---

Relief and Development Assistance in Rakhine State - The latest six-monthly report by MIMU 

1940 Report on Indian Immigration

In 1939 the Governor of Burma appointed a Commission of Inquiry to examine the question of Indian immigration into Burma. It was prompted by communal disturbances during the previous year due to “the existence of a serious misapprehension in the minds of many Burmans that Indian immigration was largely responsible for unemployment or under-employment among the indigenous population of Burma” (Joint Indo-Burmese Statement - See Page 8 of Part B). The Commission was headed by James Baxter, Financial Secretary, Tin Tut, Barrister-at-Law and the first Burmese member of the prestigious Indian Civil Service, and Ratilal Desai MA.

[After the war Tin Tut became Financial Adviser to the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League and accompanied Aung San to London in January 1947. His assassination in Rangoon in December 1948 is discussed on pages 399-400 of the enthralling study, published in 2007, of the end of Britain’s Asian Empire: “Forgotten Wars” by Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper.]

We attach extracts from the Report of the Commission completed in October 1940 and published in Rangoon in 1941 by the Government Printing and Stationery Office. The Report made recommendations which were generally accepted by the Governments of Burma and India as a basis for negotiation and were finalised in an Agreement between the two Governments - See Page 9 of Part B). The Agreement provided that the existing Immigration Order of 1937 would continue at least until 1 October 1945, while Indian immigration into Burma would be subject to the new rules contained in the Agreement with effect from 1 October 1941. On 8 December 1941 the UK declared war on Japan, and the rapid invasion of Burma by Japanese forces meant that the Agreement never came into effect.

We present in two parts:

Part A  

• Preface to the Report
• Chapters I (Introductory)
• Chapter II (Growth in Indian Population)

Part B

• Chapter III (Birthplace)
• Chapter VII (Arakan)
• Joint Statement of the Governments of India and Burma
• Text of Indo-Burma Immigration Agreement 1941
• Note by Harold F Dunkley, Legal Adviser

The Report is available in at least 20 Libraries around the World including the UK, US, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and Myanmar.

It is particularly worthy of note that:

• Nowhere in the Report, nor in the scores of papers associated with the Report in the National Archives and the British Library in the UK, does the designation “Rohingya” appear in any shape or form. From 1824 to 1948, the term was not used by, and would seem to have been unknown to the British administrations of either India or Burma.

• “There was an Arakanese Muslim community settled so long in Akyab (Sittwe) District that it had for all intents and purposes to be regarded as an indigenous race.” (Paragraph 7). This theme of the “indigenous” nature of Muslims permanently resident in Arakan is repeated in the Report and provision is made in Article 19 of the Agreement for Indians (whatever their religion) born in Burma to acquire domicile. Prior to 1947, nationality was not an issue as residents of both Burma and British India enjoyed the status of "British Subjects" and the concept of "citizenship" had not yet come into effect.
  

• Paragraph 67 of Chapter VII on Arakan highlights the concerns of Arakanese who “maintained that Chittagonian penetration is steadily continuing and is resented not only by the Arakanese proper but also by the settled Chittagonians......The view was expressed that it was inadvisable to let Chittagonian immigration go unchecked as it contained the seed of future communal troubles. All the witnesses agreed that immigration from Chittagong should be restricted”.

On Mahatma Gandhi's criticism of the 1941 Agreement, see his Statement to the Press dated 24 August 1941 on pages 14-18 of this link.

On the subsequent course of negotiations between Burma and India on immigration issues, see "Immigration Policy of Burma in relation to India - A brief survey" by Radha Mohan - The Indian Journal of Political Science Vol. 16 No.2 - 1955

---

Commentaries on the Rohingya situation by Derek Tonkin 

---

Repatriation of Muslim Refugees from Bangladesh 1978-79

1. British Embassy report on the reception arrangements - 23 February 1979
2. British Ambassador's despatch on the completion of the repatriation - 3 July 1979
3. Associated Press (AP) report from Teknaf Road - 5 June 1978
4. United Press International (UPI) report from Dacca - 29 June 1978
5. United Press International (UPI) report from Cox's Bazaar - 10 October 1978

Extract from the UPI report from Dacca: "Most Burmese Rohingya originally came from Bangladesh in the days of British rule, when the entire Indian subcontinent was a colonial unit and former national borders meant little. Others fled to Burma during the Indo-Pakistani war, which gave birth  to Bangladesh in 1971.” 

---

---

Highlights:

• Bangladesh démarche on Arakanese Muslim question - 27 April 1978: US Emb Dacca
• Bangladesh allows press reporting on Arakanese Muslim question - 27 April 1978: US Emb Dacca
• Meetings and Press continue protests on Arakan Muslims - 4 May 1978:  State Department
• Muslim refugees from Burma - 8 May 1978: State Department
• Arakan Muslim refugees - 9 May 1978: US Emb Dacca
• Press Tour of Arakan State - 1 June 1978: US Emb Rangoon
• Burmese-Bengali talks on Chittagonian/Arakan displaced persons – 13 June 1978: US Emb Rangoon
• Chittagonian refugees from Arakan State – 14 June 1978: US Emb Rangoon
• Chittagonian/Arakan displaced persons – 29 June 1978: US Emb Rangoon

Cablegate Wikileaks on Arakan already made public without official clearance

• ARNO contacts with Al Qaeda and Burmese insurgent groups - 10 October 2002: US Emb Rangoon
• Muslim repression and resentment near Burma's border - 27 February 2003: US Emb Rangoon
• Rohingya refugees and rebels - 29 September 2005: US Emb Rangoon

Selected extracts from the 1978 declassified cables

Rohingyas: An Historical Note 
The Guardian (Rangoon) - 6 July, 12 November and 16 November 1961 
These pages from The Guardian in 1961 record the surrender of Mujahid insurgents at formal ceremonies at Maungdaw, Mayu Frontier District, Rakhine State, on 4 July and 15 November 1961. The ceremonies were presided over by the Vice-Chief of the General Staff, Brigadier (later Lt General) Aung Gyi. At the ceremony on 4 July 1961, he is reported in The Guardian to have made the following comments: 
 
"Rohinja is one of the minorities of the Union and Rohinjas must be loyal" 

"The VCGS (Brigadier Aung Gyi) pointed out that like all other minorities such as Nagas, Shans, Yingphaws [a minority in Kachin State], Lisus, people of Chinese origin in Kokang and others who live on both sides of the 2,000 mile long frontier, there are people of Chittagonian origin living on both sides of the border. As Lisus on the Burmese side of the frontier is [are] taken as Burmese citizens, similar status applies to the Rohinjas who have been residing on Burmese side of the border for generations. But those minorities must be loyal to the Union, Brigadier Aung Gyi emphasized......

"In a 45 minute long speech VCGS impressed on the Rohinjas that they were Union citizens and there was no racial or religious discrimination in the country and that everyone in the Union are brothers and sisters of one big family.

"He stressed the need for every Union citizen to be loyal to the Union and to cooperate with the authorities to establish the rule of law and restore peace and security in the country....."

The full text of Brigadier Aung Gyi's speech on 4 July 1961 in Burmese may be found at this link.

Derek Tonkin writes: The articles are unequivocal in two respects. Firstly, that according to the VCGS  those who call themselves Rohinja/Rohingya are Union citizens and one of the ethnic minorities of the Union, but secondly that they are of Chittagonian origin livng on both sides of the border, in what was then still East Pakistan, as well as in Arakan.

Derek Tonkin writes: Dr Wakar Uddin, who is the Director-General of the Saudi/Organisation of Islamic Cooperation-funded Arakan Rohingya Union, interviewed by Faiz Rehman Director of VOA's Urdu Broadcasting Service. Dr Uddin, around whom swirls consderable controversy, recounts the history of the Magical Land of Rohang, where have supposedly dwelt for the past 1,000 years a South Asian community known since time immemorial as "Rohingya", speaking a remarkable language comprising elements of Farsi, Urdu, Arabic and "a little bit Bengali", yet which has so far as I know no written form. For most scholars, whatever their religion, "Rohang" is one of several Bengali variations for "Arakan", not as Dr Uddin would have us believe, a region within Arakan which in the heyday of the former Kingdom spread to Chittagong and beyond.

There are, according to Dr Uddin, now over 3 million Rohingya, of whom some 1.6 million have been compelled to seek sanctuary in the Middle East, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Europe, North  America and other countries of South East Asia. This is over ten times the number estimated by the Jamiatul-Ulema North Arakan (Council of Religious Scholars, North  Arakan) in October 1948;  the Council broadly accepted the 1931 British Census figure of not less than 250,000. Assuming that the rate of natural increase to be approximately equivalent to that of neighbouring Bangladesh, a five-fold increase would be credible, but not a ten-fold increase. 

Most accounts about Arakan Muslims say that they are mainly (55-60%) of late 19th Century/early 20th Century Chittagonian Bengali migration, swelled after independence in 1948 by many tens of thousands of illegal Chittagonian Bengali settlers. By 1960 the Chittagonian Bengalis had absorbed and effectively usurped the identity of the modest minority of British recognised and designated "Arakan Muslims" ("Yakhain Kala") who could trace their ancestry back to the old Kingdom of Arakan.

Dr Uddin appears unaware that the present population of Myanmar is not "about 55 million", as he states, but was, on 29 March 2014, 51,486,253 which includes an estimate for those not enumerated during the Census. He is also vague about when Operation Dragon King against illegal immigrants throughout Burma took place - "I believe that was in the 70s, late 70s" - though it is common knowledge among Burma-watchers that it reached Arakan in February 1978. He alleges that some 500,000 Muslims were "pushed out" at the time and their IDs confiscated, though contemporary US, UK and United Nations agency reports put the number at no more than 200,000 of whom some 170,000 were repatriated - not Dr Uddin's fanciful 450,000. This repatriation was facilitated mostly on the basis of IDs which had not been confiscated as Dr Uddin claims since most of those who sought refuge in Bangladesh came from rural areas and simply fled in a state of "mass hysteria", to quote UNDP Director Zagorin (US diplomatic cable dated 9 May 1978 from the US Embassy in Dacca), and possibly under activist instigation.

Dr Uddin has nothing to say about the 1938 anti-Muslim riots in Burma which also reached Arakan, or about the 1942 pogrom against Muslims in Central Arakan when some 40,000 or more were victims of communal violence, or about the Mujahid rebellion which lasted from 1947 - 1961, or about the several brutal miliary campaigns conducted during this period which caused great distress to the Muslim population. He would have us believe that the problems of Arakan Mulims only started in 1962 when General Ne Win staged a military coup. In 1962, indeed, and for the next ten years or so, the situation remained relatively peaceful in Arakan.

---

Archival and Historical

Researchers may wish to know that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has now released files for 1982 relating to Burma/Myanmar. These include File FCO 15/3177 “Burmese Citizenship Law 1982” which includes diplomatic reporting on the significance of the Act, from both British and Australian sources.

While the Act is described by First Secretary Roger Leeland as “blatantly discriminatory on racial grounds”, he observes that “it would be possible to argue that the new Law is a generous and far-sighted instrument to resolve over a period of years an awkward legacy of the colonial era”. Second Secretary Roland Rich at the Australian Embassy comments that “…..the discretion given to the executive branch of government, unchecked by even the possibility of judicial review, means that judgement must be reserved until there has been an opportunity to assess the spirit in which the Law will be implemented.”

Derek Tonkin writes: These reports merit close reading because they support the conclusion today that it is not so much the letter of the Act as the subsequent bureaucratic obstruction which has led to the very serious difficulties over citizenship which Arakan Muslims in Rakhine State face today. See also Problems with facts about Rohingya statelessness - Nick Cheesman December 2015 in this context.

• Text of Burma Citizenship Law dated 15 October 1982
• Speech on citizenship law by General Ne Win on 8 October 1982
• Letter to the FCO from the British Ambassador commenting on the draft law - 12 May 1982
• Report by PG Bassett, First Secretary Australian Embassy, to DFA Canberra - 3 May 1982
• Text of draft citizenship law: Public Consultation document - 'The Guardian' 21 April 1982

---