The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century

by Thant Myint-U

The British never used the term “Rohingya.” It was the word some Muslims, especially in the north of Arakan, used to refer to themselves in their own Bengali-related language. It simply meant “of Rohang,” their name for Arakan. It implied that Arakan was their home. In the same way, people just across the border, speaking a mutally intelligible Bengali dialect, called themselves Chatgaya, “of Chittagong.”

Arakanese nationalism is akin to Burmese nationalism. It’s centered on an ethnic identity (Arakanese), intimately linked to neoconservative Theravada Buddhism, and is characterized by a fear of being overwhelmed both by modernity and by outsiders. The difference is that, in the case of the Arakanese, the outsiders are both the kala “Bengalis” on the one side and the “Burmese” on the other.