Chakma

The Chakma country lies in the forested hills east of Chittagong, between the Feni and Sangu river basins. Its communities cultivated the hills and maintained their own chiefs, while the Karnaphuli River provided a route towards the coast. Cotton grown in the hills was an especially valuable product in exchanges with the neighbouring plains.

In the early eighteenth century a Chakma ruler arranged to pay cotton tribute to the Mughal authorities in return for access to trade. Hill chiefs nevertheless retained substantial authority over their own people. When the East India Company later sought to increase its demands, Chakma leaders resisted. The relationship between the hills and the plains thus combined commerce and tribute with the defence of local autonomy.