2012 Rakhine State Riots
| 2012 Rakhine State Riots | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Persecution of Muslims in Myanmar | |
| Location | Rakhine State, Myanmar |
| Date | 8 June 2012 (UTC+06:30) |
Attack type
| Religious |
| Deaths |
October: at least 80[4]
100,000 displaced[4]
|
The 2012 Rakhine State Riots were a series of conflicts primarily between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and RohingyaMuslims in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, though by October Muslims of all ethnicities had begun to be targeted.[5][6][7] The riots finally came after weeks of sectarian disputes including a gang rape and murder of a Rakhine woman by Rohingyas and killing of ten Burmese Muslims by Rakhines.[8] On 8 June 2012, Rohingyas started to burn Rakhine's Buddhist and other ethnic houses after returning from Friday's prayers in Maungdaw township. More than a dozen residents were killed in this riot by Rohingya Muslims.[9] State of emergency was declared in Rakhine, allowing military to participate in administration of the region.[10][11] As of 22 August, officially there had been 88 casualties – 57 Muslims and 31 Buddhists.[1] An estimated 90,000 people were displaced by the violence.[12][13] About 2,528 houses were burned; of those, 1,336 belonged to Rohingyas and 1,192 belonged to Rakhines.[14]
Rohingya NGOs have accused the Burmese army and police of playing a role in targeting Rohingya through mass arrests and arbitrary violence[15] though an in-depth research by the International Crisis Group reported that members of both communities were grateful for the protection provided by the military.[16] While the government response was praised by the United States and European Union,[17][18] NGOs were more critical, citing discrimination of Rohingyas by the previous military government.[17] The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and several human rights groups rejected the President Thein Sein's proposal to resettle the Rohingya abroad.[19][20]
Fighting broke out again in October, resulting in at least 80 deaths, the displacement of more than 20,000 people, and the burning of thousands of homes. Rohingyas are not allowed to leave their settlements, officially due to security concerns, and are the subject of a campaign of commercial boycott led by Buddhist monks.[21]
Contents
[hide]Background[edit]
Sectarian clashes occur sporadically in Rakhine State, often between the Buddhist Rakhine people who are majority in the southern part, and Rohingya Muslims who are majority in the north.[22] Before the riots, there were widespread and strongly held fears circulating among Buddhist Rakhines that they would soon become a minority in their ancestral state, and not just the northern part, which has long become a Muslim majority. Rohingyas migrated to Burma from Bengal, today's Bangladesh primarily before and during the period of British rule,[23][24][25]and to a lesser extent, after the Burmese independence in 1948 and Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.[22][22][26][27] Rakhines believed that many immigrants arrived even after the 1980s. The Burmese government classifies the Rohingya as "immigrants" to Burma, and thus not eligible for citizenship. Due to their lack of citizenship, they were previously subject to restrictions on government education, officially recognised marriages, and along with ethnic Rakhines, endured forced labour under the military government.[28][29]
On the evening of 28 May, a group of Muslim men robbed, raped and murdered an ethnic Rakhine woman, Ma Thida Htwe, near her village Tha Pri Chaung on 28 May 2012, when she was returning home from Kyauk Ni Maw Village of Rambree township.[30] The locals claim the culprits to have been Rohingya Muslims. The police arrested three suspects and sent them to Yanbye township jail.[31] On 3 June,[32] a mob attacked a bus in Taungup, apparently mistakenly believing those responsible for the murder were on board.[33] Ten Muslims were killed in the attack,[34] prompting protests by Burmese Muslims in the commercial capital, Yangon. The government responded by appointing a minister and a senior police chief to head an investigation committee. The committee was ordered to find out "cause and instigation of the incident" and to pursue legal action.[35] As of 2 July 30 people had been arrested over the killing of the Muslims.[36]
June riots[edit]
The June riots saw various attacks by Buddhist Rakhines and Rohingya Muslims on each other's communities, including destruction of property.[37]
8 June: Initial attacks[edit]
Despite increased security measures, at 3:50 pm 8 June, a large mob of Rakhine ignited several houses in Bohmu Village, Maungdaw Township where 80% of the population is Rohingya Muslims. Telephone lines were also damaged.[38] By the evening, Hmuu Zaw, a high-ranking officer, reported that the security forces were protecting 14 burnt villages in Maungdaw township. Around 5:30, the forces were authorised to use deadly force but they fired mostly warning shots according to local media.[38][39] Soon afterward, authorities declared that the situation in Maungdaw Township had been stabilised. However, three villages of southern Maungdaw were torched in early evening. At 9 o'clock, the government imposed curfew in Maungdaw, and forbidding any gathering of more than five persons in public area. An hour later, the rioters had a police outpost in Khayay Mying Village surrounded. The police fired warning shots to disperse them.[39] At 10 o'clock, armed forces had taken positions in Maungdaw. Five people had been confirmed killed as of 8 June.[40]
9 June: Riots spread[edit]
On the morning of 9 June, five army battalions arrived to reinforce the existing security forces. Government set up refugee camps for those whose houses had been burned. Government reports stated that Relief and Resettlement Ministry and Ministry of Defense had distributed 3.3 tons of supplies and 2 tons of clothes respectively.[41]
Despite increased security presence, the riots continued unabated. Security forces successfully prevented rioters' attempt to torch five quarters of Maungdaw. However, Rakhine villagers from Buthidaung Township (where 90 percent of people are Rohingya Muslims) arrived at refugee camps after their houses had been razed by Muslims. Soon after, soldiers took positions and anti-riot police patrolled in the township. The Muslim rioters marched to Sittwe and burned down three houses in Mingan quarter. An official report stated that at least 7 people had been killed, one hostel, 17 shops and over 494 houses had been destroyed as of 9 June.[41]
10 June: State of emergency[edit]
On 10 June, a state of emergency was declared across Rakhine.[22] According to state TV, the order was given in response to "unrest and terrorist attacks" and "intended to restore security and stability to the people immediately."[22] President Thein Sein added that further unrest could threaten the country's moves toward democracy.[42] It was the first time that the current government used the provision. It instigated martial law, giving the military administrative control of the region.[22]The move was criticised by Human Rights Watch, who accused the government of handing control over to a military which had historically brutalised people in the region.[42][43] Some ethnic Rakhine burned Rohingya houses in Bohmu village in retaliation.[44] Over five thousand people were residing at refugee camps by 10 June.[45] Many of the refugees fled to Sittwe to escape the rioting, overwhelming local officials.[42]
12–14 June[edit]
On 12 June, more buildings were set ablaze in Sittwe as many residents throughout Rakhine were relocated.[46] "Smoke is billowing from many directions and we are scared," said one ethnic Rakhine resident. "The government should send in more security forces to protect [our] communities."[43] An unnamed government official put the death toll at 25 to date.[43]
The number of casualties were officially revised to 21 on 13 June.[47] A top United Nations envoy visited the region affected by the riots. "We're here to observe and assess how we can continue to provide support to Rakhine [State]," said Ashok Nigam, UN humanitarian coordinator.[47] The envoy later remarked that army appeared to have restored order to the region.[13]
Meanwhile, Bangladeshi authorities continued to turn away refugees, denying another 140 people entry into Bangladesh. To date at least 15 boats and up to 1,500 total refugees had been turned away.[47] Dipu Moni, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, said at a news conference in the capital, Dhaka, that Bangladesh did not have the capacity to accept refugees because the impoverished country’s resources already are strained.[48] The UN called on Bangladesh to reconsider.[49]
On 14 June, the situation appeared calm as casualty figures were updated to 29 deaths – 16 Muslim and 13 Buddhists according to Myanmar authorities.[13] The government also estimated 2,500 homes had been destroyed and 30,000 people displaced by the violence. Thirty-seven camps across Rakhine housed the refugees.[13] Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi warned that violence would continue unless "the rule of law" was restored.[13]
15–28 June: Fatality figures update and arrest of UN workers[edit]
As of 28 June, casualty figures were updated to 80 deaths and estimated 90,000 people were displaced and taking refuge in temporary camps according to official reports.[50] Hundreds of Rohingyas fled across the border to Bangladesh, though many were forced back to Burma. Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh also claimed that the Burmese army and police shot groups of villagers after they started the riot. They stated they feared to return to Burma when Bangladesh rejected them as refugees and asked them to go back home.[15][15] Despite the claims made by NGOs, an in-depth research by the International Crisis Group reported that members of both communities were grateful for protection provided by the military.[16]
The Government of Myanmar arrested 10 UN UNHCR workers and charged three with "stimulating" the riots.[51] António Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, visited Yangon and asked for the release of the UN workers which Myanmar's President Thein Sein said he would not allow but asked if the UN would help to resettle up to 1,000,000 Rohingya Muslims in either refugee camps in Bangladesh or some other country.[51] The UN rejected Thein Sein's proposal.[19]
October riots[edit]
Violence between Muslims and Buddhists broke out again in late October.[52][53] According to the Burmese government, more than 80 people were killed, more than 22,000 people were displaced, and more than 4,600 houses burnt.[4] The outburst of fighting brought the total number of displaced since the beginning of the conflict to 100,000.[4]
The violence began in the towns of Min Bya and Mrauk Oo by the Muslims, but spread across the state.[52] Though the majority of Rakhine state's Muslims are Rohingya, Muslims of all ethnicities were reported to be targets of the violence in retaliation.[5][6] Several Muslim groups announced that they would not be celebrating Eid al-Adha because they felt the government could not protect them.[53]
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon issued a statement on 26 October that "the vigilante attacks, targeted threats and extremist rhetoric must be stopped. If this is not done ... the reform and opening up process being currently pursued by the government is likely to be jeopardised."[52] US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called on the Burmese government to halt the violence and allow aid groups unrestricted access.[53] On 27 October, a spokesperson for Thein Sein acknowledged "incidents of whole villages and parts of the towns being burnt down in Rakhine state", after Human Rights Watch released a satellite image showing hundreds of Muslim buildings destroyed in Kyaukpyu on Ramree Island.[5] The United Nations reported on 28 October that 3,200 more displaced people had fled to refugee camps, with an estimated additional 2,500 still in transit.[54]
In early November, Doctors Without Borders reported that pamphlets and posters were being distributed in Rakhine State threatening aid workers who treated Muslims, causing almost all of its local staff to quit.[55]
Misleading photographs in the media[edit]
Alleged photographs of crimes against Muslims perpetrated by Buddhists in Rakhine State had been widely circulated during and after the riots. Some of the photos were taken from natural disasters, such as pictures of Tibetan Buddhist monks cremating earthquake victims from the 2010 Yushu earthquake, mislabeled as Burmese monks burning Muslims alive.[56][57]
Aftermath[edit]
Expulsion of Muslims from Sittwe[edit]
After the riots, most of the Muslims from Sittwe were temporarily removed by security forces into makeshift refugee camps well away from the city, towards Bangladesh. Only few hundred households were left in the ghetto-like Mingalar Ward where they are confined, officially due to security concerns.[58] Buddhists in Rakhine are calling for further internment and expulsion of Muslims who cannot prove three generations of legal residence - a large part of the nearly one million Muslims from the state.[59]
Rohingya diaspora[edit]
Around 140,000 people, the majority of them Rohingya, were displaced by two waves of violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine last year that left some 200 people dead. Thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar since then on overcrowded boats to Malaysia or further south, despite the dangers posed by rough seas. Hundreds are believed to have died at sea in 2013. In May, nearly 60 Rohingyas went missing after their boat sank after hitting rocks as a cyclone approached the bay.
In November, another boat carrying 70 Rohingyas fleeing sectarian violence capsized off the western coast of Myanmar. Only eight survivors have been found.[60]According to The Economist, later Burmese Buddhist mob violence against Muslims in such places as Meiktila, Okpho and Gyobingauk Township "follows on from, and is clearly inspired by, the massacres of Rohingya Muslims around Sittwe"[61] and "now seems to be spreading to other parts of Asia, too".[62]
Investigation[edit]
 | This article needs to be updated. (December 2015) |
An investigation committee was formed on 28 March 2014 by the Burmese government to take action against the people involved in riots on 26 and 27 March 2014. The report on riots was to have been submitted by 7 April 2014 to the president.[63]
International events[edit]
On 5 April 2013, Muslim and Buddhist inmates at an immigration detention centre Indonesia rioted along the lines of the conflict in their home country leading to death of 8 Buddhists and 15 injuries of Rohingyas.[64][65] According to the testimonies of Rohingya witnesses, the reason that sparked the riot was because of sexual harassment against female Rohingya Muslim inmates by the Burmese Buddhist inmates.[66][67] Indonesian court jailed 14 Muslim Rohingya for nine months each in December. The sentence was lighter than the maximum penalty for violence resulting in death, which is 12 years. The men's lawyer said they would appeal for freedom because there was no real evidence shown during the trial.[68]
Reactions[edit]
Domestic[edit]
- National League for Democracy – The NLD appealed to the rioters to stop.[69]
- 88 Generation Students Group – 88 Generation Students leaders called the riots "acts of terrorism" and acts that have "nothing to do with Islam, Buddhism, nor any other religion."[70]
- All Myanmar Islam Association – All Myanmar Islam Association, the largest Islam association in Myanmar, condemned the "terrorizing and destruction of lives and property of innocent people", declaring that "the perpetrators must be held accountable by law."[71][72]
- Some local analysts believe the riots and conflict were instigated by the military, with the aim to embarrass Aung San Suu Kyi during her European tour, to reassert their own authority, or to divert attention from other conflicts involving ethnic minorities across the country.[73]
- In August 2012 President Thein Sein announced the establishment of a 27-member commission to investigate the violence. The commission would include members of different political parties and religious organisations.[74]
International[edit]
European Union – Earlier in 2012, the EU lifted some of its economic and political sanctions on Myanmar. As of 22 July, EU diplomats were monitoring the situation in the country and were in contact with its officials.[75]
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation – On 15 August, a meeting of the OIC condemned Myanmar authorities for violence against Rohingyas and the denial of the group's citizenship, and vowed to bring the issue to the United Nations General Assembly.[76] In October, the OIC had reached an agreement with the Burmese government to open an office in the country to help the Rohingyas; however, following Buddhist pressure,[77] the move was abandoned.[78]
Bangladesh – Neighbouring Bangladesh increased border security in response to the riots. Numerous boat refugees were turned aside by the Border Guard.[33]
Iran – Members of Iranian society[who?] condemned the attacks and called on other Muslim states to take a "firm stance" against the violence; protests also took place in Iran.[79]
Pakistan – Foreign Ministry spokesman Moazzam Ali Khan said during a weekly news briefing: "We are concerned about the situation, but there are reports that things have improved there." He added that Pakistan hoped Burmese authorities would exercise necessary steps to bring the situation back to control.[80]Protests against the anti-Muslim riots were lodged by various political parties and organisations in Pakistan, who called for the government, United Nations, OICand human rights organisations to take notice of the killings and hold Myanmar accountable.[81][82]
Saudi Arabia – The King Abdullah ordered $50 million of aid sent to the Rohingyas, in Saudi Arabia's capacity as a "guardian of global Muslim interests".[83]Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia says that it "condemns the ethnic cleansing campaign and brutal attacks against Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya citizens" and it urged the international community to protect "Muslims in Myanmar".[84]
United Kingdom – Foreign Minister Jeremy Browne told reporters that he was 'deeply concerned' by the situation and that the UK and other countries would continue to watch developments closely.[85]
United States – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for "all parties to exercise restraint" and added that "the United States continues to be deeply concerned" about the situation.[86][87]
Tibet The 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet in exile, wrote a letter in August 2012 to Aung San Suu Kyi, where he said that he was “deeply saddened” and remains “very concerned” with the violence inflicted on the Muslims in Burma.[88] In April 2013, he openly criticised Buddhist monks' attacks on Muslims in Myanmar saying "Buddha always teaches us about forgiveness, tolerance, compassion. If from one corner of your mind, some emotion makes you want to hit, or want to kill, then please remember Buddha's faith. We are followers of Buddha." He said that "All problems must be solved through dialogue, through talk. The use of violence is outdated, and never solves problems."[89] In May 2013, while visiting Maryland, he said "Really, killing people in the name of religion is unthinkable, very sad."[90]
See also[edit]
- Chittagong Hill Tracts conflict
- Persecution of Buddhists#Bangladesh
- Genocide of indigenous peoples#Bangladesh
- Wartime sexual violence#Bangladesh - Chittagong Hill Tracts
- Chakma people
- Jumma people
- 969 Movement
- South Thailand insurgency
- 2012 Ramu violence
- 2012 Assam violence
- 2013 Burma anti-Muslim riots
- 2015 Rohingya refugee crisis
- Buddhism and violence
- Persecution of Muslims in Burma
- Rohingya conflict in Western Burma
- Criticism of Buddhism#War and violence.
Rohingya insurgency in Western Myanmar
(Redirected from Rohingya conflict in Western Burma)
| Rohingya insurgency in Western Myanmar | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Internal conflict in Myanmar | |||||||
Rohingya population in Rakhine State (Arakan)
| |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
|
Former combatants:
 Union of Burma(1948–1962) Military governments(1962–2011)
|
ARSA (since 2016)
Former combatants:
(1947–1961)
Supported by:
| ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
(Rakhine Chief of Police)[5]
Former commanders:
 Aung Gyi (1947–1963) Tin Oo (1947–1976)
(1992–2011)
 Thein Sein (2011–16) |
Former commanders:
 Mir Kassem (POW)(1947–1952) Abdul Latif
(1947–1961)
Annul Jauli
(1947–1961)
Zaffar Kawal
(1961–1974)
Muhammad Jafar Habib (1972–1982)
 Muhammad Yunus (1974–2001) | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| Rohingya National Army(1998–2001)[2][9] | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
 33 infantry battalions[4]
Previous totals:
1,100 (1947–1950)[10]
|
~500 (2016)[8]
Previous totals:
2,000–5,000 (1947–1950)[10]
2,000 (1952)[10]
| ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
44 security personnel killed[a]
| |||||||
2012–2017:
1,400+ killed in total[b]
30,000 internally displaced[16]
168,000 fled abroad[17]
| |||||||
The Rohingya insurgency in Western Myanmar is an ongoing insurgency in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar (formerly known as Arakan, Burma), waged by insurgents belonging to the Rohingya ethnic minority. Most clashes have occurred in the Maungdaw District, which borders Bangladesh.
From 1947 to 1961, local mujahideen fought government forces in an attempt to have the mostly Rohingya populated Mayu peninsula in northern Rakhine State secede from Myanmar, so it could be annexed by East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).[25] During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the mujahideen lost most of its momentum and support, resulting in most of them surrendering to government forces.[26][27]
In the 1970s Rohingya Islamist movements began to emerge from remnants of the mujahideen, and the fighting culminated with the Burmese government launching a massive military operation named Operation King Dragon in 1978.[28] In the 1990s, the well-armed Rohingya Solidarity Organisation was the main perpetrator of attacks on Burmese authorities near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.[29]
In October 2016, clashes erupted on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border between government security forces and a new insurgent group, Harakah al-Yaqin, resulting in the deaths of at least 40 people (excluding civilians).[30][31][32] It was the first major resurgence of the conflict since 2001.[2] In November 2016, violence erupted again, bringing the death toll to 134.[11]
During the early hours of 25 August 2017, up to 150 insurgents launched coordinated attacks on 24 police posts and the 552nd Light Infantry Battalion army base in Rakhine State, leaving 71 dead (12 security personnel and 59 insurgents). It was the first major attack by Rohingya insurgents since November 2016.[18][19][33]
Contents
[hide]Background[edit]
The Rohingya people are an ethnic minority that mainly live in the northern region of Rakhine State, Myanmar, and have been described as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.[34][35][36] They describe themselves as descendants of Arab traders who settled in the region many generations ago.[34] Some scholars have stated that they have been present in the region since the 15th century.[37] However, they have been denied citizenship by the government of Myanmar, which sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.[34] In modern times, the persecution of Rohingyas in Myanmar dates back to the 1970s.[38] Since then, Rohingya people have regularly been made the target of persecution by the government and nationalist Buddhists.[39]
Mujahideen separatist movements (1947–1960s)[edit]
Early separatist insurgency[edit]
In May 1946, Muslim leaders from Arakan, Burma (present-day Rakhine State, Myanmar) met with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and asked for the formal annexation of two townships in the Mayu region, Buthidaung and Maungdaw, by East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh). Two months later, the North Arakan Muslim League was founded in Akyab (present-day Sittwe, capital of Rakhine State), which also asked Jinnah to annex the region.[40] Jinnah refused, saying that he could not interfere with Burma's internal matters. After Jinnah's refusal, proposals were made by Muslims in Arakan to the newly formed post-independence government of Burma, asking for the concession of the two townships to Pakistan. The proposals were rejected by the Burmese parliament.[41]
Local mujahideen were subsequently formed against the Burmese government,[42] and began targeting government soldiers stationed in the area. Led by Mir Kassem, the newly formed mujahideen movement began gaining territory, driving out local Rakhine communities from their villages, some of whom fled to East Pakistan.[43]
In November 1948, martial law was declared in the region, and the 5th Battalion of the Burma Rifles and the 2nd Chin Battalion were sent to liberate the area. By June 1949, the Burmese government's control over the region was reduced to the city of Akyab, whilst the mujahideen had possession of nearly all of northern Arakan. After several months of fighting, Burmese forces were able to push the mujahideen back into the jungles of the Mayu region, near the country's border with East Pakistan.
In 1950, the Pakistani government warned its counterparts in Burma about their treatment of Muslims in Arakan. Burmese Prime Minister U Nu immediately sent a Muslim diplomat, Pe Khin, to negotiate a memorandum of understanding, so that Pakistan would cease sending aid to the mujahideen. In 1954, Kassem was arrested by Pakistani authorities, and many of his followers surrendered to the government.[3]
The post-independence government accused the mujahideen of encouraging the illegal immigration of thousands of Bengalis from East Pakistan into Arakan during their rule of the area, a claim that has been highly disputed over the decades, as it brings into question the legitimacy of the Rohingya as an ethnic group of Myanmar.[26]
Military operations against the mujahideen[edit]
Between 1950 and 1954, the Burma Army launched several military operations against the remaining mujahideen in northern Arakan.[44] The first military operation was launched in March 1950, followed by a second named Operation Mayu in October 1952. Several mujahideen leaders agreed to disarm and surrender to government forces following the successful operations.[40]
In the latter half of 1954, the mujahideen again began to carry out attacks on local authorities and military units stationed around Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung. In protest, hundreds of Rakhine Buddhist monksbegan hunger strikes in Rangoon (present-day Yangon),[26] and in response the government launched Operation Monsoon in October 1954.[40] The Tatmadaw managed to capture the main strongholds of the mujahideen and managed to kill several of their leaders. The operation successfully reduced the mujahideen's influence and support in the region.[10]
Decline and fall of the mujahideen[edit]
.jpg)
In 1957, 150 mujahideen, led by Shore Maluk and Zurah, surrendered to government forces. On 7 November 1957, 214 additional mujahideen under the leadership of al-Rashid disarmed and surrendered to government forces.[27]
In the beginning of the 1960s, the mujahideen began to lose its momentum after the governments of Myanmar (Burma) and Pakistan (which controlled Bangladesh at the time) began negotiating on how to deal with the insurgents at their border. On 4 July 1961, 290 mujahideen in southern Maungdaw Township surrendered their arms in front of Brigadier-General Aung Gyi, the then Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Burmese Army.[45] On 15 November 1961, the few remaining mujahideen surrendered to Aung Gyi in the eastern region of Buthidaung.[26]
A few dozen insurgents remained under the command of Zaffar Kawal, another group of 40 insurgents were led by Abdul Latif, and a mujahideen faction of 80 insurgents were led by Annul Jauli. All these groups lacked local support and a unifying ideology, which lead them to become rice smugglers around the end of the 1960s.[27]
Rohingya Islamist movements (1972–2001)[edit]
Islamist movements in the 1970s and 1980s[edit]
On 15 July 1972, former mujahideen leader Zaffar Kawal founded the Rohingya Liberation Party (RLP), after mobilising various former mujahideen factions under his command. Zaffar appointed himself Chairman of the party, Abdul Latif as Vice Chairman and Minister of Military Affairs, and Muhammad Jafar Habib as the Secretary General, a graduate from Rangoon University. Their strength increased from 200 fighters in the beginning to 500 by 1974. The RLP was largely based in the jungles of Buthidaung, and were armed with weapons smuggled from Bangladesh. After a massive military operation by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces) in July 1974, Zaffar and most of his men fled across the border into Bangladesh.[27][46]
In 1974, Muhammad Jafar Habib, the former Secretary of the RLP, founded the Rohingya Patriotic Front (RPF), after the failure and dissolution of the RLP. The RPF had around 70 fighters,[27][2] Habib as self-appointed Chairman, Nurul Islam, a Yangon-educated lawyer, as Vice-Chairman, and Muhammad Yunus, a medical doctor, as Secretary General.[27]
In March 1978, government forces launched a massive military operation named Operation King Dragon in northern Arakan (Rakhine State), with the focus of expelling Rohingya insurgents in the area.[28] As the operation extended farther northwest, hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas crossed the border seeking refuge in Bangladesh.[2][47][48]
In 1982, more radical elements broke away from the Rohingya Patriotic Front (RPF), and formed the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO).[1][2] It was led by Muhammad Yunus, the former Secretary General of the RPF. The RSO became the most influential and extreme faction amongst Rohingya insurgent groups; by basing itself on religious grounds it gained support from various Islamist groups, such as Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh and Pakistan, Hizb-e-Islami in Afghanistan, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, and Angkatan Belia Islam sa-Malaysia (ABIM) and the Islamic Youth Organisation of Malaysia in Malaysia.[2][48]
On 15 October 1982, the Burmese Citizenship Law was introduced, and with the exception of the Kaman people, most Muslims in the country were denied an ethnic minority classification, and thus were denied Burmese citizenship.[49]
A more moderate Rohingya insurgent group, the Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front (ARIF), was founded in 1986 by Nurul Islam, the former Vice-Chairman of the Rohingya Patriotic Front (RPF), after uniting remnants of the old RPF and a handful of defectors from the RSO.[2]
Military expansions in the 1990s[edit]
In the early 1990s, the military camps of the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO) were located in the Cox's Bazar District in southern Bangladesh. RSO possessed a significant arsenal of light machine-guns, AK-47 assault rifles, RPG-2 rocket launchers, claymore mines and explosives, according to a field report conducted by correspondent Bertil Lintner in 1991.[29] The Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front (ARIF) was mostly armed with British manufactured 9mm Sterling L2A3 sub-machine guns, M-16 assault rifles and .303 rifles.[29]
The military expansion of the RSO resulted in the government of Myanmar launching a massive counter-offensive to expel RSO insurgents along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. In December 1991, Tatmadaw soldiers crossed the border and accidentally attacked a Bangladeshi military outpost, causing a strain in Bangladeshi-Myanmar relations. By April 1992, more than 250,000 Rohingya civilians had been forced out of northern Rakhine State (Arakan) as a result of the increased military operations in the area.[2]
In April 1994, around 120 RSO insurgents entered Maungdaw Township in Myanmar by crossing the Naf River which marks the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar. On 28 April 1994, nine out of twelve bombs planted in different areas in Maungdaw by RSO insurgents exploded, damaging a fire engine and a few buildings, and seriously wounding four civilians.[50]
On 28 October 1998, the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation merged with the Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front and formed the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation(ARNO), operating in-exile in Cox's Bazaar.[2] The Rohingya National Army (RNA) was established as its armed wing.
One of the several dozen videotapes obtained by CNN from Al-Qaeda's archives in Afghanistan in August 2002 allegedly showed fighters from Myanmar training in Afghanistan.[51] Other videotapes were marked with "Myanmar" in Arabic, and it was assumed that the footage was shot in Myanmar, though this has not been validated.[2][48] According to intelligence sources in Asia,[who?] Rohingya recruits in the RSO were paid a 30,000 Bangladeshi taka ($525 USD) enlistment reward, and a salary of 10,000 taka ($175) per month. Families of fighters who were killed in action were offered 100,000 taka ($1,750) in compensation, a promise which lured many young Rohingya men, who were mostly very poor, to travel to Pakistan, where they would train and then perform suicide attacks in Afghanistan.[2][48]
The Islamic extremist organisations Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami[52] and Harkat-ul-Ansar[53] also claimed to have branches in Myanmar.
2016–17 clashes[edit]
On 9 October 2016, hundreds of unidentified insurgents attacked three Burmese border posts along Myanmar's border with Bangladesh.[54] According to government officials in the mainly Rohingya border town of Maungdaw, the attackers brandished knives, machetes and homemade slingshots that fired metal bolts. Several dozen firearms and boxes of ammunition were looted by the attackers from the border posts. The attack resulted in the deaths of nine border officers.[31] On 11 October 2016, four Burmese Army soldiers were killed on the third day of fighting.[32] Following the attacks, reports emerged of several human rights violations allegedly perpetrated by Burmese security forces in their crackdown on suspected Rohingya insurgents.[55]
Government officials in Rakhine State originally blamed the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), an Islamist insurgent group mainly active in the 1980s and 1990s, for the attacks;[56] however, on 17 October 2016, a group calling itself Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement) released a video on several social media sites claiming responsibility.[57] In the following days, six other groups released statements, all citing the same leader.[58]
On 15 November 2016, the Burmese Army announced that 69 Rohingya insurgents and 17 security forces (10 policemen, 7 soldiers) had been killed in recent clashes in northern Rakhine State, bringing the death toll to 134 (102 insurgents and 32 security forces). It was also announced that 234 people suspected of being connected to the attack were arrested.[11]
On 30 December 2016, nearly two dozen prominent human rights activists, including Malala Yousafzai, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Richard Branson, called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene and end the "ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity" being perpetrated in northern Rakhine State.[59]
In March 2017, a police document obtained by Reuters listed 423 Rohingyas detained by the police since 9 October 2016, 13 of whom were children, the youngest being ten years old. Two police captains in Maungdaw verified the document and justified the arrests, with one of them saying, "We the police have to arrest those who collaborated with the attackers, children or not, but the court will decide if they are guilty; we are not the ones who decide." Myanmar police also claimed that the children had confessed to their alleged crimes during interrogations, and that they were not beaten or pressured during questioning. The average age of those detained is 34, the youngest is 10, and the oldest is 75.[14][15]
On 25 August 2017, the government announced that 71 people (one soldier, one immigration officer, 10 policemen and 59 insurgents) had been killed overnight during coordinated attacks by up to 150 insurgents on 26 police posts and the 552nd Light Infantry Battalion army base in Rakhine State.[18][19][33]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
Rakhine people
 | This article may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. (December 2016) |
 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (Total: 3,361,000 (2010 est.)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Myanmar | 2,346,000 |
| Bangladesh | 207,000 |
 India | 50,000 |
| Languages | |
| Arakanese, Burmese | |
| Religion | |
| Theravada Buddhism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Bamar, Chakma | |
The Rakhine (Burmese: ရခိုင်လူမျိုး, Rakhine pronunciation [ɹəkʰàiɴ lùmjó]; Burmese pronunciation: [jəkʰàiɴ lùmjó]; formerly Arakanese), are an ethnic group in Myanmar (Burma) forming the majority along the coastal region of present-day Rakhine State (formerly officially called Arakan). They possibly constitute 5.53% or more of Myanmar's total population, but no accurate census figures exist. Arakanese people also live in the southeastern parts of Bangladesh, especially in Chittagong and Barisal Divisions. A group of Arakanese descendants, living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh at least since the 16th century, are known as the Marma people or Mog people. These Arakanese descendants have been living in that area since the Arakanese kingdom's control of the Chittagong region.[citation needed]
Arakanese descendants spread as far north as Tripura state in India, where their presence dates back to the ascent of the Arakanese kingdom when Tripura was ruled by Arakanese kings. In northeast India, these Arakanese people are referred to as the Mog, while in Indian history, the Marma (the ethnic Arakanese descendants in Bangladesh) and other Arakanese people are referred to as the Magh people.[citation needed]
Contents
[hide]Culture[edit]
The Arakanese are predominantly Theravada Buddhists and are one of the four main Buddhist ethnic groups of Burma (the others being the Bamar, Shan and Mon people). They claim to be one of the first groups to become followers of Gautama Buddha in Southeast Asia. The Arakanese culture is similar to the dominant Burmese culture but with more Indian influence, likely due to its geographical isolation from the Burmese mainland divided by the Arakan Mountains and its closer proximity to South Asia subcontinent. Traces of Indian influence remain in many aspects of Arakanese culture, including its literature, music, and cuisine.
Language[edit]
The Arakanese language is closely related to and generally mutually intelligible with Burmese. Arakanese notably retains an /r/ sound that has become /j/ in Burmese. The modern Arakanese script is essentially the same as standard Burmese. Formerly, the Rakhawunna script, found in stone inscriptions in the Vesali (Wethali) era, was used to write in Arakan.[1]
History[edit]
Dhanyawadi[edit]
Ancient Dhanyawadi lies west of the mountain ridge between the Kaladan and Le-mro rivers. Its city walls were made of brick, and form an irregular circle with a perimeter of about 9.6 km, enclosing an area of about 4.42 square km. Beyond the walls, the remains of a wide moat, now silted over and covered by paddy fields, are still visible in places. The remains of brick fortifications can be seen along the hilly ridge which provided protection from the west. Within the city, a similar wall and moat enclose the palace site, which has an area of 0.26 square km, and another wall surrounds the palace itself. From aerial photographs we can discern Dhanyawad I's irrigation channels and storage tanks, centred at the palace site.[citation needed]
| Macroperiod | Period | Start year | End year | Ruler | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dhanyavadi | The First Dhanyawadi | BC 3525 | BC 1489 | King Marayu | |
| The Second Dhanyawadi | BC 2483 | BC 580 | King Kanrazagree | ||
| The Third Dhanyawadi | BC 580 | AD 326 | King Chandra Suriya | Gautama Buddha, Himself, visited Dhanyawadi and the Great Image of Mahamuni was cast, and Buddhism began professing in Rakhine. Currency system by coinage is said to have been introduced in Rakhine economy. | |
| Vesali – Lemro | Vesali Kyauk Hlayga | AD 327 | AD 794 | King Dvan Chandra | |
| Sambawak | AD 794 | AD 818 | Prince Nga Tong Mong (Saw Shwe Lu) | ||
| Lemro | AD 818 | AD 1430 | King Nga Tone Mun | This period was the highest civilisation in the Bay and highly prosperous with busy international trade with the West. Pyinsa, Purain, Taung Ngu and Narinsara, Laungkrat cities flourished. Gold and silver coinage was used in trade relation in Rakhine in this period. | |
| First Golden Mrauk-U | AD 1430 | AD 1530 | King Mun Saw Mwan | ||
| Second Golden Mrauk-U | AD 1530 | AD 1638 | Solidified by King Mun Bun (Mun Ba Gri) | Rakhine reached at the zenith of the national unity and of the time of most powerful in the Bay in this period. | |
| Third Golden Mrauk-U Period | AD 1668 | AD 1784 | King Mahathamada Raza |
Mrauk-U[edit]
Mrauk-U, the last kingdom of independent Arakan founded by King Mong Saw Mon in 1430, has become the principal seat of Buddhism, has reaching at zenith of the golden age. Mrauk-U was divided into three periods: the earliest period (1430–1530), the middle period (1531–1638), and the last period (1638–1784). In Arakan antiquities at the Mrauk-U seems to give rational evidence as to where Buddhism was settled down. The golden days of Mrauk U city, those of 16th and 17th centuries, were contemporary to the days of Tudor kings, the Moghuls, the Ayuthiya kings and Ava (Inwa), Taungoo and Hanthawaddy kings of Myanmar. Mrauk U was cosmopolitan city, fortified by a 30-kilometer long fortification and an intricate net of moats and canals. At the centre of the city was the Royal Place, looming high over the surrounding area like an Asian Acropolis. Waterways formed by canals and creeks earned the fame of distinct resemblance to Venice. Mrauk U offers some of the richest archaeological sites in South-East Asia.
These include stone inscriptions, Buddha images, the Buddha's foot-prints and the great pagoda itself which, stripped its later-constructed top, would be of the same design as the Gupta style of ancient India. In the city of golden Mrauk-U there are scattering innumerable temples and pagodas which preserved as places, thereby exerting a great influence on spiritual life of the people.[citation needed]
Historical artefacts[edit]
The 243 Rakhine kings ruled Arakan for a long period of 5108 years. The oldest artefact, stone image of Fat Monk inscribed "Saccakaparibajaka Jina" in Brahmi script inscription comes to the date of first century AD.
An ancient stone inscription in Nagari character was discovered by renowned Archaeologist Dr. Forchhammer. Known as Salagiri, this hill was where the great teacher came to Rakhine some two thousand five hundred years ago. Somewhere from eastern part of this hill, a stone image in Dhamma-cakra-mudra now kept in Mrauk-U museum, was found earlier in 1923. This relief sculpture found on the Salagiri Hill represents Hindu Bengali King Chandra Suriya belongs to 4th century AD; five more red sandstone slabs with the carving were found close by the south of this Salagiri Hill in 1986. They are the same type as the single slab found earlier in 1923. These carving slabs of Bhumispara-mudra, Kararuna-mudra, Dhammacakra-mudara, and Mmahaparinibbana-mudra represent the life of Buddha.
These sculptures provide earliest evident about the advent of Buddhism into Rakhine; during the lifetime of the Buddha and these discoveries were therefore assumed as the figures of King Chandra Suriya of Dyanawadi, who dedicated the Great Maha Muni Image. These archaeological findings have been studied by eminent scholars and conclusion is that the Maha Muni was made during the king Sanda Suriya era.
The founder of Vesali city, King Dvan Chandra carved Vesali Paragri Buddha-image in 327 A.D and set a dedicatory inscription in Pali verse
That Buddha-image is carved out by a single block and the earliest image of Vesali.
The meaning of Ye Dhamma Hetu verse is as follow.
The verse, which is considered as the essence of Theravada spirit, bears testimony to the fact that Buddhism flourished to an utmost degree in Vesali. The relationship of Vesali with foreign countries especially Ceylon would be established for Buddhism.
The stone inscriptions are of Sanskrit in Brahma script, Pali, Rakhine, Pyu languages. Anandachandra Inscriptions date back to 729 AD originally from Vesali now preserved at Shitethaung indicates adequate evidence for the earliest foundation of Buddhism. Dr. E. H. Johnston's analysis reveals a list of kings which he considered reliable beginning from Chandra dynasty. The western face inscription has 72 lines of text recorded in 51 verses describing the Anandachandra's ancestral rulers. Each face recorded the name and ruling period of each king who were believed to have ruled over the land before Anandachandra. Archaeology has shown that the establishment of so many stone pagodas and inscriptions which have been totally neglected for centuries in different part of Rakhine speak of popular favoured by Buddhism.
The cubic stone inscriptions record the peace making between the governor of Thandaway (Sandoway) Mong Khari (1433–1459) and Razadhiraj the Mon Emperor in Rakhine inscription. This was found from a garrison hill at the oldest site of Parein. A stone slab with the alleged figure of the Hindu Bengali King Chandra Suriya bore testimony to the Salagiri tradition, depicting of the advent of the Teacher to Dyanyawaddy.
Convention of the Buddhist Council in Rakhine[edit]
The crowning event in the history of Rakhine was the Convention of the Buddhist Council at the top of golden hill of Vesali under the royal patronage of King Dhammawizaya in 638 AD through joint effort of two countries, Rakhine and Ceylon. This momentous triumph of the great council was participated by one thousand monks from Ceylon and one thousand monks from Rakhine kingdom. As a fitting celebration of the occasion, the lavish construction of pagodas, statues and monasteries were undertaken for the purpose of inscribing the Tripitaka. After Vesali, Pyinsa was found by Lemro dynasty in 818 AD; the great king of dynasty (AD 818–1430) was King Mim-Yin-Phru, who turned his attention towards the development of Buddhism, and in 847 AD he convened the second Buddhist council in Rakhine attended by 800 Arahants. Rakhine chronicles report that therein the Tripitaka and Atthakatha were inscribed on the golden plate and enshrined. Never has there been impediment in the practice of Theravada Buddhist faith since it has been introduced in Rakhine. The copious findings of inscription Ye Dhamma verse were practical evidence that Theravada was dominant faith if epigraphic and archaeological sources were to be believed. The Royal patronage has always been significant factor contribution to stability and progress of the religion in Rakhine.
Architecture[edit]
Arakanese chronicle records that more than six million shrines and pagodas flourished in Mrauk-U. In fact, they formed the pride of golden Mrauk-U. Dr. Forchhammer in his book entitled "Arakan", "in durability, architectural skill, and ornamentation the Mrauk-U temples far surpass those on the banks of Arrawaddy". Buddhist arts both in the field of architecture and Buddha-image constructions are on the same line of flourishing. An illustrative example of this fact can be seen in the temple of Chitthaung pagoda and colossal Dukekanthein temple. Gold and silver coins serve as the priceless heritage of the Mrauk-U period. The tradition of coin-making was handed down from the Vesali kings who started minting coins around the fifth century. The coins so far found are of one denomination only. Inscribed on the coins are the title of the ruling king and his year of coronation; coins before 1638 had Rakhine inscriptions on one side and Persian and Nagari inscriptions on the other. The inclusion of the foreign inscriptions was meant for the easy acceptance by the neighbouring countries and the Arab traders. Twenty-three types of silver coins and three types of gold coins have so far been found. All the kings who ascended the throne issued coins. City walls, gates, settlements, monastery sites, fortresses, garrisons and moats are the other priceless heritages left to the safe keeping of today's Rakhine people. Stone rubbles of proud mansions of that period are also priceless reminders of Rakhine glory.
It is no wonder that Mrauk U is properly known as the "Land of Pagodas" and Europeans remarked Mrauk U as "The Golden City". The Rakhine of those days were proud of Mrauk U. They were entirely satisfied to be the inhabitants of Mrauk U. The history shows what happened in the city in early times.
Foreign invasion[edit]
The country had been invaded several times, by the Mongols, Mon, Bamar and Portuguese and finally the Bamar in 1784 when the armies led by the Crown Prince, son of King Bodawpaya, of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma marched across the western Yoma and annexed Rakhine. The religious relics of the kingdom were stolen from Rakhine, most notably the Mahamuni Buddha image, and taken into central Burma where they remain today. The people of Rakhine resisted the conquest of the kingdom for decades after. Fighting with the Rakhine resistance, initially led by Nga Than Dè and finally by Chin Byan in border areas, created problems between British India and Burma. The year 1826 saw the defeat of the Bamar in the First Anglo-Burmese War and Rakhine was ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Yandabo. Sittwe (Akyab) was then designated the new capital of Rakhine. In 1852, Rakhine was merged into Lower Burma as a territorial division.
Independence movement[edit]
Rakhine was the centre of multiple insurgencies which fought against British rule, notably led by the monks U Ottama and U Seinda.
During the Second World War, Rakhine was given autonomy under the Japanese occupation of Burma and was even granted its own army known as the Arakan Defense Force. The Arakan Defense Force went over to the allies and turned against the Japanese in early 1945.
After the Union of Burma independence[edit]
In 1948, Rakhine became a division within the Union of Burma. In 1974, the Ne Win government's new constitution granted Rakhine Division "state" status but the gesture was largely seen as meaningless since the military junta held all power in the country and in Rakhine. Present-day Rakhine are mainly living in Rakhine State, some parts of Ayeyarwady Division and Yangon Division of Burma. And also few amount of Rakhine are living in southern part of Bangladesh and India.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- Vesali Coins in Sittwe and Mrauk-U Archaeological Museum; The Ananda Chandra inscriptions (729 A.D), at Shit Thaung Temple-Mrauk U; Some Sanskrit Inscriptions of Arakan, by E. H. Johnston; Pamela Gutman (2001) Burma's Lost Kingdoms: splendours of Arakan. Bangkok: Orchid Press; Ancient Arakan, by Pamela Gutman; Arakan Coins, by U San Tha Aung; The Buddhist Art of Ancient Arakan, by U San Tha Aung.
Bibliography[edit]
- Charney, Michael W. (1999). 'Where Jambudipa and Islamdom Converged: Religious Change and the Emergence of Buddhist Communalism in Early Modern Arakan, 15th–19th Centuries.' PhD Dissertation, University of Michigan.
- Charney, Michael (2005). "Buddhism in Arakan:Theories and Historiography of the Religious Basis of Ethnonyms". "Arakan History Conference" [Bangkok]. Chulalongkorn University. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
- Leider, Jacques P. (2004). 'Le Royaume d'Arakan, Birmanie. Son histoire politique entre le début du XVe et la fin du XVIIe siècle,' Paris, EFEO.
- Loeffner, L. G. (1976). "Historical Phonology of Burmese and Arakanese Finals." Ninth International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Copenhagen. 22–24 Oct. 1976.
Bengalis
| বাঙালি | |
|---|---|
| Total population | |
| c. 300 million[1][2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Bengal | |
| Bangladesh | 163,187,000[3] |
| India | 83,369,769[4] |
| Pakistan | 2,000,000[5][6][7][8] |
| Saudi Arabia | 1,815,000[9] |
 United Arab Emirates | 1,089,917[10] |
 Malaysia | 500,000[11] |
| United Kingdom | 451,000[12] |
| Myanmar | 347,000[13] |
 Qatar | 280,000[14] |
| United States | 257,740[15][16][a] |
 Kuwait | 200,000[17] |
 Oman | 155,000[18] |
 Singapore | 113,000[19] |
 Bahrain | 97,115[20] |
 Italy | 93,000[21] |
 Japan | 70,000[22] |
 Canada | 69,490[23] |
 Australia | 54,566[24] |
 Thailand | 34,000[25] |
 France | 30,500[26] |
 Sri Lanka | 23,500[27] |
 Fiji | 23,000[28] |
 Nepal | 13,000[29] |
| Languages | |
| Bengali | |
| Religion | |
 Islam – Bangladesh 89.8%, West Bengal 27.01%[30] Hinduism – West Bengal 70.54%, Bangladesh 8.3% Buddhism, Bahá'í Faith, Christianity, Atheism and others – 1%[31][32] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Indo-Aryan peoples | |
| This article is part of a series on the |
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| Language and Literature |
| Regions |
| Subgroup |
| Arts and Tradition |
| Symbols |
The Bengalis (বাঙালি Bangali), also rendered as the Bengali people, Bangalis and Bangalees,[33] are an Indo-Aryanethnic group native to the region of Bengal in South Asia, which is presently-divided between Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. They speak the Bengali language, one of the most easterly representatives of the Indo-European language family.
Bengalis are the third largest ethnic group in the world after Han Chinese and Arabs.[34] Apart from Bangladesh and West Bengal, Bengali-majority populations also reside in India's Tripura state, the Barak Valley in Assam state, and the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The global Bengali diaspora has well-established communities in Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Middle East, Japan, Singapore, and Italy.
They have four major religious subgroups: Bengali Muslims, Bengali Hindus, Bengali Christians and Bengali Buddhists.
Contents
[hide]History
Ancient history
Archaeologists have discovered remnants of a 4,000-year-old Chalcolithic civilisation in the greater Bengal region, and believe the finds are one of the earliest signs of settlement in the region.[35] However, evidence of much older Palaeolithic human habitations were found in the form of a stone implement and a hand axe in Rangamati and Fenidistricts of Bangladesh.[36] The origin of the word Bangla ~ Bengal is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from a tribe called Bang that settled in the area around the year 1000 BCE.[37]
Kingdoms of Pundra and Vanga were formed in Bengal and were first described in the Atharvaveda around 1000 BCE as well as in Hindu epic Mahabharata. Anga and later Magadha expanded to include most of the Bihar and Bengalregions. It was one of the four main kingdoms of India at the time of Buddha and was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas. Under the Maurya Empire founded by Chandragupta Maurya, Magadha extended over nearly all of South Asia, including parts of Balochistan and Afghanistan, reaching its greatest extent under the Buddhist emperor Ashoka the Great in the 3rd century BCE.
One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land ruled by the king Xandrammes named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 BCE. The word is speculated to have come from Gangahrd ('Land with the Ganges in its heart') in reference to an area in Bengal.[38] Later from the 3rd to the 6th centuries CE, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire.
Middle Ages
One of the first recorded independent kings of Bengal was Shashanka, reigning around the early 7th century.[39] After a period of anarchy, Gopala came to power in 750. He founded the Bengali Buddhist Pala Empire which ruled the region for four hundred years, and expanded across much of Southern Asia: from Assam in the northeast, to Kabul in the west, and to Andhra Pradesh in the south. Atisha was a renowned Bengali Buddhist teacher who was instrumental in the revival of Buddhism in Tibet and also held the position of Abbot at the Vikramshila university. Tilopa was also from Bengal region.
The Pala dynasty was later followed by a shorter reign of the Hindu Sena Empire. Islam was introduced to Bengal in the twelfth century by Sufi missionaries. Subsequent Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the region.[40]Bakhtiar Khilji, a Turkic general of the Slave dynasty of Delhi Sultanate, defeated Lakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal. Consequently, the region was ruled by dynasties of sultans and feudal lords under the Bengal Sultanate for the next few hundred years. Islam was introduced to the Sylhet region by the Muslim saint Shah Jalal in the early 14th century. Mughal general Man Singh conquered parts of Bengal including Dhakaduring the time of Emperor Akbar. A few Rajput tribes from his army permanently settled around Dhaka and surrounding lands. Later, in the early 17th century, Islam Khan conquered all of Bengal. However, administration by governors appointed by the court of the Mughal Empire gave way to semi-independence of the area under the Nawabsof Murshidabad, who nominally respected the sovereignty of the Mughals in Delhi. After the weakening of the Mughal Empire with the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, Bengal was ruled independently by the Nawabs until 1757, when the region was annexed by the East India Company after the Battle of Plassey.
Bengal Renaissance
Bengal Renaissance refers to a socio-religious reform movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the city of Kolkata by caste Hindus under the patronage of the British Raj and it created a reformed religion called Brahmodharma. The Bengal renaissance can be said to have started with reformer and humanitarian Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1775–1833), considered the "Father of the Bengal Renaissance", and ended with Asia's first Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore(1861–1941), although there have been many stalwarts thereafter embodying particular aspects of the unique intellectual and creative output.[41] Nineteenth-century Bengal was a unique blend of religious and social reformers, scholars, literary giants, journalists, patriotic orators and scientists, all merging to form the image of a renaissance, and marked the transition from 'medieval' to 'modern'.[42]
Other figures have been considered to be part of the Renaissance. Swami Vivekananda is considered a key figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga in Europe and America[43] and is credited with raising interfaith awareness, and bringing Hinduism to the status of a world religion during the 1800s.[44] Jagadish Chandra Bose was a Bengali polymath: a physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist, and writer of science fiction[45] who pioneered the investigation of radio and microwaveoptics, made significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent.[46] He is considered one of the fathers of radio science,[47] and is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction. Satyendra Nath Bose was a Bengali physicist, specializing in mathematical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate. He is honoured as the namesake of the boson.
Independence movement
Bengal played a major role in the Indian independence movement, in which revolutionary groups such as Anushilan Samitiand Jugantar were dominant. Many of the early proponents of the independence struggle, and subsequent leaders in the movement were Bengalis such as Chittaranjan Das, Khwaja Salimullah, Surendranath Banerjea, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Titumir (Sayyid Mir Nisar Ali), Prafulla Chaki, A. K. Fazlul Huq, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, Bagha Jatin, Khudiram Bose, Surya Sen, Binoy-Badal-Dinesh, Sarojini Naidu, Aurobindo Ghosh, Rashbehari Bose, and Sachindranath Sanyal.
Some of these leaders, such as Netaji, who was born, raised and educated at Cuttack in Odisha did not subscribe to the view that non-violent civil disobedience was the best way to achieve Indian Independence, and were instrumental in armed resistance against the British force. Netaji was the co-founder and leader of the Indian National Army (distinct from the army of British India) that challenged British forces in several parts of India. He was also the head of state of a parallel regime, the Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind. Bengal was also the fostering ground for several prominent revolutionary organisations, the most notable of which was Anushilan Samiti. A number of Bengalis died during the independence movement and many were imprisoned in Cellular Jail, the notorious prison in Andaman.
Partitions of Bengal
The first partition in 1905 divided the Bengal region in British India into two provinces for administrative and development purposes. However, the partition stoked Hindu nationalism. This in turn led to the formation of the All India Muslim League in Dhaka in 1906 to represent the growing aspirations of the Muslimpopulation. The partition was annulled in 1912 after protests by the Indian National Congress and Hindu Mahasabha.
The breakdown of Hindu-Muslim unity in India drove the Muslim League to adopt the Lahore Resolution in 1943, calling the creation of "independent states" in eastern and northwestern British India. The resolution paved the way for the Partition of British India based on the Radcliffe Line in 1947, despite attempts to form a United Bengal state that was opposed by many people.
The legacy of partition has left lasting differences between the two sides of Bengal, most notably in linguistic accent and cuisine.
Bangladesh Liberation War
The rise of self-determination and Bengali nationalism movements in East Bengal (later East Pakistan), led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, culminated in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War against the Pakistani military junta. An estimated 3 million (3,000,000) people died in the conflict, particularly as a result of the 1971 Bangladesh genocide. The war caused millions of East Pakistani refugees to take shelter in India's Bengali state West Bengal, with Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal province, becoming the capital-in-exile of the Provisional Government of Bangladesh. The Mukti Bahini guerrilla forces waged a nine-month war against the Pakistani military. The conflict ended after the Indian Armed Forces intervened on the side of Bangladeshi forces in the final two weeks of the war, which ended with the Surrender of Pakistan and the liberation of Dhaka on 16 December 1971.
Culture
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| Culture of Bengal |
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Cuisine
Bengali cuisine is the culinary style originating in Bengal, a region of South Asia which is now located in Bangladesh and West Bengal. Some Indian regions like Tripura, Shillong and the Barak Valley region of Assam (in India) also have large native Bengali populations and share this cuisine. With an emphasis on fish, vegetables, and milk served with rice as a staple diet, Bengali cuisine is known for its subtle flavours, and its huge spread of confectioneries and desserts. It also has the only traditionally developed multi-course tradition from the Indian subcontinent that is analogous in structure to the modern service à la russe style of French cuisine, with food served course-wise rather than all at once.
Festivals
The Bengalis celebrate many holidays and festivals. The Bengali proverb "Baro Mase Tero Parbon" ("Thirteen festivals in twelve months") indicates the abundance of festivity in the state. Durga Puja is solemnized as perhaps the most significant of all religious celebrations in West Bengal whereas in Bangladesh Eid-ul-Azha is the most significant religious festival.
Some major festivals celebrated are Durga Puja, Eid ul Fitr, Eid ul Azha, 21 February - Bengali language Day, Bengali New Year, Independence Day Of Bangladesh, Birthday of Kazi Nazrul Islam, Pohela Falgun, Birthday of Rabindranath Tagore, Death Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore etc.
Language
Bengali or Bangla is the language native to the region of Bengal, which comprises present-day Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and southern Assam. It is written using the Bengali script. With about 250 million native and about 300 million total speakers worldwide, Bengali is one of the most spoken languages, ranked seventh in the world.[48][49] The National Anthem of Bangladesh, National Anthem of India, National Anthem of Sri Lanka and the national song of India were first composed in the Bengali language.
Along with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali evolved circa 1000–1200 CE from eastern Middle Indo-Aryan dialects such as the Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, which developed from a dialect or group of dialects that were close, but not identical to, Vedic and Classical Sanskrit.
Literature
The earliest extant work in Bengali literature is the Charyapada, a collection of Buddhist mystic songs dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries. Thereafter, the timeline of Bengali literature is divided into two periods: medieval (1360–1800) and modern (1800–present). Bengali literature is one of the most enriched bodies of literature in Modern India and Bangladesh.
The first works in Bengali, written in new Bengali, appeared between 10th and 12th centuries C.E. It is generally known as the Charyapada. These are mystic songs composed by various Buddhist seer-poets: Luipada, Kanhapada, Kukkuripada, Chatilpada, Bhusukupada, Kamlipada, Dhendhanpada, Shantipada, Shabarapada, etc. The famous Bengali linguist Haraprasad Shastri discovered the palm-leaf Charyapada manuscript in the Nepal Royal Court Library in 1907.
The Middle Bengali Literature is a period in the history of Bengali literature dated from 15th to 18th centuries. Following the Mughal invasion of Bengal in the 13th century, literature in vernacular Bengali began to take shape. The oldest example of Middle Bengali Literature is believed to be Shreekrishna Kirtana by Boru Chandidas.
In the mid-19th century, Bengali literature gained momentum. During this period, the Bengali Pandits of Fort William College did the tedious work of translating text books in Bengali to help teach the British local languages including Bengali. This work played a role in the background in the evolution of Bengali prose.
Religion
The largest religions practiced in Bengal are Islam and Hinduism. According to 2014 US Department of State estimates, 89.9% of the population of Bangladesh follow Islam while 8.3% follow Hinduism. In West Bengal, Hindus are the majority with 70.54% of the population while Muslims comprise 27.01%. Other religious groups include Buddhists (compromising around 1% of the population in Bangladesh) and Christians.[32]
Media and music
![[icon]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small}
Arts and science
Sport
Political culture
See also
- Bengali renaissance
- Ghosts in Bengali culture
- List of Bangladeshis
- List of Bengalis
- List of people from West Bengal
Rohingya people
| Ruáingga ရိုဟင်ဂျာ ﺭُﺍَࣺﻳﻨڠَ | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) | |
| Total population | |
| 1,547,778[1]–2,000,000+[2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Myanmar (Rakhine State), Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand | |
| Myanmar | 1.0[3]–1.3 million[4][5][6] |
| Bangladesh | 500,000[7][8] |
| Saudi Arabia | 400,000[9] |
| Pakistan | 200,000[10][11][12] |
| Thailand | 100,000[13] |
| Malaysia | 40,070[14] |
| India | 40,000[15][16] |
 Indonesia | 11,941[17] |
| Nepal | 200[18] |
| Languages | |
| Rohingya | |
| Religion | |
| Islam | |
| Islam by country |
|---|
 |
 Islam portal |
The Rohingya people (/ˈroʊɪndʒə/, /ˈroʊhɪndʒə/, /ˈroʊɪŋjə/, or /ˈroʊhɪŋjə/)[19] are a stateless[20] Indo-Aryan people from Rakhine State, Myanmar, which they claim to be their homeland for generations. There are an estimated 1 million Rohingyas living in Myanmar.[21] The majority of them are Muslim and a minority are Hindu.[22][23][1][24][25] Described as "one of the most persecuted minorities in the world",[26] most of the Rohingya population are denied citizenship under the 1982 Burmese citizenship law,[27][28][29] which restricts full citizenship to British Indian migrants who settled after 1823.[30] The Rohingyas are also restricted from freedom of movement, state education and civil service jobs in Myanmar.[31][32] Despite promises of equality by Myanmar's independence leader Aung San,[33] the Rohingyas have faced military crackdowns in 1978, 1991–1992,[34] 2012, 2015 and 2016–2017. UN officials have described Myanmar's persecution of the Rohingya as ethnic cleansing,[35] while there have been warnings of an unfolding genocide.[36]Yanghee Lee, the UN special investigator on Myanmar, believes the country wants to expel its entire Rohingya population.[37]
Migration from the Indian subcontinent to Myanmar (formerly Burma) has taken place for centuries, including as part of the spread of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam in the region. The historical region of Bengal (now divided between Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal) has historical and cultural links with Rakhine State (formerly Arakan). Bengali-speaking settlers are recorded in Arakan since at least the 17th century,[38] when the Kingdom of Mrauk Ureigned. The Rohingya language shares similarities with the Chittagonian dialect of Bengali. The term Rohingya, in the form of Rooinga, was recorded by the East India Company as early as 1799, but Burmese nationalists dispute its origins.[39] Indian migration increased during the period of British rule in Burma, as Burma was a part of British Indiauntil 1937.[40] Arakan had the largest percentage of British Indians in Burma.[41] British Indians in Arakan were involved in agriculture and trade. Their presence was resented by many in the Rakhine majority.[42]
During the Second World War, the Arakan massacres in 1942 involved communal violence between British-armed V Force Rohingya recruits and pro-Japanese Rakhines, which polarized the region along ethnic lines.[43] After Burmese independence in 1948, the region witnessed an Arkanese Independence Movement by Rakhine Buddhists and attempts by Rohingya Muslims to merge their territory with East Pakistan. In 1982, General Ne Win's government enacted the Burmese nationality law, which did not recognize the Rohingya as one of the "national races" of Burma, unlike the Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Chin, Bamar, Mon, Rakhine, Shan, Kaman and Zerbadee. As a result, the majority of the Rohingya population were rendered stateless.[1] In the years following the 8888 Uprising and return of martial law, the Burmese military junta launched a military crackdown against Rohingyas in 1991 and 1992, which caused 250,000 refugees to flee to neighboring Bangladesh and brought the two countries to the brink of war.[44][45]
The Rohingyas maintain the view that they are long standing residents of western Myanmar, and they also maintain the view that their community includes a mixture of precolonial and colonial settlers. The official stance of the Myanmar government, however, has been that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Myanmar's government does not recognize the term "Rohingya" and it prefers to refer to the community as Bengalis.[46][39][47][48][49][50][5][51]
Prior to the 2015 Rohingya refugee crisis and the military crackdown in 2016 and 2017, the Rohingya population in Myanmar was around 1.1 to 1.3 million[4][5][6][1][4] They reside mainly in the northern Rakhine townships, where they form 80–98% of the population.[51] Many Rohingyas have fled to southeastern Bangladesh, where there are 500,000 refugees,[52][53] as well as to India,[54] Thailand,[55] Malaysia,[56] Indonesia,[57] Saudi Arabia[58] and Pakistan.[59] More than 100,000 Rohingyas in Myanmar live in camps for internally displaced persons, and the authorities do not allow them to leave.[60][61] Probes by the UN have found evidence of increasing incitement of hatred and religious intolerance by "ultra-nationalist Buddhists" against Rohingyas while the Burmese security forces have been conducting "summary executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and ill-treatment and forced labour" against the community.[62] International media and human rightsorganizations have often described the Rohingyas as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.[63][64][65] According to the United Nations, the human rights violations against the Rohingyas could be termed "crimes against humanity".[62][66]Rohingyas have received international attention in the wake of the 2012 Rakhine State riots, the 2015 Rohingya refugee crisis, and the 2016–17 military crackdown.
Contents
[hide]- 1Nomenclature
- 2History
- 2.1Kingdom of Mrauk U
- 2.2Burmese conquest
- 2.3British colonial rule
- 2.4World War II Japanese occupation and inter-communal violence
- 2.5After Burmese independence
- 2.6Post-independence immigration and Bangladesh Liberation War
- 2.7'Rohingya' movement (1990–present)
- 2.8Burmese juntas (1990–2011)
- 2.9Rakhine State riots and refugee crisis (2012–present)
- 2.10Historical demographics
- 3Demographics
- 4Language
- 5Religion
- 6Health
- 7Human rights and refugee status
- 8See also
- 9Notes
- 10References
- 11External links
Nomenclature
The Rohingya refer to themselves as Ruáingga /ɾuájŋɡa/. In the dominant languages of the region, they are known as rui hang gya (following the MLCTS) in Burmese: ရိုဟင်ဂျာ /ɹòhɪ̀ɴd͡ʑà/ and Rohingga in Bengali: রোহিঙ্গা /ɹohiŋɡa/. The term "Rohingya" comes from Rakhanga or Roshanga, the words for the state of Arakan.[67][68]
Jacques P. Leider states that in precolonial sources, the term Rohingya (in the form Rooinga) appears in a text written by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton.[69][70] In his 1799 article "A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire", Hamilton stated: "I shall now add three dialects, spoken in the Burma Empire, but evidently derived from the language of the Hindu nation. The first is that spoken by the Mohammedans, who have long settled in Arakan, and who call themselves Rooinga, or natives of Arakan."[69] The word Rohingya means "inhabitant of Rohang", which was the early Muslim name for Arakan.[71] Aye Chan, a historian from Kanda University of International Studies, states that though Muslims have lived long in Arakan, the term Rohingya was created by descendants of Bengalis in the 1950s who had migrated into Arakan during colonial times. He also says the term cannot be found in any historical source in any language before the 1950s.[72]
After riots in 2012, academic authors used the term Rohingya to refer to the Muslim community in northern Rakhine. For example, Professor Andrew Selth of Griffith University uses "Rohingya" but states "These are Bengali Muslims who live in Arakan State...most Rohingyas arrived with the British colonialists in the 19th and 20th centuries."[46][47] Among the overseas Rohingya community, the term has been gaining popularity since the 1990s, though a considerable portion of Muslims in northern Rakhine are unfamiliar with the term and prefer to use alternatives.[39][70]
History
Although Muslim settlements have existed for a long time in Arakan, the number of original settlers before the British rule are generally assumed to be low.[73] After four decades of British rule in 1869, Muslim settlers reached 5% of Arakan's population. The number steadily increased until World War II.[51]
Kingdom of Mrauk U
Early evidence of Bengali Muslim settlements in Arakan date back to the time of Min Saw Mon (1430–34) of the Kingdom of Mrauk U. After 24 years of exile in Bengal, he regained control of the Arakanese throne in 1430 with military assistance from the Bengal Sultanate. The Bengalis who came with him formed their own settlements in the region.[74][75]
_no_primeiro_plano_o_bairro_portugu%C3%AAs.jpg)
Min Saw Mon ceded some territory to the Sultan of Bengal and recognised his sovereignty over the areas. In recognition of his kingdom's vassal status, the kings of Arakan received Islamic titles and used the Bengali gold dinar within the kingdom. Min Saw Mon minted his own coins with the Burmese alphabet on one side and the Persian alphabet on the other.[75]
Arakan's vassalage to Bengal was brief. After Sultan Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah's death in 1433, Narameikhla's successors invaded Bengal and occupied Ramu in 1437 and Chittagong in 1459. Arakan would hold Chittagong until 1666.[76][77]
Even after gaining independence from the Sultans of Bengal, the Arakanese kings continued the custom of maintaining Muslim titles.[78] The Buddhist kings compared themselves to Sultans and fashioned themselves after Mughal rulers. They also continued to employ Muslims in prestigious positions within the royal administration.[79] The Bengali Muslim population increased in the 17th century, as they were employed in a variety of workforces in Arakan. Some of them worked as Bengali, Persian and Arabic scribes in the Arakanese courts, which, despite remaining Buddhist, adopted Islamic fashions from the neighbouring Bengal Sultanate.[79]The Kamein, who are regarded as one of the official ethnic groups of Myanmar, are descended from these Muslims.[80] Also during the 17th century, tens of thousands of Bengali Muslims were captured by Arakanese raiders—with some serving in the king's army, others sold as slaves and others forced to settle in Arakan.[71]
Burmese conquest
Following the Konbaung Dynasty's conquest of Arakan in 1785, as many as 35,000 Rakhine people fled to the neighbouring Chittagong region of British Bengal in 1799 to escape persecution by the Bamar and to seek protection under the British Raj.[81] The Bamar executed thousands of Rakhine men and deported a considerable portion of the Rakhine population to central Burma, leaving Arakan a scarcely populated area by the time the British occupied it.[82]
According to an article on the "Burma Empire" published by the British Francis Buchanan-Hamilton in 1799, "the Mohammedans, who have long settled in Arakan", "call themselves Rooinga, or natives of Arakan."[69] However, according to Derek Tokin, Hamilton no longer used the term to refer to the Muslims in Arakan in his later publications.[39] Sir Henry Yule saw many Muslims serving as eunuchs in Konbaung while on a diplomatic mission to the Burmese capital, Ava.[83][84]
British colonial rule
British policy encouraged Bengali inhabitants from adjacent regions to migrate into the then lightly populated and fertile valleys of Arakan as farm laborers. The East India Company extended the Bengal Presidency to Arakan. There was no international boundary between Bengal and Arakan and no restrictions on migration between the regions. In the early 19th century, thousands of Bengalis from the Chittagong region settled in Arakan seeking work.[85]
The British census of 1872 reported 58,255 Muslims in Akyab District. By 1911, the Muslim population had increased to 178,647.[86] The waves of migration were primarily due to the requirement of cheap labour from British India to work in the paddy fields. Immigrants from Bengal, mainly from the Chittagong region, "moved en masse into western townships of Arakan". To be sure, Indian immigration to Burma was a nationwide phenomenon, not just restricted to Arakan.[87]
Historian Thant Myint-U writes: "At the beginning of the 20th century, Indians were arriving in Burma at the rate of no less than a quarter million per year. The numbers rose steadily until the peak year of 1927, immigration reached 480,000 people, with Rangoon exceeding New York City as the greatest immigration port in the world. This was out of a total population of only 13 million; it was equivalent to the United Kingdom today taking 2 million people a year." By then, in most of the largest cities in Burma, Yangon, Sittwe, Pathein and Mawlamyine, the Indian immigrants formed a majority of the population. The Burmese under the British rule felt helpless, and reacted with a "racism that combined feelings of superiority and fear."[87]
The impact of immigration was particularly acute in Arakan, one of less populated regions. The Rakine saw themselves as made a minority in their own land by Indian immigration with complaints being made all of the jobs and land were going to the Rohingyas.[88] In 1939, the British authorities, alert to the long-term animosity between the Rakhine Buddhists and the Muslims, formed a special Investigation Commission led by James Ester and Tin Tut to study the issue of Muslim immigration into the Arakan. The commission recommended securing the border; however, with the onset of World War II, the British retreated from Arakan.[89]
World War II Japanese occupation and inter-communal violence
During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded British-controlled Burma. The British forces retreated and in the power vacuum left behind, considerable inter communal violence erupted between Arakanese and Muslim villagers. The British armed Muslims in northern Arakan in order to create a buffer zone that would protect the region from a Japanese invasion when they retreated[90] and to counteract the largely pro-Japanese ethnic Rakhines.[71] The period also witnessed violence between groups loyal to the British and the Burmese nationalists.[90]
Aye Chan, a historian at the Kanda University, has written that as a consequence of acquiring arms from the British during World War II, Rohingyas[note 1] tried to destroy the Arakanese villages instead of resisting the Japanese. In March 1942, Rohingyas from northern Arakan killed around 20,000 Arakanese. In return, around 5,000 Muslims in the Minbya and Mrauk-U Townships were killed by Rakhines and Red Karens.[89]
As in the rest of Burma, the Japanese committed acts of rape, murder and torture against Muslims in Arakan.[91] During this period, some 22,000 Muslims in Arakan were believed to have crossed the border into Bengal, then part of British India, to escape the violence.[92][93][94] The exodus was not restricted to Muslims in Arakan. Thousands of Burmese Indians, Anglo-Burmese and British who settled during colonial period emigrated en masse to India.
To facilitate their reentry into Burma, British formed Volunteer Forces with Rohingya. Over the three years during which the Allies and Japanese fought over the Mayu peninsula, the Rohingya recruits of the V-Force, engaged in a campaign against Arakanese communities, using weapons provided by V-Force.[43] According to the secretary of British governor, the V Force, instead of fighting the Japanese, destroyed Buddhist monasteries, pagodas, and houses, and committed atrocities in northern Arakan.[95][96]
After Burmese independence
In 1948, when Burma became independent of Great Britain, the Burmese government refused to recognize the Rohingyas as Burmese citizens.[88] The Rakhine for their part felt discriminated against by the governments in Rangoon dominated by the ethnic Burmese with one Rakhine politician saying “we are therefore the victims of Muslimisation and Burmese chauvinism”.[88] The Economist wrote in 2015 that from the 1940s on and right to this day, the Burmens have seen and see themselves as victims of the British Empire while the Rakhine see themselves as victims of the British and the Burmens; both groups were and are so intent upon seeing themselves as victims that neither has much sympathy for the Rohingyas.[88]
Pakistan Movement
During the Pakistan Movement in the 1940s, Rohingya Muslims in western Burma organized a separatist movement to merge the region into East Pakistan.[84] Before the independence of Burma in January 1948, Muslim leaders from Arakan addressed themselves to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and asked his assistance in incorporating the Mayu region to Pakistan considering their religious affinity and geographical proximity with East Pakistan.[84]Two months later, the north Arakan Muslim League was founded in Akyab (modern Sittwe). It demanded annexation to Pakistan.[84] The proposal was never materialized since it was reportedly turned down by Jinnah saying that he was not in a position to interfere into Burmese matters.[84]
After Jinnah's refusal, some Rohingya elders who supported a jihad movement, founded the Mujahid party in northern Arakan in 1947.[97] The aim of the Mujahid party was to create an autonomous Muslim state in Arakan. By the 1950s, they began to use the term "Rohingya" which may be a continuation of the term Rooinga to establish a distinct identity and identify themselves as indigenous. They were much more active before the 1962 Burmese coup d'état by General Ne Win, a Burmese general who began his military career fighting for the Japanese in World War II. Ne Win carried out military operations against them over a period of two decades. The prominent one was Operation King Dragon, which took place in 1978; as a result, many Muslims in the region fled to neighboring Bangladesh as refugees. In addition to Bangladesh, a large number of Rohingyas also migrated to Karachi, Pakistan.[12] Rohingya mujahideen are still active within the remote areas of Arakan.[98]
Prior to 1962 the Rohingya community was recognized as an indigenous ethnic nationality of Burma, with members of the group serving as representatives in the Burmese parliament, as well as ministers, parliamentary secretaries, and other high-ranking government positions. But since Burma’s military junta took control of the country in 1962, the Rohingya have been systematically deprived of their political rights.[99]
Post-independence immigration and Bangladesh Liberation War
The numbers and the extent of post-independence immigration from Bangladesh are subject to controversy and debate. In a 1955 study published by Stanford University, the authors Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff write, "The post-war (World War II) illegal immigration of Chittagonians into that area was on a vast scale, and in the Maungdaw and Buthidaung areas they replaced the Arakanese."[49] The authors further argue that the term Rohingya, in the form of Rwangya, first appeared to distinguish settled population from newcomers: "The newcomers were called Mujahids (crusaders), in contrast to the Rwangya or settled Chittagonian population."[49] According to ICG, The International Crisis Group, these immigrants were actually the Rohingyas who were displaced by the World War II and began to return to Arakan after the independence of Burma but were rendered as illegal immigrants, while many were not allowed to return.[63]ICG adds that there were "some 17,000" refugees from the Bangladesh liberation war who "subsequently returned home".[63]
From 1971 to 1978, a number of Rakhine monks and Buddhists staged hunger strikes in Sittwe to force the government to tackle immigration issues which they believed to be causing a demographic shift in the region.[100] Ne Win's government requested UN to repatriate the war refugees and launched military operations which drove off around 200,000 people to Bangladesh. In 1978, the Bangladesh government protested against the Burmese government concerning "the expulsion by force of thousands of Burmese Muslim citizens to Bangladesh." The Burmese government responded that those expelled were Bangladesh citizens who had resided illegally in Burma. In July 1978, after intensive negotiations mediated by UN, Ne Win's government agreed to take back 200,000 refugees who settled in Arakan.[101] In the same year as well as in 1992, a joint statement by governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh "acknowledged that the Rohingya were lawful Burmese residents".[102] In 1982, the Burmese government enacted the citizenship law and declared the "Bengalis" are foreigners.[103]
There are widespread beliefs among Rakhine people that significant number of immigrants arrived even after the 1980s when the border was relatively unguarded. However, there is no documentation proof for these claims as the last census was conducted in 1983.[5] Successive Burmese governments have fortified the border and built up border guard forces.
'Rohingya' movement (1990–present)
"Rohingyas have been in Rakhine from the creation of the world. Arakan was ours; it was an Indian land for 1,000 years."
— Kyaw Min, Yangon-based Rohingya politician[104]
Since the 1990s, a new 'Rohingya' movement which is distinct from the 1950s armed rebellion has emerged. The new movement is characterized by lobbying internationally by overseas diaspora, establishing indigenous claims by Rohingya scholars, publicizing the term "Rohingya" and denying Bengali origins by Rohingya politicians.[51]
Rohingya scholars have claimed that Rakhine was previously a Muslim state for a millennium, or that Muslims were king-makers of Rakhine kings for 350 years. They often traced the origin of Rohingyas to Arab seafarers. These claims have been rejected as "newly invented myths" in academic circles.[68] Some Rohingya politicians have labelled Burmese and international historians as "Rakhine sympathizers" for rejecting the purported historical origins.[105] Nonetheless, the term spreads with great success after the riots in 2012.
The movement has garnered sharp criticisms from ethnic Rakhines and Kamans, the latter of whom are a recognized Muslim ethnic group in Rakhine. Kaman leaders support citizenship for Muslims in northern Rakhine but believe that the new movement is aimed at achieving a self-administered area or Rohang State as a separate Muslim state carved out of Rakhine and condemn the movement.[106]
Rakhines' views are more critical. Citing Bangladesh's overpopulation and density, Rakhines perceive the Rohingyas as "the vanguard of an unstoppable wave of people that will inevitably engulf Rakhine."[107] However, for moderate Rohingyas, the aim may have been no more than to gain citizenship status. Moderate Rohingya politicians agree to compromise on the term Rohingya if citizenship is provided under an alternative identity that is neither "Bengali" nor "Rohingya". Various alternatives including "Rakhine Muslims", "Myanmar Muslims" or simply "Myanmar" have been proposed.[39][108]
Burmese juntas (1990–2011)
The military junta that ruled Myanmar for half a century relied heavily on mixing Burmese nationalism and Theravada Buddhism to bolster its rule, and, in the view of the US government, heavily discriminated against minorities like the Rohingyas and the Chinese people in Myanmar such as the Kokangs and Panthays. Some pro-democracy dissidents from Myanmar's ethnic Bamar majority do not consider the Rohingyas compatriots.[109][110][111][112]
Successive Burmese governments have been accused of provoking riots led by Buddhist monks against ethnic minorities like the Rohingyas and Chinese.[113] In 2009, a senior Burmese envoy to Hong Kong branded the Rohingyas "ugly as ogres" and a people that are alien to Myanmar.[114][115]
Rakhine State riots and refugee crisis (2012–present)
The 2012 Rakhine State riots were a series of conflicts between Rohingya Muslims who are majority in the northern Rakhine and ethnic Rakhines who are majority in the south. Before the riots, there were widespread and strongly held fears circulating among Buddhist Rakhines that they would soon become a minority in their ancestral state.[107] The riots finally came after weeks of sectarian disputes including a gang rape and murder of a Rakhine woman by Rohingyas and killing of ten Burmese Muslims by Rakhines.[116][117] There is evidence that the pogroms in 2012 were organized with Rakhine men who participated in the riots telling International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) that they were told by the government to defend their “race and religion”, were given knives and free food and were bused in from Sittwe to attack the Rohingyas.[88] The Burmese government denies having organized the pogroms, but to date has never prosecuted anyone for the attacks against the Rohingyas.[88] The Economist argued that since the transition to democracy began in Burma in 2011, the military has been seeking to keep its privileged position, and wanted to encourage riots in 2012 so that the military can pose to the public as the defender of Buddhism against the Muslim Rohingya.[88]
From both sides, whole villages were "decimated".[117][118] According to the Burmese authorities, the violence, between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, left 78 people dead, 87 injured, and up to 140,000 people have been displaced.[119][120] The government has responded by imposing curfews and by deploying troops in the region. On 10 June 2012, a state of emergency was declared in Rakhine, allowing the military to participate in the administration of the region.[121][122] Rohingya NGOs overseas have accused the Burmese army and police of targeting Rohingya Muslims through arrests and participating in violence.[119][123]
However, a field observation conducted by the International Crisis Group states that both communities were grateful for the protection provided by the military.[124] A number of monks' organisations have taken measures to boycott NGOs which they believe helped only Rohingyas in the past decades even though Rakhines are equally poor.[125] In July 2012, the Burmese Government did not include the Rohingya minority group in the census—classified as stateless Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh since 1982.[126] About 140,000 Rohingya in Myanmar remain confined in IDP camps.[61]
In 2015, the Simon-Skjodt Centre of America’s Holocaust Memorial Museum stated in a press statement the Rohingyas are "at grave risk of additional mass atrocities and even genocide".[88] In 2015, to escape violence and persecution, thousands of Rohingyas migrated from Myanmar and Bangladesh, collectively dubbed as 'boat people' by international media,[127] to Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand by rickety boats via the waters of the Strait of Malacca and the Andaman Sea.[127][128][129][130] The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates about 25,000 people have been taken to boats from January to March in 2015.[131][132] There are claims that around 100 people died in Indonesia,[133] 200 in Malaysia,[134] and 10 in Thailand[135] during the journey. An estimated 3,000 refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been rescued or swum to shore and several thousand more are believed to remain trapped on boats at sea with little food or water. A Malaysian newspaper claimed crisis has been sparked by smugglers.[136] However, the Economist in an article in June 2015 wrote the only reason why the Rohingyas were willing to pay to be taken out of Burma in squalid, overcrowded, fetid boats as "...it is the terrible conditions at home in Rakhine that force the Rohingyas out to sea in the first place".[88]
In late 2016, the Myanmar military forces and extremist Buddhists started a major crackdown on the Rohingya Muslims in the country's western region of Rakhine State. The crackdown was in response to attacks on border police camps by unidentified insurgents,[137] and has resulted in wide-scale human rights violations at the hands of security forces, including extrajudicial killings, gang rapes, arsons, and other brutalities.[138][139][140] The military crackdown on Rohingya people drew criticism from various quarters including the United Nations, human rights group Amnesty International, the US Department of State, and the government of Malaysia.[141][142][143][144][145] The de facto head of government Aung San Suu Kyi has particularly been criticized for her inaction and silence over the issue and for not doing much to prevent military abuses.[138][139][3]
In January 2016, the government of Bangladesh initiated a plan to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees, who had fled to the country following persecution in Myanmar.[146][147] The refugees are to be relocated to the island of Thengar Char.[146][147] The move has received substantial opposition. Human rights groups have seen the plan as a forced relocation.[146][147] Additionally, concerns have been raised about living conditions on the island, which is low-lying and prone to flooding.[146][147] The island has been described as "only accessible during winter and a haven for pirates".[146][147] It is nine hours away from the camps in which the Rohingya currently live.[146][147] 65,000 refugees have been estimated to have entered Bangladesh since October 2016: more than 200,000 are estimated to have been there already.[146][147]
Historical demographics
The following table shows the statistics of Muslim population in Arakan. Note that except for 2014 census, the data is for all Muslims in Rakhine. The data for Burmese 1802 census is taken from a book by J. S. Furnivall. The British censuses classified immigrants from Chittagong as Bengalis. There were a small number of immigrants from other parts of India. The 1941 census was lost during the war. The 1983 census conducted under the Ne Win's government omitted people in volatile regions. It is unclear how many were missed. British era censuses can be found at Digital Library of India.
| Year | Muslims
in Arakan
| Muslims in
Akyub
District
| Akyub's
population
| Percentage
of Muslims
in Akyub
| Indians in Arakan
(Including most
Muslims)
| Indians born
outside Myanmar
| Arakan's total
population
| Percentage of Muslims
in Arakan
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1802 census
(Burmese)
| Lost? | 248,604 | ~1-2% (estimate) | |||||
| 1869 | 24,637 | 10% | 447,957 | 5% | ||||
| 1872 census | 64,315 | 58,255 | 276,671 | 21% | 484,963 | 13% | ||
| 1881 census | 359,706 | 113,557 | 71,104 | 588,690 | ||||
| 1891 census | 416,305 | 137,922 | 62,844 | 673,274 | ||||
| 1901 census | 162,754 | 154,887 | 481,666 | 32% | 173,884 | 76,445 | 762,102 | 21% |
| 1911 census | 178,647 | 529,943 | 30% | 197,990 | 46,591 | 839,896 | ||
| 1921 census | 576,430 | 206,990 | 51,825 | 909,246 | ||||
| 1931 census | 255,469 | 242,381 | 637,580 | 38% | 217,801 | 50,565 | 1,008,535 | 25.3% |
| 1983 census | 584,518 | 2,045,559 | 29% | |||||
| 2014 census
estimate
| 1.3 million[4]
(+1 million overseas)
| 3,188,963 | 40% (~60% if overseas population is included.) |
Demographics
Those who identify as Rohingyas typically reside in the northernmost townships of Arakan bordering Bangladesh where they form 80–98% of the population. A typical Rohingya family has four or five surviving children but the numbers up to twenty eight have been recorded in rare cases.[5][148] Rohingyas have 46 % more children than Myanmar's national average.[5] As of 2014, about 1.3 million Rohingyas live in Myanmar and an estimated 1 million overseas. They form 40% of Rakhine State's population or 60% if overseas population is included. As of December 2016, 1 in 7 stateless persons worldwide are Rohingya per United Nationsfigures.[1]
Language
The Rohingya language is part of the Indo-Aryan sub-branch of the greater Indo-European language family and is related to the Chittagonian language spoken in the southernmost part of Bangladesh bordering Myanmar.[24] While both Rohingya and Chittagonian are related to Bengali, they are not mutually intelligible with the latter. Rohingyas do not speak Burmese, the lingua franca of Myanmar, and face problems in integration. Rohingya scholars have successfully written the Rohingya language in various scripts including the Arabic, Hanifi, Urdu, Roman, and Burmese alphabets, where Hanifi is a newly developed alphabet derived from Arabic with the addition of four characters from Latin and Burmese.
More recently, a Latin alphabet has been developed using all 26 English letters A to Z and two additional Latin letters Ç (for retroflex R) and Ñ (for nasal sound). To accurately represent Rohingya phonology, it also uses five accented vowels (áéíóú). It has been recognised by ISO with ISO 639-3 "rhg" code.[149]
Religion
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The Rohingya people practice Sunni Islam along with elements of Sufism. The government restricts educational opportunities for them, many pursue fundamental Islamic studies as their only educational option. Mosques and madrasasare present in most villages. Traditionally, men pray in congregations and women pray at home.
Health
The Rohingya face discrimination and barriers to health care.[1][150] According to a 2016 study published in the medical journal The Lancet, Rohingya children in Myanmar face low birth weight, malnutrition, diarrhea, and barriers to reproduction on reaching adulthood.[1] Rohingya have a child mortality rate of up to 224 deaths per 1000 live births, more than 4 times the rate for the rest of Myanmar (52 per 1000 live births), and 3 times rate of rest non-Rohingya areas of Rakhine state (77 per 1000 live births).[151] The paper also found that 40% of Rohingya children suffer from diarrhea in internally displaced persons camp within Myanmar at a rate five times that of diarrheal illness among children in the rest of Rakhine.[151]
Human rights and refugee status
The Rohingyas’ freedom of movement is severely restricted and the vast majority of them have effectively been denied Burmese citizenship. They are also subjected to various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation; land confiscation; forced eviction and house destruction; and financial restrictions on marriage.
—Amnesty International in 2004[152]
The Rohingya people have been described as "one of the world's least wanted minorities and "some of the world's most persecuted people."[153][154] The Rohingya are deprived of the right to free movement and the right to higher education.[155] They have been denied Burmese citizenship since the Burmese nationality law was enacted.[156] They are not allowed to travel without official permission and they were previously required to sign a commitment not to have more than two children, though the law was not strictly enforced. They are subjected to routine forced labour, typically, a Rohingya man will have to give up one day a week to work on military or government projects, and one night a week for sentry duty. The Rohingya have also lost a lot of arable land, which has been confiscated by the military and given to Buddhist settlers from elsewhere in Myanmar.[157][156]
According to Amnesty International, the Rohingya have suffered from human rights violations under the military dictatorship since 1978, and many of them have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh as a result.[152] In 2005, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had assisted with the repatriation of Rohingyas from Bangladesh, but allegations of human rights abuses in the refugee camps threatened this effort.[158] In 2015, 140,000 Rohingyas remain in IDP camps after communal riots in 2012.[159] Despite earlier efforts by the UN, the vast majority of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are unable to return to Myanmar due to the 2012 communal violence and fear of persecution. The Bangladeshi government has reduced the amount of support it allocates to the Rohingyas in order to prevent an outflow of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh.[160] In February 2009, many Rohingya refugees were rescued by Acehnese sailors in the Strait of Malacca, after 21 days at sea.[161]
The Rakhine community as a whole has tended to be cast internationally as violent extremists – ignoring the diversity of opinions that exist, the fact that the Rakhine themselves are a long-oppressed minority, and rarely attempting to understand their perspective and concerns. This is counterproductive: it promotes a siege mentality on the part of the Rakhine, and obscures complex realities that must be understood if a sustainable way forward is to be found.
—The International Crisis Group, The Politics of Rakhine State, 22 October 2014[63]_(cropped).jpg)
Thousands of Rohingyas have also fled to Thailand. There have been charges that Rohingyas were shipped and towed out to open sea from Thailand. In February 2009, evidence of the Thai army towing a boatload of 190 Rohingya refugees out to sea has surfaced. A group of refugees rescued by Indonesian authorities told that they were captured and beaten by the Thai military, and then abandoned at sea.[162]
Steps to repatriate Rohingya refugees began in 2005. In 2009, the government of Bangladesh announced that it will repatriate around 9,000 Rohingyas living in refugee camps inside the country back to Myanmar, after a meeting with Burmese diplomats.[163][164] On 16 October 2011, the new government of Myanmar agreed to take back registered Rohingya refugees. However, Rakhine State riots in 2012 hampered the repatriation efforts.[165][166]
On 29 March 2014, the Burmese government banned the word "Rohingya" and asked for registration of the minority as "Bengalis" in the 2014 Myanmar Census, the first in three decades.[167][168] On 7 May 2014, the United States House of Representatives passed the United States House resolution on persecution of the Rohingya people in Burma that called on the government of Myanmar to end the discrimination and persecution.[169][170] Researchers from the International State Crime Initiative at Queen Mary University of London suggest that the Myanmar government are in the final stages of an organised process of genocide against the Rohingya.[171][172] In November 2016, a senior UN official in Bangladesh accused Myanmar of ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas.[139] However, Charles Petrie, a former top UN official in Myanmar, has said that "Today using the term, aside from being divisive and potentially incorrect, will only ensure that opportunities and options to try to resolve the issue to be addressed will not be available."[71][173]
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