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Who Are the Rohingya?: Life through Roshang, Arakan, and Rakhine StateLife through Roshang, Arakan, and Rakhine State
Abstract
Chapter 2 places the Rohingyas in the historical, political, and cultural context of Burma/Myanmar. Who they are, where did they come from, and how did they appear in the demographic composition of Burma, now Myanmar; and the human geography of Arakan or what is now called the Rakhine State. It brings in the historical trajectory of Muslim settlements in this region dating back to the eighth century when Arab traders first anchored in the northern Arakan state and settled down there. Among other things, it also critically engages in the debate on whether the emergence of Muslims in Arakan laid down the foundation of Rohingya ethnicity or whether becoming Rohingya was tied to their distinctive social practices, cultural heritage, and continuity of a particular ethnicity. Towards this objective, this chapter explores the historical chronology of different political upheavals that have gradually pushed them to the margin of the state.
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Indigeneity, a concept and construct, is increasingly gaining currency in academia, in the political sphere, and in public debates. Indigeneity as an active political force with international support has become a resource in identity politics. This article focuses on the dynamics of how the transnational idea of indigeneity has been nationally installed and locally translated within the context of the ethnohistory of an Indigenous movement that stemmed from local–societal relations with the state. The idea of indigeneity is seen as both local and global because it is globally circulated but locally articulated as well as globally charged but locally framed. Focusing on the Chittagong Hill Tracts, in the borderlands of South and Southeast Asia and home to 11 Indigenous groups in Bangladesh, the article argues that the local translation of global indigeneity is necessary for ensuring the rights and entitlements of Indigenous Peoples.
This article forms part of an ongoing debate on rights and the use of the term ‘indigenous’, which has so far included exchanges in Current Anthropology, the New Humanist, and ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, as indicated in the bibliography. The authors here respond specifically to an article by Adam Kuper, published in Current Anthropology and the New Humanist. Professor Kuper has been invited to respond and has indicated his intention to do so in the forthcoming issue of ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY. Readers are invited to contribute their own views to the debate. [Ed.]
The aim of this article is to identify some conditions for peaceful coexistence between the state and populations in multi-cultural societies. Initially, the concepts of ideology, nationalism and ethnicity are examined briefly. It is argued that a successful ideology, such as a nationalist or an ethnic one, must simultaneously legitimize a social order, i.e. a power structure, and provide a meaningful frame for the articulation of important, perceived needs and wishes of its adherents. A few empirical cases are then considered. These examples, ranging from the multi-cultural island-states of Mauritius and Trinidad & Tobago to the Saami (Lappish) minority situation in northern Norway, involve conflicts between nation-states and ethnic groups, and between different ethnic groups within the nation-state. Some conflicts, and the methods employed to resolve them, are compared. The uniqueness of nationalism as a modern, abstract `binary' ideology of exclusion and inclusion, and its powerful symbolic as well as practical aspects, are stressed and contrasted with `segmentary' ethnic ideologies. Finally, the article proposes a list of necessary conditions for the peaceful coexistence of culturally diverse groups within the framework of a modern nation-state. The conclusion is that the main responsibility lies with the state insofar as it possesses a monopoly of political power and the legitimate use of force. State policies should genuinely attempt to decentralize power while at the same time recognizing the right of being culturally distinctive, even in matters relevant for political discourse. State nationalism should not be symbolically linked with the collective identity of only one of the populations. The culturally homogenizing tendencies of nationalism must in other words be counteracted through institutional arrangements which secure some form of ethnic autonomy and encourage cultural pluralism. The alternatives are violent suppression and the enforced assimilation of culturally distinctive groups.
Malgre les nombreux changements de la pratique anthropologique depuis une cinquantaine d'annees, notamment une amplitude des objets de recherche, les societes dites traditionnelles, primitives, orales, simples font toujours l'objet de l'interet privilegie des ethnologues. Si la terminologie utilisee pour designer ces societes a ete modifiee au cours du temps (afin de s'eloigner, entre autres, des theories evolutionnistes), les definitions restent encore imprecises, en particulier celle de tribu. L'expression peuple autochtone, utilisee depuis peu, laisse apparaitre une idee de morale et d'ethique mais ne peut s'appliquer qu'a des contextes particuliers, a l'instar de la notion de tribu, et peut alimenter des ideologies diverses qui pronent les liens du sang et de la terre et pour lesquelles les ethnologues ne mesurent peut-etre pas les utuilisations ambivalentes.
Since the 1990s, the upsurge of multiple “sons-of-the-soil” conflicts all over the world has reopened academic debate about the rise of nativism, the role of ethnicity, and the alleged crisis of citizenship within the postcolonial state. Often the renewed claim for belonging versus exclusion under the vernacular of “autochthony” is seen as a reactionary attempt to counter the de-rooting of identity within the neoliberal globalizing context. This article makes the case that at the base of many homeland disputes lie too powerfully territorialized (ethnic) identities and the enduring but highly selective reaffirmation of such “natural” geo-cultural links —by both local political agents and state. In the Indian state of Assam, the struggle over indigenous homelands has not been a cry for closure within the engulfing globalizing world, but the result of sustained, yet ambivalent politics of identification, classification, and ethnographic mapping through which the colony and post-colony have sought to reshape the political landscape of India's Northeast. This selective but highly mobilizing politics of autochthony has not only extolled fierce struggle between “indigenous” and “fake autochthon” communities over the protection and demarcation of indigenous homeland, it has also engendered fierce conflict amongst autochthon groups about the degree of indigeneity required to claim a separate homeland of their own.
Since the 1990s, the upsurge of multiple “sons-of-the-soil” conflicts all over the world has reopened academic debate about the rise of nativism, the role of ethnicity, and the alleged crisis of citizenship within the postcolonial state. Often the renewed claim for belonging versus exclusion under the vernacular of “autochthony” is seen as a reactionary attempt to counter the de-rooting of identity within the neoliberal globalizing context. This article makes the case that at the base of many homeland disputes lie too powerfully territorialized (ethnic) identities and the enduring but highly selective reaffirmation of such “natural” geo-cultural links —by both local political agents and state. In the Indian state of Assam, the struggle over indigenous homelands has not been a cry for closure within the engulfing globalizing world, but the result of sustained, yet ambivalent politics of identification, classification, and ethnographic mapping through which the colony and post-colony have sought to reshape the political landscape of India's Northeast. This selective but highly mobilizing politics of autochthony has not only extolled fierce struggle between “indigenous” and “fake autochthon” communities over the protection and demarcation of indigenous homeland, it has also engendered fierce conflict amongst autochthon groups about the degree of indigeneity required to claim a separate homeland of their own.
Apart from Ukhia and Teknaf in Cox's Bazar, I interviewed many Rohingyas in Chittagong, Dhaka, Kolkata, Delhi, and Assam. I also interviewed Rohingyas living in London
Apart from Ukhia and Teknaf in Cox's Bazar, I interviewed many Rohingyas
in Chittagong, Dhaka, Kolkata, Delhi, and Assam. I also interviewed Rohingyas
living in London, United Kingdom (2009, 2014); Kitchenware of Waterloo,
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He wrote three narrative-poetry books: Vidyasundar , Rasul Bijay , and Hanifa-Kayrapari . For details, see 'Shah Barid Khan', Banglapedia
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