Raja Tridiv Roy (; Chakma: 𑄖𑄳𑄢𑄨𑄘𑄨𑄝𑄴 𑄢𑄧𑄠𑄴) sometimes spelled Tridev Roy, (14 May 1933 – 17 September 2012) was a

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

politician, diplomat and writer who was the Minister of the Minority Affairs in

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979) was a Pakistani barrister and politician who served as the fourth president of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and later as the ninth Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan from 19 ...

cabinet. He was also the 50th Raja/King of the Chakma tribe in the

Chittagong Hill Tracts The Chittagong Hill Tracts (), often shortened to simply the Hill Tracts and abbreviated to CHT, refers to the three hilly districts within the Chittagong Division in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering India and Myanmar (Burma) in the east: Kh ...

region of present-day

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

from 2 May 1953, until his

abdication Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the Order of succession, succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of ...

in 1971 following the

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War (, ), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which res ...

.Hindus Contribution Towards Making Of Pakistan
Retrieved 28 January 2011 He chose to remain a Pakistani when Bangladesh achieved independence in 1971. He became known as a writer, diplomat,

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

religious leader and politician in Pakistan. Between 1981 and 1995, he served as Ambassador of Pakistan to

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

with concurrent accreditation in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. He was also a Minister-For-Life within the Pakistani government. Tridev Roy died in September 2012.

Biography

Roy was born in 1933 in the Chakma Rajbari in Rangamati,

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. He was the son of Raja Nalinaksha Roy. His mother Benita Roy was the granddaughter of Keshub Chandra Sen, a leading nineteenth century Brahmo Samaj leader and reformer of Bengal. Leading actress and danseuse Sadhana Bose and classical singer Naina Devi were his maternal aunts. He was installed as the 50th

Raja Raja (; from , IAST ') is a noble or royal Sanskrit title historically used by some Indian subcontinent, Indian rulers and monarchs and highest-ranking nobles. The title was historically used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. T ...

, or hereditary King of the Chakma Circle, on 2 May 1953. Roy abdicated the throne 1971 in favour of his son, Raja Devasish Roy, the current ruler of the Chakma people, during the

. Roy remained a practicing

, the predominant faith of the Chakma people, throughout his life. Despite being heavily non-Muslim, the Chittagong Hill Tracts were awarded to Pakistan (specifically

East Pakistan East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...

) by the British during the 1947

partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

. The Chakmas and other people of the hill tracts had favored union with India instead of Pakistan. Initially granted special autonomy, the status of the region was changed by the Pakistani government during the 1950s to allow the settlement of large numbers of largely non-indigenous, Muslim Bengali settlers into the region. The Pakistani government also opened a hydro-electric dam, the

Kaptai Dam Kaptai Dam () is on the Karnaphuli River at Kaptai, upstream from Chittagong in Rangamati District, Bangladesh. It is an earth-fill embankment dam with a reservoir (known as Kaptai Lake) with water storage capacity of . The primary purpose ...

in the early 1960s, which flooded about 40% of the Chakmas' available

arable land Arable land (from the , "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the purposes of a ...

. However, the Chakmas under Tridev Roy chose to remain neutral during the 1960s and 1970s as relations between the Pakistani Army and

Mukti Bahini The Mukti Bahini, initially called the Mukti Fauj, also known as the Bangladesh Forces, was a big tent armed guerrilla resistance movement consisting of the Bangladeshi military personnel, paramilitary personnel and civilians during the Ba ...

, which fought for Bangladeshi independence. In 1970,

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), also known by the honorific Bangabandhu, was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman and activist who was the founding president of Bangladesh. As the leader of Bangl ...

, the head of the All-Pakistan Awami League and future founder of Bangladesh, asked Roy to run for Parliament as a member of the Awami League. Roy declined Rahman's offering, choosing instead to run in the 1970 general election as an independent. Roy won his election as independent candidate from his constituency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Roy sided with

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

in 1971

, which resulted in Bangladesh's independence. Following the war and Bangladesh's independence, Roy chose to move from the former

West Pakistan West Pakistan was the western province of Pakistan between One Unit, 1955 and Legal Framework Order, 1970, 1970, covering the territory of present-day Pakistan. Its land borders were with Afghanistan, India and Iran, with a maritime border wit ...

, where he resided for the rest of his life. Roy feared political persecution if he remained in Bangladesh after the country's independence, which led to his decision to move to Pakistan. He also felt that the new Bangladeshi government would no longer guarantee the special autonomous status of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. He abdicated as the Raja of the Chakmas in 1971 in favor of his son, Raja Debashish Roy, when he went into exile. The government of Pakistan made Roy a lifetime federal minister for his loyalty to the government in Islamabad during the war. Roy headed a delegation from Pakistan to oppose Bangladesh's application to join the United Nations. The government of Bangladesh, under Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, sent its own delegation to New York to apply for admission led by Tridev Roy's mother Rajmata Benita Roy. Roy joined the government of

during the 1970s. Bhutto offered Roy the position of

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The president is the nominal head of the executive and the supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

once he became

Prime Minister of Pakistan The prime minister of Pakistan (, Roman Urdu, romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Cabinet of Pakistan, cabinet, desp ...

. However, Roy declined Bhutto's offer of the presidency because, under the new

Constitution of Pakistan The Constitution of Pakistan ( ; ISO 15919, ISO: '' Āīn-ē-Pākistān''), also known as the 1973 Constitution, is the supreme law of Pakistan. The document guides Pakistan's law, political culture, and system. It sets out the state's outlin ...

of 1973, only Muslims can become President of Pakistan. Roy, who called the presidency a "gilded cage," was unwilling to convert from Buddhism to Islam to hold the office. Bhutto was later overthrown by General

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (12 August 192417 August 1988) was a Pakistani military officer and statesman who served as the sixth president of Pakistan from 1978 until Death of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, his death in an airplane crash in 1988. He also se ...

in 1977. In 1981, Roy was appointed as Pakistani Ambassador to

by the Zia government, a move which simultaneously removed him from day-to-day involvement in Pakistani politics. He was simultaneously accredited as an ambassador in Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay and he held these positions until 1995. He later was Pakistan's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. He remained abroad to abroad until 1996, when he returned to

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

. Roy also held the position as a federal minister-for-life within the Pakistani government. Roy, a leading figure in Pakistan's Buddhist community, headed the Pakistan Buddhist Society from 1996 until his death in 2012. In 2005, the High Commissioner of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, General Srilal Weerasooriya, on behalf of the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

, conferred the emblems of the Sri Lanka Ranjana Award on Federal Minister Tridev Roy for his work on behalf of Pakistan's Buddhist community. Tridiv Roy died from cardiac arrest at his home in

on 17 September 2012, at the age of 79. He is survived by his wife, Arati Roy, three sons, and two daughters.

Legacy

The '' Express Tribune'' published an editorial the day following his death titled "The Raja who gave away his kingdom" on the diplomat's political career, excerpts of which are below:

Books

Among his books, Tridiv Roy published his memoirs entitled, ''The Departed Melody''. The book begins with the history and culture of the people of the

and the Chakma Rajas. His other books and publications include ''Collection of Short Stories'', which was translated to Urdu, and ''South American Diary''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, Raja Tridev 1933 births 2012 deaths Buddhist religious leaders Bangladeshi Buddhists Theravada Buddhists Chakma people Ambassadors of Pakistan to Argentina Ambassadors of Pakistan to Chile Ambassadors of Pakistan to Uruguay Ambassadors of Pakistan to Peru Ambassadors of Pakistan to Ecuador High commissioners of Pakistan to Sri Lanka Monarchs who abdicated Government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Pakistani Buddhists Pakistani people of Bangladeshi descent Pakistani writers Politicians from Chittagong Politicians from Islamabad People of the Bangladesh Liberation War Chakma Royal Family Sri Lanka Ranajana Federal ministers of Pakistan People from Rangamati District Candidates in the 1970 Pakistani general election

Biography

Legacy

Books

See also

References