He made these remarks while speaking as a special guest at a roundtable titled “Indigenous Identity is Irrelevant for Bangladesh,” organised by the Chittagong Hill Tracts Research Association at a hotel in Dhaka today. Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed attended the event as the chief guest.
The Information Minister said that Bangladesh’s national identity was not shaped through the displacement or occupation of any foreign immigrant group. Instead, it evolved through a long process of anthropological development, social interaction, and historical continuity.
Drawing a comparison with immigrant countries like Canada, the USA, Australia, and New Zealand, he noted that while those nations have histories of indigenous displacement, Bangladesh’s history and demography are incomparable. He cautioned that in our discourse and responses, we must be careful not to popularise any terminology or narrative that is largely irrelevant to Bangladesh’s context.
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The Minister further stated that the people of Bangladesh do not possess a singular or one-dimensional anthropological identity. Over a thousand years of history, the society and national identity have emerged through the blending of diverse groups and cultural interactions, culminating in a unified state identity.
“To understand Bangladesh’s demography, we cannot look through immigrant glasses—we must look through the lens of our own natural and historical anthropological evolution,” he said. He also remarked that majority perspectives alone cannot adequately capture the issues of minority ethnic communities and stressed the need to apply foundational social science knowledge.
Referring to citizenship-based Bangladeshi nationalism as a vital foundation of the state identity, the Minister mentioned that martyr President Ziaur Rahman rearticulated this concept, which helped accommodate diversity within a unified national framework.
He concluded, “We can give the right answer to the right question, and we can correct a wrong answer. But it is better not to engage in answering a question that is itself wrongly framed.”
The roundtable was chaired by Mehedi Hasan Palash, President of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Research Association. Culture State Minister Ali Newaz Mahmud Khaiyam attended as a special guest. Researchers, academics, anthropologists, journalists, and other professionals participated in the discussion.