Year: 2025
Type: article
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.
Institution: University of Malaya
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $150
OpenAlex ID: W4411750452