A Correspondent :
The 51st hereditary Chakma Raja (king) and chief of Chakma Circle in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region of south-eastern Bangladesh Devasish Roy (58) has completed 40 years of his reign. He has ruled the country’s largest tribal community with majesty and glamour since his coronation in 1977.
There are over 400,000 residents in his tributary kingdom of Rangamati and Khargachari hill districts. The king was born on April 9, 1959 and assumed the office of Chakma chief when he turned 18. His accession to the kingship was celebrated at an investiture held in Rangamati on November 25, 1977.
In 1974, when Devasish was 14, he was declared king through a gazette notification of the Government of Bangladesh as his father, King Tridiv Roy, had left the country. His uncle, Kumar Samit Roy, a teacher of Rangamati College, acted as regent until 1977. Devasish’s eldest son, Rajkumar Tribhuvan Aryadev Roy, was made Yuvraj (crown prince) in 2003.
Raja Devasish Roy is a barrister by profession and a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. He helped facilitate the final negotiations between the government and the tribal political party, Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti, which led to the signing of the CHT peace accord in 1997 that ended two decades of conflict in the hill region.
The Chakma king still collects land taxes from local landowners. He has 1,834 karbaris, or traditional heads of villages (paras), under him. There are also 186 heads of mouzas, which are administrative units comprising of 5 to15 paras.
The karbaris maintain law and order, resolve disputes, manage land and other resources, collect revenue, and also play social, cultural and spiritual roles. The headmen are responsible for district and upazila, as well as circle administrations. They also collect revenue and manage the natural resources of a mouza, including land used for jhum (shifting) cultivation, grasslands and grazing lands.
The 51st hereditary Chakma Raja (king) and chief of Chakma Circle in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region of south-eastern Bangladesh Devasish Roy (58) has completed 40 years of his reign. He has ruled the country’s largest tribal community with majesty and glamour since his coronation in 1977.
There are over 400,000 residents in his tributary kingdom of Rangamati and Khargachari hill districts. The king was born on April 9, 1959 and assumed the office of Chakma chief when he turned 18. His accession to the kingship was celebrated at an investiture held in Rangamati on November 25, 1977.
In 1974, when Devasish was 14, he was declared king through a gazette notification of the Government of Bangladesh as his father, King Tridiv Roy, had left the country. His uncle, Kumar Samit Roy, a teacher of Rangamati College, acted as regent until 1977. Devasish’s eldest son, Rajkumar Tribhuvan Aryadev Roy, was made Yuvraj (crown prince) in 2003.
Raja Devasish Roy is a barrister by profession and a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. He helped facilitate the final negotiations between the government and the tribal political party, Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti, which led to the signing of the CHT peace accord in 1997 that ended two decades of conflict in the hill region.
The Chakma king still collects land taxes from local landowners. He has 1,834 karbaris, or traditional heads of villages (paras), under him. There are also 186 heads of mouzas, which are administrative units comprising of 5 to15 paras.
The karbaris maintain law and order, resolve disputes, manage land and other resources, collect revenue, and also play social, cultural and spiritual roles. The headmen are responsible for district and upazila, as well as circle administrations. They also collect revenue and manage the natural resources of a mouza, including land used for jhum (shifting) cultivation, grasslands and grazing lands.
