1 of 2 ROHINGYAS ARE A NATION IN ARAKAN

"They are living in a hostile country, and have been for hundreds of years, and yet they survive. They are perhaps to be compared with the Jews. A nation within a nation, and the apple tree hating the growth of the mistletoe but not being able to destroy it.."1 Anthony Irwin When the Burmese Government had sent its troops to Arakan to put down the rebels the army killed, looted and kidnapped the prosperous Arakanese peoples.2 The Government failed to build Arakan's war damaged economy. Rice, the sole and the important product of Arakan, was rotting in godowns for lack of transportation. The local merchants were being ruined by the government to eliminate and frustrate middlemen. The agricultural loans were entirely inadequate to the farmer's need. The government had appointed incompetent party members to the higher administrative posts which had formerly been held by efficient and capable civil servants.3 All these circumstances gave opportunity to the Arakanese for demanding a State. In 1951, 23 candidates were elected to parliament, out of whom 12 members advocated Autonomous State for Arakan and they formed the Independent Arakanese Parliamentary Group (IAPG) under the leadership of U Kyaw Min, but later its name was changed to the Arakan National United Organization (ANUO), and they "moved a resolution in the House of Nationalities that the Arakanese no longer be classified as a minority".4 But in Arakan strong forces hostile to ANUO still exit and these forces were favourable to Anti Facist Peoples' Freedom League (AFPFL). The Arakanese people suspected the ANUO controlled Arakan because "Kyaw Min and his group are prosperous landowners and capitalists, high government officials, and professional men. And the small rice farmers in Akyab, as elsewhere in the division, has good reason to fear that he might be oppressed should the (IAPG) win its campaign for an autonomous Arakan State"5. And the people of Kyaukpyu and Sandoway " have been traditionally resentful of Akyab's domination and snobbishness",6 and they are against the Akyab people "and hence against separation; and the Kyaukpyu people even aspire to make their little four-townships island into a divisional headquarters".7 The Rohingyas opposed the ANUO because of their Arakanese brother's "feeling of superiority to the Muslim north".8 The Rohingyas preferred the control by the Union Government to the domination by the AUNO leaders, and they supported the AFPFL Government.9 But some noted Rohingyas had become ANUO members. Mr. M.A .Gaffer thought it was a grave mistake for the Rohingyas and he strongly warned the Rohingyas to keep away from ANUO for two reasons----- firstly that the right course for the Rohingyas as an educationally and economically backward community was to concentrate on education and social uplift and avoid political agitation; secondly that the demands made by the ANUO reflected the ambitions of the Arakanese majority and were manifestly detrimental to the interest of the Rohingyas. Their demands for Arakan State implied the introduction of ultimate majority rule which naturally meant vassalization of the Rohingyas. Arakan is inhibited by two major peoples Rohingyas and Arakanese each one of whom is different from the other in name culture, moral code, social organization, political outlook, religion and physique. It means that Rohingyas are a nation in Arakan." We the Rohingyas of Arakan are a nation. We maintain and hold that Rohingyas and Arakanse are two major nations in Arakan. We are a nation of nearly nine lakhs more than enough population for a nation; and what is more we are a nation according to any definition of a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of value and proportion, legal laws and moral codes, customs and calendar, history and traditions aptitude and ambitions, in short, we have our distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of international law the Rohingyas are a nation in Arakan." 10 So it is a dream that the Arakanese and Rohingyas can even evolve a common nationality.

It is quite clear that Arakanese and Rohingyas derive their inspiration from different sources of religion--Buddihism and Islam. Rohingya culture had been basically and overwhelmingly Islamic in letter and in spirit, and the interplay of many centuries did not make them lose their distinctive character. This feeling of distinctiveness ever present in their consciousness made them articulate to look upon themselves not only as a distinct indigenous race but also as a separate nation. The Rohingyas emerged as a distinct entity because they developed a separate culture and well-defined aims and ideals. Today, Rohingyas also wish to develop their spiritual, cultural, economy, social and political life in a way that they think best and in consonance with their ideals and in accordance with their genius; and today in both town and countryside Rohingyas and Arakanese lead separate lives and have little to do with one another as they kept socially apart from each other. The End 12-1-1972 1. Anthony Irwin, Burmese Outpost, p. 25 2. Virginia Thompson, Minority Problems in Southeast Asia, p. 156 3. Ibid, p 157 4. Ibid, p. 157 5. Ibid, p. 157' 6. Ibid, p.157 7. Ba Chan, "Report on Arakan", The Guardian Monthly, Nov:1953 8. Minority Problems in Southeast Asia , p.157 9. Ibid, p.157 10. Memorandum presented to the Regional Autonomy Enquiry Commission by M.A. Gaffar dated the 24th May, 1949.