–Abu Hena :
Arakan State, coastal state in lower Burma, facing India across Bay of Bengal. Its coast extends for about 300 miles (480 km) south along the Bay’s northeastern shore, from the Naf estuary on the border with Bangladesh to a point south of GWa. (The Arakan coastal region extends 100 miles further south into Irrawaddy Division, and the Northern Arakan Hill Tracts, before Burmese independence in 1948, a part of Arakan, are now a part of Chin State) Arakan reaches its greatest width (90 miles) in the north and includes
islands , including Cheduba and Ramree. The Arakan Yoma range is the eastern boundary. Watered by the Naf estuary and Mayu , Kaladan, and the Lemro rivers, the state has an area of 14,200 sq. miles (36,778 sq. km). Only one tenth of the land is cultivated. Rice is the dominant crop in the delta areas, where most of the population is concentrated. Other crops include fruits, chillies, dhani (thatch) and tobacco. The natural hillside vegetation of evergreen forest has been destroyed over wide areas by shifting cultivation ( slashing and burning to clear land from cultivation ) and has been replaced by a tangle of bamboo. There has been exploration for oil along the coast.
The main towns are coastal and include Akyab, the state’s capital, Sandoway, Kiaukpyu, and Taungup. Long accessible only by sea, Arakan is now linked by air and road with the rest of the country. An all weather road connects Taungup with Pye in Pegu Division.
The Arakanese are Buddhist of Burmese stock with a dialect and customs of their own. Separated from the parent group in central Burma by the mountains of the Arakan Yoma, they trace their history to 2666 BC, have a lineal succession of as many as 227 princes…..History does not corroborate these claims , but the Arakan’s most sacred image of the Buddha , the Mahamuni ( now in Mandalay ) is said to predate the Pagan kingdom (1044-1287) by a millennium. Engravings indicate that a dynasty existed in Arakan in the 4th century. The Portuguese, Mongols and Pegus invaded Arakan at different times. It became part of the Burmese kingdom in 1785, and as a province, it was ceded to the British in 1826 by the Treaty of Yandabo. The former capital, Arakan ( now called Myohaung , Mrohaung in Arakanese or Old City ) is on a branch of the Kaladan, 50 miles northeast of Akyab.
Arakan State has a large minority of Bengali Muslims. In concession to separatist ethnic feelings , the Burmese Constitution of 1947 established Arakan Division. This became Arakan State, with limited local autonomy , under the 1974 Constitution. Pop.( 1973 ) 1,711,000
This is how The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1985 Edition described the Arakan State. Things have changed since 1985.The present population of the Arakan State comprising which the Burmese Constitution established the Arakan Division as a concession to separatist ethnic feelings. Arakan Yoma ( Burmese :Arakan Mountain Range divides Arakan State from the rest of Burma now renamed Myanmar. Its highest peak is Mt. Victoria ( 10,150 ft ).Nothing more is known from Britannica about the Muslim minority. Arakan State now has a population of roughly four millions and the ratio between Buddhists and Muslims is almost 50:50.
According to Professor Muhammad Mohar Ali (History of The Muslims of Bengal ) an old Arakanese chronicle noticed in the mid-nineteenth century, mentions that Arabs having suffered shipwreck off the coast of Arakan , were settled in the villages of that country by its king Ma-ba-toing ( 163-194/780-810-Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal .1844, vol X111,p 36 ). In order to ensure regular supplies of commodities and to look after their trade interests big merchants of the time thought it necessary to station their agents in distant ports of the east. Arabs , in course of their trade with the east, settled in Malabar, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, Malaya and other places in their trade route. ” The kingdom of Arakan had come in close cultural contact with the Muslim Sultanat of Bengal since the fifteenth century so much so that many of the Buddhist rulers of that country adopted Muslim names for themselves, appointed Muslim officials in their courts and apparently under the latter’s influence , even inscribed the Kalima on their coins.” Writes Professor Muhammad Mohar Ali. Of the Muslim poets who found patronage at the Arakan court in the seventeenth century ,the most notable are Daulat Qazi,Alaol, Magan Siddiqi and Murdan. Daulat Qazi wrote his Sati Mayna O Lor Chandrani at the brequest of Ashraf Khan who was the adviser ( Mukhapatra ) and defence minister ( Lashkar Wazir) of king Thiri Thudhamma,reigning between 1622 and 1638. Alaol’s father was an ally of the Bara Bhuiyan. He was killed in a battle .Alaol was wounded and found himself in Arakan where he became a cavalry officer of the Arakan king. Alaol was a great scholar , poet and musician. He received patronage of Magan Siddiqui who was chief minister Arakan kings from 1645 to 1660. Alaol rendered into Bengali the Padmavati , the famous Hindi romantic epic by Malik Muhammad Jaisi.
Magan Thakur who was chief minister of two successive Arakanese kings was a Muslim born in a respectable family but the title Thakur was conferred on him by the Arakan King who used to confer that title on persons of the highest rank and distinction. He was well versed in Arabic, Persian, Hindi, and Bengali. His poetical composition Chandravati possesses high literary merit. The literary tradition established by the Muslim poets at Arakan continued for long till at least the end of the eighteenth century when another poet named Abd-al Karim Khondkar earned fame. His great grandfather was a custom officer under Arakan king. His grand father Masan Ali acted as interpreter in the port. Abdal Karim translated into Bengali a Persian work entitled Dulla Majlis in 1798.
It is clear that the Arakan Court was the center of literary works and cultural activities carried out by Muslim poets and literary persons for centuries. They were not only bonafide citizens of the Arakan State, they also ran the government as chief ministers and defence advisers and warriors. The Arakan State is physically separated from mainland Burma, now Myanmar by Arakan Mountain Range , it’s highest point is Mt. Victoria ( 10,150 ft ). Arakan has been independently ruled by kings maintaining foreign relations with various trading countries. It became a part of British empire in 1826 and became part of the then independent Burma ruled by Burmese Constitution of 1947 with local autonomy based on concession to separatist ethnic feelings.
(Writer is former Member of Parliament
and retired civil servant )
