Magadha to Chittagong Buddhist migration: the colonizer-colonized contestation over Arakanese and Bengali ethnic belonging

Abstract

ABSTRACT Late medieval Mughal sources accuse the Arakanese of incest and label them as ‘Maga.’ The Mughal use of ‘Maga’ echoes its previous application: pre-Islamic Persians were accused of incest and called ‘Maga.’ Colonial officials, however, redefined ‘Maga’ as a derivative of Magadha (historical Buddhist homeland in North India) and argued that the term originally referred to Barua Buddhists living in the Chittagong plains as the latter’s ancestors had arrived in Chittagong from Magadha via Arakan. This colonial ‘Maga-to-Magadha’ narrative suggested that the Baruas were an offshoot of the Arakanese although they have lived in the plains. It explained an anomaly in the colonial Chittagong hills-plains division. With an analysis of the Baruas’ writings, this paper argues that the Baruas themselves employed the same ancestral migration narrative to distance themselves from Arakanese ethnicity and claimed Bengali ethnic belonging. The Baruas’ claim has aligned them with Bengali nationalism but seems insufficient to challenge emerging Bangladeshi nationalism.