The Shillong Times
By PUBLIC ON 9 DEC 2017
SPECIAL ARTICLE
The
‘Rohingya’ Crisis, Colonialism and the North East
By Jyotirmoy Prodhani
The Rohingya issue, where image dissemination in various
platforms including electronic and social media has played a major role, is no
doubt a massive humanitarian crisis. Bangladesh has given an official count of
about 600,000 Rohingyas being taken in and presently clueless as to how to
handle them. If the newspaper articles of Bangladesh are to be believed,
considerable amount of resentment is brewing up in the country following such
large scale influx into their territory; they even accused the ‘Rohingyas’ of
having destroyed huge areas of forest land, leveled miles of hills and felling
scores trees in a matter of weeks. In fact, the pressure is so acute that many
indigenous people in the region are reported to have been turned homeless. Syed
Badrul Ahsan in his article in the Indian
Express writes, “Rohingya…has
emerged as a new class of Islamist militants hostile to the growth of liberal
politics in the country.” Quite
curiously, with the bait of Nobel Peace Prize dangling from some dubious
quarters, Sheikh Hasina is on a queer mat who might as well be dumped by the
West if she fails to toe their line.
The‘Rohingya’ question, however, has a peculiar historical connection with
Assam, vis a vis the North East. It is through the Yandaboo treaty of 1826
following the first Anglo Burmese war that both Assam and Burma became part of
the British colonial rule. The British intervention brought an end to the
atrocities of the Maans (Burmese) in Assam but at the same time Assam also lost
its sovereignty. Similarly, Burma too became part of the British colony and
consequently both in Assam and Burma (especially in the Arakan region)scores of
landless farmers from East Bengal were implanted by the British to exploit and
plunder the vast stretch of lands. However, unlike Assam, the Arakan region had
sizeable presence of Bengali Muslims prior to colonization but after
colonization in 1826 the population of the East Bengal settlers increased with
such ferocious speed that, as written by Derek Tonkin, “By the time of the 1931 Census “Chittagongian”
immigrants outnumbered indigenous Muslim residents of Arakan by at least four
to one.” This is also the time when the native Arakanese Buddhists were
steadily pushed to the periphery by these settlers. This was the fallout of one
of the most vicious colonial crimes.
The
overwhelming presence of the Chittagongian settlers led to social anxiety,
which became more pronounced when the immigrants made the sinister moves of
turning the occupied Arakanese territory into a hard core Islamic state by
driving out the native Buddhists from their own homeland. The British had armed
the East Bengal immigrants of Arakan to fight the Japanese during the World War
II. But the East Bengal immigrants in 1942 had, instead of resisting the
Japanese,massacred more than 20,000 native Rakhine Buddhists with those weapons
in places like Maungdaw where 214 Rakhine Buddhist villages were wiped out,
which was also so far one of the biggest massacres of indigenous people by
immigrants in the history of the twentieth century South Asia. Being emboldened
by this successful massacre of the natives, these settlers campaigned to make
Arakan a part of Pakistan after Burma got independence in 1948. However,
Jinnah was not keen to meddle with Burma.
The
Rakhine people, also known as Mog, some of who are there as native tribes in
Tripura and other parts of the North East, are the original inhabitants of
Arakan who have been there since time immemorial, at least since 3525 BCE, from
the time of their King, Marayu and earlier. Lord Buddha is believed to have
gone to their territory in person in 326 BCE to spread His message and since
then Arakan had become a major seat of Theravada Buddhism. The native Rakhines
consider themselves as being repressed by the majority Burmese on the one hand
and the immigrant East Bengal settlers on the other who have successfully
outnumbered the Rakhine people in Northern Arakan. Nevertheless, the Bengali
Muslims of Arakan who had settled early were very much a part of Burma who even
had elected members to the first Constituent Assembly in independent Burma.
The
origin of the term Rohingya is rather vague. The Arakan settlers began to call
themselves Rohingyas mainly since 1982. Derek Tonkin in one of his essays
revealed that it was Dr. Francis Buchanan who had used the word “Rossawn” in
1799 in an article published from Calcutta.After this, he writes, “Throughout
the remainder of his life, Buchanan, who was a prolific writer and gazetteer,
never used the word “Rooinga” again.” (26 May 2016). However, the East Bengal
origin settlers of Arakan now prefer to call themselves as “Rohingyas” with the
objective of claiming indigeneity, though their claims of indigeneity would be
as much intriguing and problematic as it is to call the White Americans as
indigenous over the American Indians or the White Australians and the White New
Zealanders as indigenous over the Australian aboriginals and the Maoris
respectively. Quite curiously, in order to deny their East Bengal origin the
“Rohingyas” even claimed to have originated from Saudi Arabia. Rodion
Ebdighausen significantly points out that the term “Rohingya” is a ‘highly politicized one’ which,
he writes, “media, activists and politicians use to take a political stance.”The native Myanmarese, therefore, contest the
term “Rohingya” as they consider it a tactical term used by the East Bengal
origin Arakan settlers to camouflage themselves as indigenous to Myanmar.
Nevertheless, there
have been East Bengal Muslims in Arakan from the medieval period whom even the
Junta government had accepted as citizens including the ones who were brought
in hordes by the British colonizers till independence, though the Myanmar
government has not been ready to accept the immigrants who had infiltrated the
Arakan province after 1948. Despite their claims, quite significantly, the oral
history, folklore, folk songs etc. of the “Rohingyas” reflect their deep and
indelible linkages with the culture, history and language of East Bengal/
Pakistan. In fact, the New York based Burmese author, HlaOo, writes, “(When) I went back to Maungdaw I needed a Bengali
interpreter to shop… it is completely unthinkable to recognize them as an
indigenous ethnic group of our Burma.” The
popular “Rohingya” folk singer, Muhammad Soufa in one of his pensive songs
narrates the tale of their “suffering after migrating to an alien land chasing
false dreams and greed for wealth without heeding the words of the Almighty”
(Rohingya jatina bujilam keella o bujmon/ ….Janambhor ailam choli misa jutha
kotha fandi re/…. Dhonsom pottir lubhe pori/ Bhuillar asool erto rika re).
The
recent activities, especially in Assam by some Islamist organizations
campaigning for the ‘Rohingyas’ to settle them in Assam and in some other parts
of the North East, keeping in mind Tripura and places like South Garo Hills in
Meghalaya etc., is ominous for it might lead to new social and demographic
anxiety, besides North East has never been involved or responsible for the Arakan
mess.
In fact, Myanmar
should take back all the Rakhine refugees who are found to be genuine citizens
of the country. Despite having their origin in that country Bangladesh may not
be able to take the burden of such a huge number of additional people. The
hypocrisy of the West and the oil rich Islamic countries is rather appalling.
Instead of pontificating, threatening and bullying a poor and fledgling
democracy like Myanmar as well as demonizing one of South Asia’s greatest icons
of Democracy, Aung Sang Suu Kyi, they should make their position clear as to
whether they would at all accommodate any of the displaced refugees in their
own lands. In this context the West has just extended their colonial attitude.
Quite intriguingly none of these exorbitantly rich and wealthy countries with
high voltage moral rhetoric have opened their borders to officially allow a
single hapless person in, which is, arguably, the biggest shame. Hopefully, the
world will also wake up to the plight of the indigenous tribes of Arakan, who
have fled their homes in Myanmar and are now seeking shelter in Mizoram.
http://www.theshillongtimes.com/2017/12/09/the-rohingya-crisis-colonialism-and-the-north-east/
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