Socioeconomic Issues of Small Ethnic Minority

Bangladesh did not exist as a distinct geographic and ethnic unity until independence. The region has a successive part of Indian empires which are dominated by British rule. 

1. Culture: There are many tribes in Bangladesh and each tribe has its own unique culture. Some tribes may even have cultural distinctions within their different clans. But some traits are generally common among most tribes. For instance, originally most tribes are animists. 
2. Celebration of Festivals: Most tribes have a festival that includes dancing and singing. Most of these festivals take place after the consumption of alcoholic beverages. A very popular festival of the Manipuris is a type of Gopi dance celebrating the love of Radha and Krishna. Manipuri and Santals celebrate Holi when they drench each other with color. Drums, cymbals, and flutes provide the music. These festivals are celebrated on the seasons of the year for a whole month, starting with midnight of the Holi, the full moon, Manipuri dance also celebrates rice harvest through singing contests. The maghs spend the first three days of the maghi year singing, dancing, and drinking. 
3. Tribal Language: Bangladesh has 30 tribes living in different parts of the country. 2-3 tribal people speak their own languages. The well-known tribal languages are Chakma, Garo, Khasia, Magh, Manipuri, Munda, and Santali. Other tribal language is kachhari, Kuki, Tipra, inalpahadi, mikir, shadri and Hajang. 
4. Housing Condition: All hill tribes build bamboo houses on raised platforms. They use ladders that are withdrawn at night so that wild animals cannot climb up. Maghs build houses on the flat ground. Oraons built their houses with plaster made of mud and cow dung. Usually, their houses are made of earth, with thatched roofs, but they also build houses with fences made of shola.
5. Religious Belief: All other tribes have no specific religion except Garos. These tribes regard the ancient rites, beliefs, and customs of their religion. Most of the Goro are Christian but they observed their own tribal rites. The periods of the full moon and the dark of the moon are of special significance to the organs, Manipuris, and Buddhist tribes. Many religious and cultural rites take place during the full moon.
6. Concept of Creation: According to Garus, a woman named “Nastun Dantu” created the earth from soil brought up. Monipuri believed that the world was composed entirely of water then the great Guru “Shidara” made 9 gods and 7 goddesses. The gods threw soil from the heavens and the goddesses danced on the soil and flattened it to create the earth.
7. Farm Work: Some tribes regard the earth as mother. So they worship the earth mother before sowing crops. Orauns believe that produces crops. They observe of ceremonies where the earth is treated as menstruating or pregnant women. Some tribes give the land special food, as is the custom in the case of a pregnant woman. Garo, Manipuries, santals, and a few other tribe men and women work together in fields. The men clear the jungles while the women as symbols of fertility sow seeds and do the transplanting. All tribes celebrate seed planting and crop harvesting in their own colorful ways. Young men and women sing and recite rhymes when they carry the crops home.
8. Marriage: There are similarities as well as dissimilarities in the wedding rites of different tribes. Most tribal marriage is based on love matches, with the tribal couple getting to know each other before marriage. Oraons do not allow child marriage or weddings during the months of Chaitra, Bhadra, and Paus. Grooms have to pay a bride price. Pre-wedding ceremonies include seeing a bride, Panchini, and gaye halud. Women on both sides sing nuptial songs on the day of the wedding. They put up colorful wedding pandals. The groom and the bride daub each other’s forehead with vermilion as women of both parties.
9. Dress: The women of many other tribes commonly wear dhutis and their women wear saris. There were times when some tribes used to wear tree leaves to cover the lower part of the body. Lower class Garos were negated or tiny pieces of cloth. Satal dresses are called panchi, Panchatat, and matha. The main dress of Chakmas is the lungi, worn with a shirt. Their women wear a red and black sarong, called pindhan, plus a blouse called silum. Magh women cover their bodies with a thami with a full-sleeved blouse.
10. Ornaments and Cosmetics: There is very little variety in the ornaments that tribal women wear. Santal and oraon women wear ornaments on their hands, feet nose, ears, and neck. Oraon women peek up their hair on the head and were a tikli on their forehead. Ckama women were bungles and also coin earrings and necklaces. Garo women do up their hair in buns which they adorn with flowers.  Magha women use herbal powder or wood paste to lighten their faces.
11. Food and Drink: The tribal eat everything except their totems. The Garos do not eat cats as the cat is their totem. Maghs, Chakmas, and khasia do not eat beef and Garos do not drink milk. Magh and Chakma men and women are found smoking. Their favorite dishes are those that are sour and are made of rotten prawns. Oraons eat rats, eels, potatoes, and khesari pulse. Alcohol made of fermented rice is every tribe’s favorite drink. 
12. Social Rites: In material tribes, men do not inherit property. Men are neglected in their mother’s homes as well as in the houses of their wives. Among the Garos after a mother’s death, the daughters do not bear any responsibility for their father. Among khashias, the daughters must fulfill that responsibility. The chief of the tribes is called Raja. If a couple has pre-marital sex it is obligatory for them to marry each other. Oraons give goat milk or mothers milk to a newborn to drink, and others give honey. The new mother gives timbering water to drink. Most tribes build a tinny fence around the house to protect their mother and newborn from evil spirits. Garos avoid giving a baby an attractive name in order to avoid the evil eye.
13. Disposing of the Death: Tribal people sacrifice animals and weep to propitiate their dead so that their angry souls do not create trouble for the living. There was a time when they sacrifices human beings to appease the spirit of death. Maghs and Chakma cremate their dead body two or three days after death. A priest’s body is kept up for two or three months. Manipuri keeps the dying person outside the house, on a banana leaf. Earlier Manipuris used to bury their dead. But now they bury the adolescent’s body and cremate the bodies of older persons. After disposing of the body the pill bearers take a bath and dry their hands by holding them above a fire before entering their house. The family members of the dead person eat vegetables for twelve days and milk and banana for two days.