Episode #186: A Double Minority
“The term ‘double minority’ simply means a ‘minority within minority,’” Christopher Win explains. “Rakhine is an ethnic minority group in Myanmar, and Maramagyi is an even smaller group than the Rohingya! I'm from that small minority group, and I work as an ethnic rights activist.”
The Maramagyi community comprises approximately 10,000 people who share linguistic similarities with the Rohingya; both trace their roots to communities in Bangladesh. However, unlike the Rohingya who are predominantly Muslim, the Maramagyi practice Buddhism, like the Barua people of Bangladesh with whom they share a connection. These groups were possibly part of a migration of native Indian Buddhists fleeing the Mughal Empire as it spread across the subcontinent in the 16th century. It is noteworthy that two highly revered 20th century vipassana meditation masters, Anagakira Munindra and Dipa Ma, are both of Burua ethnicity.
Regrettably, the Maramagyi community in Myanmar has endured significant discrimination throughout the years at the hands of the larger Rakhine and Rohingya communities, including intimidation and even violence which has resulted in forced displacement. But not only has the Burmese state not intervened on their behalf, it has imposed its own oppressive measures on the community. For example, it limits the educational opportunities open to the Maramagyi, and bans them outright from entering fields like medicine and engineering. And if this wasn’t enough, the government also subjects them to severe travel restrictions, permitting them to venture outside their region for just 45 days per year. As Christopher points out, just this restriction, itself, limits members of his community from not only attending any school, but also in their work opportunities, and even their ability to receive extended medical treatment.
Christopher recalls being bullied by non-Maramargyi peers, and even physically harassed by teachers at school. Even worse, though his parents are both citizens with national registration cards, Christopher has been denied citizenship himself, making his legal status precarious. He remembers how his father was called a “kala,” a derogatory term that Burmese typically use when referring to Indian Muslims. And when he’s traveled by bus, police at checkpoints have often forced him to exit and demanded that he recite Buddhist prayers as a kind of proof that he wasn’t Muslim.
Christopher had already been involved in activism several years before the coup. He began by documenting human rights violations in Rakhine state, collaborating with human rights organizations, including the UN Human Rights Office. In this way, he sees himself as an outlier in his small community. “Maramagyi people have this strong inferiority in their mind,” he acknowledges. “They think that standing up against any ruling group is very much like a crime, because they have seen those sort of atrocities for many decades.” Fear of the potential risks and repercussions of engaging in activist work have significantly repressed the possibility of more widespread organizing within the Maramagyi community,. “I think it will take time to heal their inferiority. So far, we don't have any resistance groups, and they are very afraid.”
In Christopher’s understanding, the problems the Maramagyi have faced are but a symptom of what he calls an “ethnically patriarchal system,” where larger and more dominant ethnic groups marginalize and oppress smaller, less powerful ones. Even during the brief democratic transition period, there was minimal representation of minority ethnic groups at the parliamentary level, which to Christopher, underscores the importance of creating a new federal charter that takes greater care in ensuring minority rights. For smaller groups, the status quo has long been to seek their own rights and pursuing goals for their own individual communities. However, Christopher believes it is essential that the country’s smaller ethnic groups go beyond this and looking at forming a coalition to increase their collective number, thereby amplifying their voice.
As terrible as the military coup has been, Christopher sees a silver lining: a greater awareness of the ethnic struggles that have long eluded the understanding of the Bamar population. Years of advocacy by ethnic minority communities had gone largely unheard, as many Bamar accepted the military propaganda that ethnic groups were essentially terrorists, and posed an existential risk to the stability of the country.
But the fallout from the coup has changed everything. The Bamar majority has come to realize how “those peoples’ voices have long been silenced, and they started to realize that they are in the same boat.” He adds, moreover that “before the military coup, people didn't even know what federalism is.” Amazingly, he says that some even saw it as a threat to the Union! “[Bamar people] are privileged, but the point is that they don't even realize that they're privileged! One good thing is even the perspective of Bamar people is now changing, and I think that that's a good sign.” Many Bamar now understand that federalism includes respecting the rights of different ethnic groups and fulfilling past promises, and see that it doesn’t pose any threat to their own majority group.
While Christopher hopes that the overall picture is trending more positively, his personal journey post-coup has not been easy. In Yangon, after the 2021 coup, he was an active member of several student unions. There, he gave several high-profile speeches, including as one in front of Sule Pagoda. All these activities put Christopher directly in the crosshairs of the dreaded Special Branch, and as a result, he had to move from one safe house to the other in avoiding arrest.
Eventually, Christopher escaped the country altogether, and is now based in Washington, DC. He has joined the General Strike Committee of Nationalities, a group that was created to bring together leaders from various ethnic groups in Myanmar in order to have a unified and systematic approach in their resistance against dictatorship. “We’re making especially Bamar people understand that Myanmar is extremely diverse country and our rights have long been violated,” he shares in closing, noting how for him, like so many other activists who are exiled from their homeland, he is doing his best to support the democracy movement from afar. “We're experiencing all these atrocious acts every day, but since people of Myanmar are determined, and they are on the right path, I am hopeful that we will win eventually, because we never had this sort of momentum in the past!”