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The origins of Burmese Indians are manyfold as various groups of people migrated to Burma at different times and from many different parts of the South Asian subcontinent. The largest of these groups are Tamil peoples from the south (present day Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu; Punjabis from the north (from the Punjab Region in present day India and Pakistan); from the east (Orissa and Bengal); from Gujurat (present day Maharashtra and Gujurat); Gurkhas from Nepal; and Pathans from the region bordering Pakistan and Afganistan. Many of these groups arrived with British forces during British colonial rule.
Tamils
Tens of thousands of Tamils came to work in Burma during British colonial rule. According to a March 1966 report, the Tamil population of Burma was about 2 million, Telugu about 50,000 and Malayalee about 5,000. Telugu and Hindi-speaking workers also migrated at that time. Migrant Tamils often had their own Tamil-language magazines, schools where Tamil was taught and movie theaters that showed Tamil movies imported from India. Telugu and Hindi speakers also had similar institutions and facilities. The although much of the immigrant population had been living there for generations and were integrated with Burmese society, became a target for discrimination and oppression by the new government formed after the military coup in 1962. The Myanmar military government closed down the Tamil, Telugu and Hindi-specific magazines and schools (except for schools operated out of temples and houses).
Chettiars
Chettiars – also known as Chetti, Chetty, Chety, Shetty or Setti – first arrived in Burma, also during British colonial rule, around 1826. They primarily accompanied Indian troops and labourers during the British campaign in Tenasserim in the first Anglo-Burmese war. However, they did not migrate en masse until after the Suez Canal was opened in 1869 and the Burma Land Act was passed. By 1880 the Chettiars had fanned out throughout Burma and by the end of the century they had become by far the "the most important factor in the agricultural credit structure of Lower Burma". By 1905 there were about 30 Chettiar offices in Burma. According to the Burma Provincial Banking Enquiry Report (BPBE), the most dependable source on the extent of Chettiar operations, this number had increased to 1,650 by 1930. Conveying more graphically the ubiquity of Chettiar offices, the BPBE concluded (1930a:203) that in "nearly every well-populated part of Lower Burma there is a Chettiar within a day's journey of every cultivator".
A community of moneylenders indigenous to Chettinad, Tamil Nadu, the Chettiars operated throughout the Southeast Asian territories of the British Empire. They played a particularly prominent role in Burma where they were typically demonised as rapacious usurers, responsible for all manner of vices related to the colonial economy. Burmese farmers believed they were there solely to seize their land. Others suggest that their role was crucial in the dramatic growth in Burma's agricultural output during the colonial era. The Chettiars' success in Burma lay less in the high interest rates they charged, than in the patterns of internal organisation that provided solutions to the inherent problems faced by financial intermediaries.
The Chettiars provided the capital that turned Burma into the "rice bowl" of the British Empire. Harcourt Butler, the governor of Burma, said in 1927 that "without the assistance of the Chettiar banking system, Burma would never have achieved the wonderful advance of the last 25 to 30 years. ... The Burman today is a much wealthier man than he was 25 years ago; and for this state of affairs the Chettiar deserves his thanks.
The truth was that Chettiars were the primary providers of capital to Burmese cultivators through much of the colonial period, but the combination of the collapse of paddy prices in the Great Depression, the Chettiar insistence on land as collateral, and the imposition of British land-title laws, did bring about a substantial transfer of Burma's cultivatable land into their hands. The Chettiars did not charge especially high interest rates and, indeed, their rates were much lower than indigenous moneylenders. In the end the Chettiars were expelled from Burma, in the process losing the land they had acquired and much of their capital.
Gurkhas
Gurkha, also spelled Gorkha, are originally from Nepal and take their name from the eighth century Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath. Many Gurkhas or Nepalese migrated out of Nepal and settled in various parts of northern India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Bhutan. Most of them speak the Nepali language.
Almost all of the Nepalese in Myanmar are Hindus, worshiping many gods. Many Gurkha or Nepalese arrived Burma with British forces during British colonial rule.
Bengali
The Bengali came from the Bengal (Bangladesh, formerly East Bengal and West Bengal).
Gujarati and Soorti
The Gujarati came from the state of Gujarat, western India. Their language is Gujarati. They are a complex group, speaking various dialects and having many cultural distinctions. Some of these differences are based on region, while others are based on their "caste". They are often involved in trade or in operating small businesses.
Approximately 30 percent of them are Muslims and those Gujarati Muslims are called Soorti. There are a lot of Soorti in Burma/Myanmar. Most of them are well to do merchants and entrepreneurs and industrialists. There is a high proportion of Soorti in Rangoon. Many of these Soorti Muslims have now emigrated out of Burma and are found all around the world, reaching as far as the UK and other English-speaking countries.
Orisi or Oriya
While there are 25 million Orisi in India, some of them migrated to Bangladesh and Burma. The Orisi speak an Indo-Aryan language called Oriya and also known as Oriya.
See also
References
- Thanjai Nalankilli, TAMIL TRIBUNE, July 2002 (ID.2002-07-02)
- Furnivall 1956:120
- Cite error: The named reference
Cooper 1959:30was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - BPBE 1930a:203
- Butkaew, Samart (2005-02). "Burmese Indians: The Forgotten Lives" (PDF). Burma Issues. Retrieved 2006-07-07.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Gregory, James. "Myanmar: A Neglected Area of Tamil Lexicography". University of Cologne.
- The Chettiars in Burma by Sean Turnell Economics Department Macquarie University.
- The Sikh Regiment In The Second World War, Colonel F.T.Birdwood OBE.
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