How the Rohingyas Are Deeply Connected to Arakan

। Bay Insight Report ।

The long-standing denial of the Rohingya identity by Myanmar runs counter to various historical records, said Professor Rahman Nasir Uddin, a refugee studies expert and professor of anthropology at the University of Chittagong.
Drawing on historical documents, he argued that there is evidence of the existence of the Rohingya as a distinct ethnic community in the Arakan region.

He said Myanmar pushed the Rohingya out of citizenship through its 1982 Citizenship Law. However, he argued that evidence exists of a distinct community living in the region even before the British occupation of Arakan.

Addressing the debate over the Rohingya identity, Professor Rahman Nasir Uddin said, “There is no such thing as ‘Rohingya.’ It is not Rohingya, but ‘Royainga.’ They say, ‘Ara Royainga kaum,’ meaning ‘We are the Royainga people.’”

According to him, the term “Rohingya” was coined for its pleasant sound and is not an identity. Rather, he said, there are various historical records supporting the existence of the community.

“Through the Citizenship Law in 1982, Myanmar made the Rohingya non-citizens,” Professor Rahman said.

According to Professor Rahman, the basis of Myanmar’s citizenship law was the question of whose ancestors had been living in the region before 1824. He claimed that at least four documents from before the British occupation of Arakan in 1824 mention the presence of a distinct community in the region.

Among them, he referred to a linguistic record prepared by Francis Buchanan in 1799, a journal from 1811, an anthropological document from 1815 and a book published by Walter Hamilton in 1820.

Professor Rahman Nasir Uddin said these documents mention a community in the Arakan region that spoke a particular language. He therefore believes they provide evidence that the community was present in the region before the British occupation in 1824.

The professor also criticised research conducted in Bangladesh on Rohingya history. He said several PhD studies had been conducted on the subject in Bangladesh, but much of the research relied on a particular book.

“You cannot stand in academia without sources,” he said.

Professor Rahman also questioned the use of literary works by Arakanese court poets Daulat Qazi, Alaol and Magan Thakur as the primary sources for Rohingya history. He argued that literature could serve as supporting historical material, but using it as the sole historical evidence was not academically sufficient.

He, however, said older documentary evidence supporting the Rohingya identity had also been found. His remarks also highlighted the long history of Arakan.

Professor Rahman said that over the course of Arakan’s nearly 2,000-year history, the Burma region ruled Arakan for roughly 66 years. He referred to two periods: around 24 years between 1406 and 1430, and approximately 40 years from Bodawpaya’s conquest of Arakan in 1784 until the arrival of the British in 1824.

“In 2,000 years of independent Arakan history, Burma ruled Arakan for only 66 years,” he said.

On the question of Rohingya identity, he also referred to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted in 2007. According to him, the identity of a community cannot be determined solely by its current citizenship status. History, ancestral land, continuous settlement and self-identification must also be taken into consideration.

“States came after people. People came first,” Professor Rahman said, arguing that states subsequently placed people within legal frameworks involving citizenship, passports, visas and borders.

Regarding the repatriation of the Rohingya, he said Bangladesh had been working from the beginning to return them through bilateral arrangements with Myanmar. He referred to the repatriation agreement signed with Myanmar on November 23, 2017, following the arrival of a large number of Rohingya in Bangladesh in August that year, the formation of a task force on December 19, and the Joint Working Group’s physical arrangement on January 18, 2018.

However, he also highlighted an important distinction between different phases of repatriation in the past.

According to him, the 1978 repatriation was a bilateral initiative between Bangladesh and Myanmar, while the repatriation process from 1992 to 2005 involved the United Nations.

Discussing a possible solution to the Rohingya crisis, Professor Rahman Nasir Uddin called for the question of Rohingya identity and citizenship to be treated as fundamental issues, rather than focusing solely on a timeline for repatriation.

He said sustainable repatriation would require the historical and political disputes surrounding the Rohingya’s identity, citizenship and rights to be placed at the centre of negotiations.

Professor Rahman Nasir Uddin made the remarks as the keynote speaker at a roundtable discussion titled “How Far Is the Future of Rohingya Repatriation?” at the Cox’s Bazar District Council office on Thursday afternoon.

Research-oriented media outlet The Bay Insight and voluntary organisation Embolden Bangladesh jointly organised the event.