Bangladesh Home Minister: All citizens are 'Bangladeshis', indigenous status rejected

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed asserted on Tuesday that all citizens residing in Bangladesh should be identified simply as "Bangladeshis," rejecting the notion of indigenous status for ethnic communities within the country. He stated that this matter was settled through political consensus and is enshrined in the nation's constitutional framework.

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all citizens living in Bangladesh should be identified as “Bangladeshis”, not as indigenous people, saying the issue had already been settled through political consensus and the constitutional framework.

Ahmed referenced a July charter, claiming political parties unanimously agreed that all individuals within Bangladesh's territory would be identified as Bangladeshis. He emphasized that citizens of all religious, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds possess equal constitutional rights. The minister also pointed out that the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is not applicable to Bangladesh, as the country has not ratified it. He further suggested that the issue has been amplified by "foreign instigation" and raised at international forums.

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We are all inhabitants of Bangladesh.

Information Minister Zahir Uddin Swapon described the debate over indigenous identity as a "battle of narratives," arguing that the international context for the term "indigenous" does not align with Bangladesh's unique social and anthropological development. State Minister for Cultural Affairs Ali Newaz Mahmud Khaiyam stressed the importance of state terminology not creating psychological inferiority or alienation among smaller ethnic communities, advocating for equal treatment regardless of location.

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the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples did not apply to Bangladesh as the country was not a party to it.

Meanwhile, Prof Shahab Enam Khan, executive director of Bangladesh Center for Indo-Pacific Affairs at JU, highlighted potential spillover effects on the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) due to cross-border ethnic links, the Rohingya crisis, and broader geopolitical competition. He called for a strengthened national consensus on the region, Myanmar, and national security. Several other political figures and legal experts also participated in the roundtable discussion.

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foreign instigation” had contributed to divisions over the matter.