9 - Summary and Conclusion: From Tribes to Ethnic Minorities

Summary

The Garos are one of the many non-Bengali communities of Bangladesh. They feel very different from other Bangladeshis and make it a point to maintain their separate identity. This book presented a history of this Garo community. It analysed the evolution of their distinct ethnic identity and tried to unravel the complex processes that contributed to their ethnogenesis. Although this study is heavily indebted to theoretical and empirical contributions from anthropologists, sociologists and other social scientists, it is primarily a historical endeavour. The book thus breaks away from the majority of tribal studies, which are generally dominated by anthropologists, and often lack a historical perspective. Historians of South Asia, on the other hand, seldom focus on so-called tribal communities. Particularly in the case of Bangladesh, historical accounts give no voice to tribal minorities as agents in the (national) history. Their experiences and histories have been marginalized in the dominant accounts, because they disturb the nationalist presumptions which inform the bulk of writing on Bangladesh today.

My research on the Garos clearly demonstrates that South Asian tribal studies have much to gain from a historical perspective. It shows that only a long-term perspective allows us to uncover the changeability and flexibility of social boundaries and identities, and to understand contemporary identity formation and inter-group relations in the region. The Garo case offered ample opportunity to analyse complex processes of categorization, group formation, identification, and othering in Bangladesh. It also revealed that Garos themselves have been active participants in the making of their own history (and that of others). Hence, my prime concern was to historize anthropological categories, to shift the perspective from anthropological objects to historical subjects, and to give voice to people who have long been missing from (national) histories.

The Garos also belong to the category of so-called tribes. This has in various ways influenced their ethnogenesis. Attached to the concept of tribe are many preconceived notions of primitivism, isolation, and general backwardness, which do no justice to the experienced day-to-day realities of the people belonging to this tribal category, and which have impacted the very process of identity formation and boundary articulation throughout the region.