The Pattern of Rural Settlement in East Pakistan

American Geographical Society

The Pattern of Rural Settlement in East PakistanAuthor(s): Nafis AhmadSource: Geographical Review, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Jul., 1956), pp. 388-398Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/211887 .

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THE PATTERN OF RURAL SETTLEMENT IN EAST PAKISTAN*

NAFIS AHMAD

A LMOST entirely flat-surfaced, except along the eastern and southeastern margins, East Pakistan (East Bengal) extends over some 5s4,000 square miles (Fig. i) a land of rivers wandering lazily over

a level deltaic plain that is generally less than 5o feet above sea level. Trim, carpetlike, green paddy fields stretch as far as the eye can see, locked in the embrace of countless streams and rivulets. The rivers serve as drainage channels, ensure an abundant supply of fish, and provide cheap and convenient means of transport. Their behavior is of the utmost importance in determining the economic condition of the people.

Rainfall is heavy over most of the plain, averaging from 65 to ioo inches a year. Some go per cent of this falls during the monsoon months (mid-June to September). Soon after the break of the monsoon the rivers inundate large areas to a depth of several feet (Fig. 2). The water recedes at the end of the rainy season after laying down a heavy deposit of silt.

These conditions of terrain and climate, in combination with certain economic and cultural factors, have bestowed upon East Bengal a distinctive pattern of rural settlement. In many parts of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent the symbol of rural life is the nucleated village, a compact collection of dwellings. This traditional pattern, however, is conspicuous by its absence over most of the East Bengal plain. Here the "village" area may contain several separate clusters of homesteads surrounded by trees. The groups of homesteads are called paras, and each has its own name; several paras constitute a mauza (grain, or village) a survey unit.

The census report for Bengal, 1921, sums up the position as follows:,

... the whole countryside except what is actually required for residential purposes has been brought under cultivation and the cultivators have no need to herd together for protection.

. In these circumstances it is not surprising to find the homesteads scattered over the whole face of the countryside. Each cultivator has selected a suitable spot for a homestead

*The material in the present study derives in part from field work undertaken between 1950 and

1955, in part from the various reports of the Census of India and from the well-known series of "District

Gazetteers," both of which have remained basic sources of information in a situation that has changed

very little in the past 40 years. The East Bengal sheets of the Survey of Pakistan inch-to-the-mile series

were also used, especially as bases for the sketch maps. ' Census of India. 1921, Vol. 5, Bengal, Part 1, Report (Calcutta. 1923), P. 124.

> DR. AHMAD is professor of geography and head of the department at the University of Dacca, East Pakistan.



SETTLEMENT IN EAST PAKISTAN 389

90 Hilly area

EAST BENGAL Alluvial coastal plain

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS Moribund delta Partially inundated

iDinajpur e\+ 0 100 Miles Fully inundated

Rangpur. O IOO Kilomneters tL Manii

I Old ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~alluviuma FIGS. ~ (above flood level)

/'." Boera ~~~~~~ylhet 4

R ahais Mymen , sorgh'

Pabna

tk24 ti Dacca ~ :::

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WEST Nahl

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Mous ofothe hogmEASTa ? PRY 10GRAPHIC DIVISIONS

(GENERALIZED) 90 Gor e. uy1

FIGS. 1 and 2

on his own land, dug a tank or made untidy irregular excavations to obtain earth to raise a site, and built houses on it. The process is still going on. When the family grows too big for the homestead, or family quarrels ensue, one of the brothers will make a new homestead on a convenient part of the family land which has fallen to his share a little removed from the old homestead. Shops are almost non-existent in rural Bengal and the houses of landlords and the few artisans who are not partially agriculturists are interspersed among the other homesteads.

This description still holds true. "Homestead" is the nearest English equivalent of the Bengali word bari.

A bani consists of a number of huts built around a courtyard well above the level of the fields. The term includes not only the huts but the courtyard, outhouses, and the raised land around, where trees are commonly planted

(i.3). In the inundated tracts, the homesteads are arranged in almost continuous lines along the higher land fringing the sides of the streams and watercourses. In the lower land away from these levees, the houses are built on scattered artificial mounds.

Only in certain parts of the province are the cultivators' homesteads built closely together-for example, in the swamps of the Brahmanbaria subdivision of Tippera, in Sunamganj in Sylhet, eastern Kishorganj in Mymen-



390 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

singh, parts of Tangail, the moribund drainage areas of Kushtia and Jessore, and the tribal areas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Here the bils (swampy areas with water standing here and there), marshes, and haors (water-filled depressions) leave little ground available for habitations. Even so, the homesteads do not lie huddled together but rather stretch out in strips along the small streams that have raised their banks by silt deposition above the level of the paddy fields. In many other parts of East Bengal a few houses may, for

LIVING ROOM AND STOREROOM

KITCHEN

OWELL

I COURTYARD B O

BEDROOM AND STOREROOMI

COWSHED

FIG. 3-Plan of a typical bari, or homestead.

various reasons, be found grouped together, but this is the exception rather than the rule. Compact collections of houses are regarded as uncomfortable. Though dispersal results in a lack of corporate life in the linear settlements, much of the charm of the rural scene derives from the absence of nucleation.

For administrative purposes in East Bengal a survey unit, the mauza, takes the place of the village unit elsewhere. The two are by no means synonymous and should not be confused. When the first surveys were made, about a hundred years ago, the mauza was defined as "a parcel of land convenient for survey in one block."2 Those early surveys formed the basis for revenue collection and administration, and the mauza has remained the traditional unit in Bengal.

SETTLEMENT IN THE SOUTHEASTERN DISTRICTS

In East Bengal the census "village" is perhaps a true village only in parts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, where the usual factors of community life- protection and convenience of living in a nucleated settlement-operate together. A Chakma or Magh village with closely built dwellings has a

2 Census of India, op. cit. [see footnote i above], p. 125.



SETTLEMENT IN EAST PAKISTAN 3 91

l

E

_w > E E _ I i 1_1-

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FIG. 4-A bari with its surrounding trees.

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l - FIG. S-Paddy fields in a forest clearing near a settlement in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.




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FIG. 6-Settlement on the high banks of the Karnaphuli River, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

FIG. 7-A Chakma platform house.




FIG. 8-Isolated bari on the fast-disappearing bank of the Meghna River, near Munshiganj, Dacca.

FIG. 9-Women pounding rice in a bani near Munshiganj. Note the tin roofs of the huts.




typical community atmosphere. The settlements cling to the valley sides along the Karnaphuli, the Sangu, or other minor rivers, on which both water supply and communications depend. The hills provide land for jhuming (shifting hill cultivation) and are also the source of forest products. Figure io depicts such a settlement type.

In the lower part of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, where the river valleys are wider and incursions of plainsmen have taken place, mixed settlement patterns are found. Homesteads cluster on the valley floors, hugging the riverbanks, or concentrate around tanks built for additional water supply. Westward, near the coast, the characteristic scattered homesteads are more common.

Faridpur, Bakarganj, Noakhali, Tippera, the estuarine islands, and other parts of southern East Bengal have many settlement features in comnmon. Each family lives within its own holding, digging a moat around an ample piece of land and planting fruit trees-banana, coconut, jack fruit, and betelnut to enclose and conceal its homestead. The buildings, both for living and for livestock, are mat-and-thatch huts on high mud plinths, situated on raised ground. Here and there may be found a landlord's house, its walls built partly or wholly of masonry and its roof of tin or corrugated iron. Imported, corrugated-iron roofs are usually either a sign of some prosperity or the hallmark of a government or public building-school, temple, or mosque-or of an office or warehouse.

In eastern Bakarganj, the settlements are widely scattered over the higher ground that slopes to the west and has been built up as natural levees by the various distributaries of the Padma. But in the center and west homesteads are sited on the rims of depressions. Settlement types in river areas where new land is being formed are shown in Figure 11, and the patterns on firmer land subject to complete inundation are seen in Figure 12.

In the inundated tracts of southern and southwestern Dacca, the homesteads are built in almost continuous lines along the higher land that fringes both sides of each natural water channel, and it is often difficult to distinguish one mauza from another. In the low lands between the streams, the settlements are on artificial mounds. Every bit of high ground, natural or artificial, is crowded with dwellings. In the rainy season all homesteads are isolated on "islands," with surface communication only by boat. No playgrounds are left for the children, and animals have no grazing area. Amid these surround- ings in the Munshiganj subdivision some of the highest rural densities in the world (about 2500 persons per square mile) are found. Such a settlement pattern is seen in Figure 13. But in the northwestern part of the district,




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.l 1. .... B''\E;... E<. w*_.. ......~ ~ ~~' | , >

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V .I . I / ./ m -! \ Geogr. Rev.,July 1956

FIcG. 10 (upper left)-Nucleated and linear settlements along the Karnaphuli River and its tributary streams,l Chittagong Hill Tracts.

FIG. it (upper right)-Scattered settlements on new land along the streams in northeastern Bakar- ganj-

FIG. 12 (lower left)-Widely dispersed settlements on land subject to complete inundation in southeastern BakarganJ--

FIG. 13 (lower right)-Dispersed settlements in the inundated area of southern Dacca.

differences in topography result in a concentration of scattered settlements along the firrn, higher banks of a nonactive, older river, the Ichhamzati. On the older alluvium in the rest of the district, where there is no dearth of higher land, the habitations are more dispersed and are surrounded by dense groves of trees, chiefly jack fruit, betelnut palm, and bamboo.

SETTLEMENT IN THE NORTHEASTERN DISTRICTS

In the low-lying, marshy areas of northeastern and eastern Mymensingh, each homestead consists of only a single hut, and these are clustered together




on mounds of artificially raised earth so as to accommodate the greatest possible number of persons. The higher land is so limited that the cowsheds are built out in the swamps, propped up with pieces of bamboo 12 or 14 feet long. In cold weather fishermen occupy temporary huts on the river banks; in the rainy season even the largest homesteads in the low-lying thanas (police districts) of Khaliajuri, Itna, and Astagram are situated on isolated "islands," with bamboo barriers to protect them from the spreading waters. In the west, nearer the jamuna, settlement sites change periodically owing to the shifting of the stream. More than ioo years ago Buchanan Hamilton3 remarked on this unusual occurrence, and in the winter of 1950 several such sites were pointed out to the writer in the northern part of Tangail subdivision.

In the Madhupur Tract the homesteads are generally scattered in the hills. They tend to multiply on lower ground, where they are gradually encroach- ing on the hillocks and the marshes, but here their numbers are still small.

Over most of Sylhet the settlements are dispersed and occupy suitable sites near paddy fields. In this area the village, together with its adjacent paras and tolas,4 is calledgaon or gram. The boundaries between these villages are vague; in fact, such settlements are mere units of revenue survey or "cadastral villages" rather than true communities. The influence of the disastrous earthquake of 1897 is still felt; few brick houses exist in this area.

In western and southwestern Sylhet, where water-filled depressions are characteristic of the landscape, the acute struggle for land is reflected in linear development along the higher banks of the main streams (Fig. 14), and in the clustering of settlements on artificially-raised mud areas surrounded by marsh and rivers (Fig. 15). In the southern Sylhet tea-growing region, the settlements are found at the foot of hills or along river valleys in the plain. The tea gardens themselves have only factory establishments and laborers' quarters, or "coolie lines."

SETTLEMENT IN THE SOUTHWESTERN DISTRICTS

The pattern of rural settlement is somewhat different in the western part of Jessore and Kushtia Districts. Though dispersed homesteads are still met with over considerable areas, elsewhere the dominant pattern is one of concentration on the higher land along embankments, ox-bow lakes, remnants of former channels, and roads. Low-lying land is avoided because it is subject to sudden inundation and is unhealthful. Larger areas of marsh and stagnant water are absolutely devoid of habitation (Fig. 16).

3 Cited in the Bengal District Gazetteers, Vol. 34, Mymensingh, [Part] A (Calcutta, 1917), p. 8.

4 Tola is the term for a tree-shaded central place where the elders sit and gossip and the children play.




IUD~~~~~~~I s X 1ggl lt : l,, ,I II 111

|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~1111 - I ' I' ,,l' '' '

01o AL 44

ber of tanks andhebsece

FIG.14tuper let)-Lesut,inea pathem Sundatreamnees reion wete Sylentrahlaeti areas hav (upeen rih)Lrewl settlaiment fon atfcly-isedampoand infouet.Hern Syhet fembnk

hmenssereads proecto againteredvading wanyerivr,cek,sn.ae-ile ers

FiGn. 17Thoer riht)-Scattions setlemntw o the rasdinanksuofsangpu borderm. N Tehelrge num-

however, an abrupt break in the line of settlements at the forest margins.

I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I

SETTLEMENT IN THE NORTHWESTERN DISTRICTS

Across the Ganges in northern Bengal, in Pabna and Rajshajy Districts, homesteads surrounded by trees, with excavated ponds for water supply, are




again typical. The Santhal settlements in the Barind and adjacent areas, however, present an entirely different picture. The Santhals like to live in closely knit communities, with a concentration of houses in the highest and driest parts of the clearings. Most of the undergrowth and trees, except for some fruit trees, are removed. In the settlement itself, each Santhal habitation is a complete little farm, containing the family's dwelling, granary, cowshed, and pigsty.

In Dinajpur the dispersed pattern is modified here and there. In the north and east there are patches of trees and clumps of bamboo; the cultivated areas are smaller, and the homesteads are embowered in luxuriant vegetation. In the north, riverbanks are generally avoided, since they are liable to floods, and there is a greater concentration of homesteads along country roads and paths. To the south there is less vegetation, and houses are often situated on bare ridges or on open riverbanks. Numerous tanks are a special feature of the countryside in Dinajpur and western Rangpur (Fig. 17).



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The Pattern of Rural Settlement in East Pakistan