Homo Sapiens
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Warlike or not, Burmese kings never dared to attack Bengal before East India Company took over. When the native rulers were gone and a Company took over the charge, Burmese king miscalculated the company being weak and put up outrageous demands. For which they paid dearly subsequently. Burmese attention were always in the east doing warfare with Thais and Bengal to the west. There was only one episode in history when Bengal Sultanate and Burmese kingdom clashed. That was during 14th century, when Burma attacked and captured Arakan. It's king fled to Gaur, the capital of Bengal, then Sultan assisted him with 20,000 soldiers. With this troops, Arakan king defeated the Burmese and restored his kingdom. Next 150 years, Arakan remained vassal of Bengal Sultanate.Historically speaking, I see Burmese as more of war-like and care free ( though we are personally very nice and the most smilest people on earth possibly) .Just in last 250 years , Burmese marched from Thailand and Laos to Assam and Manipur, and prevailed in Sino-Burmese wars . Burmese are not defenders we attacked .
Even in first Anglo-Burmese war, Burmese were triumphant in both Ramu and Sylhet, ready to overrun Bengal before British tactical landing in Rangoon changed the course of the war. Then more wars . Then armed revolts here and there throughout colonial time, then civil war since independence.
Your theory of Bengali being not military type of person is not correct. Most of the history Bengal was independent kingdom/Sultanate controlling whole Bengal and neighboring Indian regions like Bihar, Odisha. Most of the pan Indian empire like Mauryan Empire, Gupta Empire, Pala Empire had their nucleas in present day north west Bangladesh. It was the people from Bengal under those local dynasty who expanded their realm in Gangetic plains and made them pan-Indian empire. even Mughal faced their stiffest resistance at conquering Bengal. It took them 30 years to finally put their hold into Bengal. Bengalis being non martial race was deliberately propagated by the British as they faced maximum rebellion and anti-colonial agitation from Bengal. They correctly perceived Bengalis to be non-loyal and made decision to not to include Bengalis in military. The 1857 sepoy mutiny started in Bengal. Bengal was the center of nationalistic, anti colonial movement. That's why they promoted their loyal group of ethnicities as martial race and non loyal ethnicities like Bengalis as non Martial race. Before British period, such theory was unknown in the sub continent.I never see Bangladeshi as hostile race , knowing many by myself and their history.
BD people being known for SME , restaurants and literature ( and to be frank, talk really really big , I dont know why ???).
Not for military.
Until Mughals come , whole coastline were annually ravaged by Rakhine. Only in 1667 Rakhine lost Chittagong to Mughals.
History could be the past . But Genes are inherited . Stereotypes are real
now come to the Rakhine ravage of coastline. It did happened only during 16th and 17th century roughly 100 years period. Due to some exceptional circumstances. That was the golden age of Portuguese piracy. Arakanese pirate came into contact with Portuguese pirate and learned modern navigation technique. Both Portuguese and Arakanese jointly raided coastal settlement in Bengal. They operated on hit and run tactic. This is something is very difficult to defeat in conventional warfare by the land based empire or kingdom. Even Caribbean pirates terrorized the British for a long time in America. That does not mean, Caribbean pirates were more powerful than British or British did not know how to fight. Finally Mughal ruler of Bengal defeated the Portuguese-Arakanese nexus in the Bay of Bengal and captured Chittagong in 1666AD. That was the beginning of the end for Arakanese kingdom. It went into terminal decline and was captured by Burmese in the next century.
So your gene theory of Bengali being less capable to fight is laughable at best.
Well Rohingyas put a good fight during 1940s and 1950s. When they controlled northern Arakan. But they were inherently disadvantaged as they did not receive any outside support (particularly from East Pakistan/Bangladesh). Also their number is very small. It only recently that their number crossed 1 million. And Burmese state put them into a very precarious position by revoking their citizenship and all fundamental rights. They were step by step reduced to a miserable existence without any leadership or any means to defend themselves. How can you give example of Pashtun and Punjabis? Had they ever were as small and downtrodden as Rohingyas? No. It may be easy for you to give easy explanation like Gene without deeply analyzing how precarious the position of Rohingyas in the world. But after putting each circumstances into their right context, it become clear about the fallacy of such theory.I always think if the people involved in the crisis are Pashtuns, or Chechens or Punjabi , there would be a hell of fight and nastier mess ( again genes )
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