Rohingyas are living mostly in Myanmar and present themselves as one of the ethnic minorities of the country. They say that they were Arab traders and shifted to Myanmar many years ago and are living there for generations. But Govt. of Myanmar denies this claim and tries to prove everytime that Rohingyas are illegal immigrants who have come from Bangladesh which shares boundaries with Myanmar. Still there are thousands of Rohingya, who are Muslims by religion and live in Bangladesh also. Before going to the depth of this conflict, we should have a look on the population of this ethnic group in different countries of the world.

Rohingya Population Division in Different Countries

Source: Wikipedia

What is the current scenario?

As we can see in the above table, this ethnic Muslim group are living in Myanmar in a large number and we have already discussed that Myanmar is not accepting them as country’s citizens. In 1982, Burma aka Myanmar Government had made a citizenship law in which Rohingya did not get nationality. Rohingya are being treated there as intruders. It is also a fact which nobody can deny that Rohingyas are living predominantly in Buddhist Southeast Asian countries for generations.  But no country is accepting this race as citizens. These people are not provided any passport or ID. They cannot even participate in a country’s general elections. So we can come to the conclusion that Rohingyas are least wanted, ill-treated and most ignored ethnic minority in the entire world.

What is the stand of India regarding this?

India is playing a role of just a mute spectator because she knows well that it is Myanmar’s internal issue. And if she suggests or presents itself as pro-Rohingya to Myanmar then it will not be healthy for India’s bilateral relationship with Myanmar. Myanmar is already getting much financial help from China and in such circumstances India would not want to have a bad relationship with Myanmar just for the sake of this small issue interrupting India Act East Policy.

Rohingya are Muslims then why is Bangladesh not accepting them?

We understand that Myanmar is a Buddhist country so they can object against Rohingya. But Bangladesh is a Muslim country then why she is not much interested to invite all this ethnic group to her? Why did Bangladesh leave them to suffer?

One reason is obvious that Bangladesh itself is a small country and there is a lot of population density already. But the truth is that even the common masses of Bangladesh are not ready to accept Rohilya as citizens of their country. Most Bangladeshi arguments appear to indicate that there are already many ethnic minorities in their country like Chakma, Marma etc. who are not Muslims and don’t speak Bangla but Bangladesh still accepts them and is not driving them away. Bangladesh thinks that it is a duty of Myanmar to accept Rohingya as her citizens.