Common Spirit of Customary Law: Long-standing Practice of Ethnic Community in Bangladesh

Parimal Kumar Roy^1*  , Mashitah Hamidi² , Haris Abd Wahab³ & Sanjay Krishno Biswas^{4   
1}Deputy Director, Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre. *Corresponding author. 
²Associate Professor, Universiti Malaya.
³Professor, Universiti Malaya.
⁴Associate Professor, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology.

^{Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 17, Issue 2, 2025. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v17n2.01
Full-Text PDF Issue Access}
Abstract

This paper examines the customary law of the Bangladeshi Santals, an ethnic community. From an anthropological perspective, the authors searched the literature on customary law and applied the concepts to the Santal community within the relevant local, regional, and international contexts of indigenous rights. Methodologically, this article follows the post-positivist paradigm and ‘capability approach’ to explore the gaps between mainstream and indigenous communities, such as the Santals. Consequently, the identified issue is that the Santals of Bangladesh errantly uphold the Sustainable Development Goals to establish their rights-based society. This has led to community tension in Bangladesh, as is frequently the case both there and in India. The tensions between ethnic and mainstream communities create hurdles to human rights and produce externalities in national development within the global context. This study recommends a sustainable community development framework due to the lack of ratified international documents regarding customary structure.

Keywords: Ethnic Groups, Customary law, Community Development, Sustainable, SDGs