Essay Example on History and Antiquities of Rohingya in Medieval Period

The most afflicting reality is nearly three hundred thousand Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar s western most state of Arakan have fled to Bangladesh in the last two years McGowan Summer 1993 Here the word Rohingya that basically connects the north Arakanese with the two states Arakan and Burma as a whole from the historical ages Ancient history of Burma illustrates the Rohingya and the Rakhine as the same children of the Arakan Notwithstanding after the British departure Myanmar government rejected the Rohingya and their existence as a minority in Myanmar rather has treated alike illegal migrant from Bangladesh Hence they are not recognized as indigenous people but have been identified to be Bengalis Prior to that in 1982 Burma Citizenship Law was enacted by former dictator general Ne Win and according to the law 135 official ethnic minorities has been identified where Rohingya as a Muslim minority was not there Phillips 2013 Consequently Rohingyas are facing an identity crisis which has been threw the question to their origin accommodation displacement regional security and other rights as well From the very ancient time Burma was divided into many independent kingdoms and Rakhine or Arakan is remarkable here Indeed it was independently up to eighteenth century due to its geographical placement Though the word Rohingya is apparently a modern term which derives from Rooinga and Rwangya Rohingya may come from Rakhanga or Roshanga that has been used for the state of Arakan and generally mean inhabitant of Rohang historically signifies the early Muslim name for the Arakan Leider 2012 Though Andrew Tan disagreed with the statement and said that the word comes from the Arabic word Rahim which speculates the early Muslim as God blessed people Tan 2009 Besides they have a distinct dialect in all over the Myanmar and Arakan as well and it is commonly known as Rohingya or Ruaingga 

Basically they are the inhabitant of western coastal arena of Rakhine previously known as Arakan Again in the medieval works of the poets of Arakan and Chittagong like Quazi Daulat Mardan Shamser Ali Quraishi Magan Alaol Ainuddin Abdul Ghani and others they frequently referred to Arakan as Roshang Roshanga Alam 2007 Rohingya or Arakan both is Arabic in name It is said that Arakan is also a Persian word and this name has been used from the time immemorial given by the early Arab traders or Arakanese king when Persian was used as the official language of Arakan and it has been proved by a coin minted by Sultan Bahadur Shah 1557 58 where in the reverse side of the coin the specific word Arakan has been observed Instead of all these historical records there are many myths regarding the history of Rakhain relating the Rohingyas as Rooang originated from the word Rakhaine and later on Rooang deformed into Rohingya Therefore history demonstrates Rakhain previously known as Arakan as Rakka pura which denotes the land of Rakkash man eating monster they could turn into a woman and after that they would marry to men Moreover it was prevailed there that people of Rakka pura were the children of those Rakkashs Hall 1977 Furthermore most of the people were the worshiper of the nature when Buddhism spread over Arakan and this is why Indo Aryan people used the word Rakhine Later on Arakanese started to use the term as their identity designation and introduced themselves as Rakhine and there motherland Rakhine Pray Khan 1999 However as Arakan was a Muslim majority area U Khin Maung Saw articulated that the name Rohingya was founded jointly by the Red Flag communists and the Mujahids whereas the mujahids of northern Arakanese villages of Buthidaung Maungdaw and partly Rathedaung fought for their separate homeland and got support from the Red Flag Communists Bhattacharya 2006 And history says this unrecognized community or group of people played an important role to establish a consolidated Mrauk U Empire in Arakan which ruled for 300 years Looking at the ancient history