Where are the Rohingya from? | EP 02 - The Rohingya | Azadi TV
Channel: Azadi TV
Date: 2022-02-14

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Where are the Rohingya from?

The Rohingya people are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group and from hundreds of years, their ancestry is rooted back to Arakan state in Myanmar previously known as Burma.
The Ancestry of Rohingya has long been a topic of confusion among diaspora as well Rohingya within themselves especially among the new generations. In order to break down Rohingya’s ancestry let’s look into today’s topic.
The term “Rohingya” is derived from the Arabic word Rahm which means mercy. It has its origins with the arrival of Arab traders on the shores of Ramree Island in the 18th century.
The most commonly heard myth tells of a ship of Arab traders that arrived at the shores of Ramree Island in the 18th century and wrecked off the Burmese coast and the survivors asked for Rahm of the local king. The king allotted a piece of land for them, and they were allowed to settle there. Over time Rahm changed to Rhohang and eventually to Rohingya.
The first sign of the Muslim settlement was found in 788 to 810 CE. Documentary evidence shows that the early Arab had contact with Arakan and Bengal.
During the colonial period Muslims in Arakan were referred to in many different ways; Muslims, Mohamaden, Chittagonians, Rooinga, Rossawn, and many more.
In 1799, Francis Buchanan, a Scottish surgeon with the British East India Company, travelled to Burma and met members of a Muslim ethnic group who have long settled in Arakan, and called themselves Rooinga.
Muslim leaders in Rakhine State have promoted the use of the term “Rohingya” to describe themselves as part of their assertion of rights along ethnic lines. The first formal acknowledgement of the ethnonym “Rohingya” dates to 10 March 1950 in an official address by a group of elders from North Arakan to Prime Minister U Nu on his visit to Maungdaw.
Michael W. Charney states that the derivation of Rohingya from Roainga is very clear. Roainga can be traced to the 17th century to Rosanga. Although the language of Rohingya was widespread during the era of Arakan Kings, today its existence as a written language has diminished, as it was mainly destroyed by the Burman invaders in 1784, and was not preserved well by subsequent colonialists.
Arakan was an independent State until it was invaded by Burman King Bowdawpaya in 1784, and annexed to the Burman Kingdom. It is believed that the Muslims first reached Arakan in the 8th century, and through a gradual process of expansion in the 15th and 16th centuries, a distinct Arakanese Muslim community was formed. Some believe that they are descendants of Moorish, Arab, and Persian traders who had arrived and settled in Arakan between the 9th and 15th centuries. Migrants arriving from Persia, Turkey, northern India, and the Arabian Peninsula were later added to these settlers that create a distinct dialect which is a mix of Persian, Urdu, Arakanese, and Bengali. During the 12th and 13th centuries, larger groups arrived in Arakan and rapidly integrated as well.
The second wave of Muslim immigration into Arakan began in the 15th century and lasted until 1784, when the Burmese king Bodawpaya conquered Arakan. In the 17th century, Arakan reached its peak of glory through the contribution of Muslim poets, Muslim learned men, saints, and administrators.
Meanwhile, historical scholars and natives claim that the population is indigenous to the Arakan state since the 19th century when the nation was under British occupancy.
But though Rohingya had lived in Arakan for centuries, and though Britain promised the Rohingya an autonomous state in exchange for their help in WWII, it never followed through.
After the end of the war, Burma gained its independence from Britain in 1948. The government didn’t provide for a Muslim state, either. Nor did it acknowledge the Rohingya. Instead, Burma worked to cast out the Rohingya people, excluding them from its constitution. In 1982, Burma passed a citizenship law that denied the Rohingya people citizenship, too. And till today Rohingya are in continuous limbo and their tales of woes, Persecutions and Genocide echoes around the world.

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