August 21, 2022,
SD Pradhan in Chanakya
The recent debate in the media on the status of Rohingyas have brought their intractable problem to the forefront. A look at the facts is relevant to the issue to understand its legal and security dimensions as also deep-seated hatred between the Burmese and Rohingyas.
The Rohingyas claim that they constitute an ethnic Muslim minority (predominantly Sunnis), who lived in Rakhine (earlier Arakan), speaking a distinct language since the 8th AD. There is evidence available that between 9th and 14th Century, they came into contact with Arab traders and got converted to Islam and the Mrauk U kingdom from 1429 to 1785, encouraged the settlement of Muslims in the Arakan area. According to Dr Francis-Buchanan a British geographer and physician, in 1785 Bamar- the ethnic Burmese group- occupied Rakhine and pushed out about 35,000 Rohingyas, who migrated to Bengal in British India to escape atrocities, while some others continued to stay there.
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