Ethnic Conflict in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh: Lessons from Intricate Geopolitics and Masculinist State Policies

This chapter interrogates the protracted ethnic conflict in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh by examining how intricate geopolitics and masculinist state policies have structured violence, displacement, and exclusion. Situating the conflict within colonial legacies and postcolonial state formation, the chapter traces how the strategic marginalization of indigenous communities was institutionalized through territorial reorganization, demographic engineering, and militarized governance. Drawing on feminist theories of war and peace, it argues that the Bangladeshi state operates as a gendered institution, deploying muscular nationalism and masculinist militarism to legitimize repression in the name of security and sovereignty. The analysis demonstrates how these gendered logics produced multiple forms of violence, including forced displacement, land dispossession, sexual violence, and everyday insecurity, with particularly severe consequences for indigenous women. The chapter further examines the limits of the 1997 Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord, showing how partial implementation, continued militarization, and factionalism among indigenous political groups have prolonged instability rather than resolved conflict. By foregrounding the intersection of geopolitics, ethnicity, and gender, the chapter offers critical insights into why peace initiatives fail when they ignore structural inequalities and lived experiences. It concludes that sustainable peace in the Chittagong Hill Tracts requires confronting gendered and geopolitical foundations directly.