Chakma peoples history last part

Religion

The vast majority of the Chakma are followers of Theravada Buddhism, a religion that they have been practising for centuries. However, their form of Buddhism has aspects of Hinduism and traditional religions as well. Foreign and local missionaries have been trying to convert the Chakmas to Christianity. This has created resentment among the Chakmas.^[21]
Almost every Chakma village has a Buddhist temple (kaang). Buddhist priests or monks are called Bhikhus. They preside at religious festivals and ceremonies. The villagers support their monks with food, gifts, and offerings to Buddha.
The Chakmas also worship Hindu deities. Lakshmi, for example, is worshipped as the Goddess of the Harvest. Chakmas offer the sacrifice of goats, chickens, or ducks to calm the spirits that are believed to bring fevers and disease. Even though animal sacrifice is totally against Buddhist beliefs, the Chakma Buddhist priests ignore the practice.

Language

Main Article Chakma language.

Originally speaking a language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman family, some of the Chakmas have been influenced by neighbouring Chittagonian, an Eastern Indo-Aryan language closely related to Assamese. Many linguists now consider the modern Chakma language (known as Changma Vaj or Changma Hodha) part of the Eastern Indo-Aryan language. Changma Vaj is written in its own script, the Chakma script, also known as Ojhopath. Chakma is written in an alphabet which allowing for its cursive form, is almost identical with the Khmer and the Lanna (Chiangmai) characters, which was formerly in use in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and southern parts of Burma.

Culture

Chakma handicrafts and fabrics are subject to widespread tourist attraction in Chittagong hill region in Bangladesh.

The Chakmas are a people with their own culture, folklore, literature and traditions. The Chakma women wear an ankle length cloth around the waist which is also called Phinon and also a Haadi wrapped above the waist as well as silver ornaments. The Phinon and the Haadi are colourfully hand weaved with various designs. The design is first embroidered on a piece of cloth known as Alaam.

Festivals

The most important festivals celebrated by the Chakmas are Bizu, Alpaloni, Buddha Purnima and Kathin Civar Dan.
Chakmas celebrate various Buddhist festivals. The most important is Buddha Purnima. This is the anniversary of three important events in Buddha's life—his birth, his attainment of enlightenment, and his death. It is observed on the full moon day of the month of Vaisakh (usually in May).
On this and other festival days, Chakmas put on their best clothes and visit the temple. There, they offer flowers to the image of Buddha, light candles, and listen to sermons from the priests. Alms (offerings) are given to the poor, and feasts are held for the priests.
The three-day festival known as Bishu, which coincides with the Bengali New Year's Day, is celebrated with much enthusiasm. Houses are decorated with flowers, young children pay special attention to the elderly to win their blessings, and festive dishes are prepared for guests.

Bizu

Bizu is the most important socio-religious festival of the Chakma.This festival gave birth to the Bizu dance.The festival lasts for three days and begins on the last day of the month of Chaitra. The first day is known as Phool Bizu. On this day, household items, clothes are cleaned and washed, food items are collected to give the house a new look with the veil of different flowers. The second day known as Mul Bizu day starts with the bath in the river. People wear new clothes and make rounds of the village. They also enjoy specially made vegetable curry known as "Pazon ton", different homemade sweets and take part in different traditional sports. The day ends with the Bizu dance.
The last day, which is known as Gojjepojje din involves the performances of different socio-religious activities. In the context of its nature some say that Bizu is a festival, which revolves around agricultural activities because it is celebrated in mid-April when the earth is just drenched with the first rain and the jum sowing is taken up. And it is believed that with the objective of getting rich harvest worship of the earth was arranged which later on took the form of a festival. However of late it has lost its agricultural character.

Alphaloni

Alphaloni is a most important day for Chakma people.
During Alphaloni everyone takes a break from farming because it is harvest season.
In Alphaloni all farmers, are taking rest and give also rest all animals, weapons of farmers, in this day they are eating new food, fruits from jum (harvest), and offering and sharing with other.
This day all people feel happy and enjoy with family, neighbor, relatives etc. to offering new fruits from jum.
It is very historical day for Chakma people; we have celebrated this festival last 2500 years.
It is an old tradition during the king reign of Suddhdhana father of Siddharta. This is old festivel 2500 years ago when the prince Siddharta was meditating under tree, on the other side had celebrating plough festival (Alphaloni) their farmer parents and relatives etc.
During that time he was practicing meditation and seeking an end to all suffering.

Buddha Purnima

It is celebrated on the full moon day in the month of Baisakh.It actually encompasses the birth, enlightenment (nirvāna), and passing away (Parinirvāna) of Lord Buddha. On the day of the worship devotees go to the monastery with Siyong (offerings of rice,vegetable and other fruits and confectionaries). The Buddhist priests known as Bhikkhu lead the devotees for chanting of mantra composed in Pali in praise of the holy triple gem: The Buddha, The Dharma (his teachings), and The Sangha (his disciples). Apart from this,other practices such as lighting of thousands of lamps, releasing of Phanuch Batti (an auspicious lamp made of paper in the form of a balloon) are also done as and when possible.

Food

Bamboo shoot is a traditional food of the Chakma people.They call it "Bajchuri".And Shrimp paste is their traditional ingredient of cooking.They call it "Sidol".
The staple food of the Chakmas is rice, supplemented by millet, corn (maize), vegetables, and mustard. Vegetables include yams, pumpkins, melons, and cucumbers. Vegetables and fruit gathered from the forest may be added to the diet. Fish, poultry, and meat (even pork) are eaten, despite the Buddhist taboo on consuming animal flesh.
Traditional diets have slowly been abandoned, as the Chakmas have been forced to flee their homeland. Some typical Chakma dishes include fish, vegetables, and spices stuffed into a length of bamboo and cooked in a low fire; foods wrapped in banana leaves and placed beside a fire; and eggs that are aged until they are rotten.

Sports

Gudu hara OR Ha-do-do is a game played throughout the Chakma region. Two teams stand on either side of a central line. They take turns sending a player into opposing territory to touch as many people as he or she can during the space of one breath, while at the same time saying "Ha-do-do." If the player runs out of breath or is caught by his or her opponents, he or she is out.
On the other hand, if the player successfully returns to his or her own territory, the players he or she has tagged must leave the game. Other pastimes include Ghilay Hara, a game similar to marbles except that small wooden disks are used instead of marbles; Nadeng Hara, played with a spinning top; and various wrestling games. Girls do not have dolls or play at being "mother" as they do in Western cultures.

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chakma peoples history part-4

Modern times

Like in India in Mizoram and Tripura State, the Chakmas have lived in the modern state of Bangladesh much before it gained its independence. However, recent migrations of ethnic Bengalis into traditionally Chakma regions of Bangladesh have raised tensions in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Successive governments have dealt forcefully with Chakma uprisings, and finally ended the conflict with The 1997 Peace Treaty. This forceful dealing and the construction of Kaptai Dam by then Pakistan government in Chakma areas submerged cultivable lands and displaced thousands, resulted in the migration of a large population of Chakmas into Diyun the state of Arunachal Pradesh of the present Indian Union during 1964-1969.
In February 1972, Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh issued a joint statement by virtue of which the Government of India took a decision to confer citizenship on the Chakmas under Section 5(1)(a) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 but the State of Arunachal Pradesh had reservations on this count. Chakma were thus were allowed to be rehabilitated under the decision of the Government of India. Election Commission of India framed guidelines to enable Chakmas have the right to vote by having their names enrolled in the electoral rolls of the concerned constituency where they have been settled.^[18]
The Chakmas now have representations in the Mizoram General Assembly, Tipura Legislative Assembly^[19] and Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council.^[20] The only seat of political power and identity is the Chakma Autonomous District Council in India, though it covers only 35% of the Chakmas living in Mizoram State in India. There are another 80,000 Chakmas in Rakhine state of Myanmar. The Chakmas in Myanmar are known as Daingnet people.
In September 2015, Supreme Court of India passed a judgment directing the government of India and of Arunachal Pradesh to grant India citizenship rights to all the Chakmas holding that they could not be discriminated against any other Indian
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Chakma peoples history part-3

The British Government period

After the war with the English, the Chakmas became very weak militarily.
Since then the Kukis, who were independent tribes living further eastward used to make frequent murderous raids on the British subjects in Cacher, Noakhali, Comilla and other neighbouring tracts under Rani Kalindi. They raided Chittagong Hill Tracts and the neighbouring tracts in 1847, 1848, 1859 and 1860.^[14] As a consequence with a view to paying the necessary attention to the areas of the front areas experiencing repeated raids and to protecting the people from the aggression of the independent tribes living further east but primarily to occupy the Chakma land, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal recommended the removal of the hill tracts from the regulation district and the appointment of Superintendent over the tribes. Both these recommendations were adopted by an act XXII 1860AD which came into effect from 18 August of that year.^[14] Thus Hill Tracts were separated from Chittagong and a superintendent was appointed for Chittagong Hill Tracts and its headquarters was established at Chandraghona. The hills in his charge were henceforth known by the name of the Hill Tracts of Chittagong. For the next few years attention was directed to the preservation of peace of the frontier. In 1869 headquarters was shifted to Rangamati. Earlier the official designation of the post of superintendent was changed to Deputy Commissioner and full control of all matters pertaining to both revenue and justice throughout the Hill Tracts was vested in his office.
With the prevailing frontier situation in the British government put pressure on the Chakma chief to shift his capital to Rangamati and ultimately in 1874 it was shifted to Rangamati from Rajanagar. At that time cotton was heavily grown in Chittagong Hill Tracts and it was much important to the British for their mills. Hence effective control of Chittagong Hill Tracts was also important for them.
In 1881 the government decided to divide Chittagong Hill Tracts into three circles and the rulers were designated as chiefs.^[15] The circles are

• Chakma Circle
• Bohmong Circle
• Mong Circle

Each circle was headed by a chief. Chakma circle was headed by a Chakma, Bohmong circle by a Bohmong and the Burmese people circle by a Mong. The Chakma circle was centrally located and inhabited mainly by the Chakmas, the Bohmong circle was under the subjection of the Bohmong chief of Arakanese extraction/origin and the Mong circle was also inhabited by the Arakanese speaking clans with a sprinkling of Tripura immigrants and headed by another ruler of Arakanese extraction. The reason of this division was that the British government was not in favour of the strong power of the Chakma Chief who held control over these hilly tribes. Further the government was feeling increasingly concerned about the political and administrative affairs of these tracts. Hence they aimed firstly to lay the foundation of administration in a restricted manner with the following basic objectives^[15] –

• To keep supervision on the rule of the Chakma chief and also to curtail some of his powers.
• To protect the British subjects from the Kuki menace
• To preserve peace in the frontier areas so that peace prevailed in Chittagong Hill Tracts and cotton could be grown and made available for their mills.

After the creation of a separate district and also three circles, the Kuki menace to Chittagong Hill Tracts and other adjoining areas did not stop. The Shendus, another ferocious tribe made occasional raids in the Hill Tracts between 1865 and 1888 and killed many people including massacre of Lt.Steward and his survey party. In 1872, 1890 military offensives were launched simultaneously into Lushai Hills from Chittagong and Burma in collaboration with the governments of Bengal, Assam and Burma and the whole of Kookie land was brought under British control.
On 1 April 1900, the South and the North Lushai Hills (then a part of Chittagong Hill Tracts) were merged to form a district of Assam province with headquarters at Aizawl.^[16] Lushai hills are now the present day Mizoram state of India. Due to revision of the boundaries, the Chakma chief had to forge some of his lands as also the subjects.
Later the British through the Deputy Commissioner took over absolute power in Chittagong Hill Tracts including the Chakma circle after implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts manual. Chittagong Hill Tracts was again declared as an Excluded Area under the British India act of 1935.


 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chakma peoples history part-2

The East India Company period

Three years after the Battle of Plassey, Mir Qasim the new Nawab of Murshidabad rewarded the British East India Company with Chittagong, Burdwan and Midnapur. On 5 January 1761 the company representative Harry Verelst took over charges of Chittagong from Subedar Mohammad Reza Khan. But the Chakma king Sher Doulat Khan who was practically independent though nominally paid tribute to the Mughals, didn't accept the hegemony of the Company and their demand of taxes at enhanced rate. A protracted war started and it continued up hi to 1787. The East India Company launched four offensives against the Chakmas in 1770, 1780, 1782 and 1785. In 1785 the Company started peace negotiations with the then Chakma king Jan Baksh Khan, son of Sher Doulat Khan. Later in 1787 the king accepted the sovereignty of the Company and agreed to pay 500 maunds of cotton annually. The peace agreement or treaty was signed at Kolkata.^[9]
The main provisions of the treaty between the Governor General Lord Cornwallis and the Chakma king were as following

• The East India Company recognised Jan Baksh Khan as the Raja of the Chakmas.
• It was agreed that the collection of revenue was the responsibility of the Raja.
• The British Government would preserve the tribal autonomy and migration from the plains would be restricted.
• Jan Baksh Khan was bound by the treaty to maintain peace in his territory.
• British troops would remain in the Chakma territory not to terrify the Chakmas but to protect the land from the inroads of the fierce tribes.^[10]

In 1829, Halhed then Commissioner of Chittagong reaffirmed that:

The hill tribes were not British subjects but merely tributaries and we recognized no right on our part to interfere with their internal arrangements. The near neighbourhood of a powerful and stable government naturally brought the Chief by degree under control and every leading chief paid to the Chittagong collector a certain tribute or yearly gifts. These sums were at first fluctuating in amount but gradually were brought to specific and fixed limit, eventually taking the shape not as tribute but as revenue to the state.^[11]

Jan Baksh Khan shifted his Capital to a new place naming it Rajanagar, near present-day Rangunia. After Jan Baksh's death in 1800,his son Tabbar Khan became king;but he died shortly. In 1802 Tabbar Khan's younger brother Jabbar Khan became king, and ruled for ten years. After his death,his son Dharam Baksh Khan became king in 1812. He ruled up to 1832. After his death in 1832 without any male issue, there was chaos and the government appointed Suklal Dewan as the Manager. In the meantime Rani Kalindi,widow of Dharam Baksh Khan applied to the government to allow her to run the state affairs. The government accepted her application, and in 1844 issued an order to that effect.^[12] In 1846 the annual revenue payable to the Company was refixed at 11,803.00Rs.
After the great Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, the British Government assumed direct control of the administration of India from the East India Company along with Chittagong Hill Tracts, which was not yet formally separated from Chittagong. But the territorial jurisdiction of the Chakma Raja was fixed by a proclamation dated 6th Shraavana 1170M.S(1763 AD) by the Company as All the hills from the Feni river to the Sangoo and from Nizampur Road in Chittagong to the hills of Kooki Raja.^[13]
After Rani Kalindi's death in 1873, her grandson Harish Chandra became the Chakma Raja and was vested with the title Roy Bahadur.


 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chakma people part-1

History

The Arakanese referred to the Chakmas as Saks or Theks.
In 1546 CE, when the king of Arakan, Meng Beng, was engaged in a battle with the Burmese, the Sak king appeared from the north and attacked Arakan, and occupied the Ramu of Cox's Bazar, the then territory of the kingdom of Arakan.^[2]
Diego de Astor, a Portuguese, drew a map of Bengal, which was published as Descripção do Reino de Bengalla in the book Quarta decada da Asia (Fourth decade of Asia) by João de Barros in 1615 CE.^[3] The map shows a place called "Chacomas" on the eastern bank of the Karnaphuli River, suggesting that this is where the Chakmas used to live at that time.
The Arakan king Meng Rajagri (1593–1612 CE) conquered this land, and in a 1607 CE letter to a Portuguese merchant named Philip de Brito Nicote, addressed himself as the highest and most powerful king of Arakan, of Chacomas and of Bengal.^[4]
Defeated by the Arakanese, the Chakmas entered the present Chittagong Hill Tracts and made Alekyangdong, present-day Alikadam, their capital. From Alekyangdong they went north and settled in the present-day Rangunia, Raozan, and Fatikchari upazilas of Chittagong District.
In 1666 CE, Shaista Khan, who was then Mughal Governor of Bengal, defeated the Arakanese, conquered Chittagong, and renamed it Islamabad.^[5] However, in the early days the Mughal supremacy was confined only to the plain areas of Chittagong, and the Chakmas remained practically unaffected.
After a few years, when a dispute developed between the Mughals and the Chakmas, the Mughals demanded tribute from the Chakmas for trading with Chittagong.^[6]
In 1713 CE, peace was established, and soon a stable relationship developed between the Chakmas and the Mughals; the latter never demanded complete subjugation from the former.
The Mughals also rewarded the Chakma king Shukdev Roy, who established a new capital in his own name, in an area is still known as Shukbilash.
There are still ruins of the royal palace and other establishments.
Subsequently the capital was shifted to Rajanagar, Ranirhat, Rangunia Upazila, Chittagong District.



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chakma Culture & Tradition » Tripura

     Tripura

• Introduction :  The Tripura, most tripura call themselves Tipra, the Tripura have about 36 sub-groups or dafas, the most well known of which are the Fatung, Jamatia, Nationg, Noatia, Ryang and Usui. The Tripura language belongs to the Bodo branch of the Tibeto-Burman family of languages. Although many Tripura follow their own gods, they also venerate such tindu gods and goddesses as Lakshmi, Ganga, Sartaswati, Kali and Shiva.

• Statistics : According to the Census of 1991, the total number of Tripura in the CHT was 61,129 out of which more than three quarters lived in the Khagrachari district alone, bordering Tripura state of India. There are more than half a million Tripura in Tripura State, India.

• Residence : A very small number of Tripura also live in the districts of Chittagong, Comilla and Noakhali. Before they were marginalized from their lands, a significant number of Tripura used to live in these districts. Like the Tanchangya, the Tripura too were traditionally Sweden cultivators although they have now diversified into many occupations.

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Chakma Culture & Tradition » Khumi

    Khumi

• Introduction : The Khumis maintain that in their khumi language kha means man and mi means best race. They are therefore “Khumis” i. e. The best human race (Sattar 984:336). (Lewin 1869:88) on the other hand tells us that in the arakanese language “Khe” means “dog” and “Mi” is race the Khumis therefore are the dog race. Dog is a favorite item of food of the Khumis, so they might have derived this name from this (Bernot 1964:166). According to their oral tradition human kind owes its creation to a dog. Dog was the first creation, and it had saved humans from total annihilation, They accordingly pay homage to it. In 1869 their population was 2000. They owed their allegiance to the Marma Bohmang chief and paid a yearly tribute to him through their village headman (Lewin 1869:87-88). They head come to the hills of Chittagong from the hills of Arakan and Akyab in the seventeenth century.

• Culture and Tradition : The Khumis live on the ridges of hills and build their houses on tree-tops. Their villages are surrounded by bamboo walls. They were a ferocious race who were mostly engaged in warfare. They are renowned for their loyalty to their chiefs they take the oath of loyalty by touching the blood of a goat, which they have killed with a sharp weapon; they vow that a similar fate would befall them if they break the oath of loyalty.

• Language: The Khumis claim to be Buddhists, but their beliefs and religious rites are animist. Their chief god is pathian. They also pay homage to “Nadog” the household deity, and “Bogley” the water deity. They are divided into “wife-giving” and “waif-taking” clans. The eldest son inherits all the property. They have an oral language which belongs to the southern branch of the kukish section (Shafer 1955:105). They believe that if they learn any other language they will loose their power to resist evil.

 
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Chakma Culture & Tradition » Marma

• Introduction :   The Marma is the second largest indigenous ethnic group in the CHT. They have been Theravada Buddhists, like the Burmese, Thai and Sri Lankan, for many centuries. The Marma have their own script and speak a language which is almost identical to that of the Rakhine or Rakhaing of Cox’s Bazar and Patuakhali districts in Bangladesh and Arakan state in  Myanmar(Burma). The 1991 census puts the total number of Marma in the CHT as 142,334; 59,228 in Bandarban, 42,178 in Khagrachari and 40,868 in Rangamati.

• Culture and Tradition : The Marmas are great lovers of music and drama. Before the advent of the cinema and television throngs of Marma youth in their best attire would pass the better part of a night watching folk dances and operatic performances.The Marmas are very fond of fairs. They have the peculiar knack of converting even their religious festivals into occasions of fun and gaiety. Traditionally, both men and women are fond of smoking pipes and cigars, all locally made. Rice beer or distilled rice spirits are very popular among the men. Among the Marma, there are both swidden agriculturists and sedentary rice farmers. Of the hill peoples of the region the Marma usually make the best traders although the Chakma are also trying hard to become retail traders. The Marma language is soft and poetic and even people who do not understand Marma love to hart marma songs.

• Chief of Marma : The Marma in the southern CHT, including all of Bandarban, owe traditional loyalty to the Bohmong Chief, Bohmongri who traces his lineage from Burmese generals. The Bhomong is the supreme arbiter on the personal laws of the indigenous peoples in his territory.

• Language : Today, apart from farmers, many Marma are traders, service-people and professionals such as doctors, engineers, etc. As with the Tripura and other peoples speaking a Tibeto-Burman tongue, The Marma also start out with a disadvantage with the medium of instruction in schools being in the Bengali language. Introduction of primary education in the Marma language is believed to be a necessary step for the progress of education among the Marma. They have a beautiful language. It certainly deserves official recognition.

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Chakma Culture & Tradition » Chakma

• Introduction :  The Chakma is the largest nation in Bangladesh. Although Bengalis number more than Chakma in the CHT, there are more Chakma in the CHT than all the other Indigenous peoples put together. A large number of Chakma also live scattered about in the states of Tripura, Mizoram, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in India. Chakmas mostly live in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). Besides, a small number of Chakma also live in Cox’s Bazar district and in Myanmar.

• Statistics :  According to the census of 1991, the total number of Chakma in the CHT was 239,417. It is unlikely that the 1991 Census accounted for the more than 50,000 refugees from the CHT were in refugee camps in India. The vast majority of these refugees are Chakma. Even otherwise, many indigenous groups in the country believe that their number is actually far higher than is recorded in the official government estimates. It is not known how far this belief is true, but there is no doubt that the actual number of Chakma who are residents of the CHT is far higher than the figure recorded in the Census Report of 1991.

• Language, Culture and Tradition : The Chakma language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and has close links with Pali, Assamese and Bengali. The Chakma have their own script in which their ancient religious literature is preserved in palm leaves. The script has similarities with Mon Khmer and Burmese. Although many elderly Chakma still sign their names in the Chakma script, most Chakma youths no longer use the script. At school, the Chakma study in Bengali and in English. The Chakma have perhaps proved to be the most adaptive and innovative of all the indigenous peoples of the CHT. By nature, most Chakma are down-to-earth and socially shy, but nevertheless romantic, although they will seldom admit it.

• Chief of Chakma : The head of Chakma society is the Chakma Chief who is descended from the general who led the resistance movement against the British East India Company’s forces in the 1770s.

• Followers :  The Chakma have been followers of Gautama Buddha for long but the Chakma brand of Buddhism always had room for indigenous gods and spirits, including some from the Hindu pantheon. Chakmas are generally liberal and non-fundamental in religious belief and practice.

  Source by bivu on March 7, 2011

Tourist Spot - Chakma

Chakma

Chakmas, The the largest ethnic group of Bangladesh. They also call themselves Changmas. They are concentrated in the central and northern parts of the chittagong hill tracts where they live amidst several other ethnic groups. Exact population figures are lacking but the most reliable estimates put their number at 140,000 in 1956 and 230,000 in 1981. According to the 1991 population census, there were about 253,000 Chakmas. More than 90 percent of them are concentrated in rangamati and khagrachhari districts. About 100,000 Chakmas also live in India, particularly in the states of Arunachal, Mizoram and Tripura. Small groups have settled in other countries as well.
The first written reference to Chakmas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts dates from about 1550 AD when the Portuguese map maker Lavanha indicated on the earliest surviving map of Bengal that Chakmas lived in a settlement on the karnafuli river. Two main theories have been put forward about the earlier history of Chakmas. Both assume that they migrated to their present homeland. The most convincing theory links Chakmas with central Myanmar and arakan, and with groups such as the Sak (Chak, Thek) who live in the Chittagong hills and Arakan. The other theory, for which historical evidence is lacking, assumes that Chakmas migrated to the Chittagong hills from Champaknagar in northern India. In the late eighteenth century, Chakmas were found not only in the Chittagong Hill Tracts but also in other hilly areas of the present-day districts of chittagong and cox's bazar.
It was only after the annexation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts by the British (1860) and the promulgation of rules, which forbade hill agriculture (jhum, shifting cultivation) in Chittagong district that these Chakma cultivators (and other hill cultivators such as the marma) moved east to the Chittagong Hill Tracts. In the precolonial period, the Chittagong Hill Tracts had not been part of any state, although they had long been influenced by the waxing and waning of power centres in Tripura (to the north), Arakan (to the south) and Bengal (to the west). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Mughal empire collected tribute (cotton) from the area through local intermediaries. One of the most prominent of these intermediaries was the Chakma chief residing in an elevated landmass in the Karnafuli river channel. His family had considerable landholdings in the plains of Chittagong, ie, inside Mughal territory, and resided in rangunia.
When the British took control of the plains in the mid-eighteenth century, they continued the arrangement, and when they annexed the Chittagong hills a century later, they made the Chakma chief responsible for tax collection in the central region of the new possession. Two other chiefs were made responsible for the southern part (the Bohmong chief) and the northern part (the Mong chief). The Chakma chief, now a colonial grandee endowed with the personal title of raja and some of the trappings of indirect rule, moved to Rangamati, the capital of the new district which the British named Chittagong Hill Tracts. The colonial tax system also gave new powers to old functionaries at the local level (talukdar, dewan, khisa) which came to form the Chakma gentry. The Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation of 1900 formalised this system and also stressed the fact that the area, though administered from calcutta, was not a regular part of Bengal. Its administrative system, land rights, and closure to outside settlers all set it apart from the rest of Bengal. This status was reconfirmed in the 1930s, when the region was declared an excluded area under the Government of India Act. After decolonisation (1947), the Chittagong Hill Tracts were incorporated into East Pakistan and later (1971) Bangladesh. The special administrative status of the Chittagong Hill Tracts was continued, and the Regulation of 1900 was never clearly rescinded, despite piecemeal mutations. For this reason, the office of the Chakma (and Bohmong and Mong) chief survives till today.
In 1906, a hydroelectric project was proposed to be built, using the flow of the water in the Karnafuli river. But it was not until the 1950s that the plan took shape and a large hydroelectric project was commissioned at kaptai, a riverside village close to Rangamati. When the Kaptai dam was completed in 1960, a big lake formed in the Karnafuli valley, flooding many villages and leading to the great exodus (or Bara Parang, as the Chakmas call it). About 100,000 people are thought to have fled the waters, most of them Chakmas. Many settled elsewhere in the district, including reserved forest areas, but in 1964, tens of thousands sought refuge in India.
Chakmas felt that their grievances were not taken seriously by the authorities, first in Pakistan and then in Bangladesh. This led to an armed conflict between the PCJSS (Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti, or United People's Party of the Chittagong Hill Tracts) founded in 1972, and the Bangladesh armed forces. The PCJSS, led mainly by Chakmas, signed a peace agreement with the Bangladesh government in 1997.
Traditionally, the Chakma lifestyle was closely linked with hill agriculture or shifting cultivation (jum in Chakma and jhum in Bengali). Living in settled villages, they would cultivate plots on surrounding hills for some years, then leave them fallow to recuperate naturally. Chakmas also cultivated land in river valleys. They had a well-developed system of land rights, which differed sharply from those in the plains (see land tenure).
According to early observers, the living standard of cultivators in the Chittagong hills was relatively high. rice, cotton and vegetables were important crops. The bamboo was essential as building material. The bamboo had so many other uses that the Chakma lifestyle has been described as a 'bamboo civilisation'. In the colonial period, social differentiation grew as an elite developed, basing its lifestyle on a share of the government tax and on educational achievements. In the twentieth century, population growth made hill cultivation more problematic mainly because fallow periods had to be shortened - and more Chakmas had to find non-agricultural jobs.
Their problem was intensified by the government policy of transmigration. From the late 1970s, hundreds of thousands of poor Bengali lowland cultivators were brought to the Chittagong hills under military protection. Land scarcity increased sharply, and Chakmas (and other hill people) saw their lifestyle threatened further. Many were forced into low-income wage labour (e.g. on new rubber plantations); over 50,000 fled their country and lived on doles in refugee camps in Tripura (India) from 1986 till their repatriation in 1998.

20 facts about London’s culture

Here are 20 of the many reasons why London is one of the most culturally vibrant cities in the world.

1. Three of the top ten museums and galleries in the world are in London and 857 art galleries in total.
2. London has four UNESCO world heritage sites: Tower of London, Maritime Greenwich, Westminster Palace which includes Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church as well as Kew’s Royal Botanic Gardens.
3. There are more than 300 languages spoken in London, more than in any other city in the world.
4. There are more than 17,000 music performances a year across London's 300+ venues including the O2 arena - the world's most popular music venue for the last five years running.
5. 84% of Londoners think that the city's cultural scene is important in ensuring a high quality of life. (GLA/ICM research).
6. London has over 170 museums with 11 national museums including the British Museum - home to thousands of years of culture including the Rosetta Stone (196 BC).
7. Around 250 festivals take place in London every year including London’s largest free festival, the Mayor’s Thames Festival, and Europe's biggest street festival, the Notting Hill Carnival which attracts near one million people.
8. The first performance of a Punch and Judy show at Covent Garden was recorded in Samuel Pepys's diary entry for 9 May 1662, and it is believed a similar puppet show has been seen there every year since. (Oh yes there is!)
9. London presents more live comedy than any other city in the world. From hosting new talent in the backrooms of pubs to the likes of Ricky Gervais, Chris Rock and Steve Coogan performing in major arenas.
10. London dominates the UK visual arts sector, which accounts for 30% of the global art market.
11. London has played a major role in countless films from A Clockwork Orange, Harry Potter to Notting Hill and is now the world’s third busiest film production centre with over 14,000 ‘shooting days’ in 2011 including the 23rd Bond film Skyfall.
12. Over a fifth of all the UK’s cinema screens are based in London. There are more cinema screens in the capital (796) than in any other part of the country.
13. London Fashion Week 2012 generated over £100m of orders, saw the return of Philip Treacy and was the most socially savvy yet with over 2 million viewers tuning in from more than 100 countries to the live-streamed of Topshop's latest collection.
14. From the first performance of Shakespeare at The Globe in 1599 there are now at least 200 shows to choose from every day across West End including current hits Matilda and War Horse.
15. Wilton’s Music Hall in the city is the world’s oldest surviving Music Hall, built in 1743 and still a living piece of London’s musical history.
16. In the last 5 years, London based artists Adele, Coldplay and Amy Winehouse (RIP) have been the world's best-selling recording artists and have amassed £1.9bn last year in worldwide sales, up from £1.83bn in 2010.
17. London has more than 800 bookshops and over 380 public libraries including the British Library, which holds the Magna Carta.
18. The London Design Festival is now the world’s leading event of its kind, which attracted over 350,000 people in 2012 to innovative projects including the groundbreaking audio-technology, the BE OPEN Sound Portal.
19. A third of all the UK’s archives are in London including the National Archives which dates back to the 11th century and preserves William the Conqueror's Domesday survey.
20. London boasts some of the oldest milliners in the world including Lock & Co (est. 1676) famous for creating Lord Nelson's original bicorn hat, as well as a specially commissioned version for Hatwalk as part of the London 2012 Festival.

Source by london.gov.uk

Culture of England - Part 13

The Arts and Humanities

Support for the Arts. In addition to artists' earnings, support for the arts derives from the government, chiefly through the Arts Council and business and private philanthropic sources.
Literature. The elaboration of an expressly English literature began in the medieval period with Geoffrey Chaucer and continued into the Renaissance and then into the Restoration with William Shakespeare, John Milton, and John Dryden. During those periods, drama and poetry were the major literary forms, with popular literature shading into song, cartoons, and storytelling.
The eighteenth century is notable for the emergence of new literary forms such as the novel, the true crime tale, light opera, magazines, and new oral traditions associated with England's port districts. Regionalized music and storytelling from this era still provide the foundation for much currently performed folk music in England.
The nineteenth century is the age of the Romantics and the Victorians. Artists in both movements were social realists, with the Romantics known for recovering older forms and the Victorians known for highly elaborate language. Popular literature offered the penny dreadful and a profusion of magazines that published novels and other literary work serially. New oral traditions sprang up around labor protest movements such as those of the Luddites and Chartists.
In the twentieth century, writers born in England shared the stage with Commonwealth writers such as Derek Walcott, V.S. Naipaul, and Nadine Gordimer and with other non-English writers such as James Joyce, Dylan Thomas, and Alice Walker. The twentieth century also saw the continuance of the phenomenon of Anglicized émigré writers such as T. S. Eliot. Edwardians such as E. M. Forster and moderns such as D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf dominated the period 1900–1950. Edwardians extended Victorian approaches, and moderns worked in older forms such as the novel and helped develop the short story.
Since World War II, the efforts of writers to stretch the bounds of genres expanded. Poetry is now performed in the form of hip-hop music or at poetry slams, while written poetry may be rooted in jazz and has lost prominence. Drama has flourished, as have filmed versions of classic and contemporary works. Novels focus on the everyday and the autobiographical, a reflection in part of women's influence on literature.
Graphic Arts. Most training of graphic artists is provided by universities and art colleges. Art has been incorporated into the school curriculum as part of the nation's educational policy, and all English students receive some training in and exposure to the graphic arts. In 1997 and 1998, 22 percent of the population over age 15 visited a gallery, museum, or other major collection, a figure that has shown little change since the late 1980s. Whether museums are egalitarian in terms of affordability and relevance, however, is debatable. The National Disability Arts Forum and similar organizations are funded by the Arts Council of England and improve access to the arts and training in the arts for the disabled population; the Arts Council promotes cultural diversity as well.
Performance Arts. The Royal Shakespeare Company and musical productions in London's West End are well attended. Musical productions range from orchestras such as the London Philharmonic to jazz, rock, and folk music. Dance forms range from classical ballet to free-form club dancing. Ticket prices limit attendance at elite forms of performance art, although statistics show that in the last decade their audience has not decreased in size.

The State of the Physical and Social Sciences

England supports research and teaching in all areas of science and the social sciences. The government funds most scientific and social scientific research. Larger private corporations and private foundations are also major players. The research sector develops applications for basic primary research in a range of fields. With a long tradition of empirical inquiry, English scholars have often been active in applied science.
 

 

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Culture of England - Part 12

Medicine and Health Care

Since 1946, most people have obtained health care from a physician or other specialist attached to the National Health Service (NHS), a government-controlled and government-funded health care system. Although in the 1980s and early 1990s there were attempts to introduce market-driven principles into the NHS, and the number of privately insured inhabitants has risen; the NHS retains the principles of free services at the point of delivery, and the current Labour government has rescinded many of the measures intended to manage healthcare by market principles.
Most people believe in an approach to medicine that focuses on particular problems and illnesses as opposed to overall wellness. In this type of medicine a patient sees a medical specialist when a health complaint arises. The doctor diagnoses the problem on the basis of the patient's physical symptoms and either prescribes a treatment or sends the patient to a more specialized doctor. In recent years, a very different set of approaches to medicine and health (complementary medicine) has been informed by non-Western traditions such as traditional Chinese medicine and nonstandard approaches such as herbal lore. Rather than trying to cure a specific ailment, practitioners of complementary medicine attempt to restore the well-being of the patient's entire mind and body, often by tapping the body's capacities to heal itself. Examples of complementary medicine are acupuncture, herbal medicine, massage therapy, and healing touch.

Secular Celebrations

New Year's Eve and Day (31 December, 1 January), celebrate the beginning of the new year. April Fool's Day (1 April), is a day on which people play practical jokes on one another. The sovereign's birthday is celebrated in June. Guy Fawkes's Day (5 November) commemorates the foiling of a 1605 Catholic plot to blow up the houses of Parliament and is an occasion for fireworks and revelry. Remembrance Day (11 November) celebrates the contributions of war veterans to defending the freedom of the nation.

 

 

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Culture of England - Part 11

Etiquette

Etiquette is changing, but norms for appropriate behavior articulated by the elite and the middle class are still an important normative force. Greetings vary by the class or social position of the person with whom one is dealing. Those with titles of nobility, honorific titles, academic titles, and other professional titles prefer to be addressed by those titles, but like people to avoid calling too much attention to a person's position. Unless invited to do so, one does not call people by their nicknames. Postural norms are akin to those in other Western cultures; people lean forward to show interest and cross their legs when relaxed, and smiles and nods encourage conversation. The English expect less physical expression and physical contact than do many other societies: handshakes should not be too firm, social kissing is minimal, loud talking and backslapping are considered inappropriate, staring is impolite, and not waiting one's turn in line is a serious social blunder.
In conversation the English are known for understatement both in humor and in other forms of expression. On social occasions, small talk on neutral topics is appropriate and modest gifts are given. People reciprocate in paying for food and drink in social exchanges, by ordering drinks by rounds, for example. In public houses (bars), appropriate etiquette includes not gesturing for service. In restaurants it is important to keep one's palms toward the waiter, and tips are in the range of 10 to 15 percent. Standard table manners include holding the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right hand, tipping one's soup bowl away when finishing, and not leaning one's elbows on the table. Deviations from these norms occur in ethnic subcultures and among the working class. These groups usually develop their own version of etiquette, appropriating some rules from the majority standard while rejecting others.

Religion

Religious Beliefs. In 1998, approximately 10 percent of the population claimed to be atheists and 15 percent said they were agnostics, while 20 percent said they believed in God. In 1991, about 25 percent of inhabitants claimed to believe in astrology and good luck charms, and 42 percent believed in fortune-telling and faith healing. The major religious traditions are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, and Buddhism. In recent decades, so-called pagan or cult religions have included Wicca, shamanism, heathenism, druidry, goddess religion, the Unification Church, and Transcendental Meditation.
Religious Practitioners. Christian leaders derive power and authority from their control and dispensation of sacraments. Jewish rabbis and Islamic imams derive their authority from their mastery of a specific set of religious legal texts and the application of those texts to everyday life. Hinduism relies on a wide variety of texts, and traditionally its primary leaders gain authority from their caste position as well as from their adherence to specific ascetic rules and, especially in the case of gurus, their perceived connection to the divine. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion with a single set of texts, and ideally Sikhs associate themselves with a guru who helps believers achieve spirituality. In the most popular form of Buddhism (Mahayana), monks and teachers hold spiritual authority by virtue of their ascetic way of life and mastery of certain texts. In the various forms of Buddhism, monks and teachers hold spiritual authority by virtue of their ascetic way of life, their mastery of certain texts, and their leadership of worship ceremonies. Modern paganism often envisions its priests as deriving their power through a unique connection to the hidden forces in nature. Leaders of other movements rely on charisma or the attractiveness of the skills they teach.
Rituals and Holy Places. Christians celebrate an annual cycle of rituals that vary by denomination. Most celebrate Christmas and Easter and attend services in a church on Sunday. Judaism has particular days of celebration, such as Passover, and weekly services on Saturdays in a synagogue. Islam has special celebrations (the month of Ramadan) and weekly attendance at worship services in a mosque

The House of Parliament and Big Ben are two of London's most famous landmarks.

on Fridays. In Hinduism worship is a daily activity, often taking place at the household shrine but also at the local temple. There are festivals and feasts to honor individual deities (Ram Navami) and particular occasions in the year (e.g. Divali); some are yearly, others weekly and fortnightly. For Sikhs, regular worship at the temple is important, but there are no days that are particularly holy; Sikhs worship on Sunday. For Buddhists, worship is done both at home and at religious centers and occurs on a weekly basis; the birth of the Buddha is an important occasion that is celebrated. Alternative religions vary in where they worship, how often, and on what days. Death and the Afterlife. In the early 1990s, about 25 percent of the population believed in life after death, although there is a wide range of practices around death. For a majority of the population, ideas about the afterlife are based on typical Victorian notions that are reinforced on television and in film: a place where life is better and those who have lived a good life are rewarded. For most people, funerals have become much cleaner, with the deceased meticulously prepared and cleaned before burial. Cemeteries are kept pristine and immaculate. Others, however, feel that the dead are very much among the living in photographs, videos, and other visual mementos. People used to remember the dead in a yearly cycle of religious days, but with the geographic spread of families, family occasions have become the occasions to recall them. There are organizations that promote awareness of how to die, from living wills to hospice care to palliative measures and euthanasia.

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Culture of England - Part 10

Socialization

Infant Care. Good mothering entails stimulating an infant through play and other activities. Many other aspects of infant care are class-specific. For example, middle-class mothers are likely to breast feed babies and wean them early, while working-class mothers tend to use bottle feeding and wean infants later. Middle-class infants are more likely to sleep in a separate room in a crib than are their working-class peers. Working-class infants also are more likely to receive physical chastisement for crying. Working-class fathers are not likely to participate in the upbringing of infant children because of the difficulty of obtaining time off.
Child Rearing and Education. A good child is often termed well adjusted, as opposed to children who are shy, withdrawn, overly aggressive, or hyperactive. Typically, people see children's behavior as the result of interactions with those around them, with the parents being the primary influence. Some children are viewed as having health problems that affect behavior, requiring medical intervention. There are two major areas of emphasis in child-rearing practices and beliefs. First, adults, particularly parents, need to teach children and young adults how to behave by setting limits to what they can and cannot do, teaching them how to solve conflicts and deal with others, and modeling good behavior. Second, adults should stimulate children to learn and be curious and creative to promote the growth of their mental capacities. Children are supposed to be well behaved but capable of interacting with their peers without shyness and should be curious and inquisitive as learners. Models for learning, teaching, and parenting involve intense interaction between teacher and learner and parent and child. Major secular initiation ceremonies for children and young adults revolve around the educational process and clubs. School graduation ceremonies are a primary rite of passage for most children and young adults. Hazing is used to initiate junior members of clubs, schools, and street gangs. There are three levels of schooling below the university level: preschool, primary school, and secondary school. Depending on the kinds of knowledge tested at the secondary levels, schools emphasize practical knowledge and problem solving as much as the mastery of a body of knowledge.
Higher Education. Government policy since the late 1950s has been aimed at expanding the opportunities for students to benefit from postsecondary education to create a more skilled workforce and increase social mobility. In the 1990s, more than 30 percent of all eighteen-year-olds were attending a university (up from under 5 percent in 1960), although the recent introduction of student fees may cause some to discontinue their education.

 

 

 

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Culture of England - Part 9

Marriage, Family, and Kinship

Marriage. Among many members of the South Asian and Jewish communities, arranged marriages as a means of cementing family alliances are the norm. Most inhabitants, however, decide independently whom to marry, often choosing to cohabit with the partner before marriage. Social position, social aspirations, and informal social control drive the choice of a marriage partner. Thus, marriages across class lines are not common, especially among unskilled workers and the professional and managerial classes. Marriages across ethnic lines also are not common. As a reason for marriage, economic security is prominent, but so is the desire for sexual and social companionship. In 1997, about half the population over age sixteen was married. While marriage between a man and a woman remains the primary model for long-term relationships, it is not the only one. Same-sex unions and so-called blended families are increasingly common, and experimentation with forms of quasi-polygamy has taken place.
Domestic Unit. The basic domestic unit is a household headed by a married couple—a model that accounted for 59 percent of the households in 1998. Close to 73 percent of inhabitants live in a family headed by a couple (though not necessarily a married couple). It is uncommon for couples to live with the kin of either partner. Current gender roles dictate that men are the primary breadwinners and women are responsible for household management. Who actually controls the household on a daily basis, however, varies by household. Single-parent, usually female-headed households are on the rise, accounting for 9 percent of all households in 1998. The extended family is a visible and important social institution in the South Asian, Asian, Afro-Caribbean, and Jewish communities and still plays a role in the majority population. People living alone represented 28 percent of households in 1998.
Inheritance. Children rarely depend on inherited wealth to become independent and usually inherit movable property rather than real estate. When real estate is involved, it often consists of a home and the attached land, not agricultural land. Most people follow the principle of equal division of inherited wealth among offspring, with some favoritism toward biological offspring in blended families.

Advertisements and a sign for the Underground in London's busy Piccadilly Circus.

Kin Groups. People envision themselves as part of a set of interconnected families, the size of which varies with marital status and family traditions. Most people include three to four generations of people in their kin group. Those who are married count the same number of generations of the spouse's family as part of their family. Kin groups do not have prominent status in society formally or informally. Notions of kinship involve a network of individuals who enter into kin relationships. The individual is not subsumed by the kin structure.

 

 

 

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Culture of England - Part 8

Nongovernmental Organizations and Other Associations

The Charity Commission for England and Wales registered 188,000 charities in 1998. Across the United Kingdom, charities employed 485,000 people and supervised three million volunteers in 1998. With the move toward privatization in the 1980s, charities became more important, but social and economic dislocation have made it difficult for them to maintain the social safety net. Nongovernmental organizations work with children and youth; marginalized or disadvantaged groups such as the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and those suffering from inequality; environmental conservationists; the science and technology sector; the arts; and the humanities.

Gender Roles and Statuses

Division of Labor by Gender. Gender roles assign homemaking, other domestic activities, and most unpaid labor to women. A man's sense of self is defined chiefly in terms of the paid work he can obtain. The impact of these constructions of gender is now much different than before, but is still felt in English society.
The Relative Status of Women and Men. Although there is no equal rights amendment, in recent decades there has been a more noticeable commitment to equality of opportunity for men and women through bodies such as the Equal Opportunity Commission and laws such as the Abortion Act of 1967 and the 1969 Divorce Act. The rate of women's (especially married women's) participation in the workforce increased in the late twentieth century, as did the nature of that participation. In 1971, only 57 percent of women of working age were economically active, but in 1998 that figure was 72 percent, whereas men's participation declined from 91 percent to 84 percent. Despite their importance in the workforce, women earn only 80 percent of what men do. Women have been confined to lower-status work, are more likely to work part-time, and are under-represented in elite jobs. However, some women have obtained high-status, formerly male-dominated work, and the status of female-dominated work has risen. Women's increasing participation in political life and their progress in religious roles in society—the rise of women MPs in the 1990s and the Church of England's agreement to ordain women priests in 1994—may be an indication of this.
Women have probably made the least progress in the social sphere. They were the victims in 70 percent of cases of domestic violence in 1998, and women still perform most unpaid work, such as running households and raising children. Gender roles among particular subgroups, however, diverge from this picture. Some Muslim and Jewish women are more involved in the domestic sphere, and Afro-Caribbean community women are more likely to be employed and have a higher status than Afro-Caribbean men.

 

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Culture of England - Part 7

Social Welfare and Change Programs

Social welfare and change programs are directed toward people who cannot care for themselves (the elderly, children and youth, and the disabled), those in poverty, and those experiencing discrimination. Local government social services authorities provide for children and youth, the elderly, and the disabled, and there are advisory and regulatory bodies such as the National Disability Council and the Mental Health Act Commission. For the elderly, the disabled, and those with learning disabilities, major services include supervised residential and day care, help for those confined to the home, support services for family members caring for those individuals, and counseling. Increasingly, government policy has aimed services for the elderly, the disabled, and persons with learning disabilities at helping those people live at home and in the community. The mentally ill are treated locally, though since there are fewer places for the mentally ill in large hospitals, this has meant farming out patients to smaller hospitals and private and charity-supported facilities. Local authorities have the responsibility for child welfare, and provide aid to families such as advice, guidance, counseling, and day care. They also protect abused children and care for children without parents.
The poor and the unemployed receive support from the Department of Social Security (DSS). The major beneficiaries are the unemployed, families in need, those with short-term or long-term disability, widows, and elderly retirees. Since the early 1980s, more conditions have been placed on the receipt of DSS benefits, with the exception of the elderly and those unable to work. The unemployed,

A row of houses in Shaftesbury, Dorset. Many small villages have made an effort to preserve classic English architecture.

for example, must demonstrate they are looking for work to receive benefits. Social change programs for ethnic minorities and women are in their infancy. There is a Race Equality Unit in the central government, and the 1976 Race Relations Act set up the Commission for Racial Equality that oversees over one hundred racial equality councils. These changes have not diminished ethnic inequality and tensions, although Britain has a minister for women, a Women's Unit, and an Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) as well as an umbrella group known as the Women's National Commission.

 

 

 

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Culture of England - Part 6

Political Life

Government. Unlike Scotland and Wales, England does not have a separate parliament or departments to represent and manage it. Contact with the central government is increasingly achieved through nine Government Offices for the Regions. Day-to-day life in the community is governed by local authorities such as district and parish councils.
Leadership and Political Officials. Political parties and institutions favor those judged to be respectable and, in senior positions, those with political experience. Thus, in the Conservative Party, only members of Parliament (MPs) can elect party leaders. It is still common for politicians and judges to have an elite education and a privileged background. Local politics is a mixed bag, with some local authorities and town and village councils politically polarized and others less so, although the larger the community the more likely it is to be dominated by the Labour Party. In general, those who participate in local politics and local organizations such as arts councils knew someone in government before becoming involved.
England has no national parties that affiliate specifically with the national culture. The main parties are the Labour Party (now often called New Labour), the Conservative Party (Tories), and the Liberal Democrats.
Access to political leaders is achieved most effectively through voluntary sector interest groups. These organizations work with local government authorities, local agencies such as the police, individual MPs, and central government ministries and may acquire an official role.
Social Problems and Social Control. For purposes of policing and criminal justice, England and Wales are treated as one unit. Policing is handled by forty-one locally organized police forces in addition to the Metropolitan Police Service and the City of London police force. Most police officers carry a nightstick, with only designated officers carrying sidearms. Persons suspected of committing a crime may be stopped and searched. More extensive searching is possible with authorization from a senior officer. For most crimes the police require judicial authorization to make arrests, but for "arrestable" offences such as murder, authorization is unnecessary. The maximum period of detention without a charge being leveled is ninety-six hours. The Police Complaints Authority handles cases of police brutality. The national policing bodies are the National Crime Squad and the National Criminal Intelligence Service. The Home Secretary of the United Kingdom has overall responsibility for policing in England as well as for the prison service, the probation service, and the criminal law.
Criminal law is a combination of statute law made by Parliament and common law (case law). Founded in 1985, the Crown Prosecution Service prosecutes criminals arrested by the police. The court system is adversarial, and the accused is defended by a lawyer (a solicitor or barrister) who attempts to disprove the case presented by the Crown Prosecution Service. Cases that go to Crown Court involve a trial by a jury of the accused person's peers with guidance from the presiding judge. In all other cases not on appeal, the defendant is tried in magistrate court by a judge who decides the case with the assistance of a law clerk. The accused or the Crown may appeal a judgment to a higher court, with the highest court being the House of Lords. Except for treason and a few other offenses, the highest penalty is a custodial sentence.
Since the 1980s, ideas about the role of the criminal justice system have been changing, largely as a result of perceived and real increases in violent and property crimes. Local communities with their informal mechanisms for social control are considered an important part of criminal justice. Neighborhood watch schemes have become popular, and victim-offender mediation and reparation, community mediation, and neighborhood mediation have emerged. Police cautioning, in which juvenile offenders and their parents or guardians are informed of the seriousness of their offenses, has become popular. Parole boards administer the punishment of offenders in the community, and the police and other official agencies have formed partnerships with local communities and voluntary organizations. Some people are critical of the trend toward integrating informal social control into the official criminal justice apparatus. They argue that such social control may result in a culture divided into communities suspicious of outsiders. Others have noted that vigilantism, which plays a relatively small role in the culture (exceptions are street gangs, less organized groupings of males termed "the lads," and soccer hooligans), may take root.
Military Activity. Military activity is administered through the armed forces of the United Kingdom, which are directed by the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense.

 

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Culture of England - Part 5

Social Stratification

Classes and Castes. Class is the primary way in which people approach social stratification. The upper class (the landed gentry, the titled nobility, and members of the royal family) has roughly the same social position it has had since the nineteenth century, when the middle classes began to compete successfully with the landed interests for influence. However, the upper class lost official political influence (and credibility) in the twentieth century. The major change in England's social identity structure has been the shrinking number of workers in manufacturing and the increasing number of people who work in service industries. White-collar and other service workers have replaced blue-collar workers as England's economic backbone. Consequently, the middle class has increased in size and wealth, and home ownership has increased, while union membership has declined dramatically, along with the size of the traditional industrial working class.
Most workers expect unemployment at some point in their careers, especially the unskilled and uneducated. In 1983, only 5 percent of non-manual workers were unemployed. In contrast, skilled manual workers experienced 12 percent and semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers 23 percent unemployment, and manual workers combined accounted for 84 percent of the unemployed.
England is becoming a society of the included and the excluded. There has been a sharp rise in long-term unemployment. The nature of work in a fluid economy does not support long-term employment

A busy street in Scarborough, York. English architecture is a unique blend of old and new.

for low-skilled and moderately skilled workers, and this is reflected in the rise in part-time (24.7 percent of the 1999 workforce), and multiple-job workers. Homelessness has become a fact of English life, with 102,410 families in England accepted as homeless in 1997 alone. The richest class has increased its share of the national income and national assets. In 1995, the wealthiest 10 percent of the population owned half the assets controlled by households. In 1997 the income of the top 20 percent of households was four times that of the bottom 20 percent. Meanwhile, those earning less than half of the median doubled between 1979 and 1998, reaching 10 percent.
Ethnic minorities have not fared well in the new economic environment. For all minority men, unemployment was 17 percent in the period 1986–1988, for example, compared with 10 percent for whites. Ten years on, in the period 1997–1998, unemployment rates of Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and blacks were more than three times those for whites. Indians, on the other hand, have faired better, currently occupying a central position in the middle class as entrepreneurs and in the professions, enjoying chances of employment more comparable to whites.
Symbols of Social Stratification. Many of the traditional symbols of social difference have undergone change. Clothing and other consumer goods historically were indicators of class, but are now more ambiguous. Most consumer goods are widely available, and the clothing and fashion industries recycle styles so quickly that rank and clothing do not always correspond. Education, which used to be a clear way to divide people into classes, has also lost some of its defining power. Private primary and secondary schools increased their share of school age children through 1990, and higher education has expanded the number of places available to those who want postsecondary training; by the mid 1990s more than 30 percent of students age eighteen were attending a university. Oxford and Cambridge have been accepting students from an increasingly broad socioeconomic spectrum, and students now have many more universities to choose from. Accent also has become a less reliable class signifier.

 

 

 

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