Sep 17
By Abdullah Al Yusuf
The use of linguistic anthropology, archaeology and epigraphy promises better chances of establishing the well-deserved claim of Rohingyas being the earliest inhabitants of Arakan. While the specific word ‘Rohingya’ may not have appeared in the earliest traceable artifacts, the language used by Rohingya ancestors, and by others to define them, can be traced back to the second millennium BCE.
By Daruge Shayad Nasirsab
Since the 1970s, a number of crackdowns on the Rohingya in the Rakhine state has forced hundreds of thousands to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. During such crackdowns, refugees have often reported rape, torture, arson and murder by Myanmar security forces.
By Ishrat Jahan
Most women in refugee camps are widowed, pregnant or have just delivered babies in government hospitals. Since they are stateless (without citizenship) and without economic means, they have free of cost C-section in government hospitals. After that they need more health care and nutritious food. The health and sanitation of these women are often neglected because of various politically-motivated reasons.
By Vineeth Mathoor & Sunil Kumar PM
For the contemporary Indian government, backed by the RSS and various Hindu Right wing groups, the Rohingya refugee issue is more political and cultural than humanitarian. Moreover, we need to realize that India is ruled by either BJP or BJP-led NDA governments at the center and the majority of Indian states. These governments promote the Hindu culture of their choice and create a stereotyped image of Hinduism.
By Heisnam Olivia Devi
Myanmar soldiers used Rohingya women as sex tools during the armed conflict simply because they belong to the Rohingya Muslim community. Since the Myanmar government denies them citizenship, they are vulnerable to harassment and torture by the Myanmar soldiers.
By Hemaadri Singh Rana
The politics of hospitality, i.e., the politics of inclusion/exclusion of refugee groups and variations in their treatment, is grounded in the manner in which the state identifies refugees. The usage of the concepts of ‘self’ and ‘other’ with reference to citizens and refugees/aliens respectively categorizes refugees as a group of homogenous ‘other’.
By Kaveri Urmi
We would have been killed in Burma; therefore, we decided to flee. We first sneaked into Bangladesh… later, entered India, in the hope to have a better life. I paid Rs. 15000 to a broker at Cox Bazaar to cross the Bangladesh-India border by a car, and later reached Kolkata … and, I again paid Rs. 4000 to reach Delhi via train.
By Mania Taher
The mosque is also the kind of “third place” (places for social participation outside home and workplace) for the Rohingyas in general where they also get to know other Muslim people from different countries and cultural backgrounds. For many of them, the mosque provides a spatial connection that roots them to their memories in the places where they were born.
By Pratiti Shirin
According to the same source, the aftermath of the Rohingya rape is that many of the pregnancies were terminated in Bangladesh in clinics or using cheap drugs which resulted in medical complications. Abortion in Bangladesh is legal for the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy but according to doctors working in relief camps, they had routinely treated women who had incomplete abortions on their own in advanced stages of pregnancy.
By Prerona Dey & Aasita Bali
Traffickers use the cruel tactic of luring young girls out of the camps by fostering the false hope of a good life and put them into labour and sex work. The Rohingya women and children who fled from sexual assaults back in the Rakhine State are subjected to danger even now, in the refugee camps of Bangladesh. According to statistics provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in 2018, 77% of the women and children who have taken shelter in these camps, reported feeling unsafe at some point.
By Rachel D’Silva
When the violence took place in 2012, I used to work as a teacher with the UNHCR. I did not go to college because it is difficult to go to college there after passing standard 10th. I joined UNHCR and taught for two years. The violence began in 2012. All the organisations like the NGOs who had come from outside had to leave.
By Sabzar Ahmad Bhat
The violence against the Rohingyas was also committed by non-state actors in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. The Rohingyas were targeted because of extreme nationalist sentiment, spurred by some Buddhist leaders propagating racism and chauvinism. Decades long discriminatory policies and practices continued by successive governments and the army also contributed to the restriction of religious freedoms for religious and ethnic minorities.
By Sowmit Chandra Chanda
It is Bangladesh which has taken the responsibility of almost 90% of homeless Rohingya refugees and built refugee camps to save their life. These refugees are still crossing over the Naf River and walking miles towards the Teknaf Road. The river and the road are situated near the international border of Bangladesh-Myanmar and these belong to Teknaf Upozilla of Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh. The situation at Teknaf Road reminds one of the situation of Jessore Road in 1971 and the legacy of Alan Ginsberg’s “September on Jessore Road” turns into “September on Teknaf Road”.
By Waseem Hussain Rather
There is no proper timeline for the Rohingyas’ arrival and stay in India but most of the Rohingyas arrived in India after the 2012 wave of violence started against them in the Rakhine state. The Indian government does not have an exact record of Rohingyas living in India. There are about 40000 Rohingyas living in India, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
By Sayantan Mondal
A scheme of erasure through disenfranchisement that gets indicated by any account of the Rohingya genocide, is orchestrated through a maze of bureaucratic logic and injunctions. These policies and injunctions saw through the scheme’s success over the years. This started with institutionally silencing a language, adulterated through deskilling the speakers and forcing their displacement.
We dedicate this special issue on Writing in Academia to Aniket Jaaware – scholar, teacher, colleague and, most importantly, our friend in reading and writing. Aniket’s words and ideas from his published works, his classes or informal conversations are throughlines in several essays in this collection. His vast range in scholarly and literary writing remains an inspiration to us.
