversaries as terrorist agents. Terrorists gain most in divided and fractured
countries. Examples abound.

Intolerance shadowing liberal order

in Bangladesh

July 6, 2016

Abu Sufian Shamrat

Bangladeshi people are now living in an environment of constant fear as extremist and militant attacks have intensified and appear to be all
around them. Being carried out in what appears to be an incessant fashion, the liberal democratic fabric of Bangladesh is under considerable
threat as religious minorities, non-Muslim priests, foreigners, bloggers, atheists, academics, publishers, gay activists and other nonmajoritarian progressive groups are being subjected to targeted assault and deliberate attacks. During a night that Bangladesh will remember
for long, 20 foreigners and 2 high ranked police officers were killed by the extremists in the Gulshan diplomatic area in an international
restaurant in Dhaka. In another instance, yet another Hindu priest was killed in Jhenaidah early in the morning of July 1, 2016- the fateful day
whose night saw people being taken hostage by gun and bomb wielding terrorists.
Though violence against foreign personnel and minority communities is not a new phenomenon in Bangladesh, people are observing a sort of
paradigm shift after the Shahbagh Movement of 2013, especially in terms of the trends, forms, and objectives that these deadly terror
activities have come to assume.
Before 2013, a majority of such attacks were not designed to target any specific liberal force, rather these attacks were carried out against
political opposition, electoral actors, cultural groups (1999 Udichi Convention and 2001 Ramna Batamul bombings), mass people (less focusing
on religion, race, color, or ethnic identity), and non-Muslim minorities. The forms and objectives of these attacks were not to kill or harm any
specific person or family or community, but seek power, authority, and legitimacy through terror focusing on identity politics and amplifying
the historical fault line between the liberal-secular and anti-liberal fundamentalist forces. The spread of global jihadists activities after the
9/11 has also exposed the close ties between sensationalizing activities across the world and local militant groups who carried out attacks
across the country in order to establish a political caliphate by defeating the liberal forces.
In 2013 and its aftermath, the deepening clash of thought between the philosophy of Shahbagh movement on the one hand and the politicoempirical Islam on the other, clearly divided the socio-political actors into two parts debating the issue of war crimes verdict. Subsequently,
the anti-liberal forces became marginalised and squeezed following the ascendance of liberal forces in the spheres of popular politics, media,
governance, justice, and even geopolitics. As the anti-liberal blocs failed to counter the liberals politically, they adopted terror as their new
agenda to attack specific and selected people from the liberals or non-fundamentalist groups.
About 85 people have been killed in extremist or militant attacks since early 2013. At the beginning, the extremists targeted secular or atheist
bloggers, but from the mid-2015 onward, they have started attacking religious minorities, foreigners, academics and others. This fact about
the attacks becomes evident when it is observed that 39 of those who have been killed between April and July 2016 have mostly belonged to
religious minority groups or were foreigners. Besides, soft targets like, university professors, spouses of high ranked officials and gay rights
activists has expanded the extent of damage that is being done to the secular fabric of Bangladesh. In fact, the country witnessed the killing of
23 persons on July 1, almost all of whom were foreigners, with 2 two high ranked police officers and a Hindu priest; a figure that is almost one
fourth of the total killings that have been witnessed between 2013 and June 2016.
In answer to the question related to who these killers are, two contesting arguments have gone viral. The first argument is supported by the
international media, donors and other organisations who justify, believe and try to prove the presence of ISIS or Al-Qaeda in the country. When
these groups claim responsibility of the terror acts and killings, the international media takes it seriously. On the other hand, the Bangladeshi

government rejects the global terror affiliation attached to these attacks, saying, neither the ISIS nor Al-Qaeda has any foothold in Bangladesh;
rather, homegrown extremist and militant organisations i.e. Ansarullah Bangla Team, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, Ansar-al-Islam and other antiliberal forces are behind these attacks and killings.
Unfortunately, these killings are getting institutionalized and intolerance is shadowing the liberal order; things are falling apart and neither the
government nor any other forces in Bangladesh are in a position to guarantee protection and safety against such violent occurrences. While it
is difficult to ascertain the elimination of such incidents entirely, but given that the government of Bangladesh has rounded up more than
11,000 people on the counts of extremism and radicalism but that it is yet to get the matters under control, speaks volumes about the
misplaced priorities of those in power.
Major political forces are playing the blame game, and this culture extends the chances for militant forces to grow. Some groups demanding
assistance from foreign countries amid the tension in religious line to save them, but none is demanding absolute solution to this problem. No
greater national consensus to prevent the spread of extremism has been reached, everyone takes benefits from these killings and thus an
atmosphere of suspicion is being created.
Given the rising occurrence of such incidents, Bangladesh is losing its international credibility in the fight against terrorism. The religious
minorities, foreigners, and liberal socio-cultural actors are apprehensive about the state of governance, security system, preventive strategies,
and judicial culture in the country. The politics of identity is also creating a social vacuum between political secularism and politico-empirical
Islam in Bangladesh. The extremists are ultimately using this vacuum in order to occupy political space and further their non-liberal agenda by
attacking minorities, foreigners, and liberals.
Vulnerability and inequality within the security system is one of the unrevealed causes behind the growing extremism and militancy in
Bangladesh. While the security order in Bangladesh is more focused on urban protection, the extremist and militant organizations are getting
stronger day by day carrying out attacks within the less focused rural domain. In turn, the increasing death rate and fear of evil death among
the rural and non-city based minorities and liberals are rebuilding a reign of matsanaya (chaos).
Finding effective solution to prevent extremism is not an easy task for the Bangladesh government due to the unidentified trends, debate over
actors involvement and unanswered questions regarding extremism and militancy. Connection and direct appearance of global militants with
local extremists and the sources of terrorists funding are not well documented. Also the governments counter terrorism mechanism and zerotolerance stance did not do anything impressive due to the unidentified fault line between political activism and extremism.
Now the struggle not only remains in the realm of countering terrorism and extremism but also the fear of evil death among minorities,
foreigners, and liberals must have to be erased in order to construct a Bangladesh based on justice, rule of law, equality, freedom, pluralism,
inclusiveness, and micro-democratic values.

In Bangladesh the politics of

democracy is dysfunctional

June 26, 2016

Shahab Enam Khan

No doubt, it is a disturbing fact that the BNP is in dire crisis. Almost 28 months after the unnecessarily boycotted general elections when it
receded to its worst political performance ever the then-grand centre-right-wing party is in a state of drift. It appears confused about its
next steps, and certainly bereaved of ideas for its renaissance.
It has now come up with a new manifesto called Vision 2030 to turn the country into a rainbow nation sounds like a political parody for
many of the poor fish who have supported BNP for longer than its current leadership.
Owing to the despotism and kleptocracy of the current AL regime, the BNP now barely exists as a functional political organisation.
The intra-party order has disintegrated. Many of the mid and younger generation leaders, those who are trying to emerge as Messiah within
the party, are either seen as opportunist offshoots of dynastic politics or considered as the ones with the ability to pay cash to sit in the upper
echelon of the party. Thats what I often get to hear.
Many of the grassroots activists are feeling the heat of being humiliated and betrayed. Apparently, the current leadership has the motto save
what you can while you can because things will get a lot worse before they get any better.
It is in disarray; a once-great party reduced to battling rabbles of conflicting internal groups skulking for whatever canny comforts they can
gain from politics.
Good politics, good governance, and good government? Very nice. But maybe not in the near future.
The notion that Khaleda Zia (or her son Mr Tarique Rahman) could again form a government with a majority is now a discommoding fact for
the party at large.
At least, not through an election under the regime that is in power. Even so, one can begin to marvel at the thoroughness with which its
leadership has set it on a self-destruction mode.
In fact, this is a case for the AL too. The son, Tarique Rahman, who has immense influence over the party and its sympathisers, is losing
momentum as he is in self-imposed exile in London, while his flag-bearers are raging in fury for being oppressed by the law enforcers. No one
is there to take care of these oppressed kormis (affiliates)!
It is not that BNP has a lack of helpers, of course.
The recently selected organising members of the party (through council and then by the top-most leader), members of its international affairs
committee, or hence the members of its standing committee are willing accomplices. But who could have predicted these would prove as suboptimal selections?
These selections are pathetic enough to further derail the party. For instance, its members with responsibility to liaise with the international
community are the compelling attestation of political incompetence, if not immaturity.
Seems like the international affairs committee members would often need lessons on the difference between sedition and national interest.
I cant deny that we get to see a fresh episode of the tragicomedy with BNP as the protagonist, every day in the name of democracy.
Nevertheless, who dares predict what happens next?
Nothing is too improbable to be realistic now. Matters have reached such a state, that leaders of the BNP feel that they are unable to campaign
even in a by-election in which the party could have won with a majority, if it had demonstrated some degree of political maturity.

Tacit alliance, or attempts to deny alliance, or be silent strategy with Jamaat has only made things worse for the BNP. It is caught in a
Jamaat-extremist limbo from which it has no easy exit anytime soon.
The only thing they hope to gain is the support of the Islamist and disfranchised voters at the moment, which may give them pro tempore
comfort, but in the long run it will hit the nation (including them) hard.
Well, they may think that the ever-deteriorating law and order situation in Bangladesh is good for them, but this political hedonism wont make
them a favourite to their regional neighbours. History speaks.
While the BNP is surviving through some populist TV talk shows, which the government is sportively allowing in order to project its pledge for
freedom of speech, and through loud speakers in the mosques the ship is sinking, and no amount of unsinkable loyalty to the greater idea
of democracy and religious harmony can change that. The question is whether the loyalists are consciously willing to sink with it.
The BNPs insipid spokespersons on television or public debates may talk of introspection, security paranoia, and political auditing, but it
sounds like nothing more than whining and groaning.
Despite its media presence, meagre though, the BNP no longer determines what the news agenda is nor has it been able to erase off its
terrorism-extremism tattoo.
However, ceteris paribus, many will surely decide to abandon ship (as many have already in various cuts) and form alternative platforms. In
fact, dignity and self-esteem leave them with nothing much to do.
Some of the senior leaders of the party may stick to the party, but they cannot change course until Tarique Rahman wishes to see a
meaningful change.
Mr Rahman is who he has always been, and who he will always be. As the classic rules of politics would indicate, the more unpopular the
government becomes the more Mr Rahman would rise as Mr Right.
But that too will not happen until he is back home and his so-called loyal clubbers and media trumpets are effectively replaced by leaders and
workers suffering at the grassroots level. It is tough to think of precedents for this to happen.
What further disturbs the ordinary Bangladeshis is the political eccentricity of the BNP. It has been taken over by ducked intellectuals. Ducks
undersell the party spirit, actually. A fringe party can accommodate eccentricity but the BNP is supposed to be a serious party of the kind that
could plausibly form a government in the distant future.
It is by no means obvious that the BNP has no respect in the society, perhaps its acceptance has increased due to the ALs indubitable failures
in delivering credible elections and public safety. However, all boils down to the BNPs leadership.
Given the growing anti-establishment sentiment among the aam janata (common people), it wont be surprising to see even a banyan tree to
win a free and fair election in Bangladesh.
But the question is who would happily deliver a free and fair election? Neither the Chief Election Commissioner Mr Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmads
office, nor the politics that AL-BNP practice would deliver it.
Hence, the critical mass of the populace will increasingly be looking forward to alternatives (but that surely wont include Jamaat that acquired
less than 5% vote in 2008 elections).
The recent visit of S Jaishankar, the Indian Foreign Secretary, along with the renewed rise of extremist fear and minority crush, will bring more
terrible news for the BNP, as it has brought some to the AL too.
For the Indians and the Westerners, the ineffectiveness of the AL in taming extremism (both political and social) and the eclipse of the BNP as
a compelling political entity would require readjusting to new socio-political realities in Dhaka.
Over the years, Delhi and Washington often found themselves at odds with the BNP-led governments, albeit more so since 2005. At the same
time, Delhi and Washington feel a subtle comfort level with the pro-Delhi AL than with homespun religious-nationalist BNP.
It is evident that the foreigners wont help the BNP come to power. In fact, the alleged BNP-Mossad tie has brought further hefty peril than
promise for the party.
The sooner they realise, the better it would be for them to manage their own politics.
Otherwise, I will keep hearing more debate to the issue of BNP-Jamaat-mukto Bangladesh. The question this time will not be if this is going to
happen, but when.
With that fear in my mind, I often ask my BNP friends (and AL friends too), loyalty is good, but what would you do when there wont be
anything left to be loyal to? Things wont get better anytime soon. There is no symptom that the AL regime will allow a better political space
for democracy to thrive.
But that should not be an excuse to act like a heretic party which is, whether one likes it or not, the largest shadow opposition party.
For now, the BNP faces the biggest challenge in its 38-year history. Will the Zia dynasty ride out this whirlwind, as it has in the past? Or will the
AL achieve its often loudly-stated objective of a BNP-Jamaat-free Bangladesh? The BNP needs to address these questions with sensibility and
maturity.
Or else, oblivion await

Developmental Consequences:
Causing displacement, violating
human rights!

May 29, 2016

Sudhanshu Tripathi

The consequences of almost all developmental projects lead to forced displacement of millions from their roots thereby denigrating them from
their culture, customs and languages. Hence the process of displacement and rehabilitation ought to be executed as a last resort in a more
humanistic way.
Introduction
Indeed, all developmental or infrastructural projects being carried out by developing states are major forces of displacement in the world,
particularly in South Asia. They cause an adverse impact on millions of people as they deprive them of their livelihood, their shelters that
stand in the way of dams, highways, or other large-scale construction projects and also their social and cultural systems besides pushing them
mostly into abject poverty. In fact, land acquisition has destroyed their life style and social setting and has violated their basic human rights.
Although, as in some cases, the project affected population have protested tooth and nail against their displacement, others have simply
acquiesced while expecting huge rehabilitation packages which they rarely receive. As a consequence, peoples responses against
infrastructural development have become a prominent phenomenon on the socio-cultural and political scene of our times. The antiinfrastructure development movement, comprising displaced people has given a boost by the active support of diverse groups creating an
atmosphere more receptive to displacement and rehabilitation issues. The resistance against land acquisition has become organised and
sustained and has had a profound influence on the entire discourse of displacement and rehabilitation leading to marginalization. Evidently, all
these require the urgent attention of states to systematically address the displacement consequences of development because as Alphonso
Alvares, Claude and Ramesh Billorey comment: No trauma could be more painful for a family than to be uprooted from a place where it has
lived for generations. Yet, the uprooting has to be done, because the land occupied by the family is required for development projects which
hold the promise of progress and prosperity for the country and people in general. The family getting displaced thus makes a sacrifice so that
others may live in happiness and be economically better off.
In fact, development is needed for progress and to meet the emerging requirements of the people at large. Since development process
involves huge expenditure of money, it lets to emerge several immoral and corrupt nexus among policy makers, executioners and middlemen
operating between the plan executioners and the local people affected by the development planning. As development planning in itself is a
policy matter that opens many doors of dissenting voices during the framing of policy decisions, it diverts the overall focus on redress of
grievances of the local people. As a result, several forces representing various kinds of interests operate at different levels of plan formulation,
execution and redress of grievances of the victims so affected. While policy formulators are guided by their own political interests- selfish or
otherwise- plan executioners focus only on their target and they mostly remain unconcerned with the local complaints of the development site,
the local residents of that area become the worst sufferers of the development plan being carried out because they are to be uprooted from
their ancestral homes and such other belongings. It is therefore necessary that they be involved in the policy formulation of plans so that their
concerns may be properly discussed and understood and so be properly addressed. Their prior involvement will considerably help in resolution
of many of the local level problems and better reconciliation of diverse interests of the natives.

This paper is about the very painful and traumatic consequences which befell upon millions of people all over the world who are forcibly
displaced from their ancestral homes and lands in order to facilitate the process of urbanisation and development. While the introduction of
the paper discusses the issues involved, the second part deals with the extent and impact of displacement caused by development projects
along with Michael Cerneas eight interlinked potential risks intrinsic to displacement. The third part describes the disproportionately affected
indigenous people & ethnic minorities and the next analyses the challenges of displacement and rehabilitation. Afterwards, it details the
narratives about Human rights Law and development-induced displacement along with details about Development induced-displacement in
the Guiding Principles. Thereafter it elaborates the provisions pertaining to Protection of affected people by development projects. Lastly, it
comes about with conclusion and suggestions in favour of resorting to displacement only as a last option and that too with utmost care and in
a well-planned manner so that number of affected people be least and they must also be duly consulted. Further, suitable policies and
development paradigms must be framed which may minimise the loss of fertile land for farming purposes and other sources of water along
with flora and fauna. The tendency to grab extra land must be curbed while stopping displacement for non-priority issues besides being
sensitive and responsible towards the people so-affected by displacement and also devising different institutional means for their better
prospects, thereby protecting their human rights.
Extent and impact of the displacement caused by development projects
While an estimated 25 million people are displaced worldwide by conflict as mentioned in a report entitled Development-induced
displacement prepared by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and Norwegian Refugee Council, the number of people uprooted
by development projects is thought to be much higher. In 1994, a study of all World Bank-assisted development projects from 1986-1993 that
entailed population displacement found that just over half were in the transportation, water supply and urban infrastructure sectors according
to the same report . Extrapolating from World Bank data to derive estimates of global figures, the study concluded that, in the early 1990s, the
construction of 300 high dams (above 15 metres) each year had displaced four million people. Urban and transportation infrastructure projects
accounted for six million more displaced each year. On-going industrialisation, electrification and urbanisation processes are likely to increase,
rather than reduce, the number of programmes causing involuntary population displacement. Causes or categories of development-induced
displacement include the following: water supply (dams, reservoirs, irrigation); urban infrastructure; transportation (roads, highway, canals);
energy (mining, power plants, oil exploration and extraction, pipelines); agriculture expansion; parks and forest reserves; and population
redistribution schemes. The consequent sufferings of the displaced people generally aggravate due to lack of transparency and accountability
of agencies responsible for resettlement. Other factors that contribute to the feeling of helplessness among displaced people include-partial
and delayed information, weak efforts to ensure participation of affected communities and non-responsiveness to grievances. As a result, a
number of socio-economic and occupational changes do occur in the social structure of the affected region. Evidently, there is growing
consensus in rehabilitation and resettlement literature that the displacement process leads to a decline in living standards and heightens
impoverishment. A renowned social anthropologist Michael Cerneas Impoverishment Risk and Reconstruction Model (Cernea, Michael and Hari
Mohan Mathur (Eds.) 2000;Can Compensation Prevent Impoverishment, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp 208-26.) is a significant
approach in displacement and resettlement research which shows how displacement goes hand in hand with physical, social, and economic
exclusion, culminating in a broad range of impoverishment risks. His findings on development-induced displacement and resettlement
research for the World Bank, point out that being forcibly ousted from ones land and habitat carries with it the risk of becoming poorer than
before displacement, since a significant portion of people displaced do not receive the adequate compensation for their lost assets, and
effective assistance to re-establish themselves productively. Michael Cernea1999, Why Economic Analysis is Essential to Resettlement: A
Sociologists View. In Michael Cernea (ed) The Economics of Involuntary Resettlement: Questions and Challenges (Washington, DC: World
Bank) has identified eight interlinked potential risks intrinsic to displacement. These are put hereunder as key impoverishment risks with their
implications for the so-affected people:
1.

Landlessness: Expropriation of land removes the main foundation upon which peoples productive systems, commercial activities,
and livelihoods are constructed. This is the principle form of pauperisation of the displaced people. Once people lose their land to
development projects, it becomes very difficult for them to own land again due to scarcity of agricultural land for resettlement and
inadequate compensation to replace the lost land. Landlessness brings about changes in occupation, reduce ability to hold assets
(livestock) and lessens food supply and resource base for securing other necessities. For those who succeed in getting land for land, the
average size of the land holding decreases, the land quality changes for the worse and livestock holding is also reduced. Unless the land
basis of the productive system is reconstructed elsewhere or replaced with steady income-generating employment, affected families
become impoverished.

2.

Joblessness: The risk of losing wage employment is very high both in urban and rural displacements for those employed in
enterprises, services or agriculture. When landowners lose their land, landless agricultural labourers working for them also lose their
source of income and employment to support their families. Small enterprise, traditional artisans and wage labourers are also adversely
affected. Similarly, tribal people living in and around forests also depend on shifting cultivation and forest produce collections. When
forestland is also taken over for industrial purposes along with plain lands, people lose their traditional rights over forest products apart
from occasional agricultural work. In fact, competition with host communities in new set-ups forces displaced people to take-up nontraditional jobs at relocation sites. The impoverishing effects of unemployment or underemployment among resettled people last for quite
long time and mostly compel them to opt for seasonal and interstate migration and to work as bonded labour or child labour for minors.
Lacking other income sources, women, children and even adult men engage in menial activities such as collecting firewood from forests
near to their homes. Yet creating new jobs is difficult and requires substantial investment.

3.

Homelessness: Loss of home or shelter leads to the deprivation of cultural identity and space and, ultimately, paves way towards
cultural impoverishment. It tends to be only temporary for many people being resettled; but, for some, homelessness or a worsening in
their housing standards remains a lingering condition. In fact, home gives a sense of belonging, social and psychological security and an
assurance of togetherness. It enshrines and enriches life and provides psychological and spiritual attachment with ancestors. The feeling of
oneness and attachment to ones birthplace and kin members is a binding force in the social structure.

Homes of tribal and backward communities often include domestic animals and livestock adds as their supplementary income. While a few
better-off displaced people spend a sizable proportion of the compensation amount in building a house after relocation, the tribal and other
backward classes take more time to do so as they remain busy collecting food from outside or working as labour most of the day and use their

homes only for cooking, storing and sleeping. In a broader cultural sense, loss of a familys individual home and the loss of a groups cultural
space tend to result in alienation and status deprivation.
4.

Marginalisation: Marginalisation occurs when families lose economic power and spiral on a downward mobility path. Many
individuals cannot use their earlier-acquired skills at the new location; human capital is lost or rendered inactive or obsolete. Displaced
people in new locations are often considered outsiders and experience identity crises and feel deprived when treated as strangers. They
face cultural crises as well as problems of adjustment and lose their self-respect and confidence. In India, the tribal people share a long
heritage and accordingly place great value on their culture. And consequent upon a top down decision-making process on relocation, low
compensation and the manner in which people are treated, the tribals mostly fail to assert their voice and the resultant low self-perception
leads to an acceptance of their subordinate status and thus they do not demand benefits for themselves. Economic marginalisation is often
accompanied by social and psychological marginalisation expressed by a drop of in social status, loss of confidence, a feeling of injustice
and deepened vulnerability. Also people with low self-esteem then become involved in self-destructive activities like excessive drinking of
liquor, petty crimes, destruction of forests etc. Further, displacement pushes them into repetitive, unrewarding seasonal migration for
construction and other temporary work and marginalises them and their subsequent generations

5.

Food Insecurity: Forced uprooting increases the risk that people will fall into temporary or chronic undernourishment, defined as
calorie-protein intake levels below the minimum necessary for normal growth and work. The rural communities usually collect their food
from three sources- their own crops, surrounding forests/water bodies and local markets. Food or nutritional security depends on sustained
production, access to forests and water sources, better market availability and the purchasing of the displaced people. In their absence
they find scarcity of food at new locations and fall prey into the vicious circle of unemployment, poverty and chronic undernourishment.
Further, due change of their native places, the new locations require different kind of cropping pattern with which they happen to unaware
and that causes the unfamiliar problem of food insecurity.

6.

Increased Morbidity and Mortality: Displacement-induced psychological and socio-cultural stress, the use of unsafe water
supply and improvised sewage systems, increase vulnerability to epidemics and chronic diarrhoea, dysentery, or particularly parasitic and
vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and schistosomiasis etc. are the immediate consequences of involuntary resettlement
which lead to fast deterioration in health standards. Also, when such displaced people are forced to live for a long time in camps with poor
and unhygienic conditions, diseases spread rapidly. Among the groups most vulnerable are women, children and elderly people. In fact,
health hazards are the common experiences for resettled people and those with whom they come in contact in the process of resettlement
and all these increase the risk of morbidity and mortality.

7.

Loss of Access to Common Property: For poor people, particularly for the landless and asset-less resettled communities, loss of
access to the common property assets (pastures, forest lands, water bodies, burial grounds, quarries and so on) result in significant
deterioration in income and livelihood levels because the common property resources at resettlement sites are mostly far less than what
they earlier have had in their native places. Tribal people depend most on such resources and that they are bound to lose when forced to
resettle elsewhere. Also, the quality of facilities also gets worsened after displacement.

8.

Social Disintegration: Displacement causes a profound unravelling of existing patterns of social organisation. This unravelling
occurs at many levels. When people are forcibly moved, production systems, life-sustaining informal networks, trade linkages, etc. are
dismantled besides addition of other risks such as the loss of access to public services, degradation of environment, loss of access to
schooling for school-age children, and the loss of civil rights or abuse of human rights, such as loss of property without fair compensation,
or violence from security forces or risks of communal violence in resettlement areas.

Disproportionately affected indigenous people & ethnic minorities

Studies on the social impact of development projects in South Asia in the earlier mentioned report entitled Development-induced
displacementprepared by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and Norwegian Refugee Council suggest that indigenous people
and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected (same report. Coming from politically marginalised and disadvantaged strata of society,
these groups often end up neglected and impoverished. In India, the Adivasi or tribal people, although only representing eight percent of the
total population, make up 40-50 per cent of the displaced (same report. In Nepal, indigenous groups displaced by a dam on the Kaligandaki
River have lost their land and livelihood and have reportedly been inadequately compensated (same report. The livelihood of an estimated
35,000 indigenous Ibaloi people is threatened by the construction of the San Roque Dam in the Philippines (same report. Mon, Karen and
Tavoyans in Myanmar Burma are probably among the worst off, displaced by large infrastructure projects and subject to forced labour and
abuses by the military.
Challenges of displacement and rehabilitation
Although challenges of displacement and resultant rehabilitation are multi-fold and they cant be precisely described, yet a reasonably brief
description would be pertinent here to illustrate the gravity of the situation under such circumstances. In fact, the organisation of any society
crucially involves the environment as an important factor in determining the relationships between human beings and nature. The adaptations
human beings make to adjust to a particular environment are clearly reflected in all such major institutions of society. The displacement and
rehabilitation bring forth several changes in the social structure hitherto unknown to the displaced people. In reality, the resettlement entails a
new life full of agonising hardships to them. They are forced to struggle to adapt to a new environment and to improvise strategies to meet
their basic means of survival. To sustain themselves and for practical considerations they have to make changes in certain social relationships
as they stand exploited and marginalised in the new environment and social setup. In terms of survival, the problems they face vary from
practical ones such as lack of fuel, water and wood to interpersonal kinds of familial adjustments and the selection of a suitable life partner
besides several cultural changes in dress patterns, hairstyles and use of cosmetics etc., which are largely due to contact with other people in
the new environment. Their poor economic conditions also force them to depend on moneylenders. Consequent upon all these hardships, the
resettled people internalise a sense of helplessness and powerlessness because of encounters with the powerful external world into which
they are pushed without adequate preparation. They also do internalise the value system of a formal society that do not recognise their social
and economic contribution and culture and, hence, they consider their own society and culture as irrelevant or of little value. Such kind of
internalisation makes them considerably incapable of rebuilding their lives, let alone improving their lifestyles. Thus their standards of living,
social status and self-esteem also decline. The physical condition of resettlement sites, small landholdings or landlessness and lack of
livelihood created a sense of alienation, anger and helplessness among the displaced people due to their inability to change their situation. In
host villages where land was purchased by the displaced people who have no kinsmen, mistrust or estrangement over resource sharing

(especially common property resources and civic amenities) soon become common and social harmony becomes difficult to achieve. Since
village-system gets broken up, a sense of community feeling is lost. One becomes unwanted among hostile strangers that at times openly
harass the resettled community. As compared to their past living conditions, the resettled people mostly find themselves to be the biggest
losers in the process of development, says Pankaj Kumar. (Kumar, Pankaj 2013; Development, Displacement and Human Rights
Violations, World Affairs, New Delhi, Vol. 17 No 3 (July-September) Autumn, pp. 106-33.)
Conclusion
Thus the trauma of displaced people is essentially beyond the purview of any sort of compensation. In fact, this ought to be the guiding
principle for a state or an agency seeking displacement of people from their ancestral houses and immovable properties for development
projects. In fact, the so displaced people mostly do sacrifice a lot by throwing themselves into a new environment of abject penury and various
kinds of hardships so that others may live comfortably. This fact should be seriously sympathetically considered by those entrusted with the
task of resettlement of such people, so as to convince them (resettled people) that development is necessary for the whole country and its
populace and that they, as responsible citizens, are extending their due for a noble cause of national service. While, on the one hand, the
process of displacement should be accomplished as a last resort, with utmost care and in a well-planned manner, the affected people be
adequately compensated treated while having mandatory due consultation with them so as to ensure least possible agony for them and also a
bright and prosperous future of meaningful life. To lessen the chances of displacement, the suitable policies and development paradigms be
framed that may minimise the loss of fertile land for farming purposes and also sources of water and available flora and fauna. The tendency
to grab extra land must be curbed and displacement for non-priority issues be totally stopped. The government must remain very responsive
and careful towards displaced people and must address their grievances on priority basis by making effective institutional arrangements at the
grass root levels.
CONTRIBUTOR

Sudhanshu Tripathi
Dr. Sudhanshu Tripathi is professor of Political Science, M. D. P. G. College, Prataphgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India.