Rakhine–Burman Narratives

Abstract

Chapters Three and Four articulate the competing historical narratives and representations of memory sustaining Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ conflict. The last chapter examined the Rohingya ‘Origin’ historical narrative; this chapter considers the Rakhine and Burman perspectives, and interrogates them against the available historical record. This chapter documents and analyses three Rakhine—Burman perspectives, which the authors designate: a) the Rakhine ‘Independence’ narrative, which justifies demands for their autonomy from Burman domination; b) the Burman ‘Unity’ narrative, which claims a shared ancestry and historical unity between all of Myanmar’s national races (excluding Rohingya) as the basis for expectations that minorities will unite with them, to form a political community at the heart of the Union of Myanmar; and c) the Rakhine-Burman ‘Infiltration’ narrative, which claims an influx of Bengali Muslims during the colonial and post-Independence period poses an existential threat to the ethnic Rakhine, to Buddhism and to the Myanmar nation. Discussion of each of these narratives includes an assessment of written historical sources and their sociopolitical context, and an overview and critique of these narratives in the light of known history and Bar-Tal’s (2013) ideas about intractable conflict. The chapter concludes with a demographic analysis highlighting the growth of the Muslim population in Rakhine during the colonial period.