How Myanmar regime claims Rohingyas are Bangladeshis?

The Buddhist Myanmarese (Burmese) unjustifiably regard the Rohingyas as Bangladeshi. They attempt to guess that they are coming from the West where Bangladesh is located. They see wildly that Rohingyas are Bangladeshis because the language Rohingyas speak in is close to colloquial Chittagongian language, and as like as Rohingyas, Bangladeshis are Muslims .

At first, I would like to express here that during my stay in London, I had a Muslim couple tenant who were the citizens of Myanmar. The look of the boy was close to Mongoloid traits and the girl was like a girl from south Indian continent especially of Bengali trait (encompassing West Bengal and Bangladesh). On my question whether they faced any religious or ethnically problem from the city (the city was Rangoon) they were from? The answer was “no”.

It means the problem is with Rakhine state where Rohingyas live. I visited Mongdu, and Busidong areas while I was a human rights worker for the Rohingya Refugees in Cox’s Bazaar over three years. My visit in the border areas of Myanmar did not give me enough information to tell a lot about Rohingyas on those border areas in inside Myanmar. However, in my short visit, what I noticed that the Rakhine people respected me, and did not annoy me when I was walking around. I would like to inform here that the time I was visiting, they were having water festival. I got on a rickshaw. The rickshaw puller was a Rohingya. He showed me that he got bullet injury on his leg. Yes, I saw it. During my work, in Cox’s Bazaar, my functional position was security officer. And I had routine duty to visit, observe and monitor Refugee site. I found a newly arrived boy who had several bullets injury on his leg (his leg got operation, and the time I saw him, he had bandage, and he had bone setting fixation apparatus on his leg).

Now, lets talk about on some characteristics and traits:

Language : The language I experience with Rohingyas was colloquial Chittagongian language. It’s difficult to understand on first time listening.

Writing : I saw them writing in Myanmarese script.

Costume : Myanmarese i.e. women wear skirt (“Ahtet Hsin”) and blouse, and men wear shirt and longyi.

Food : rice, curry, fish fry etc when the Buddhist Myanmarese eat slightly different as rice, boiled vegetables and soup.

Physical traits : This is to be a crucial answer. At this standing by myself here, I would tell just a little bit i.e. semi mixed.

Settlement : whether they migrated from Bangladesh or not ? If they settled there before the birth of Bangladesh, then the question still remains as; then, where did they migrate from in the past? The answer is that they could be in the Rakhine (former Arakan state) as long as before when there was ancient Pundravardhana or Gaur habitat in the greater Bengal region / Indian subcontinent. So it is absurd to claim that they came from Bangladesh. Settlement takes ages after ages for a population to grow and become a community or tribe or a nation . If the Buddhist Myanmarese still ask the question that they migrated from the west, then a binary opposition question appears i.e. the same question to be asked to them? Lets ask them then, where did they originate i.e. they did also migrate from somewhere else from a long time ago.

Rohingyas were living over ages and ages in Arakan region in Myanmar. The early Muslim name for Arakan was “inhabitant of Rohang” and the word “Rohingya” means as such. Michael Charney identified “Rooinga” in 1811 as one of the languages that is spoken in the “Burmah Empire”. In 1815, Johann Severin published in Germany as Vater listed “Ruinga” as an ethnic group with a distinct language.

Therefore, the claim of Buddhist Myanmarese cannot be justified.