ORIGIN OF ROHINGYA MUSLIMS IN MYANMAR: A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

Outline

1. Introduction
2. Research Method
3. Muslim Settlement in the Arakan Region during the Pre-British Colonial Period (Eighth to Eighteenth Centuries)
4. Identity of the Muslims Dwelling in the Arakan Region as the Rohingyas
5. Root of the Crisis: British Period (Eighteenth to Twentieth Centuries)
6. Current Situations of the Rohingyas (Tweentieth Century to Date)
7. Conclusion

ORIGIN OF ROHINGYA MUSLIMS IN MYANMAR: A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

Author: Sajib Bala

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2022v43n2a5

ABSTRACT

This article explores the contested origin of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. One of the dominant views is that Rohingyas are illegal immigrants in Burma (now Myanmar) from Bengal during and after the British colonial period. Consequently, they have been denied many civil and political rights, grossly undermining their citizenship rights. Furthermore, several crackdowns on the Rohingyas in the Arakan region, renamed the Rakhine state in 1974, have forced them to flee to neighbouring countries, thus making them stateless. However, there has been a counter-narrative sympathetic to the Rohingyas, which argues that the Rohingyas are the genuine inhabitants of Myanmar, having a centuriesold history of habitation in the Arakan region, with their original settlement dating back to the pre-British colonial period. By addressing the polemics with the periodization of historical evidence, this article traces the origin of the Rohingyas in the Rakhine state. The paper uses the content analysis method and reviews extensive historical evidence. It argues that the Rohingyas have lived in the region for centuries since the pre-British colonial period, thus refuting their contested origin in Myanmar.

BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

Outline