Dear all
I found the following evidences that Muslims had double faces during the time of Burmese Empire and when Burma became a British colony, particularly a part of British-Indian Empire. According to British sources they misled Burmese kings to go to war against the British!! That's why Burmese had and still have ill feelings towards them!! No wonder!
Best regards
KMS
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Moshe Yegar wrote in his book "Muslims of Burma" in Page 21-23 "In the last period of Burma’s history prior to the British conquest, from 1795 until the fall of Mandalay in 1885, the Muslims were active in state affairs between the British and the Burmese kings. During those years, several diplomatic missions were sent to the Burmese kings from the Governor General of India, for the purpose - not achieved - of strengthening friendship ties with Burma. These overtures were resisted by the population of the Burmese ports, especially by the Muslim and Armenian traders who feared British competition. The Muslims led a fierce anti-British propaganda campain claiming that the Indian experience proved that British trading would be followed inevitably by military conquest. All the British representatives who visited Burma complained of harrassment by Muslim traders.
Captain Hiram Cox, sent to the Burmese capital in 1796 as representative of the Governor General of India, complained of anti-British intrigues by various court circles, Muslims among them, and of the imprisonment of an English trader. He was also told “that the king had lately given the exclusive privilege, or monopoly, of the trade of Rangoon to a native Mahomedan, who had left court five or six days before my arrival; and that his majesty was somewhat embarrassed by my coming on that account. I had heard of the intrigues of this Mahomedan before I left Rangoon this was one violation of the promised freedom of trade”. The name of that Muslim was Boodhan. British traders and other foreigners asked Cox for “British protection” and support in their claims against the special trade concessions granted to Boodhan.
On his first mission to Burma in 1795—1796, Michael Symes complained of various Rangoon traders, amongst them Muslims, who were trying very hard to push the British out of Burma. In Amarapura he discovered that Armenians and Muslims were attempting to undermine his mission and besmirch his reputation. The Muslims claimed before the king that it was not befitting his honour to confer with a representative sent by a Governor General instead of by the British king. They even advocated that the Burmese and Indians join forces in order to expel the British. It was the Muslims who spread rumour that a French fleet was on Its way to Burma and that the end of British rule in India was imminent.
Symes also encountered Muslim enmity during his second mission to the Burmese court at Ava in 1802. The Muslims kept the Burmese king informed of events in India and of the difficulties encountered there by the British. On December 1, 1802, Symes wrote in his diary that “two principal merchants, one Muhammad Shoffie, the other Jacob Aquizar, declare themselves ready to advance money to promote the French interests” against the British. Symes thought that “it cannot be denied that the King is strongly prejudiced against the English nation, and on the contrary much inclined to the French ... The Moormen (Indian Mahommedan traders), more than any others, instil into his mind and foment these sentiments ... the counsels of the Moormen have made a strong impression on the minds of the King and his eldest son”.
Muslim anti-British propaganda did not diminish even after the defeat of the Mahrattas and the Pindars in India in 1818 and 1819, nor even after the defeat of the Burmese themselves in the first Anglo-Burmese war in 1824—1826. The East India Company was pre-occupied in warring against the Afghans in 1839-1840; this circumstance was exploited by the Burman Muslims who tried to damage British prestige at the Burmese court.
Major Burney, the Company’ร representative in Ava from 1826 to 1840, reported on a conversation he had with the king in 1830 and summed up as follows: “Whilst he is in this humour, he will be more likely to be instigated by his flatterers and the Mahomedans, our bitter enemies at this Court, into ordering measures which may impose upon us the necessity of going to war”. During the Afghan Wars, Major Burney reported: “In Burma however, and particularly at the capital, rumours of British disasters in Afghanistan began to be spread by Mahomedans as early as April, 1839, when the British armies were meeting with nothing but success everywhere,
I found the following evidences that Muslims had double faces during the time of Burmese Empire and when Burma became a British colony, particularly a part of British-Indian Empire. According to British sources they misled Burmese kings to go to war against the British!! That's why Burmese had and still have ill feelings towards them!! No wonder!
Best regards
KMS
---------------------------------------------
Moshe Yegar wrote in his book "Muslims of Burma" in Page 21-23 "In the last period of Burma’s history prior to the British conquest, from 1795 until the fall of Mandalay in 1885, the Muslims were active in state affairs between the British and the Burmese kings. During those years, several diplomatic missions were sent to the Burmese kings from the Governor General of India, for the purpose - not achieved - of strengthening friendship ties with Burma. These overtures were resisted by the population of the Burmese ports, especially by the Muslim and Armenian traders who feared British competition. The Muslims led a fierce anti-British propaganda campain claiming that the Indian experience proved that British trading would be followed inevitably by military conquest. All the British representatives who visited Burma complained of harrassment by Muslim traders.
On his first mission to Burma in 1795—1796, Michael Symes complained of various Rangoon traders, amongst them Muslims, who were trying very hard to push the British out of Burma. In Amarapura he discovered that Armenians and Muslims were attempting to undermine his mission and besmirch his reputation. The Muslims claimed before the king that it was not befitting his honour to confer with a representative sent by a Governor General instead of by the British king. They even advocated that the Burmese and Indians join forces in order to expel the British. It was the Muslims who spread rumour that a French fleet was on Its way to Burma and that the end of British rule in India was imminent.
Symes also encountered Muslim enmity during his second mission to the Burmese court at Ava in 1802. The Muslims kept the Burmese king informed of events in India and of the difficulties encountered there by the British. On December 1, 1802, Symes wrote in his diary that “two principal merchants, one Muhammad Shoffie, the other Jacob Aquizar, declare themselves ready to advance money to promote the French interests” against the British. Symes thought that “it cannot be denied that the King is strongly prejudiced against the English nation, and on the contrary much inclined to the French ... The Moormen (Indian Mahommedan traders), more than any others, instil into his mind and foment these sentiments ... the counsels of the Moormen have made a strong impression on the minds of the King and his eldest son”.
Muslim anti-British propaganda did not diminish even after the defeat of the Mahrattas and the Pindars in India in 1818 and 1819, nor even after the defeat of the Burmese themselves in the first Anglo-Burmese war in 1824—1826. The East India Company was pre-occupied in warring against the Afghans in 1839-1840; this circumstance was exploited by the Burman Muslims who tried to damage British prestige at the Burmese court.
Major Burney, the Company’ร representative in Ava from 1826 to 1840, reported on a conversation he had with the king in 1830 and summed up as follows: “Whilst he is in this humour, he will be more likely to be instigated by his flatterers and the Mahomedans, our bitter enemies at this Court, into ordering measures which may impose upon us the necessity of going to war”. During the Afghan Wars, Major Burney reported: “In Burma however, and particularly at the capital, rumours of British disasters in Afghanistan began to be spread by Mahomedans as early as April, 1839, when the British armies were meeting with nothing but success everywhere,
These false reports were dinned into the King’s ear ... Aga Hassan, the King’s Indian doctor, and certain others were pouring into the King’s ears accounts of our disaster in every direction ... One Ally Khan informed (April, 1839) the King, and the report was solemnly cinfirmed by a Burmese Mahomedan named Babi, that 100 Europeans, with their ears removed, had been sent away by the Afghans, that Calcutta was deserted, and all officers, with the exception of one clerk,had proceeded towards the north to assist in the defence of the country. His Majesty enquired what the number of British troops stationed on the Burma frontiers was, and on Babi telling him that it was no more than 6400, His Majesty remarked, ‘‘Well, that IS not many at any rate”. Babi added that the British had not another man to spare to send against Burma”.
The Muslims also spread the rumour that Dost Muhamad of Afghanistan had sent a letter to the King of Burma, describing his own operations and suggesting a triple alliance between Afghanistan, Burma and Nepal to fight the British and expel them.
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The Burmese had not learned their lesson; influenced by the Muslims, they disrupted the diplomatic mission headed by Major Arthur Phayre which came to Ava in 1855. Yule, Phayre’s secretary, wrote: “The feeling both of the Armenians and Moguls in Ava appears to have been always one of bitter jealousy and dislike to us. In our absence, they felt themselves the representatives of Western knowledge and civilization, but by our presence they are cast into the shade, and resent it”. The third Anglo-Burmese war was fought in 1885 resulting in the rest of Burma being conquered by the British.
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