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The Rakhaing-3Tha Hla12/28/2008The last chapter of the time-honoured Rakhaing realm had come to a close and there lay aheadthe valley of ill fortune to pass through. Gone was the sovereignty and so was the dignity. Thekingdom was demeaned to a provincial state and a Burmese viceroy was installed to administer it. Years before the calamity struck the Rakhaings who were torn asunder by internal strifes hadresigned to accept the inevitability of the Burmese conquest but they did not contemplate thecontumely they had to endure under the domineering Burmese. If the vicissitudes of lifesymbolized bitterness none was more acrid than loss of freedom. Equally distressing was the loseof national treasure, the Maha Muni Image. The Burmese were grossly misguided by arrogance.Once in control they hardly concealed their aversion. They regarded themselves superior in fiber to the Rakhaings who were thus treated with contempt and insolence. This social fabric strainedthe relation between the ruler and the ruled. The antagonistic polarization widened rapidly withthe increase of rapacity on the part of the Burmese officials. The ill feeling built up to tensionwhich in turned led to repression and ultimately to resistance. No sooner was the countryconquered than revolt after revolt flared up through out the country. The resentment against theimposing attitude was aggravated by the odious measures of depopulation. Instead of ameliorating the disorders the Burmese resorted to the ruthless strategy of deportation. Thesituation in the country was appalling. Driven by oppression and weary of conscription streamsof Rakhaings fled over the border into the hilly regions of Chittagong which promised a new life.The forested tracts which were still to be effectively controlled became havens for the displacedRakhaing refugees.The consequences of occupation were far more deadly and far-reaching than trumpery victorsmight have reckoned. Their trouble was just the tip of iceberg. By the time the Burmeseembarked on the euphoria of triumph the European intervention in the India subcontinent was inthe full swing. The Anglo-French rivalry had spread across India from Europeand NorthAmerica. The British had established themselves the supreme power on the ruins of the MogulEmpire whose territory extended right to the doorstep of the Rakhaing land. The ecstasy soonturned to the agony of victory as the rump of the country unfolded its drama. Skirmishes erupted between the local residents and the over bearing Burmese. The life of the population was worsethan it had been in the preconquest time and they grew more and more resolved to challenge theBurmese authority. The more suppressive the Burmese became the harder the will grew. TheBurmese had misread the Rakhaings. They were totally of their own. In the time of foreigninvasion they repressed their differences: the cleavage among the various regions was redressedand rose to their defence. In their life long combat with the stranger Burmese they were defiantto the end. The Burmese might have conquered the land but they did not win over the people.The defeat might have temporarily robbed the Rakhaings morale but their spirit had never beendimmed. They were devoted to liberate the nation and regain independence. No amount of cruelty could induce them to part with the cherished goal of liberation. To the Rakhaingsresistance was vindication of their freedom. And their attempts to reconquer the country from bases behind the British line provoked the Burmese who in their pursuit of the fleeing insideBritish territory entangled in disputes with the British. These border incidents formed the maincause of the first Anglo-Burmese war. The acquisition of Rakhaing by the Burmese was as amatter of fact the beginning of the end of the Burmese era. They had stepped upon a perilous
 
road which led them their defeat to the British. The conqueror had become the conquered, so tospeak.The Burmese conquest resulted in a complete destruction of the country and suffering of its people. High handedness of the Burmese became so unbearable that a large-scale rebellion brokeout in 1794 with the backing of the Rakhaings settled across the border. It was a trial of determination rather than a physical contest. The Burmese mounted their troops in greater numbers. Unequalled in strength the uprising collapsed. In fear of their lives waves of Rakhaings poured into the British territory. The Burmese forces chased the Rakhaings into the British sideof the border and remained there encamped until three Rakhaing resistance leaders were handedover to them by the British authorities who were misled by the Burmese contrivance; and noresponsible British officials would have dwelt without a sense of guilt upon their cooperationwith the Burmese. Four years later another sizable revolt sparked up and once again by theabsolute majority of man power the upheaval was quelled and exodus of refugees ensued. Thecondition of the refugees was extremely serious. Dire need of food and shelter was compoundedwith the outbreak of disease in epidemic proportion. The magnitude of the problem was such thatthe British authorities organized relief measures in 1799. Consequently a dispute boiled up over the escaping Rakhaings. The Burmese who did not take kindly the desperate plight of therefugees demanded expulsion of the all Rakhaings from the British territory, now estimated fiftythousands. In the subsequent discussion of the issue, notwithstanding the threat of war by theBurmese viceroy, the British refused to cape in to the Burmese proposition and pressed on the point that the frontier was being well guarded that it had been before and the Rakhaings were notallowed to cross the border one direction or the other. The Burmese finally dropped their demand. The British stood firm by their position because partly they were sympathetic to theRakhaings, and in part they anticipated that the Rakhaings might conspire to discomfit and helpdefeat the Burmese, yet their decision to uphold the British prestige should not be ruled out.Upon each collapse followed by extortion of exorbitant taxes. The drastic action which wasmeant to stamp out rebellion adversely strengthened the will of the surviving Rakhaings toexecute the very thing the Burmese intended to prevent it from happening.A seemingly impossible event, serious in nature, took place in 1911. An ingenious leader, knownas Chun Byan, nom de guerre, diligently assembled thousands of men to his banner in the Britishterritory. The phalanx of improvised militia sustained by the spirit of motherland and armed withwhatever weapons they could lay hands on crossed the border unimpaired. They boldly marchedto Mrohaung and captured it in brief and brilliant campaign. With the prestige of commendablevictory behind Chun Byan wasted no time to communicate with the British authorities in Bengalin an effort to seek recognition and help, and offered to become a British protectorate. TheBritish did not accede to the request. Apparently the government of Chun Byan was agovernment within a government, which though a formidable force was no match for theBurmese who were bound to prevail. Compliance with the request would entail a militaryconfrontation with the Burmese which the British were not prepared to commit at the momentwhen the east India Compamy was engaged in a with the Marathas in India, and England withthe French under Napoleon. The British decided that their interest would be better served by notrushing to the aid of the Rakhaings. They would prefer to dissipate the strength of the Burmesethrough a third party, the Rakhaings who were accordingly wooed by deals and favours. Inexchange for their allegiance the expatriate Rakhaing nobility and gentry were dispensed withfiefdoms of land which stretched from Ramu to the Naaf River.
 
In order to improve the sluggish relations the British who were suspected of being in connivancewith the Rakahaings took pains to explain to the Burmese government at Ava that they did not bear a hand with the Rakhaing expedition and assured them Chun Byan would be prevent fromtaking refuge in the British side of the border if he were defeated. As skeptical as they had beenthe Burmese were hardly convinced much less to place faith in the British undertaking.Meanwhile the Burmese swarmed in with predicable vengeance. Unable to waistband themilitary might deployed by the enemy Chun Byan retreated into the Chittagong hill tracts asunhampered and swiftly as he had appeared at Mrohaung. This development left the Burmesewith more questions than answers about the British innocence in the affairs. Under thecircumstances British had no option but allowed the Burmese cross the frontier and search for Chun Byan but of no avail. In the following years after he had been driven off Chun Byanmobilized his men into guerrilla warfare and made frequent raids into Rakhaing from thehideouts in the Chittagong jungles. Regardless of the repeated efforts neither the Burmese nor theBritish who lent a helping hand to the Burmese could trace the elusive freedom fighters let aloneto apprehend them. The implacable guerillas continued to intrude upon Rakhaing for severalyears only to be called off by the sudden death of the leader of an illness in 1815.With the death of Chun Byan Rakhaing frontier crisis moved from the center stage, yet theAnglo-Burmese relations remained stagnant. The British while making time to free their hands inIndia made an attempt at negotiating a treaty for diplomatic representative at Ava and Calcutta,the seat of governor-general; Bodawpaya on the other hand was increasingly anxious to annexEastern Bengal which bordered also on Assam and Manipur other than Rakhaing. The alreadydamaged relations further eroded when Bodawpaya occupied Assam and his successor Bagidawinvaded Manipur which brought about border incidents as the refugees entered the Britishterritory and the Burmese crossed the borders. The turning point came when a clash erupted in1823 on the Rakhaing frontier over the question of boundary demarcation along the Naaf River  between Rakhaing and Eastern Bengal. The discord intensified; the conflict escalated. TheBurmese forces seized the island of Shapuri on the British side of the estuary which in turn wasreclaimed by the British. To make the matters worse Bandola, the ambitious and heavy handedgeneral who was made governor of Assam earlier was appointed as the commander-in- chief inRakhaing. In preparation for war across the Naaf River he hastily built up troops at Maungdaw, amilitary hamlet strategically located on the Rakhaing bank of the Naaf River, and beganoperations in Eastern Bengal.Hoping to wriggle free of the Burmese rule the dauntless partisans cooperated with the Britishand rose against the Burmese garrisons. Ruthless as he was brutal Bandola unleashed his armyon the Rakhaings. Thousands were put to the sword, both combatants and noncombatantswhoever they came upon or stumbled them in the hiding places the old, the young, the womendown to the offsprings of the offsprings. Civilian carnage was enormous. Plunder was wholesale.The rampaging intruders torched the houses after having them stripped off possessions. Smoke plumes rose from towns and villages in the distance. The waves of destruction swept across thecountry. They took pleasure in killing in order to instill terror in the populace. Fear was palpableeverywhere. Mere warnings Bandola's approach sent the frightened Rakhaings running for shelter in the thickest possible thorny undergrowth, the unlikely spots for hiding, regardless of the bodily torment. Some dashed into the neck-deep water in the insect infected mangroveforests. Some were forced to choose between their own life and that of the sobbing or thewandering child so as to save the rest community from being heard or located. The unfortunateyoungsters ended up being thrown alive into the burning house or tossed into the air only to
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