Dhaka, March 26 -- The historical backdrop

Southeast Asia's Myanmar, (historically, Burma), bordered by Bangladesh, China, India, Laos and Thailand, is an overwhelmingly Buddhist country in which close to 90% of its population are Theravadda Buddhists. Of these, nearly three-fourths are ethnically "Bamar" or Burman. It is these Bamar who have overwhelmingly dominated Myanmar's political, military, and religious institutions for the last half century. During British Colonial rule of India, Burma became a province of India, nested within the British Bengal Presidency administrative unit.

The Rakhine state, of which Arakan is a composite component, has had historically close political, religious and socio-cultural links and interlocutions ...