Rohingya Refugees & India

A military crackdown against the Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar has left hundreds of men, women, and children of the group homeless, besides exposing them to a series of atrocities. Having faced discrimination in the Buddhist-majority country for decades, the Rohingya are now fleeing in large numbers in search of a safer haven. Termed as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, this Rohingya mass exodus is certain to have an impact on the immigrant issue through which India has been plaguing for ages.

Knowing the Rohingya

Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group that practices a form of Sunni Islam and have lived in Rakhine, one of Myanmar’s poorest states, for generations. Before the latest exodus, an estimated one million Rohingya lived there. They have their own language and cultural practices.

Some trace their origins there to the 15th century, an assertion the government disputes. Their name itself refers to the area they claim as home. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Rohang derives from the word Arakan, the former name of Rakhine State, in the Rohingya dialect, and ga or gya means from.

Myanmar doesn’t recognise Rohingya as citizens and sees them instead as immigrants from Bangladesh who came to Rakhine under British rule. The country’s first census in 30 years (carried out in 2014) didn’t count the Rohingya. The government’s stance makes them one of the largest stateless groups in the world.

Trails of Violence