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Aman Ullah
RB History
April 17, 2016

Before 10th century, Arakan was inhabited by Hindus. At that time Arakan was the gate of Hindu India to contact with the countries of the east. Morris Collis writes in his book "Burma under the iron heels of British" that the Hindu ruled Arakan from first century to 10th century. Hindu civilization and literature spread all over Arakan du'ring this long thousand years. After the vanishing of the Hindu civilization there still remain the names, Danyawadi, Ramawadi, Maygawadi and Dwarawadi, the four-Wadis given by Hindus. Temples built by Hindus, coins melted by Hindus and the stone inscriptions written by Hindus were still to be found in Arakan.

According to A.P. Phayre and G, E, Harvey, History of Burma state that: "The capital of Arakan Shiri Gupta hill is 20 miles north of Mrohaumg. Mahamatmuni Image (the Great Image of Lord Buddha) is on that hill. This place is older than Vesali. The place was established by Hindus. Mahamatmuni image was built by the king Sandathuriya (146-198 A. D.).There were Hindu gods around the image of Mahamatmuni. These images of gods indicated that Arakan was a Hindu land until 10th century. Those Hindus might be Bengalis.

The Arrival of Buddhism into Arakan began around first century Christian Era. Mohan Ghosh wrote in his book ‘Magh Raiders of Bengal’ that, “In 8th century under the Hindu revivalist leader, Sankaracharijya, Buddhists in India were persecuted in large-scale. In Magadah, old Bihar of India, Buddhists were so ruthlessly oppressed by chauvinist Hindus and rival Mahayana sect of Buddhists that large numbers of Hinayana Buddhists had been compelled to flee eastward who ultimately found shelter in Arakan under the Chandra kings. There were also Buddhist refugees from Bengal, during the Tibeten conquest in the eighth and ninth centuries, crossed over to the nearest place viz. Arakan where they could preserve their religion.”

It is to be noticed that Magadah in its pristine days included Bengal. These Buddhist immigrants assumed the name Magh as they have migrated from Magadah. By this time, in Arakan, all the three religions -- Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam -- flourished side by side, but there had been large-scale conversion to Islam. 

While the three great religions were flourishing side by side, a Mongolian invasion from the north swept over Arakan which ended the Chandra dynasty in 957 C.E. Hinduism in the easterly Hindu State of Vesali thus vanished forever. This invasion not only closed the epoch of the Chandras but also carried away the Pala kings of Bengal at the same time. Vesali could never reemerge but in Bengal the Hindus regained their supremacy in a few years by pushing back the barbaric Mongolians into deeper mountainous areas. 

MS Collis, in collaboration with San Shwe Bu, wrote in his article ‘Arakan place in the civilization of the Bay’ that, “Such was the kingdom of Wesali, an Indian state in the style of the period. But in 957 A.D. occurred an event which was to change it from an Indian into an Indo-Chinese realm and to endow the region of Arakan with its present characteristics. The "True Chronicle" records that in the year 957 A.D., a Mongolian invasion swept over Wesali, destroyed the Chandras and placed on their throne Mongolian kings. This important statement can fortunately be amply substantiated. Over the border in Bengal the same deluge carried away the Pala kings. The evidence for this latter irruption is fully cited in a paper by Mr. Banerji and there is no doubt that the Mongolian invasion, which terminated the ruler of the Palas, closed also the epoch of the Chandras. But while in Bengal the Hindus regained their supremacy in a few years, it would seem that in Arakan the entry of the Mongolians was decisive. They cut Arakan away from India and mixing in sufficient number with the inhabitants of the east side of the present Indo-Burma divide, created that Indo-Mongoloid stock now known as the Arakanese. This emergence of a new race was not the work of a single invasion.” In the record of the MS, ‘the true chronicle of Great Image’ which was given to Collis by San Shwe Bu, “the date 957 A.D. may be said to mark the appearance of the Arakanese, and the beginning of a fresh period.”

In the year 976 AD Shan invaders entered Arakan and held the country for eighteen years, during which period they robbed the inhabitants and carried off from the temples everything of value. Anawrahta, who came to the throne of Burma soon after the retirement of the Shans from Arakan, next invaded the country, compelled the Arakanese to acknowledge his supremacy, and exacted tribute. During the reign of Kyansittha, son of Anawrahta, in Pagan, Min Bilu of Arakan was deposed by a usurper, and his son took refuge in Burma This prince's son, Letyaminnan, was restored by Alaungsithu, grandson and successor of Kyansittha, and Arakan was again subordinate to Burma for some years from 1103 onwards.

Arakan became subordinate to the Pagan monarchy in AD 1102-3, from the time when Letyamengnan was placed on the throne of his ancestors. He fixed his capital at Parin. The country enjoyed rest for a long period, and there is nothing in the annals worthy of remark until after the capture of Pagan by the Mongols. In the early part of the fourteenth century mention is made of invasion by the Shans, which apparently refers the attacks by the kings of Myinsaing and Panya. 

According to Collis, Arakan became feudatory to Pagan, that is to say it maintained its own kings but paid tribute as an acknowledgement of suzerainty. There existed a road connecting the Lemro with Pagan. That road was known as the Buywet ma-nyo. It has long been overgrown, but the present Government is seeking to resurvey it. It was along that road that the ideas of Burma passed into Arakan. Pagan herself had modified from the Mahayanist to the Hinayanist form of Buddhism and the modification was transmitted to Arakan during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Burmese writhing came over at the same time and in the same manner. No inscriptions in the Burmese script are found in Arakan before that date. The question of the emergence of the Arakanese language is more difficult. Whether it was the language of the Mongolian invader’s of the 10th century or whether it filtered across the mountains after contract with Burma in the 11th and 12th centuries is undecided. As Arakanese is the same language as Burmese, being merely a dialect, to suppose that it was the language of the invaders is to contend that the Mongolians who extinguished the Chandras spoke the same tongue as those who afterwards became predominant in the Irrawaddy plain. If the contrary is postulated, and it is argued that the Burmese language, coming over the mountain road, impinged upon the Mongolian speech of the then Arakanese and created modern Arakanese, linguistic difficulties are raised which are difficult to solve. 

Before 12th century, there was no Burmese literature in Arakan, Burmese literature arrived in Arakan during 12th century. Phonetically Rakhines have 42 syllables; that is eight syllables less than Burmese. Their language is Burmese with some dialectical difference and an older form of pronunciation, especially noticeable in their retention of the "r" sound, which the Burmese have changed to y'. In regard to Rakhine Maghs language, Sir Arthur Phayer wrote that, Rakhine Maghs are the descendants of Tobeto-Burman. There is no difference between Rakhine Maghs and Burmans except a little in their languages.

The great preoccupation of the Lemro dynasties during this mediaeval period was the guardianship of the Mahamuni image. As it was believed to be a likeness of the Master cast during his life time its possession gave Arakan and important position in the eyes of the Pagan kings. For monarchs who had built so many thousand pagodas and who had raised up so sacred a city as Pagan, the possession of Mahamuni would have been the crown of their endeavors. But the Arakanese had an old belief that if it left their country, it would synchronize with the ruin of their race. As they were not strong enough to guard it by force of arms, they employed that peculiar system of magical astrology, known as Yadaya, to protect it. They attempted to render its site unapproachable for inlanders or spoilers by enveloping it in a magical net.

In the middle of 12th century even the famous Mahamuni Image could not be found for it had been overgrown with jungle in the prevailing anarchy. According to Pamela Gutman, “the king Dasaraza 1135-1165 AD had repaired Mahamuni Temple which was partially destroyed by the Pyu army of Letyaminnan and was remained neglected. The king had to seek the help of the Mrus to find out the Mahamuni, which was then covered by dense forest.”

Both Anawratha and Alaungsithu, though suzerain lords of Arakan and though both dearly longed to enshrine the great Buddha in their own capital city, failed to remove it. According to San Shwe Bu’s MS, the Yadaya calculations were well drawn. Being unable to take it, they worshipped there and the fact that the most revered image of all Budddhism was located in Arakan resulted in much coming and going between that country and the kingdom of Pagan. Thus the two countries were drawn closely together; the road over the mountains became a trade route; great fairs held on it at a point between the two States; and there was no need of coinage.

The cardinal characteristic of the new period is, as Mr. Collis mentioned, that Arakan (as the area may now be called) looked East instead of West. The Mongolians were savages and following their invasion supervened a period of darkness. Wilhem Klein, in his book ‘Burma the Golden’, termed it as, "The Mongolians were a savage people and the five centuries which followed the arrival of Tibeto-Burmans in Arakan were an age of darkness".

But the invaders became educated in the mixed culture of the country they have conquered and were ultimately assimilated with its inhabitants during those long five centuries. After the disappearance of Hinduism and the assimilation of Mongolians and Tibeto-Burmans there remained only two distinctive races -- the rohingyas and the Maghs -- who lived together in Arakan centuries after centuries. 

But the invaders became educated in the culture of the country they had conquered. The resulting civilization was of a mediaeval character. The capital was moved from Wesali to the Lemro river, some fifteen miles south-east. There during the ensuing centuries numerous dynasties ruled, each with its own city but always in the same locality. Few archaeological remains of this period of five centuries exist, though brick foundations may be seen on the Lemro bank. There was no coinage. This fact is significant as placing the age in its perspective. We have here to do with a small kingdom in an age of small kingdoms. It was with Pagan alone the Arakan had any considerable dealings and it was to learn much. Thus during these five centuries the inhabitants of Arakan became more similar to the inhabitants of Burma and less like Indians. Their religion became less Mahayanist and more Hinayanist. The link with the past, however, was the Mahamuni image, which was still in its old place, for it fitted equally well into Hinayana as into Mahayana Buddhism.

During these five hundred years Arakan became a Holy Land. It had no political importance, but was a place of pilgrimage for the Buddhist world. Neither commercial nor cosmopolitan like the kingdom of Wesali, it developed those racial and religious characteristics which mark it still.

Rohingya people pass their time in a damaged shelter in Rohingya IDP camp outside Sittwe, Rakhine state on August 4, 2015.  (Photo: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun)

By David Brunnstrom
April 15, 2016

Washington -- The U.S. government agency charged with monitoring international religious freedoms called on Myanmar's new government on Thursday to do away with abusive policies against the country's minority Rohingya Muslims.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) praised the government of de facto head of state Aung San Suu Kyi for releasing political prisoners after its November election victory.

But it said Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, needed to act to protect freedom of religion and end discrimination against minorities.

"One such step is Burma's government radically changing its abusive policies and practices in Rakhine state, which have harmed members of the ethnic communities who live there, especially Rohingya Muslims," it said in statement.

The commission called on the government to do away with laws discriminating against ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians and Rohingya and other Muslims - notably the 1982 Citizenship Law.

It said the government should ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, improve access to humanitarian aid for displaced religious and ethnic minorities, and invite the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief to visit.

It should also allow the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to open a country office, the report said.

Myanmar has denied discriminating against 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims in the country, most of whom remain stateless and live in apartheid-like conditions.

Last month, Yanghee Lee, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said creation of the first civilian-led government after decades of military rule offered the chance of breaking this "tragic status quo situation."

However, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi has so far taken a cautious line on the Rohingya issue, in spite of her status as a human rights icon during her long battle for democracy.

The Rohingya are widely maligned in Myanmar, where they are seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh - including by some in Suu Kyi's party - and she risks hemorrhaging support by taking up their cause.

Some U.S. and other international sanctions remain in place in Myanmar despite its change of government and the Obama administration and influential members of Congress still have concerns about human rights, including treatment of Rohingyas.

U.S. law allows for sanctions on countries the USCIRF terms of particular concern, but its recommendations are not binding.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, editing by G Crosse)



Interview with TRT World (Turkish Television) 
Newsmakers: Myanmar’s Divided People “Rohingya”

In the panel discussion on The Newsmakers, Mr Tun Khin President “Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK” & Penny Green Director “International State Crime Initiative” Highlighted that how GENOCIDE ON ROHINGYA is going on in this 21st century and international community is ignoring this ROHINGYA GENOCIDE.

Mr Tun Khin said We Rohingya need to wait for two to three years to get permission to get marry, after passing all level of exams we cannot go to the higher education university. Our lands were confiscated by military this is what we face for many decades in Burma, even until today the worst situation we are facing in 21st century.

What international legal experts especially what Penny Green director International State Crime Initiative mentioned that we are facing Genocide today, we are in the worst situation in 21st century where international community is ignoring this Rohingya genocide issue.

Penny Green said we visited the camps area where at least around a hundred and forty thousand Muslims Rohingya are now interned effectively, we visited villages which are effectively prison villages because the rohingya there cannot live, and what we found was a fairly a very desperate situation in fact we found. The question that we went out with was true to explore whether or not the persecution which we knew the rohingya to be suffering was in fact genocide! And what we found was in fact genocide!!

For our purposes genocide is a process and it seems very clear to us that the Rohingya are facing the fourth stage in the genocidal of process, the stage before “mass annihilation”



Date

Wed, 11/05/2016 - 08:30 to 16:30 

Auditorium, Wolfson College 


Convenor

Emeritus Professor Barbara Harriss-White 

Speaker(s)

Emeritus Professor Barbara Harriss-White, Dr Maung Zarni, Emeritus Professor Barbara Harrell-Bond, Daw Khin Hla, Professor Michael Charney, Maung Bo Bo, Professor Shapan Adnan, Dr S Saad Mahmood, Dr Ambia Perveen, Matthew Smith, Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Professor Daniel Feierstein, Professor Penny Green, Thomas McManus, Amartya Sen, Tomas Ojea Quintana, Dr Azeem Ibrahim, Azril Mohd Amin, Mark Farmaner, Tun Khin, Nurul Islam, Dr Hla Kyaw 

Objectives:

1. to continue shining the spotlight of university and independent research onto what is increasingly recognized as Myanmar’s slow genocide of the Rohingya among international genocide and legal scholars as well as world’s icons such as Desmond Tutu, George Soros, Mairead Maguire, Amartya Sen, the Dalai Lama etc.;

2. to call urgent attention to recent research into the deplorable human conditions under which over 1 million Rohingya live in ‘vast open prisons’ (i.e., Rohingya villages and towns) and the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, which the New York Times call “the 21st century concentration camps”;

3. to present evidence to persuade Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi government to prioritize the end of decades-long state persecution of the Rohingya minority; and

4. to brainstorm critical and constructive ideas which may enable Myanmar’s democrats to remove one of the greatest obstacles to genuine democratization – the continued persecution of an entire ethnic minority in Western Burma

Hosted by the South Asian Research Cluster, Wolfson College, Oxford University

Registration begins at 8 am and the conference, at 8:30 am.

RSVP required. To RSVP email fanon2005@gmail.com

For further information please see pdf below

Research Centre


Related Documents


They would call me an 'extremist':
Why I don't celebrate or send anyone any New Year's Greetings

A Hindu-BuddhistNew Year Note

by Dr Maung Zarni


April 14, 2016

Though a Burmese from Mandalay - Burma's most popular site for the Thin Gyan or water throwing new year festival - I do not celebrate the New Year - because my country that likes to call itself "Buddhist" is committing a slow genocide

against the Rohingya stimatizing them as "Bengali". For we view them, wrongly, as simply the descendants of British colonial era 'farm coolies' who came to Western Burma only after the first Anglo-Burmese war of 1824. Wrongly because many of them have verfiably maintained their historical presence and distinct identity as early as AD1500. 

Rohingyas in an IDP camp: Nearly 140,000 Rohingyas, including women, infants, children, men and the elderly being locked up in IDP camps after having been driven out of their homes and neighborhoods across Rakhine state, Western Burma – in 2 waves of organized violence and expulsion in June and October 2012.

Look across the western border, there is a human civilization called Bangladesh. They are a majority Muslim country. Whatever Bangladesh's national shortcomings as a country and a people they do not stand accused of racist crimes against humanity and the slow genocide in the world - whatever the exact legal name of the crime. As seen in these fresh images from Bangladesh, that Muslim country - both the government and the Bengali society, honor and respect not only the human and citizenship rights of the Buddhist Rakhines but also their ethnic identity, culture and customs, despite the fact that most of the Rakhine Buddhists in Bangladesh were descendants of the estimated 180,000 Buddhist Rakhine refugees who fled the Buddhist-on-Buddhist war of AD1785 during which the Bama/Burmese Buddhists overran the Rakhine Buddhist kingdom at Mrauk-U and annexed today's Western Burma into the Ava-based Burmese kingdom in the central Dry Zone plains. 




Even as I write the Rohingya remain subjected to the intentional state-sponsored act of group destruction. 140,000 Rohingyas in 

IDP camps are just the tip of the berg.

Alas, they would call me an 'extremist'.



RB News 
April 13, 2016 

The Japanese Foreign Minister H.E. Fumio Kishida is planning to visit to Myanmar soon where he will meet the President Htin Kyaw and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Learning of this Rohingya activists in Japan visited the Foreign Ministry's high ranking officials at the Upper House Building on April 12th from 2pm to 3:30pm. 

The Rohingya activists led by Zaw Min Htut were joined by Lawyer Shogo Watanabe, a Myanmar expert and journalist Hisao Tanabe (a.k.a) U Shwe Ba. Both men had visited Myanmar in February where they met National League for Democracy Patron U Tin Oo, Lawyer U Ko Ni as well as Rohingya Party leader U Kyaw Min in Yangon, Human Rights Watch (HRW) Director Ms Kanei Doi and Japan Upper House Parliament member and leader of Social Democratic Party, Ms Mizuho Fukushima. 



At the meeting Zaw Min Htut welcomed the new government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi while he also raised some serious concern on the appointments of ex-military generals as the head of ministries which are directly related to the Rohingya issues. He appreciated Japanese government actively participation and support to Rohingya issue at the U.N. Human Rights Council in March. He elaborated on the current situation of Rohingya, IDPs' suffering, ethnic rights, citizenship rights and political rights as well as the need for an amendment repealing of 1982 citizenship law which rejects Rohingya as citizens of Myanmar. 

HRW Director Kanei Doi expressed HRW’s serious concern on human rights violation on Rohingyas. Lawyer Watanabe and U Shwe Ba spoke on their meeting with Rohingya leaders as well as NLD officials in Yangon. The meeting was closed with the remarks of MP Fukushima and an appeal from Zaw Min Htut and Farhad, a recent graduate from a prestigious Japanese University, who presented an appeal letter and other relevant documents to the Foreign Minister of Japan.



Aung San Suu Kyi visits Aye Tha Aung of the Arakan National Party at his new residence in Naypyidaw last month. (Photo: Naing Ling Aung / Facebook)

By Moe Myint
April 12, 2016

RANGOON — Since it won an overwhelming majority in last year’s election, the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) has been vowing to form a “national reconciliation” government, with part of that plan including the appointment of members of other political parties to positions of power.

In several cases, the party has done just that, but a strange thing appears to be happening along the way: The NLD’s outreach, rather than uniting the country around its governing coalition, has exposed inter- and intra-party fissures, with at least one ethnic political party at risk of splitting in two.

Differences between ethnic political parties and the NLD have been on display most visibly in Arakan State, where the Arakan National Party (ANP) in November made one of the most successful ethnic electoral bids. But in the months since, that success has laid bare factions within the party at the same time as ANP-NLD relations have soured.

The latest development in the ongoing saga came last week, when one of the ANP’s regional legislators, Kyaw Lwin, was selected by the NLD for an Arakan State government cabinet post, minister for forestry, mining, agriculture and livestock.

President Htin Kyaw’s appointee for chief minister of the state, the NLD’s Nyi Pu, will lead the regional government, and on Thursday selections for subordinate state-level cabinet positions were revealed and confirmed by the Arakan State legislature.

Just as the NLD has consolidated the bureaucracy by reducing the number of Union-level ministries, it has also reduced the number of Arakan State ministers from nine to seven. Along with Kyaw Win of the ANP, three ministers are NLD, one hails from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and two are of no partisan affiliation.

Following his appointment on Thursday, Kyaw Lwin confirmed that he would accept the post, and in the process shed light on coming internal friction as a result of that decision.

He told The Irrawaddy that he had secured the support of the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) faction within the ANP in his decision to join the cabinet, though he is not a former ALD member himself.

An analysis by The Irrawaddy earlier this year chalked up tensions between the NLD and ANP, as well as the latter’s fissures within, to a divide between members of the former Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) and the ALD. The two parties merged ahead of the 2015 election, but as has become apparent in recent months, differences between the two factions persist, with former ALD members perceived as too willing to acquiesce to Suu Kyi’s call for “collaboration.” The schism was highlighted by ANP patron Aye Tha Aung’s appointment—and willingness to accept—the NLD’s appointment of him as deputy speaker of the Union Parliament’s Upper House.

On Friday, Kyaw Win described himself as a “third-party” member of the ANP not linked to either of the factions that formally merged last year, and said he did not expect that the RNDP-siding politicians against working with the NLD would amount to his ouster from the party.

But as is often the case in Burmese politics, a simple and straightforward appointment this would not prove to be.

An ‘Opposition’ Party

Kyaw Lwin’s appointment followed the news early this month that ANP members had verbally agreed not to join an NLD-led cabinet without first informing the Arakanese party’s leadership, with central executive committee member Aung Mya Kyaw somewhat absurdly telling The Irrawaddy that the party would levy a 50 million kyats (US$42,000) fine on any violators, who also might be subject to expulsion from the party.

Last week ANP Vice Chairman Phoe Min doubled down on the claim to have reached a verbal agreement concerning the party’s regional legislators, an account disputed by Kyaw Lwin, who told The Irrawaddy before his confirmation that there was “no official agreement” on the matter.

Speaking before his appointment was made official, he signalled that he was open to working in an NLD-led regional administration.

“If the NLD supposes that we are suitable for the post and offers it to us, I think we should not reject the offer, so long as we emphasize our nationality’s interests as well for the country,” he said, setting him on a crash course with the dominant RNDP faction within the ANP, which made clear early this year that it would be no NLD ally if the ruling party did not appoint an ANP legislator to the chief minister post.

On Saturday, the ANP released a statement saying the “dissident” Kyaw Lwin had been expelled from the party.

On March 24, the 22 Union Parliament lawmakers from the ANP and NLD Chairwoman Aung San Suu Kyi held a meeting in Naypyidaw, where she told the Arakanese legislators that in an NLD-led state government, the ANP would be offered some positions. The NLD chairwoman reportedly asked for the ANP lawmakers’ “collaboration.”

ANP leaders were not satisfied, and sought a follow-up meeting with its senior leadership, including party Chairman Aye Maung, who lost his election race in Manaung Township and was widely believed to have coveted the chief minister post.

ANP parliamentarian Pe Than cried foul, saying the “NLD failed to keep its word,” after the party four days later went ahead with its plan to appoint an NLD member as chief minister, prompting ANP lawmakers to stage a walkout when Nyi Pu’s name was announced.

Elsewhere in Burma

While the political dynamics differ, a similar fracturing is happening within the Mon National Party (MNP). While the ANP won a majority of elected seats in the Arakan State legislature, the MNP secured merely four seats between the Union Parliament and Mon State legislature last year, making it one of dozens of ethnic political parties that fared poorly in a nationwide vote largely dominated by the NLD last November.

Despite its poor showing, the MNP was offered two positions by the NLD.

The highest was that of Union-level ethnic affairs minister, which went to MNP Vice Chairman Nai Thet Lwin. In addition, the NLD offered one post at the state level, the minister for forestry, mining, agriculture and livestock.

According to the MNP’s secretary, Nai Soe Myint, both NLD nominees from the Mon party were approached individually and not through the MNP leadership.

Nai Soe Myint confessed that his party was also dealing with “internal factions,” saying the party chairman, Nai Ngwe Thein, had made the decision to forego a vote by the party’s central executive committee on whether or not the party should take the NLD offers.

“Under some circumstances, the MNP chairman is entitled [to dismiss] the CEC’s desire because of the democratic transition period and [his] preference for collaboration. The previous people [USDP] could be much stronger than pro-democracy groups if the MNP is against the NLD. That is why MNP chose the collaboration option.”

In Shan State, where a mixed electoral outcome offered a rare bright-ish spot for the USDP, both the NLD and Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) were bested by the former ruling party in regional parliament races. The SNLD won 24 seats, while the NLD won just 23 in the 137-member legislature.

Nonetheless, the NLD’s control of the Union-level executive affords it the constitutional prerogative to form its state-level counterparts across all 14 states and divisions in Burma, and here too the party sought collaboration in the form of ministerial posts, most prominently the Union-level ethnic affairs minister portfolio that ultimately went to Mon political veteran Nai Thet Lwin. Prior to his appointment, an NLD offer went out to the SNLD, which declined the invitation to hold that seat in the Naypyidaw cabinet.

Local media reported that similarly, the SNLD was asked to join the state-level cabinet, but there too it opted to reject the offer, reportedly after a failed bid to secure the Shan State chief minister post, which went to NLD regional parliamentarian Lin Htut.

The Irrawaddy made several attempts to contact the SNLD spokesman last week to gain greater insight into its decision to abstain from executive involvement, but he could not be reached for comment.

Ethnic Shan journalist Sai Htun Aung Lwin said he assumed the apparent ambivalence of the SNLD and other ethnic political parties toward working with the NLD was due to the ruling party’s method of approaching individuals rather than respective parties’ leadership before selecting cabinet nominees from outside its ranks.

He said a similar feeling had led members of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society—not a registered political party but influential among pro-democracy circles in Burma—to decline positions offered by the NLD.

In the absence of SNLD participation, the Shan State cabinet of nine members includes five from the NLD, three USDP and one militarily appointed minister.

Then there is Chin State, a complex amalgam of ethnicities officially grouped as 53 “sub-ethnicities” of the predominantly Christian Chin. The Zomi Congress for Democracy (ZCD) was the state’s surprise success story among ethnic political parties, securing six seats between the Chin State legislature and Union Parliament.

While elsewhere in the country resentment toward the NLD has been manifest, ZCD Upper House lawmaker Gin Kam Lian said that is not the case among the Zomi party, which was given one cabinet appointee in the new seven-member Chin State cabinet.

Pau Lun Minh Thaung, elected in November, will serve as Chin State’s new social affairs minister.

“We are fine with the NLD,” Gin Kam Lian told The Irrawaddy.

Third-Party Perspective

Like the Shan journalist Sai Htun Aung Lwin, the former lawmaker Ye Tun of the Shan National Development Party said he saw parallels with the NLD’s current travails in courting collaboration with smaller parties and the now-defunct Communist Party of Burma (CPB). That party, which was once politically influential despite being made illegal under the socialist era of Ne Win, had similar problems courting ethnic armed rebel groups, said Ye Tun, who added that the lesser parties later blamed the CPB for their diminished standing as a result of CPB-instigated internal feuds.

He said the NLD’s outreach was commendable, particularly the appointment of Aye Tha Aung to the influential deputy speakership, but said the party had shown a lack of “mutual respect” to less prominent political parties by not approaching their leaderships and instead going to their individual members.

“Big political parties especially should be cautious, that kind of problem has happened often between small and big parties,” Ye Tun said.

“I don’t suppose that Suu Kyi has done it intentionally,” he continued, while adding, “They [the NLD] should have empathy on the other [parties].”

YANGON, MYANMAR – APRIL 8: A woman sleeps with her baby at Yangon’s Muslim Free Hospital in Yangon, Myanmar on April 8, 2016. After years of coups, politicking and demonstrations, Yangon's Turkey-sponsored Muslim Free Hospital's latest challenge is religious discrimination. (Aung Naing Soe - Anadolu Agency)

By Kyaw Ye Lynn
April 12, 2016

After years of coups, politicking and demonstrations, Yangon's Turkey-sponsored Muslim Free Hospital's latest challenge is religious discrimination

YANGON, Myanmar -- Since its humble beginnings in 1937 as a small eye clinic catering for the poor, Yangon's Muslim Free Hospital has blossomed into a modern 130-bed medical center.

The now five storey building sits in the center of Myanmar's commercial capital, with much of its funding provided from Zakat -- the Muslim practice of donating around 10 percent of income -- collected at local mosques, while the beds were funded from overseas.

“International aid organizations have also provided assistance," the clinic's Sec. Gen. Abdul Rahman Yacoob Manjra underlined in an interview with Anadolu Agency at the hospital Thursday.

He casually waves a hand towards the inpatient ward.

“All of the 130-plus beds were donated by the Turkish government and people," he says.

In the 75 years since the inception of the hospital -- Muslim Free Hospital & Medical Relife (Relief) Society is its full name -- Myanmar has dramatically changed.

Long considered a pariah state under the rule of an oppressive military junta from 1962 to 2011, on April 1, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy assumed power after a landslide Nov. 8 election victory.

But while the hospital has maintained its original mission -- "free healthcare for everyone regardless of race and religion” -- others have moved to sew division, the country become more and more ethnically divided on the back of anti-Muslim sentiment from a group of nationalist monks.

Manjra says it is not just the political landscape that has changed; the economy has also blossomed thanks to a relaxing of sanctions as the army slowly made moves to forego complete control

“It was very difficult and extremely expensive to cure eye diseases when we first opened," the 81-year-old Muslim says from a small office full of donated materials and medicines in the hospital’s main building in Mahabandoola Park Street.

The large red brick hospital comprises three buildings; the main structure on Mahabandoola and two small buildings on 35th Street, all connected by overhead bridges.

"People from all across the country, even Buddhist monks, come here," he adds.

For three days a week, there is barely any free space at the hospital, with its front steps, stairwells and inpatient wards thronged with hundreds of people awaiting the treatment that would usually be beyond their reach due to the country's poorly funded healthcare system.

Departments specializing in surgery, obstetrics, gynaecology, eyes and psychiatry see around 300 outpatients a day, with treatments free to those deemed too poor to contribute, while a small fee is charged to those able to pay.

Manjra says he started to work for the hospital 52 years ago, observing the country's struggle for independence from its windows, and the long struggle to democracy.

The hospital almost ceased operation under military strongman Ne Win, who ruled the country for more than two decades following a military coup in 1962.

Under Ne Win's drastic reform program -- ''the Burmese Way to Socialism'' -- trade and industry was nationalized and Chinese and Indian entrepreneurs expelled.

Rice exports -- a key segment of the country's once-prosperous economy -- lagged, and black marketeers flourished.

By 1968, widespread corruption had settled in, and with it the resentment of government economic policies that helped lead to the demonstrations of 1988.

“We faced a serious shortage of all goods," Manjra says. "We had to pay a high price for medicines on the black market.”

He says that against such a complicated political backdrop, the hospital was determined to remain outside of politics, however in some instances the ill had nowhere else to go.

Mya Aye, a student leader in the 88 Uprising – the biggest mass demonstration against then Than Shwe's military junta -- tells Anadolu Agency that some people often went to the Muslim Free Hospital, as the junta pressured public and private hospitals not to accept them.

“Some political prisoners relied on it as no one else dared cure them,” the 50-year-old Muslim told Anadolu Agency, adding that the doctors sometimes secretly cured pro-democracy student activists.

"We were lucky," says Manjra. "No one forced us to stop operations at any time, [probably] because everyone knew that we had no bias and did not discriminate against anyone."

Since former President Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government took power in 2011, healthcare spending has been on the rise.

The government’s promotion of healthcare services has reportedly reduced patient’s medical expenses by half, with the number receiving treatment dramatically increasing, according to media reports and government data.

Manjra underlines that although Muslim Free Hospital is as busy as ever, there's been a change in the patients it treats.

According to hospital data, it received a total of 70282 outpatients last year, 33163 of whom were Muslim and 28469 Buddhist.

“We used to receive more Buddhist patients than Muslims,” says Manjra. “May be its because public hospitals have become more reliable, or perhaps it because of something else.”

Manjira refuses to directly comment on the growth in anti-Muslim sentiment in the predominantly Buddhist country, but admits that the decline in Buddhist patients started months after communal violence hit the country in late 2012.

“We've seen a decline since the conflict in Meikhtila,” he says.

In mid-2012, communal violence broke out in western Rakhine state between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists and then spread to other parts of the country such as the central town of Meikhtila, the second largest town in Mandalay.

As anti-Muslim sentiment grew, Buddhist nationalist group Ma Ba Tha urged followers to boycott Muslim-owned shops and businesses.

Manjra pauses for thought when asked whether it affected the hospital

“We try not to think of it; we just focus on our work,” he eventually says.

* The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) is a government department of Turkey's Prime Minister. It is responsible for the organization of the bulk of Turkey's official development assistance to developing countries.



By Kyaw Ye Lynn
April 12, 2016

Rights group calls on Suu Kyi-led government to break ‘decades-long cycle of politically motivated arrests,’ and free duo jailed under influence of Buddhist nationalists

YANGON, Myanmar -- An international rights group urged Myanmar’s new government Tuesday to pardon two Muslim activists who have been sentenced to two years prison on charges of contacting a blacklisted organization.

The two activists were prosecuted under pressure from a group of nationalist Buddhist monks responsible for a new set of laws governing race and religion -- an issue that continues to be a hot potato for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government.

Zaw Zaw Latt, 28, and Pyint Phyu Latt, 34, were found guilty Friday, the same day that the government released a total of 199 political prisoners after police dropped charges against them ahead of the country’s New Year holiday.

Lawyer Thein Than Oo has described the sentences as “totally unacceptable”, telling Anadolu Agency that his clients “were sentenced because they are Muslims, not for breaching any laws".

On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on democracy icon Suu Kyi to "include these activists in the pardon process”.

The New York-based group underlined that the pardon should be granted as the government had pledged to follow a definition of political prisoner agreed upon by the NLD and former political prisoner organizations in 2014.

Under the agreement, a political prisoner is defined as “anyone who is arrested, detained or imprisoned for political reasons under political charges, or wrongfully under criminal and civil charges because of his or her perceived or known active role, perceived or known supporting role, or association with activity promoting freedom, justice, equality, human rights and civil and political rights, including ethnic rights, is defined as a political prisoner.”

HRW Asia director, Brad Adams, said that in order to “break the decades-long cycle of politically motivated arrests of peaceful critics of the government and military, Burma’s [Myanmar's] new government should look systematically at laws long used to stifle basic freedoms.”

Last week, the newly formed government Legal Affairs and Special Cases Assessment Commission proposed the amendment or repeal of 142 laws used to prosecute political activists, including the Unlawful Association Act under which Zaw Zaw Latt and Pyint Phyu Latt were sentenced.

Despite Myanmar’s first civilian President Htin Kyaw taking office March 30, the military still controls -- under the junta-drafted constitution -- three key ministries including the home affairs ministry, which has authority over the Myanmar Police Force, the Corrections Department and the Special Branch.

“Until the constitution is amended to put the police fully under civilian control and oversight, the threat of political arrests will remain,” said Adams in Tuesday’s statement.

Last week’s sentence by a court in Mandalay, the second largest city and a stronghold of Buddhist nationalist monks, was the second two-year term handed to Zaw Zaw Latt and Pyint Phyu Latt after they were convicted on immigration offenses in February for a 2013 visit to Laiza city.

Laiza is under the control of Kachin Independence Army (KIA) rebels.

The two were jailed following a campaign by a nationalist monks' journal, which claimed Zaw Zaw Latt was working with “Buddhist monks who betray Buddhism” and referenced his contact with the KIA and the photograph of him holding a rifle.

“No one knows who he will be pointing the gun at [next],” claimed journal Ahtu Mashi.

The NLD has been placed under intense pressure from observers and rights groups to solve religious discrimination in the country, while at the same time acting without offending Buddhist hardline groups such as Ma Ba Tha (the Race and Religion Protection Organization) which hold tremendous political sway.

The group draws its support from the country's uneducated Buddhist masses, and so early into its presidency the NLD may be unprepared to take on a court decision which many rights groups see as being influenced by Ma Ba Tha.

A Rohingya woman and her child standing near a fishing village in Teknaf, Bangladesh - home for many undocumented refugees. (Credit: Kazi Fahmida Farzana)

Rohingya refugees living in a camp in Bangladesh have developed a multi-dimensional social fabric that is more complex than the common refugee narratives depicted in some reports.

Selangor, Malaysia, Apr 12, 2016 - The Rohingya are an ethnic minority group from Myanmar, many of who have been displaced to surrounding countries due to targeted military violence against them. Kazi Farzana from the Universiti Utara Malaysia spent six months observing and interviewing 30 refugees in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) Nayapara camp, located in the southernmost part of Bangladesh on the border with Myanmar. The camp has been home to an estimated 18,500 refugees since 1991.

Reports by international agencies have documented the deplorable living conditions of Rohingyas in refugee camps. But the narratives, says Dr. Farzana, leave out the refugees' perception of their own lives. Despite the limitations of camp life, Dr. Farzana found the youth have managed to develop strong negotiation and basic survival skills.

Her paper, published in the Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, addresses the dynamics of dispute and collaboration among the camp's refugees and with the government and UNHCR personnel responsible for its management.

Dr. Farzana interviewed youth above the age of 25 and found they were in a constant struggle to establish their basic human rights. Although given basic food and shelter, they are not provided with education beyond the primary level. They are also prohibited from gathering in groups larger than five, leaving the camp without official permission, and working in the local villages. The Bangladeshi government maintains strict control over the camp and allows the UNHCR, the main aid agency working in the camp, very limited freedom to provide basic services.

Despite these difficulties, some youth have found a way to work within the camp selling vegetables and weaving fishnets, for example, while others have managed to illegally find work outside the camp, such as fishing, farming and other low-skilled labour. This involves developing relationships with the camp's authorities and paying them bribes so they can temporarily leave the camp.

The Rohingya youth also use song and art to document their reflections on their lives and beliefs, and to maintain a connection to their identity.

Power blocs and interest groups exist within the camp and mediate between the refugees on the one hand and government and aid agencies on the other.

"The clearer picture that emerges from this everyday experience of camp life is the systematic and constant reminder that the refugees are outsiders and foreign in origin," writes Dr. Farzana. As a result, she says, their identity of "otherness" is constantly reinforced.

Dr. Farzana recommends that future research looks in greater detail at the plight of female refugees and the multiple forms of violence they face. Researchers should also investigate claims of radicalization among some Rohingya refugees. Finally, she recommends comparative international research on issues of statelessness and the politics of identity among refugees and exiled communities. "The Rohingya case is far from being an isolated issue, and Myanmar and Bangladesh are far from being the only states to be implicated in matters of forced migration," she says.

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Kazi Farzana
School of International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia

About Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities (JSSH)

Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities (JSSH) is published by Universiti Putra Malaysia in English and is open to authors around the world regardless of nationality. It is published four times a year in March, June, September and December. Other Pertanika series include Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science (JTAS), and Pertanika Journal of Science & Technology (JST).

JSSH aims to develop as a pioneer journal for the social sciences with a focus on emerging issues pertaining to the social and behavioural sciences as well as the humanities. Areas relevant to the scope of the journal include Social Sciences - Accounting, anthropology, Archaeology and history, Architecture and habitat, Consumer and family economics, Economics, Education, Finance, Geography, Law, Management studies, Media and communication studies, Political sciences and public policy, Population studies, Psychology, Sociology, Technology management, Tourism; Humanities - Arts and culture, Dance, Historical and civilisation studies, Language and Linguistics, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Religious studies, Sports.

The journal publishes original academic articles dealing with research on issues of worldwide relevance. The journals cater for scientists, professors, researchers, post-docs, scholars and students who wish to promote and communicate advances in the fields of Social Sciences & Humanities research.


The paper is available from this link:

For more information about the journal, contact:

The Chief Executive Editor (UPM Journals)
Head, Journal Division, UPM Press
Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (R&I)
IDEA Tower 2, UPM-MDTC Technology Centre
Universiti Putra Malaysia
43400 Serdang, Selangor
Malaysia.
Phone: +603 8947 1622 | +6016 217 4050
Email: nayan@upm.my

Press release distributed by ResearchSEA for Pertanika Journal. 

Original here.
By Imam Malik Mujahid
April 12, 2016

Last week the newly appointed minister of Religious Affairs Aung Ko told the Voice of America that only Buddhists were considered “full citizens” of Burma, while Muslims and other minorities counted as “associate citizens”. Except a little whisper, unfortunately, this incendiary comment failed to create an outrage within Burma. There was no official statement from the government. No monks distanced themselves from the position taken by Mr. Ko.

Further complicating the situation, a few days latter the minister of Religious Affairs decided to pay homage to Ashin Wirathu, the self-proclaimed Bin Laden of Burma whose incitements to violence against Muslims have been partly responsible for the severe persecution of the Rohingya ethnoreligious minority in Rakhine State, Burma. Seven Nobel laureates have declared this persecution a “textbook case of genocide” at the 2015 Oslo Conference at the Nobel Peace Institute. The time for Mr. Ko to make this public clarification of his views on Muslim citizenship is surely now.

For years we were making excuses for Ms Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Laureate, when she remained silent on the Rohingya issue, that she is silent so that she can win the elections. Well, now she is in power but still silent. It is a golden opportunity for her to set the tone for her administration. She needs to publicly state that all Burmese citizens are full citizens with full rights and responsibilities with no regards to religious or ethnic differences.

While Buddhism as a religion espouses acceptance and compassion, radical groups like the Ma Ba Tha promote only hate and are rightfully listed as such by the US Congress. Their motivation for persecuting Rohingya – including cancelling their citizenship; prohibiting them from travelling from village to village; and expelling Doctors without Borders from the region to reduce medical care in the community – stems not from the principles of their faith but from fear, anger, and hatred. The new government, rather than stoking the flames, should do all they can to ensure their department of religious affairs brings an end to the hostilities currently being expressed.

No U.S. Citizen would be happy being told their citizenship is second-class to others because of an immutable characteristic. Wait … U.S. Citizens have been told that, repeatedly, & their response has been to agitate for change until it is no longer socially or politically permissible to do so. Blacks, women, Native Americans, and Muslims after September 11th are all groups locked in this struggle in American society. Since this country knows so well what it takes to restore legal rights to disenfranchised populations, it is our duty to raise awareness about what is happening in Burma and increase pressure on Burmese elected officials to make the same changes we have made over our short history as an independent nation. The role of government is to be an equal arbiter of the law, and to care equally for all its citizens, not to distinguish which religious groups deserve basic human rights & which do not.

Fortunately, there are some Burmese Buddhists who stand tall in the face of extremist racism. At the ‘15 Oslo Conference, Burma Task Force, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and other organizers honored three Burmese Buddhist monks for their contributions to saving lives during anti-Muslim violence. Their names were U Withudda, U Seindita, and U Zawtikka and they risked their lives to shelter Muslims in their monasteries away from mobs who’d harm and kill them. The Muslims they save number in the hundreds. Citizen Mg Mg, who hid in U Withudda’s monastery, told Burmese news paper the Irrawaddy “We could not depend on the help of police or local administrators.” How ever, they could depend on these interfaith activists, who were willing to risk the violence of a mob to uphold their human rights. As a nation, we must emulate these monks’ actions, and be to the government of Burma what the monks were to the mobs. We fail to uphold our own Constitution and our own founding values if we fail to protect them.

(Imam Malik Mujahid is Chair of Burma Task Force USA.)

Children inside a makeshift school in a Rohingya refugee camp in Jammu. (Photo: Al Jazeera)

By Moazum Mohammad
April 10, 2016

Srinagar: A minor Rohingya girl ran for her life when a mob went on a rampage in her village in Burma and burnt several houses, including hers. It was only the beginning of a long nightmare.

After the incident of arson and loot, she took shelter in a neighbour’s home in a neighbouring village. She had no idea where her parents had gone in their flight for safety.

“I could not search my parents physically in Burma because a shutdown was observed there. Their phone was also switched off,” said the girl, who is currently in the custody of the J&K government.

The man, in whose home she had taken shelter, misled her into believing that her family was in Bangladesh. Once she arrived in Bangladesh with him, she was told that they have gone to India.

About six months ago (she doesn’t remember exact dates), she was brought to Seer, Ashmuqam in Anantnag district and married off to one Shabir Ahmad son of Ghulam Nabi.

“I was told my Nikkah has been performed with that old man. But I questioned how could they perform my Nikkah without my consent and threatened them I will report to the police. They later kept me as a maid.”

“One day I got an opportunity to call my parents from Shabir’s father’s mobile phone. They told me they had never left Burma. I have them my address and they informed my maternal uncle who is living as a refugee in Delhi. They also gave him the phone number of Shabir’s father,” she told Kashmir Reader.

Her maternal uncle got in touch with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in India, who contacted a lawyer, Faisal Shah, in the Valley in January this year.

Faisal, along with her uncle, attempted to filed a complaint with police in Ashmuqam but it was not registered.

“The SHO Ashmuqam told me the family has bought her for Rs 70,000 and refused to register the complaint,” said Faisal, who filed a writ petition in the High Court and rescued the girl from that family.

However, despite having faced hardships, the girl does not want to file a case against them.

“For six-months, I had to clean the house, do the work in their fields and take care of cattle in the house. I was not paid anything,” she said, “But I am a Muslim. How am I different from them if I file a case against them? My only wish is to go home. ”

Faisal said the court is waiting for a response from the ministry of home and external affairs. The next step will be decided by the communication from the ministry.

“I hope she will be deported to her home soon,” he said.

Aman Ullah
RB History
April 10, 2016

The earliest name of Arakan was ‘Kala Mukha’ (Land of the) Black Faces writes Noel Francis Singer in his book ‘Vaishali and the Indianization of Arakan’. It was inhabited by these dark brown-colored Indians who had much in common with the people (today’s Bangladeshis, or more particularly Chittagonians) living on the north-western side of the Naaf River, along the adjoining coastal areas of the Bay of Bengal. The resemblance was not limited to physical features like skin color, shape of head and nose alone, but also in shared culture and beliefs. 

It had been a Hindu land since time immemorial. As evidenced by numerous archeological finds, it is obvious that the Hindu colonists, fuelled by their need for trade and commerce, gold and silver, first colonized the region in the early 1st century CE. By the 3rd century, the coastal regions of Kala Mukha had been settled, with the colonists dominating and coexisting warily with the aboriginal tribes. The Lords of the Solar and Lunar dynasties from far off Bharatavarsha had indeed arrived. In the major habitation sites, Sanskrit was the written language for the ruling classes, and religious beliefs were those current at the time on the subcontinent. 

Dr. Emil Forchhammer, a Swiss Professor of Pali at Rangoon College, and Superintendent of the newly founded Archaeological Survey [1881] described this fertile region that, "The earliest dawn of the history of Arakan reveals the base of the hills, which divide the lower course of the Kaladan and Lemro rivers, inhabited by sojourners from India, governed by chiefs who claim relationship with the rulers of Kapilavastu. Their subjects are divided into the four castes of the older Hindu communities; the kings and priests study the three Vedas; the rivers, hills, and cities bear names of Aryan origin; and the titles assumed by the king and queen regent suggest connection with the Solar and Lunar dynasties of India.”

The second phase of Indianization of Arakan occurred between the 4th and the 6th century CE, by which time the colonists had established their kingdom, and named their capital Vaishali. As a port city, Vaishali was in contact with Samatat (the planes of lower Bangladesh) and other parts of India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Historically, these early rulers came to be known as the Chandras and controlled the territories as far north as Chittagong. 

Dr Johnston, an epigraphist of Balliol College, Oxford, who translated the Sanskrit inscription (circa 729) of Ananda Chandra felt that the region had come under the control of the descendents of the [Licchavi] ruling family from Vaishali, Bihar, when they fled from the ascendancy of the Imperial Guptas (circa 300-467). According to him, as the time scale corresponds with the second surge of Hindu migration into Southeast Asia, and the creation of the new Vaishali, when the Licchavi, under Dven Chandra (circa 370-425) established a Chandra vamsa (Lunar dynasty); previously the Licchavi claimed to be of the Surya vamsa (Solar dynasty). 

The Anand Chandra Inscription, which contains 65 verses (71 and a half lines) and now sited at the Shitthaung pagoda, provides some information about these early rulers. Interestingly, neither the name of the kingdom or the two premier cities – Dhanyavati and Vaishali – is mentioned. This 11-foot high monolith, unique in entire Burma, has three of its four faces inscribed in a Nagari script, which is closely allied to those of Bengali and north-eastern India. 

The script on the panel on the east face is believed by Johnston to be the oldest. According to Pamela Gutman it was similar to the type of script used in Bengal (Bangladesh) during the early 6th century CE. As to the panel on the north face, Johnston mentioned that several smaller inscriptions in Bengali characters had been added in the 10th century. Gutman however felt that the principal text in this section is of the mid-11th century CE. The panel on the west face, which is reasonably preserved, is believed by Gutman to be of the earlier part of the 8th century. This priceless document not only lists the personalities of each monarch but also some of the major events of every reign.

So who is this Ananda Chandra? In verse 64, it clearly says that he was a descendant of the Saiva-Andhra monarch whose kingdom was located between the Godavari and Krishna Rivers of Bengal, and close to the Bay of Bengal. The founder of this new dynasty was Vajra Sakti who reigned circa 649-665 CE. His successor was Sri Dharma Vijaya, who reigned from circa 665-701. As noted by Singer, and much in contrast to Rakhine claims, Dharma Vijaya was not a Theravada Buddhist, but probably a Mahayanist. The next in line was Narendra Vijaya who reigned from circa 701 to 704 CE. The next to rule was Sri Dharma Chandra, who reigned from 704 to 720 CE. He was the father of Ananda Chandra who was a munificent patron of Mahayana Buddhism and Hindu institutions.

Archaeological remains, many historical and numismatics evidence confirms that it was a Hindu Indian state in the style of that period. According to MS Collis, “The area now known as north Arakan had been for many years before the 8th century the seat of Hindu dynasties; in 788 A.D. a new dynasty known as the Chandra, founded the city of Wesali; this city became a noted trade port to which as many as a thousand ships came annually; the Chandra kings were upholders of Buddhism, guarding and glorifying the Mahamunni shrine; their territory extended as far north as Chittagong; the dynasty came to an end in 957 A.D. being overwhelmed by a Mongolian invasion. The conclusion to be drawn from this MS. is that Wesali was an easterly Hindu kingdom of Bengal, following the Mahayanist form of Buddhism and that both government and people were Indian as the Mongolian influx had not yet occurred.”

History does not help us in forming an idea of Burmese infiltration into Arakan before 11th century. Hall and others described the Araknese (Rakhines) of today as “basically Burmese with an unmistakable Indian admixture …It is only about the 11th century that we can speak of a people of Indo-Mongoloid stock, from an ethnic group in the intermixture of tribes of various ethnic origins, such as, Australoid, Mongoloid and other elements now known as Arakanese Buddhist. 

The Rakhines were the last significant group to come to Arakan. They appear to have been an advance guard of Burmans who began to cross the Arakan Yoma in ninth century. And they “could not be genealogically the same as to the people of Dannya Waddy and Wethali dynasties.” In old Burmese the name Rakhine first appeared in slave names in the inscriptions of 12th century. Dr. S.B. Kanango, said the name Rakhine was given by Burman and it was found in 12th to 15th century stone inscriptions of Tuparon, Sagaing. In early days not a single inscription was found in present day speaking Rakhine language. “The scripture of those early days found in Arakan indicate that they were in early Bengali script and thence the culture there also was Bengali.” Hence earlier dynasties are thought to have been Indians, ruling over a population similar to that of Bengal”

But in medieval times there was a reorientation eastward; the area fell under Pagan’s dominance, and Arakanese people began to speak a dialect of Burmese, something that continues to this day. With Burmese influence came ties to Ceylon and the gradual prominence of Theravada Buddhism.

Arabs were the earliest people to travel to the east by sea. They were in contact with Arakan even during the pre-Islamic days. The Arakanese first received the message of Islam from the ship wracked Arabs in 788 A.D. Such ship-wrecks were occurred over and over in the coasts of Arakan and Chittagong.

This Arab presence, with the message of Islam, made up the nucleus of Muslim society in Arakan. Thus in Wesali the Arakanese practiced Hinduism, Mahayanist form of Buddhism and Islam. The Burmese military regime affirmed in its official book Sasana Ronwas Htunzepho, published in 1997, “Islam spread and deeply rooted in Arakan since 8th century from where it further spread into interior Burma”.

MS Collis, in collaboration with San Shwe Bu, wrote in his article ‘Arakan place in the civilization of the Bay’ that, “Such was the kingdom of Wesali, an Indian state in the style of the period. But in 957 A.D. occurred an event which was to change it from an Indian into an Indo-Chinese realm and to endow the region of Arakan with its present characteristics. The "True Chronicle" records that in the year 957 A.D., a Mongolian invasion swept over Wesali, destroyed the Chandras and placed on their throne Mongolian kings. This important statement can fortunately be amply substantiated. Over the border in Bengal the same deluge carried away the Pala kings. The evidence for this latter irruption is fully cited in a paper by Mr. Banerji and there is no doubt that the Mongolian invasion, which terminated the ruler of the Palas, closed also the epoch of the Chandras. But while in Bengal the Hindus regained their supremacy in a few years, it would seem that in Arakan the entry of the Mongolians was decisive. They cut Arakan away from India and mixing in sufficient number with the inhabitants of the east side of the present Indo-Burma divide, created that Indo-Mongoloid stock now known as the Arakanese. This emergence of a new race was not the work of a single invasion. The MSS record subsequent Mongolian incursions. But the date 957 A.D. may be said to mark the appearance of the Arakanese, and the beginning of a fresh period.”

Wilhelm Klein, in his book ‘Burma the Golden’ wrote that, ‘all sudden, Arakan changed. The invading tribes made the country face east, away from India. As Burma began to flex its muscles, the profound changes born at Pagan started to transform Arakan... over the centuries the physiognomy of the Arakanese people changed. The racial admixture of Indo-European with only recently arrived Central Asians became predominantly Mongoloid, an ethnic mixture which still characterizes today’s Arakanese.’


    • Rohingya Exodus