Towards a mobile indigeneity? The case of indigenous students from the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Dhaka, Bangladesh

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how increased mobility of indigenous student migrants in Dhaka from the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh affects notions of belonging and indigeneity. By applying a theoretical framework of mobility, global interconnectedness and lifestyle, the study challenges representations by indigenous rights advocates of indigenous people as inherently immobile and rooted in peripheral lands. The findings are based on two periods of fieldwork in Dhaka from June to August 2014 and from February to March 2015, during which I employed participant observation and held 38 interviews with indigenous students. The data collected illustrate the need to rethink
indigenous identities and activism, and to acknowledge indigenous identity against the backdrop of social change and increasing access to global imaginaries in Bangladesh. The study particularly demonstrates how demands for cultural recognition, as often put forward by indigenous advocates, are problematic due to their neglect of representation issues and class differences among indigenous people. Furthermore, the mobility experiences and aspirations of indigenous
students challenge popular, activist and scholarly representations of indigeneity as static, unchangeable and rooted in peripheral lands.