Hajong community faces displacement in Sunamganj’s Madhyanagar

Hajong people of Madhyanagar upazila of Sunamganj district in the Tangua­ar haor area are witnessing a gradual erosion of their ancestral lands and traditional way of life.

Driven from their homes by historical upheavals, legal complications and land-grabbing practices, they now count themselves a marginalised minority in what once was their own territory.

In the melodious words of a Hajong song, Tangua­ar haor is called “Tin Quinne Ar”- “three‑cornered Haor”—a name signifying its triangular shape with corners east, north and west, bordered by Meghalaya hills.

The song speaks of women going out to fish in groups, using nets and jaka (a traditional group fishing method), in what is deeply woven into local culture.

Yet today, the Hajong; original inhabitants of the Haor, are no longer the majority in these lands. They have endured successive waves of displacement: the custom of nankar and tongk (types of rent‑or tribute‑based land relations), communal violence in the 1960s, Partition of 1947, 1971 Liberation War and fallout after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.

Over time, many of the beels (wetlands), dalas (fertile, tillable land) and wetlands that sustained Hajong livelihoods have vanished or been swallowed up by sedimentation, erosion or encroachment.

Villages like Laxmipur, Tarabari and Gohin Dala once belonged almost entirely to Hajong cultivators. Now, much of their land has passed out of hands into those of non‑Hajong Bengali settlers.

Lakshmipur village resident and poet Dasharath Chandra Adhikari recounted how the Hajong community’s lands were gradually lost.

He mentioned the case of Gohin Adhikari, son of Hajong zamindar Mohim Adhikari of Matiar Bandh village, who was popularly known as Gohingiri.

According to him, Gohin intended to sell only 48 decimals of land but ended up losing ownership of all his property. A powerful individual from the neighbouring village of Kartikpur allegedly manipulated the deed and acquired 48 kials; equivalent to about 1,536 kathas, instead.

Deprived of his land, Gohin reportedly spent the rest of his life in poverty, surviving by begging. The pond near his former home, once lined with palm trees, still remains, but the land has long since passed out of his possession.

Bimal Hajong, son of Laxmirani Hajong of Ghilagora, says that some 57 acres of fertile land at Jamalpur mauza, which belonged to his maternal grandfather, have still been classified as “enemy property” despite his grandfather never leaving the country. Such classifications render legal remedies difficult.

Ajit Kumar Hajong, chairman of Tribal Association of the upazila, speaks of constant land grabbing, harassment and marginalisation that reduces the Hajong and other indigenous groups to virtual landless status.

He laments how not only their property, but also their traditional practices, festivals, religious customs and rituals are under threat.

Sohel Hajong, a central committee member of Bangladesh Indigenous Forum, has reiterated long‑standing demands for a separate land commission to address the Hajong’s problems, including land restitution and legal recognition.

About 2,663 Hajong live in nine villages adjoining the India border, in the Tangua­ar Haor region of Madhyanagar Upazila, Sunamganj.

Before 1947, there were virtually no non‑Hajong settlers here; now the demographic balance has shifted heavily. The languages, music, songs and fishing traditions persist, but with diminishing space and growing legal invisibility.