It gives me distinct pleasure to post an article of Dr. Shwe Lu Maung on a subject on which he is perhaps the foremost authority. He agreed to my suggestion on writing about the Rohingya Crisis which has morphed into another genocidal campaign of which he has been warning us since the publication of his book - Muslim-Buddhist War of Bangladesh and Myanmar - The Price of Silence, in 2005, nearly 12 years ago. I am truly indebted to him. Here below I post his entire article.
===========================
Rohingya Cultural Anthropology by Dr. Shwe Lu Maung
(The
author's note: The account given here is a very short summary of the facts
drawn from my published books. Deeper and broader presentations and discussions
can be found in my books).
Myanmar, with her rich cultural and natural resources,
has every potential to be a world leader that everybody will love. However, to
my anguish:-
With hate ideology and violent persecution of the
Rohingya people Myanmar has now entered into the darkest era of human civilization
in the post WWII. Based on the 1990
Myanmar election data, I calculated
in my book
The
Price of Silence (2005), p 252,
that there were 1.87 million Rohingya in a total population of around 4
millions in the
Rakhine
State, in 1990. Today,
based on the latest United Nations and media reports as of September 29, 2017, Rohingya
exodus passed half a million mark at 501,000, in addition to earlier mass
exoduses since 1978.
As such, there is left
less than 500,000 Rohingya inside
Myanmar. That means more than 73%
of Rohingya population has been forced out of
Myanmar.
Beyond
doubt, this is 'ethnic cleansing'.
In
the statues of International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the 'ethnic cleansing' is
defined as a 'crime against humanity' and depending upon the severity it may amount to genocide. In spite of the obvious brutal
scorched-earth criminal activities of the Myanmar authorities it is saddening
to see that certain powers are putting blame on 'Rohingya,' as the central
cause of the crisis, asserting that 'Rohingya' is a political construct of the
Bengali illegal immigrants to gain a hold in Myanmar. At the same time, undue
supports to the Myanmar authorities are being showered by certain powers with
the hope of getting a mega slice of Myanmar natural resources and economic
benefit. Rohingya Mayu region is rich in gas, oil, and coal.
Under
such global attitude of greed for power and money, how shall a common man like
me go against the world powers, against the socio-economic currents, and fight
for justice in this case of Myanmar’s crimes
against humanity? At least, with the hope that, one day, there will be an
international tribunal for Myanmar
crimes against humanity, I can try to tell the factual story with a
presentation of the Rohingya cultural anthropology, which constitutes a strong
antithesis of the Myanmar
hate ideology.
Part 1: The Rohingya - a legend, not a myth
A legend is a tradition or history based on
the actual event, extraordinary in nature, in a distant past, whereas a myth is
purely a make-to-believe imaginary fictional story.
Let us see. Myanmar accuses that Rohingya is a
political construct of the Mujahideens in 1958 in light of the
absence of the word "Rohingya" in the existing Myanmar
historical records. However, upon a careful examination, I find that the
existence of Rohingya is manifested in the Rakhine chronicles by the Rakhine
historians themselves, such as Rakhine Maha Razawin by Saya Me, written
in 1840. The first book on Myanmar
(Burma)
history by a non-Burman is History
of Burma by Sir Arthur Phayre, published
by Trübner & Co., London,
in 1833. This is the earliest and most reliable recorded history of Burma written
by a person who had long experience in Arakan and Myanmar from 1824 to 1867 as a
soldier, diplomat and governor. The following is his description of Arakan.
“The country known in Europe as Arakan extends for 350 miles along the
eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal. It is called by the natives Rakhaingpyi, or
land of the Rakhaing. The same word in the Pali form, Yakkho, and also Raksha,
is applied to beings, some good and some bad, who have their abode on Mount Meru,
and are guards round the mansion
of Sekra or Indra." (Sir
Arthur Phayre, History of Burma, 1883, p 41).
This is a legend but not a myth. The Myanmar version
of Mt. Meru is Mt. Mayu.
In Burmese dialects 'e' and 'a' sounds are indistinguishable and 'r' is
pronounced as 'y', like 'Yangon' for 'Rangoon'. Now, it is a
striking coincidence that we have the Rohingya people in the region along the
ridge, east and west, of Mt.
Mayu, in Arakan. "Rohingya"
is a derivative of the Sanskrit word "Raksha" whereas
"Rakhine" comes from the Pali version "Rakkha." (For more
detail consult The
Rakhine State Violence, Vol. 2: The Rohingya). It is also possible that
the term "Ra-khine-thar" simply is a Burmese transliteration of
"Ra-k-sha." The words mean a guard or soldier in English. They are
the soldiers who guard Mt.
Meru, the abode of King
Indra of Heaven. The oriental cosmology with Mt. Meru
as the center of universe is the main stay in Myanmar culture. In Burmese literature, Mt. Meru
is popular as Myint Mohr, Myint for Mount and Mohr is the direct adaptation of
Devanāgarī Meru into Burmese script. While Mt. Meru
is an object of belief, Mt.
Mayu in Arakan is a
reality. In deed, we do not know when or who gave the name. When I try
to connect the dots in the "out-of-African" human migration that
gradually populated the world, it makes me ponder when I find that
Mt. Meru also
exists near the
Tanzanian
Olduvai Gorge, the famous archaeological site of human evolution, where the
fossils of the early human species
Homo habilis,
Paranthropus boisei,
Homo erectus, and
Homo sapiens have been found. In the midway of
Tanzania and
Arakan, another
Mt. Meru stands
in Garhwal Himalayas of the Uttarakhand region,
India.
In Arakan, it is a fact bigger than reality
to find Mt. Meru, or Mt. Mayu
in Burmese, is guarded by the Rohingya of Raksha descent. Raksha or ogre is the
identity given to the native dark skin people by the invaders of light skin
color. A similar scenario can be found in Sri Lanka history of the invader
Prince Vijaya and the native ogre woman called Kuveni. Therefore, it is sound to conclude that the term "Rohingya"
is not a myth of 1958 political construct by the then Mujahideens, but a legend
embedded with facts and recorded in the Rakhine chronicles written by the
Rakhine themselves.
Then, the question arises: who are the
Rakhine?
Part 2: The Rakhine - children of the
conquerors.
The legendary aboriginality of the Rohingya
is supported by the Rakhine's claim that they are the descendants of the
conquerors and the indigenous people. Most distinctly, the most famous and
prominent Rakhine intellectual, aristocratic politician and Barister-at-law, U
Kyaw Min (ICS, MP), who was one
of the elite eight Indian Civil Service (ICS) of all British Burma, and a Member of Parliament
(MP) from 1950 to 1962 in
the independent Burma, representing the Rakhine political party known as Ratanya
(Arakan National United Organization), asserted that "the Arakanese people
are of Aryan stock mixed with the indigenous people who have inhabited Arakan
from time immemorial," in his extremely popular pamphlet The Arakan State,
the Pye Daw Tha Press, 1958, see page 1, Mistaken Belief. He wrote it in
a serious rebuttal to the Burmese assertion that the Rakhine are also the
Burmese who have acquired some distinct characteristics due to localization for
a long time. The Rakhine being the descendents of the Indo-Aryan stock is the
well accepted Rakhine legend. Every Rakhine will proudly say as such,
regardless of his or her biometric phenotype.
How come? A satisfactory answer came from
another famous Rakhine intellectual U San Tha Aung, who was a professor of
physics, and became the Vice Chancellor of Rangoon University and then the
Director General of Higher Education in the days of Ne Win's regime. In his
famous book The
Buddhist Art of Ancient Arakan, Chapter 1: Geographical Description, Subheading:
The Peoples of Arakan, he wrote, "The earliest people who lived in
Arakan were Negritos who are mentioned in the chronicles as "Bilus"
(cannibals). They appear to have been the direct neolithic descendents of the
Arakanese soil. Later, waves of peoples of different races came into this land
from the north." Based on the
legends of First Dhannyawaddi Kingdom
recorded in the Arakanese chronicles, it is possible that the Indo-Aryan
peoples of Northern India conquered Arakan in
an ancient past, most likely in the days of Great Mauryan Empire 322 to 187 BCE. The first king of Dhannyawady Kingdom
was Marayu, which is a corruption of Maurya. In this regard, I must say that
the Rakhine historians placing of the King Marayu in 2600 BCE is a mysterious
error. The language of the Mauryan Empire was Magadha. This is the reason why the
Rakhine people say that every body spoke Magadha in the old days and now,
only the birds do so. U San Tha Aung believed that the Magadha-speaking Rakhine
were known as Magh or Mogh by the people of Bengal. Up to today some Bengali and Rohingya call
the Rakhine Mogh. However, they say a 'Mogh' means a 'pirate', referring to a
period of the Portuguese and Rakhine pirates operating in the Bay
of Bengal in early 1600s. I agree with U San Tha Aung since the
term Magh or Mogh existed much earlier than the age of the Portuguese pirates.
Again, in support of the Magadha origin, the scholars also know that a Bengali
poet named Daulat
Qazi who served the Rakhine king Thiri Thu-Dhamma Raja (r.1622-1638 CE), in
his epic poem ‘Satî Mainâ’, mentioned Magadha descent of the king and his
kingdom as follow.
“To the east of the river Karnafuli there is
a palace, Roshang
City by name – like the Heaven.
There rules the glorious king of Magadha descent
a follower
of the Buddha,
Name being Sri Sudhamma Raja, renown for his
justice.
His power is like the morning sun, famous in
the world,
Grooms the subjects like his own children.
Reveres
the Lord [Buddha] and purely religious,
One’s sins are forgiven when one sees his
feet…”
It is important note that the 17th century
poet of the Arakan
Palace, Daulat Qazi, used
the word 'Roshang' but not 'Rakhine'.
Now, the Rakhine also claim that they are
also the descendants of Rakha (Rakkha) or Bilu. Rakkha is the Pali version of
the Sanskrit word "Raksha." Sanskrit is an earlier language than
Pali. Therefore, it is reasonable to accept that the Pali version Rakkha became
prominent when the ancient land
of Arakan was conquered
around 322 BCE and ruled by the Mauryans who spoke Magadha, a Pali
language. Both U Kyaw Min and U San Tha Aung clearly believed that the Rakhine
are the descendants of the conquerors, the Magadha-speaking Mauryans, and the
indigenous people. As such, they came to be
known as the Rakhine in Pali version. In light of these statements, it is
reasonable to believe that the Sanskrit version 'Rohingya' and the Pali version
'Rakhine' diverged beginning at the time of the Mauryan rule of Dhannyawady Kingdom. So must also be the Rohingya,
the natives, and the Rakhine, the children of the conquerors married to natives.
Then, the question arises: why the Rakhine
speaks a Burmese dialect today? The answer came from the internationally
accepted history. It is a common knowledge that the Mauryan Empire fell and the
Dyannyawadi Kingdom also vanished. Then, there
emerged Sanskrit-speaking Three City Kingdoms, namely Samatata, Harikela, and
Vesālī, with the symbol of Śrīvatsa. Today, the Rakhine State Flag still is
embedded with the symbol of Śrīvatsa. The former two kingdoms are in today’s Chittagong
region and Vesālī is in today’s Rakhine State
of Myanmar.
Rakhine Vesālī was ruled by a dynasty bearing the name Chandra, using Sanskrit
as its royal language, but we do not know the language of the commoners in that
period. No matter what, Vesālī was conquered by the Burmese in 957 as per
candid description of Maurice Collis who in his famous book The Land of Great
Image (1943, pp 136-137) wrote that Arakan was conquered by the
"Mongolian barbarians" in 957 CE and as a result, the inhabitants are
"a mixture of Mongolian and Indian races."
Maurice Collis was a British Commissioner of
Arakan and his knowledge of Arakan is formidable. He is in agreement with
Professor Daniel George Edward Hall, who was the founding father of the
Department of History at Rangoon
University in 1921.
Professor Hall wrote in his book, A history of Southeast
Asia (1964), that Burmese arrived at Arakan only in the 10th
century AD and the earlier kingdoms of Arakan belonged to the Indians
"ruling over a population similar to that of Bengal."
Again, these historical events are supported by another prominent scholar, Randy J. LaPolla, who is
currently a Professor, at the Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies,
Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore. He
wrote, "The people we have come to think of as the Burmese had been in Yunnan, under the
control of the Nanzhao kingdom, and moved down into Burma beginning in the middle of
the ninth century." (See
p. 237 of Randy J. LaPolla, The role of migration and language ... Case Studies
in Language Change, Oxford University Press, November 2001). According to him, the Burmese established
themselves by conquering the Pyu and the Mon. Later, they conquered Arakan.
Since then, the Rakhine has been under the influence of the Burmese.
Consequently, the Rakhine today speaks a dialect of Burmese and, in deed, the
Burmese blood also runs in them. As such, the Rakhine are a mixed population of
the aborigines Negritos, Mauryans who are the Northern Indo-Aryans, and the
Burmese of Yunan origin. That is why you will find many skin color shades, from
black, yellow, golden to snow-white, among the Rakhine. I can see these beautiful
phenotypes in my clan. I came from a large and well-established clan whose
forebears founded and ruled Laymro and Mrauk-U dynasties from 13th to 18th
century. I have relatives and distant relatives through out Arakan spanning
from Bandarban and Cox's Bazar area of Bangladesh to Taungup and Gwa area
of Rakhine State, Myanmar. I came to realize this
amazing genetic diversity when I learned Mendelian inheritance laws and Punnett
Squares at Rangoon
University and I am proud
that I am a Homo sapiens having a rich gene pool, though I am not a
tall, dark and handsome man.
Similarly, today Rohingya are no longer the
Raksha of the ancient days. Their gene pool has been enriched by the waves of new
settlers in the days of the Arakan Empire as described by the famous poet Alaol
in his epic poem, Padmavati (1648).
Part 3: The Rohingya of Central
Arakan
It will be naive to say that there is no
Bengali in Arakan. Based on the commonness of mtDNA macrohaplogroup M in both Bengal and Myanmar, a very similar, if not the
same, population must have lived in both regions some 10,000 to 40,000 years
ago. Thousands of years passed and Professor DGE Hall, based on the
archaeological artifacts, found evidence that before the Burmese occupation in
the 10th century Arakan had a similar population to that
of Bengal. We must keep in our mind that what
we now know as Bengal and Burma (Myanmar) took
their respective politico-cultural shapes only in the 12th century. Accordingly,
the first recorded Bengali settlers in Arakan are the soldiers of Sultan
Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah of Gaur, then the capital of independent Bengal, who were given to the dethroned Rakhine King Mun
Saw Mwan, to restore his throne from the Burmese occupation in 1430 CE.
The
Burmese hatred towards the Bengali probably began here. The number of soldiers
described by the scholars varies from 30,000 to 50,000 but we do not know how
many stayed on. We do know that a good number of the Bengali soldiers served
the Rakhine kings of Arakan from 1430 to 1784. The Rakhine kings ruled the
twelve cities of
Bengal, including
Chittagong for 150 years.
Many captives from the occupied areas were forced to slave-labor in the paddy
fields of the Rakhine kings as witnessed and recorded by the
Portuguese
Augustinian friar Sebastião Manrique's in 1628. With the help of the
Bengali and with the revenues and exploits from
Bengal,
Arakan prospered.
Even the most famous
king of Arakan Min Bin (r.1531-1553) had Bengali queens as noted by Professor
Pamela Gutman in her book Burma's
Lost Kingdoms: Splendours of Arakan (p. 100).
As such, even the Rakhine royals carried the Bengali genes.
In
the course of time, they all became Arakanized and mostly settled in the
central Arakan, not in the northern Arakan. Their descendents prefer to be
known as the Rakhine Muslims. Again,
R.B.
Smart on the page 90 of his report wrote, "They (Mussalmen) differ but
little from the Arakanese except in their religion and in the social customs
which their religion directs; in writing they use Burmese, but amongst
themselves employ colloquially the language of their ancestors. Long residence
in this
enervating climate and the
example set by them
, the people among whom they
have resided for generations
, have had the
effect of rendering these people almost as indolent and extravagant as the
Arakanese themselves." This I know because I had Muslim friends in my
school and university days and about 10% of them, with trust, confided me that
they were the descendents of these Arakanized Bengali and that they had Rakhine
father or mother in their family tree, and therefore they are also the
'Rakhaingthar' or 'Roshangya'. This is the reality of cultural anthropology brought
about by the Arakan Empire and, naturally, we must accept its manifestations in
every aspect.
Most
of the Arakanese Muslim soldiers were killed, along with their Arakanese
Buddhist comrades in defense of Arakan against the Burmese occupational war in
1784. During the Burmese genocidal occupation of Arakan from 1784 to 1824, some
250,000 Arakanese people
(The Price
of Silence (2005), p 244), both Buddhists and Muslims, were killed and
more than 100,000 were enslaved by the Burmese kings either as the forced labor
to build the pagodas (e.g. Mingun), and water reservoirs (e.g.
Meiktila Lake), or as the conscripts in their
fight against
Siam
(now
Thailand).
Near the Thai border, a southern Burmese community known as the Beik-thar (also
known as Myeik) is made up of the descendents of the Rakhine soldiers who
settled there during the Burmese-Siamese Wars (1785-1812). They still speak
Burmese with distinctive Rakhine accent.
Many Arakanese Muslims were forced to dig
Meiktila Lake and they are known as the Mye-du
(Muslim), meaning earth-diggers. Today, they live in or around the city of
Meiktila and suffered
serious attack from the Buddhist extremists in 2013.
At the
event of the 1784 Burmese genocidal occupation of Arakan, the people of Arakan
(Arakanese), including Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and animists, fled. Later,
many more fled from the brutality of the Burmese occupational forces. Again,
more people fled from the First Anglo-Burma War (1824-1826). Most of them
returned to Arakan when the British occupied it
in 1826. The return of the Arakanese Buddhists, Hindus, and animists are viewed
as the return of the natives by the today Burmese authorities, but the return
of the Arakanese Muslims is considered as the Bengali infiltration and they now
face the ethnic cleansing. Therefore, we
must carefully review the historical records. Two very important reports are discussed
here. The emphases in italics are mine.
2. The British Deputy Commissioner, R.B. Smart in his report
(Burma
Gazetteer Akyab District Volume A, Rangoon,
Superintendent, Government Printing, Burma, 1917, p 84)
wrote, "When Arakan was first ceded it was
found to be depopulated
but
immigrants soon flocked in, composed mainly of persons who had been
driven out by the Burmese or who escaped during the war and who came back to
their homes from Chittagong and other neighboring districts, and as the
country became more settled the immigration increased." Arakan was ceded
by the Burmese to the British in 1826 when the Burmese was defeated in the
First Anglo-Burma War, 1824-1826. The Deputy Commissioner Smart's elaboration
that "
the immigrants" are "
composed mainly of persons
who had been driven out by the Burmese or who escaped during the war"
is the critical information we must bear in our minds in every page when we
read his report. It is imperative to do so. Deputy Commissioner Smart used the
word 'immigrants' for all returnees. In the later sections of his report, his
use of the word 'Arakanese' only for the 'Rakaing' (i.e. Rakhine) is arbitrary
since the word 'Arakanese' is a derivative of the name of the country 'Arakan'
and as such it covers all inhabitants of Arakan. He also generalized in the use
of the word
'Chittagonian' for the
'Arakanese Muslims', and 'Chittagonian Hindu' for the 'Arakanese Hindu' for the
simple reason that they all came from "
Chittagong and neighboring
districts" where they had been exiled during the Burmese occupation
(1784-1824) and the First Anglo-Burma War
(1824-1826), for more than 40 years. Many of them must have been born there.
Therefore, in the eyes of the British who effectively ruled
Bengal
since 1765 they were all Bengali or Chittagonians.
Futhermore,
R.B.
Smart on the page 89 of his report, clearly mentioned that the Mahomedans
"
were, for the most part, descendants of slaves captured by the
Arakanese and Burmese in their wars with their neighbours." As such,
the word 'Chittagonian' in his report is a much generalized term for the
convenience of reporting.
Today, the
Myanmar
authorities' assertion that the Muslims of Arakan are the Bengali Chittagonian
illegal immigrants of British era is absolutely invalid because it totally
ignores the
abovementioned report of B.R.
Pearn (1933) and clarification of R. B. Smart (1917). The accusation that today
Arakanese Muslims are the Chittagonian agricultural laborers (coolies) is also
wrong because
Deputy
Commissioner Smart, in his report on pages 103 and 104, clearly mentioned
that the
'coolies come from Chittagong, Kyaukpyu and Sandoway districts,"
and "
with the exception of a few who obtain further employment, return
to their home."
At
the same time,
Myanmar's
assertion that all 'returnees' were the Rakhine only does not reflect the
historical reality of Arakan. We must be fully aware of the fact that
Arakan Kingdom
was multi-ethnic and multicultural, as recorded by the famous Bengali poet
Alaol in his epic
poem
Padmavati, written
in 1648. Alaol served in the royal
palace of Rakhaing kings Narapadigyi (r.1638-1645 CE),
Thado Mintar (r.1645—1652 CE), and Sandathu-dhamma (r.1652-1684 CE). In his
description of the multi-ethnic and multicultural society of Arakan, which id
given below, I counted
41 ethnic groups.
“People
from every country, hearing the magnificence of Roshang, Took shelter under the
King. Arabian, Michiri [Egyptian], Shami [Syrian],
Turkish, Habsi [African], Rumi Khprachani and Uzbek. Lahuri, Multani, Sindi,
Kashmiri, Dakkhini (Deccanese), Hindi, Kamrupi [Assamese] and Bangadeshi
[Bengali], Ahopai Khotanchari, Karnali, Malayabari, From Achi, Kuchi [Cochi]
and Karnataka. Countless Sheik, Soiyadjada, Moghul, Pathan warriors, Rajput,
Hindu of various nationals. Avai [Inwa], Burmese, Siam [Thai], Tripura, Kuki to name.
How many more should I elaborate. Armenian, Olandaz [Dutch], Dinemar, Engraj
[English], Castiman and Franças [French]. Hipani
[Spanish], Almani [German], Chholdar, Nachhrani [Nestorian], Many races
including Portuguese."
As
such, when we read carefully various historical accounts it is clear that Arakan
was a multiethnic and multicultural and that the settlers at various phases of
Arakan’s history intermarried with the local people. In
particular, the multiethnic and multicultural diversification as well as the melting
or intermixing took place in central Arakan, far away form the Mayu
region. The mixed descendants are also known as the Roshangya that changes into
Rohingya in the course of time. This may seem to complicate the scenario
because we now have a second layer of Rohingya. Nevertheless, the second layer
of the Rohingya does not compromise the aboriginality of the Rohingya; rather it
enriches the Rohingya culture and gene pool. Notwithstanding, the second layer
of Rohingya was a making of the Rakhine people, their kings, and the Burmese
conquerors, and consequently the responsibility devolves onto the Rakhine and
their master, the Burmese. Therefore,
Myanmar today must handle the
Rohingya issue with a sincere sense of due responsibility.
Let
us not forget that, in the 17th century, Poet Alaol, like
Daulat Qazi, also referred Arakan as
Roshang, which is the direct derivative the Sanskrit word 'Raksha'. Therefore,
it is obvious that Arakan was also known as Roshang and as such, the
'Roshangya' or later 'Rohingya' are also Arakanese. In the later days, due to the
racial and cultural divergence the Arakanese Buddhists prominently became
'Rakhine' with Pali inclination and the Arakanese Muslims remain as 'Rohingya'
having Sanskrit lineage. With the event of the Buddhist dominance, in
particular after the Burmese genocidal occupation of Arakan in 1784, the
'Rohingya' faded into the unknown place of history. The Buddhist dominance
gradually advanced to Buddhist ultra-nationalism or Myanmarism, which is a
hate ideology, (see The
Price of Silence. ISBN-13: 978-1928840039, 2005),
resulting in ethnic cleansing, with
the event of General Ne Win's fascist militarism in 1962 and his racist Citizenship Act of
Burma, 1982. Why Myanmar
is still acting as the occupational force? Why the world is tolerating such
crimes against humanity? This is 2017, not 1784.
Part 4: Rohingya - neither Bengali nor
Burmese
A study of the linguistic scenario also renders
strong support to the
abovementioned legends and history of Rohingya aboriginality, elucidating that
they are neither Bengali nor
Burmese.
It has been established that the Rohingya is
a dialect within the Indic (Indo-Aryan) languages of Indo-European language
phylum. Therefore, it is native to South Asia
as per today’s geographical classification. Burma is
included in the Southeast Asia. However, if we
look at the map, say the Google Earth, we can easily see that Arakan of Burma
is more of South Asia than of Southeast Asia. As a matter of fact, I have concluded that
Arakan or the ancient legendary Rakkhapura was an extension of the Brahmaputra Civilization
(p 223, The
Rakhine State Violence, Vol. 2: The Rohingya). Therefore, it is
reasonable to conclude that the Rohingya speakers are the indigenous to the
region. On the other hand, the Rakhine language is an archaic dialect of today’s
Burman language, which is classified as the Tibeto-Burman branch of
Sino-Tibetan phylum. According to Professor Randy J. LaPolla, a distinguished
scholar of linguistics the Sino-Tibetan language was originated in the Yellow
River valley of China some 6,500 years ago (p 99, The
Rakhine State Violence, Vol. 2: The Rohingya). As such, it is clear that
the Tibeto-Burman speakers of Myanmar
are the emigrants from north China.
This squarely invalidates the assertion by the Myanmar scholars and authorities
that Myanmar
is a native land of the Tibeto-Burman speakers.
Furthermore, a Sino-Burmese scholar named Chen Yi-Sein who
taught at Rangoon University and was a member of the Burma Historical
Commission from 1956 to 1987, identified the Pyu of Taungdwingyi, central
Burma, being the Dravidian speakers, contradicting the popular version that the
Pyu were the Tibeto-Burman speakers. Current scholars like Michael Aung-Thwin, University of Hawaii at Manoa, has described that the
Pyu musicians entertained with Sanskrit songs at the Tang Court in 800–802 as per the Chinese
records. Pyu scripts are based on the Southern Indian Brahmi scripts. The
artifacts found in various Pyu archaeological sites, dating from 1st to 9th
century CE, were written in Pyu, Sanskrit or Pali. In addition, from the
available archaeological artifacts we have good reasons to believe that Pyu
belonged to the same stock of South Asian people such as Tamil. The native
people of Taungdwingyi and Prome (pyay) region have dark skin color and the
girls are popular as 'nyochaw' or 'brown beauties'. Burmese chronicles also
mention that two blind Princes of Tagaung were cured to regain their eye sights
by an ogre-nymph in the region of Shinma-daung and Mt. Popa,
at the bank of Irrawaddy
River. The ogre-nymph is,
for sure, a dark-brown Dravidian speaking lady. The names, Mt. Popa
(Puppha) and River Irrawaddy (Iravati) are not of Tibeto-Burman but are of
Indic and Dravidian origin. In parallel,
it is well-established that the Mon of Mon-Khmer people were in Burma long
before the arrival of the Tibeto-Burman speakers. The Mon-Khmer language is in the family of
Austroasiatic language phylum. In addition to the Mon, the languages of the
Palaung and the Wa of Myanmar also fall in the family of the Austroasiatic
languages.
There
was no mentioning of Rakhine in Vesālī Ānandachandra Sanskrit stone inscription. The word Rakhine (Rakkhaing)
first appeared only in the 14th century literature known as Shin Nagainda
Mawgwun, an epic poem. It says they are known as the Rakhine (the
guardians) because they safeguard two faculties such as Amyo (kindred) and Sila
(religion). The Burmese script first appeared along with Pali, Pyu and Mon
scripts in the Myazedi Stone Inscription made by Prince Raza Kumar of Pagan
(Bagan) in 1113 CE. And it is believed that the Myanmar scripts were invented based
on the Pyu scripts. As such, among the major languages and scripts, the Burmese
language and scripts are the last to appear in Burma.
Today,
the Rohingya language is unique with its own features within the Indo-European
language family. It is also important to know that the Rohingya language
is not legible to the Bengali and vice versa; however, a Rohingya can
understand the Chakma language and vice versa, as pointed out by Dr. Muhammad
Firdaus, M.D., FACP, an American physician of Rohingya ancestry, in USA. As
such there is some affinity to each other between the Chakma and Rohingya
languages. This intrigues me because Marayu, the founding king of Dhannyawadi
is recorded to be the son of a Chakma woman and a Mauryan prince (The
Rakhine State Violence Vol. 2: The Rohingya, pp 89-90). For
sure, the Rohingya is
not a Bengali dialect as concocted by the Myanmar authorities. Accordingly,
we must reject the Burmese wrongful alienation of the Rohingya by calling them
Bengali just because they speak an Indic but not Tibeto-Burman dialect. Finally, we must, with all due justice,
respect the uniqueness of the Rohingya and its own identity, independent of
Bengali and Burmese. Thereby, we must honor their rights to self-identification
and self-determination.
Part
5: Rohingya - the aborigines and siblings
Today,
no evidence is complete in the absence of genetics and DNA technology. There
are two distinct lines of genetics inheritance, one from the mother and the
other from the father. We can follow the genetic trail by tracing the genetic
markers known as the haplotypes and those having the same haplotypes are
grouped into the haplogroups. The genetic materials known as the mitochondrial
DNA or mtDNA is uniquely inherited from the mother only. Therefore, from the
studies of the mtDNA, we can trace the origin of our maternal ancestry way back
to the remote time of human evolution.
In light of present knowledge, it is established that our Mitochrondrial
Eve lived some 194,000 years ago, possibly somewhere in East
Africa, and she carried the macrohaplogroup L. The mother macrohaplogroup L branched out to
L1-6 macrohaplogroups. It would appear that the early human who had mtDNA
macrohaplogroup L3 came out of Africa probably
some 94,000 years ago. From the macrohaplogroup L3 emerged the macrohaplogroups
M and N, as early as some 62,000 years ago. All the European population carries
the macrohaplogroup N whereas the Asian population, from the Indian
Subcontinent, Southeast Asia to Far East, has the mcarohaplogroup M. The mother's mtDNA
is a better indicator of the aboriginality of a local group because it is men
who usually migrate or invade. For example, from the studies of Venezuelan population
genetics we know that all the paternal Y-chromosome comes from almost
exclusively of the European invaders while the maternal mtDNA is purely of the indigenous
women, indicating that the indigenous males were wiped out.
In a
study of 44 complete mtDNA sequences of Myanmar people by M. Summerer and
his colleagues (BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2014, 14:17, pp 1471-2148)
they found that all Burmese mtDNA fall in the macrohaplogroup M. Most
interestingly, M. Metspalu and his colleagues (BMC Genetics 2004, 5:26,
pp 1471-2156) discovered that the frequency of macrohaplogroup M peaks at 86%
at West Bengal, indicating that Bengal serves as the Grand Central of human
migration from South to East and Southeast Asia.
Therefore, it is not surprising when HUGO Pan-Asian SNP Consortium, consisting
of 92 scientists (Science, 2009, 326: pp 1541-1545), concluded,
"the evidence from our autosomal data and the accompanying simulation
studies...point toward a history that unites the Negrito and non-Negrito
populations of Southeast and East Asia via a
single primary wave of entry of humans into the continent." In other
words, it is not wrong to say that Bengali women are the mothers of all Southeast
and East Asian population that includes the Burmese as well.
As
such, the entire population of South, East, and Southeast
Asia is connected by the mtDNA macrohaplogroup M and all are the
descendants of the Asian Negritos. This is in absolute agreement with the
statements of U Kyaw Min and U San Tha Aung that the earliest people of Arakan
are Negritos. Thus, there is overwhelming agreement between science and legend
supporting the Rohingya existence since the time immemorial and they are known
as Raksha or Bilu (meaning dark and ugly ogre) in the Myanmar
chronicles. It is excitingly so because Raksha or Bilu are the guards of Mt. Meru
and the Rohingya today are concentrated in the region of Mt. Mayu,
which is the physical representation of the Buddhist cosmological Mt. Meru.
The Buddhists must be very grateful to the Rohingya for safe-guarding their
sacred mountain since the beginning of the world.
Beyond
doubt, with the science of modern genetics, it confirms that the Rohingya, who
appears to be a modern image of our ancestral Negritos, are the aborigines of
Arakan. Now, the Burmese still call the Chinese 'paukphaw', meaning 'sibling',
reflecting their historical cultural lineage. I would like to suggest that the
Burmese may also call a Rohingya 'paukphaw' because he is also a sibling in
light of the anthropological genetics. Again, based on the population genetics, we also know with certainty that of the total
three billion DNA nucleotides in our human genome 99.99% is the same in the
entire human population. As such, we all are siblings.
Part 6: Rohingya - the victims of civilization
In the days of Arakan Kingdoms, there were
slavery and discrimination, but there was no recorded communal violence or
ethnic cleansing. The same is true during the days of British rule. The
Rohingya problem emerged only when the British withdrew in 1947-48, and the
three nation states known as Pakistan,
India
and Burma
were created. Many peoples got divided along the new border lines. The biggest
example is the division of Great Bengal into lesser West
Bengal and East Bengal within India and Pakistan
respectively. East Bengal, in 1971 violently
broke off from Pakistan
to become an independent sovereign nation, Bangladesh. The smaller peoples,
such as Baloch, Kashmiri, Naga, Mizo, Manipuri, Chakma, Rohingya, Rakhine,
Chin, Kachin, Shan, Kaya, Karen, Mon etc., are not that fortunate. The Rohingya
are the worst because they got cemented at the bottom of the Myanmar racial
hierarchy, as illustrated below.
The Rohingya dilemma began when their
ancestral region was divided into Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and
Burma,
along the midstream of Naaf
River. They are
agriculturists and fishermen, and still are nomadic to some extent. Their
ancestral land runs along the east and west Banks of Naaf River. They were
caught in the brand new nationalism and citizenship acts of Pakistan and Burma. They had
no understanding of what the heck a nation state or citizenship is in the
modern civilized world. All they knew was that their freedom had been severely
restricted and their villages were divided by the demarcation of a border line running
in the middle of their ancestral land. In
confusion, chaos and rebellion broke out. U Nu Government of Burma settled the
situation in a peaceful manner, which is well reflected in the speech of
Brigadier General Aung Gyi on the
4th of July 1961 when he welcomed the end of armed insurrection of
some 200 Rohingya. Aung Gyi's speech reads as follow in my English translation
from the original Burmese that appeared in the Khit-ye Sa-saung (p 31, The
Rakhine State Violence, Vol. 2: The Rohingya).
"First,
I would like to talk about the matter that is concerned for all people of Mayu
District. Our Mayu District is bordered in the West with Pakistan. Due to
the border connection there are people of Muslim religion both at the East and
West sides of the border. The people at the West [of the border] are called
Pakistani and those at the East [of the border] inside Myanmar are
known as the Rohingya. I would like to say this: This place [Mayu District],
which is connected with Pakistan,
is not the only place where the same “kind of people” (Lumyo) lives at both
sides of the border."
Then, he gave the examples of Lisu, E-kaw, La-Wa, Shan
living inside Myanmar
and China,
and Tai, Mon, Karen inside Myanmar
and Thailand.
After that he said the following.
"At this moment, before the audience, I would like to
say openly and precisely. People in the bordering regions have relatives on
either side. Despite having the relatives, those who live over there must be
Pakistani and those who live here must be citizens of the Myanmar Union."
Thus, U Nu Government implemented peace and citizenship to
the Rohingya. The problem was solved and ended there, in 1961. However, in 1962, most unfortunately, General Ne Win and his
army seized power, abolished all democratic institutions, and introduced
militarized ultra-nationalism and racial hierarchy. With hate ideology, Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing of Rohingya has
reached to a point of genocide and crimes against humanity. For long 55 years
from 1962 to 2017, the civilized world did nothing. U Nu had said, "It is
a sin to kill, but it is a greater sin to watch the killing with folded
arms." As long as the world remains silent with folded arms the Rohingya
and their alike will be suffering in the hell of civilization.
About the author: Dr. Shwe Lu Maung is an
author of several books on Burma (Myanmar), and is a living authority on his
native Rakhine (Arakan) state. He is a scientist by training and profession and
claims to be a social Darwinist. Before settling in the USA, he spent decades
living both in Burma and Bangladesh.
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