The Rohingya Origin Story – Two Narratives, One Conflict

The Rohingya Origin Story – Two Narratives, One Conflict

 At the center of the Rohingya Crisis is a question about the group’s origin. It is in this identity, and the contrasting histories that the two sides claim (i.e., the Rohingya minority and the Buddhist government/some civilians), where religion and politics collide.

Although often cast as a religious war, the contemporary conflict didn’t exist until World War II, when the minority Muslim Rohingya sided with British colonial rulers, while the Buddhist majority allied with the invading Japanese. However, it took years for the identity politics to fully take root. It was 1982, when the Rohingya were stripped of their citizenship by law (For more on this, see “Q&A on the Rohingya Crisis & Buddhist Extremism in Myanmar”).

Myanmarese army commander Senior General Min Aung Hlaing made it clear that Rohingya origin lay at the heart of the matter when, on September 16, 2017, he posted to Facebook a statement saying that the current military action against the Rohingya is “unfinished business” stemming back to the Second World War. He also stated, “They have demanded recognition as Rohingya, which has never been an ethnic group in Myanmar. [The] Bengali issue is a national cause and we need to be united in establishing the truth.”