The decline and fall of Arakanese Empire In 1665 AD Moghul Empire Aurangzib ordered Shayista Khan, the viceroy of Bengal to build a fleet of boats. In 1666 AD Shayista Khan’s force of 6,500 men and 288 boats took Chittagong in 36-hours and occupied Ramu. The fall of Chittagong caused indescribable rejoicing of Bengal. It was a terrible blow to the prosperity of Arakanese and with it their century of greatness came to an end. Sanda Thudhamma’s long reign saw the power of his race passes its zenith, and his death is followed by century of chaos.67 In 1685 AD the units of Muslim archers serving the king of Arakan, got upper hand and continually reinforced by new forces from upper India. From 1685 to 1710 AD (for 25-years) the political rule of Arakan was completely in the hand of Muslims.68 Between the fall of Chittagong (1666 AD) and Sanda Wizaya (1710 AD) there were 10-kings averaging two and half years each. Three reigned only one year and two did not reign one month.69 Sanda Wizaya died in 1731 AD and was succeeded by ten kings, all of whom except Narabaya had short reign. In 1777 AD one Aung Sun, a native of Rambree Island, dethroned the reigning sovereign king Sanda Wimala Raja and proclaimed himself king and having put down a rebellion which shortly broke-out, was succeeded, in 1783 AD, by his son-in-law Thamada Raja, the last independent king of Arakan.70 Arakan under Burmese occupation In 1784 AD Burmese king Boddawphaya sent 30,000 soldiers to conquer Arakan at the request of Rakhine noble Nagasandi and returned in February 1785 AD with the royal family and 20,000 inhabitants as prisoner. Thousand of Arakanese Muslims and Arakanese Buddhists were put to death.71 The Burmese soldiers destroyed mosques, temples, shrines, seminaries and libraries, including the Mrauk-U Royal Library. As for Arakanese Buddhists, their revered Mahamuni Image of Lord Buddha was taken away to Burma. The fall of Mrauk-U Empire was a mortal blow to the Muslims for every thing that was materially and culturally Islamic was razed to the ground.72 During 40-years of Burmese rule (1784-1824 AD) rule two third or two hundred thousands (2,00,000) of the inhabitants (Rohingyas and Rakhines) of Arakan were said to have fled to Bengal (India).73 The then British East India Company Govt. made no objection to the settlement of those people in the Southern parts of Chittagong region. The Mrauk-U City (Patriquilla) left in ruins. Today the indigenous Muslims found in and around Mandalay and Central Burma are descendants of those Rohingyas of Arakan. Similarly ethnic Inthas living in the Inle Lake in Shan Plateau are descendants of the Rakhines. However, before Burmese could consolidate their power over Arakan British occupied the Burma colony in 1824. Arakan under British rule In 1826 AD Arakan was annexed to the British India and it was almost depopulated. A few months after the conclusion of the treaty of Yandabo Mr. Paton, the Controller of Civil Affairs in Arakan, submitted to the British Govt. a detailed report about the character of the country (Arakan), its extent, history, population, production and manners and customs of the inhabitants. He stated the population of Arakan as 1,00,000 (Maghs - 60,000; Muslims - 30,000; Burmese - 10,000).74 So on the date of conquest of Arakan by English, there had already been living thirty thousands Muslims i.e. 30 percent of the total population of Arakan. Arakanese Muslim who entered and settled in Chittagong region during 1784–1824 AD is known as Roai in Chittagong. When peace arrived in Arakan they started to return to their forefather’s homes in Arakan. Actually, Chittagonians dared not to go to Arakan because they knew that Arakan was a “Mugher Mulluk” – the lawless country. The British completed the occupation of whole of Burma in 1885 and made it an administrative part of India. According to 1911 Census the number of Muslim population in Akyab District is 1,78,647 and 33 percent of total population.75 Taken an over-all view, the increase was not due to the import of the Muslim labours by the British from Chittagong. There was large-scale conversion of Buddhists to Islam during 15th to 18th centuries. It may be mentioned that when the Dutch industrialists were ordered to quit Arakan they were also not a little worried because their children left in Arakan were brought up to be Muslims.76 Muslim influence was also intensified when Moghul prince Shah Shuja, brother of Aurangzeb, fled to Arakan in 1660. King Sandathudama murdered Shuja, but his followers were retained at the court as archers of the royal guards in which role they frequently intervened as king-makers. The Rohingya population went on increasing from centuries to centuries and they were in clear majority in 1942. Eventually, during the Second World War an estimated 500,000 Indians and Muslims fled Burma. Some were clearly following in the footsteps of the British government, but others allege that they were brutally chased out by the nationalists of Burma Independence Army or BIA. Thousands are reported to have died of starvation, disease or during sporadic military attacks in one of the darkest but least reported incidents in modern Burmese History. At that time in Arakan, many local Muslims and Buddhists said that, initially there was not really any serious trouble between two religious communities, but that it only flared up when the first BIA units entered the area (Arakan) with the Japanese Imperial Army. The BIA immediately began giving speeches about the on going expulsions of Indians and other alleged British supporters from the central Burma and asked why Rakhine nationalists were not doing the same. As a result, there was an outbreak of the first serious communal clashes from 1942 onwards.77 The Muslim massacre of 1942 On 8th December 1941, Japan declared war against British Government. On 7th March 1942, the Japanese invading forces occupied Rangoon, the capital city of Burma. On 23rd March 1942 Japan bombed the Akyab City of Arakan. The Japanese fighter planes again bombed Akyab on 24th and 27th March respectively. So, the British administration withdrawn from Akyab by the end of March 1942.78 There was an administration vacuum in Arakan following the withdrawal of British troops from the area. The Rakhine communalists in connivance with Burma Independence Army (BIA) led by Bo Rang Aung brought about a pogrom massacring about 1,00,000 innocent Rohingya Muslims, driving out 80,000 of them across the border to East Bengal, devastating their settlements and depopulating the Muslims in some parts of Arakan.79 According to Mr. Sultan Mahmud, former Health Minister and Member of Parliament from Akyab district stated that, “I refused to accept that there was a communal riot in Arakan in 1942. It was a pre-planned cold-blooded massacre. On March 28, 1942 a group of 37 soldiers who are trekking their way to Burma was intercepted, persuaded and prevail upon attack and loot the Moslem villages. The cold-blooded massacre began with an uncontrollable fury in the Moslem village of Letma on the western bank of the Lemro River in Maybon townships. It spread like a conflagration in all directions and the unsophisticated villagers with the prospect of gain joined with guns, dahs, spears and all other conceivable contrivances of destruction. Some high-minded and far-sighted Arakanese gentlemen intervened at the risk of their lives to prevent the deadly onslaught. But all their pious efforts were in vain. There was absolutely no attempt at retaliation even by way of self-defence by the Moslem and it was simply one-sided affair. Not a single Rakhine suffered even a scratch. Maybon Township in Kyaukpru District and the six townships of Minbya, Myohaung, Pauktaw, Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun and Rathidaung in Akyab district were depleted of Moslem by murder and massacre and those who escaped evacuated through long tortuous and hazardous routes across mountains to Maungdaw. Twenty Two thousand Moslem reached Subirnagar Camp in Rangpur District in India but very large number had stay behind in Maungdaw owing to lack of facilities, disease and destitution. These refugees in Maungdaw who had lost their dearest one and all their property now turned against the Rakhine and fell upon them in retaliation. This is what exactly happened in 1942 and I leave it to your impartial readers to judge whether it could be term as communal riot. There were Moslem too who saved a good number of Arakanese Buddhists from the wrath of the Moslem and brutality of the Japanese but modesty forbids me from mentioning their names. I give below the number of Moslem villages totally destroyed in the various townships in 1942. They are: (1) Myebon in Kyaukpru District 30 villages; (2) Minbya in Akyab District 27 villages; (3) Pauktaw in Akyab District 25 villages; (4) Myohaung in Akyab District 58 villages; (5) Kyauktaw in Akyab District 78 villages; (6) Ponnagyun in Akyab District 5 villages; (7) Rathedaung in Akyab District 16 villages; and (8) Buthidaung in Akyab District 55 villages. Total 294 villages. All the villages in Buthidaung Township were re-occupied and rehabilitated by the original inhabitants and refugees after the War but not a single one in other townships.80 Soon the Rakhine Buddhists were streaming in droves from the north as the Rohingya Muslims were streaming from the south, and Arakan stood divided into two distinct territories, a Muslim north and a Buddhist south one. Since then, the traditional relation between the two sister communities deteriorated.81 Muslim State and Peace Committee On 9th June 1942 the Rohingya Muslims of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung area drove the BIA and Rakhine communalists from north Arakan. On 10th June 1942 the Rohingya Muslims declared North Arakan as Muslim State and Peace Committee was entrusted for administration of the area.82 In December 1942 Brigadier C.E Lucas Phillips of British 14th Army came to Maungdaw to contact the leaders of the Rohingya Muslims. After hard negotiation, the Peace Committee formed by the Rohingya Muslims headed by Mr. Omra Meah and Mr. Zahir Uddin Ahmed allowed the British 14th Army re-entry through the Naf border town of Maungdaw. As per Public Notice No. 11-OA-CC/42 dated. 31st. December 1942, the British Military Administration declared the former Muslim State as “Muslim National Area”. During the Second World War, Rohingya Muslims helped the Allied Forces against the invading Japanese in Arakan Front. The Rohingya Muslims generally stayed loyal to the British and work with the under ground V-force, most Rakhine nationalists jointed either with the BIA or under ground Communist movement. The Rakhines only turned against the Japanese when the British re-invaded Burma in 1945. On 1st January 1945 Brigadier C.E Lucas Phillips became the Chief Administrator of the area and appointed members of Peace Committee as administrative officers of the area. This represents a landmark in the history of Burmese independence. The British recognised the Rohingya Muslims as a distinct racial group and the British officer-in-command promised the Rohingyas to grant autonomy in North Arakan.83 Arakan after Independent of Burma After 40 years of Burmese king Bodaw Phaya’s tyrannical rule, the British colonialists annexed Arakan to British India. In 1937 the British separated Burma from India and made Arakan apart of it. A significant measure of “Home Rule” (internal self-administration) was given to her. The territory of Arakan became merely a division of the central government dominated by Burmans in 1948 under a plan pre-arranged before independence between Burman leaders and the opportunists and self-seekers in Arakan. Thus Arakan remained under colonial rule forever, with a change in her masters from the Burman to the British and then again to the Burmans. According to the London Agreement of October 7, 1947 power was handed over to the government of the Union of Burma on 4th January 1948.84 From independence in 1948 Arakan – like many other regions of Burma – was rocked by political violence. The political demands of both Muslim and Buddhist communities were both over looked by the Burmese central government in Rangoon and Arakan was not even granted ethnic statehood – although, as evidence of strong constituency support, four Muslims did win seats in elections to the new parliament. As a result, while the communists and armed Rakhine nationalists seized control of many of the towns throughout Arakan, hundreds of Rohingya armed supporters flocked to joint the popular Muslim singer, Jafar Hussain (Jafar Kawal), who had formed the first Mujahid Party in Buthidaung township in December 1947 to press for a Muslim Autonomous State in north Arakan. When the Rohingyas armed resistance movement gained momentum in 1950’s against the tyranny of the Burmese regime, the Burmese government appeased the Rohingya public by offering some governmental positions and a special district called “Mayu Frontier District”.85 On 1st May 1961, the Burmese government created the Mayu Frontier District covering Maungdaw, Buthidaung and the Western part of Rathidaung townships. It was a military administration, not autonomous rule, but as it did not involve subordination to Arakan authorities, the arrangement won the support of the Rohingya leaders, particularly since the new military administration quickly succeeded in restoring order and security to the area. When, early in 1962, the government drafted a bill for Arakan statehood, the Mayu Frontier District was not included in the territory of the projected state. After the military coup of March 1962, the new military regime led by General Ne Win cancelled the plan to grant statehood of Arakan, but the Mayu Forntier District remained under its separate Military Administration.86
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 19:13:53 +0000
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