Nationalism, Religion, and Violence: Old and New Wunthanu Movements in Myanmar

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Notes

1. Ma-Ba-Tha is a Burmese acronym for “Protection of Race, Religion, and Sasana” organization, also known as the 969 organization. The numeric symbol comes from 9, 6, and 9 attributes or characteristics of Buddha, Dhamma (Buddhist teachings), and Sangha (Monks).

2. Locals use the Bengali term Kala (black skin) to refer to Indians—be they Hindus or Muslims. What are now generally known outside Burma as Rohingyas, Muslim populations from across the border of Arakan are referred to as Kala locally, and Bengali in official media. The use of the term Rohingya is banned inside the country, and the Myanmar government has made official protests against the use of this term among international communities.

3. Taung-Kote town is known as an Arakanese town with no Muslims and therefore is a no-go zone for Muslims. The traveling Imams were seen as a lobbyist group to bribe the government officials, and since they were in the Arakanese land, killing of them is justified, since they committed two serious crimes—“invading” the Arakanese-only space, and attempting to obscure justice for the Arakanese (Interview, July 2015).

4. Annexation took place after three successive Anglo-Burman wars—the first one in 1824 after which Arakan and Tennasarim were handed over to the British, the second one in 1852 after which Pegu was lost, and the third and final one in 1885 after which King Thibaw lost his entire country to the British, and he himself together with his family were exiled to India.

5. For more on customary laws, see Myint Zan (2000).

6. This tribunal oversaw a landmark case (Daw Kyi Kyi v Mrs Mary Wain) in which a Buddhist woman, Daw Kyi Kyi, lodged a case against her Christian husband's wife Mrs Mary Wain claiming she was entitled to her late husband's estate though Mrs Mary Wain and her husband were legally married according to Christian customs. This tribunal decided that Daw Kyi Kyi was entitled to half of her husband's estate (Zan 2000, 198).

7. Five pledges or five guiding principles of the relatives of the King Thibaw include (1) Advancement of Buddhism, (2) Anti-colonialism, (3) National Unity, (4) Democracy, and (5) World Peace.

8. Burmese word is မိစ္ဆာဒိဌိ. The first word မိစ္ဆာ or Matesa could be translated as evil as well.

9. Monks and organizations such as Young Men's Buddhist Association protested against the wearing of shoes by the British on the pagoda platforms. YMBA was founded in 1906 by young, educated, Burmese men after the model of YMCA. Though the organization started as a religious organization to promote Race, Religion, and Sasana, it soon took on many political issues including advocating to promote Burma to the same status as India when the Montagu-Chelmsford commission considered the advancement of Indian administration.

10. Burmese term is မ ိ ျိုးစစ္ာင ့်ဥပစဒ, which is also translated as “Protection of Nationalities,” but such an interpretation is misleading, since the bills only aim to protect the Burman (Buddhist) race.

11. Shin Saw Pu (r. 1453–1460) was given to the Burman king of Ava by her Mon brother, Banyar Dhamma Raza, who became King (r. 1423–1426). She later escaped with the help of two Mon monks from Ava to Rangoon. Mon Kings ran out of male successors after the son of Banyar Dhamma Raza died, and Shin Saw Pu became the first and only Queen in Burmese History. Daw Mya May, wife of a prominent Arakanese, U Hla Oung, was a patron of religious societies, founded two religious high schools for both boys and girls at the end of the 19^th century, and also helped publish a Buddhist magazine abroad.

12. GCBA was founded in 1920 after leaders of YMBA split into many factions.

13. The other two are Sila or morality and Verwana or practice (of concentration or meditation).

14. These four bills include the Population Control bill, the Buddhist Women's Special Marriage Bill, Religious Conversion Bill, and Polygamy Bill, which were passed as laws on May 19, August 26, August 26, and August 31, 2015, respectively.

15. The Burmese version is စ မမ ိ ၍ လူမ ိ ျိုးမ ပ တ ၊ လူမ ိ မှလူမ ိ ျိုး ပ တ မည ။. The concept of sinkholes swallowing people is connected to religious tales of sinning people being punished by nature. The slogan seems to have suggested that foreigners migrating and settling in one's land poses the greatest threat to the country, and from this slogan, it could also be interpreted as of all the sins, marrying a foreigner who would one day settle and occupy one's land is the greatest threat of all to the country.

16. The population rate is on a decline according to the most recent 2015 census with Burmese women's birth rate lower than the Southeast Asian average (Myanma Alin newspaper, May 31, 2015), but many Burmese perceive that Muslims are outnumbering Buddhists, and that only law can stop the rise in the number of Muslims. The Population bill leaves it to the discretion of the State and Division ministers as opposed to the national level body to control populations in their own areas, and it could be assumed that different ministers are expected to implement different mechanisms based on their perceived threat of Muslims in their own areas.

17. Arakan National Day is the first waning day of the second month of the Burmese lunar calendar (the day after the full moon of Kasone or the first Burmese month, i.e. around May in the Gregorian calendar). It is interesting to note here that two other Arakanese days were denoted by the Gregorian calendar whereas the Arakan National Day is denoted by the Burmese calendar, possibly as a symbol to adhere more closely to the authentic local traditions rather than following the older educated Arakanese who might have once been more comfortable embracing both local and Western traditions.

18. September 9, 2015, marked the 76^th anniversary of U Ottama Day. There is no such equivalent day celebrating the life of a Buddhist monk for the Burmans.

19. The committee member I interviewed noted that because Burmese textbooks included lessons on U Ottama, his role and contribution to independence remains in the public consciousness, and every year, a lot of Burmans attend U Ottama Day, which is now organized by the Arakanese organizations only.

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Tharaphi Than

Tharaphi Than is a Professor of Burmese at Northern Illinois University. Some of her most recent publications include a monograph titled Women in Modern Burma (2014), and a book chapter “Black Territory to Land of Paradise: Changing Political and Social Landscape of Mongla” (2015). Her research covers a wide range of topics from gender to print media and borderlands.