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Women), Southern Caucasus Peace Project, Women for
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Caucasus, New York 2003.Diane E. KingSouth AsiaWomen in South Asia have traditionally played
an active role in conflict resolution particularly at
the grassroots level. They have a history of joining
in liberation movements such as the nationalist
movements and the Tebhaga and Telengana move-
ments during the late 1940s. However, it was only
in the postcolonial period that they consciously
organized themselves for conflict resolution. This
was as a result of the increasing numbers of intra-
state conflicts in South Asia. In the late 1980s con-
flicts of state versus community were sharply on the
rise. In Bangladesh problems over the Chittagong
Hill Tracts (CHT) from 1980 led to a series of mas-
sacres, plunders, and destruction of villages. In
India the 1980s witnessed increasing violence in
Kashmir, Punjab, and the Northeast. In Sri Lanka
too the post-1983 period was one of growing hos-
tility between the Tamils and the Sinhalese. Again,
antagonisms between Sindhis and Mohajirs in-
tensified after the 1985 elections in Pakistan.
Although all these conflicts had historical roots
they became particularly violent in the late 1980s
and 1990s. And in all these movements women
played an important role in conflict resolution.
People in the CHT were antagonistic toward the
government of Bangladesh from the time the
Kaptai dam was built (1957–62) and thousands of546 peacekeeping and conflict management
people became homeless. In the early 1970s the
whole of CHT was brought under military control.
The original inhabitants of the CHT were the
Jumma (tribal) people. They were aggrieved not
just because of the dam but also because the state
had undertaken to change the demographic balance
of the region through a policy of settling Bengali
Muslim people from the plains in the CHT. The
protest of the Jumma people brought forth severe
counter-insurgency measures leading to extra-judi-
cial killings and massacres by the state. The rebels
also formed a military unit called the Shanti Bahani.
In all of this the tribal women were targeted; this
was dramatically brought to the fore by the abduc-
tion of Kalpana Chakma in 1996. While the region
was being torn apart the Hill Women’s Federation
(HWF), a secular women’s organization, was formed
in 1989 by women students of the Chittagong
University. By 1991 it had become extremely popu-
lar. One of its main goals was to end Muslim vio-
lence against the tribal people. Although secular, it
worked with both secular and religious groups such
as the Bengali Muslim intelligentsia, human rights
groups, and even community-based organizations
such as the Tripura Samiti and the Marma Samiti.
The main aims of these groups were justice for the
tribal people of CHT and an end to violence. They
were among the strongest voices for peace with the
Bangladesh government in 1997 but once a pact
was signed between the people of CHT and the
Bangladesh government they were denied any polit-
ical space.
In India, conflicts between state and community
in Kashmir and the Northeast led to women’s activ-
ism for conflict resolution. In Kashmir, women’s
popular participation found articulation through
organizations such as Duktarane Millat and
Muslim Khawateen Markaz. Islamic social reform
movements inspired both these organizations.
Through these movements women appropriated
the democratic space for popular protest in the
early 1990s. They mobilized other women and pro-
tested against violence directed toward Kashmiri
Muslims. They braved the batons of the police and
shielded their men. They would run to the security
bunker to agitate against unlawful arrest of boys
from the neighborhoods. In the early 1990s the
burqa≠-clad female protestor was a familiar sight.
However, as the movement gained momentum
these women became more and more identified
with the separatist movements and lost much of
their legitimate space for conflict resolution.
In Northeast India, in contrast, some women’s
groups, particularly the Naga women, have through
their activism made spaces for their voices in con-