Sultan Mahmud (1900–1982) was a politician from Arakan, Burma (now

Rakhine State Rakhine State ( ; , ; ), formerly known as Arakan State, is a Administrative divisions of Myanmar, state in Myanmar (Burma). Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State to the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Re ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

). In the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

(which included Burma Province until 1937), Mahmud served as cabinet secretary in the

Central Legislative Assembly The Central Legislative Assembly was the lower house of the Indian Legislature, the legislature of British India. It was created by the Government of India Act 1919, implementing the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms. It was also sometimes calle ...

. After Burmese independence, he was elected to the Parliament of Burma through a

by election By or BY may refer to: Places * By, Doubs, France, a commune * By, Norway, a village Codes * Belarus ISO country code ** .by, country-code top-level domain for Belarus * Burundi, obsolete FIPS Pub 10-4 and NATO digram country codes * TUI Ai ...

from

Buthidaung Buthidaung (, ) is a town in Rakhine State, in the westernmost part of Myanmar (Burma). It is the administrative seat of the Buthidaung Township. Buthidaung lies on the west bank of the Mayu river, and experienced severe flooding in June 2010 and ...

in 1957. He was re-elected in 1960. He served as

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

of the Union of Burma from 1960 till the

1962 Burmese coup d'état The 1962 Burmese coup d'état marked the beginning of one-party rule in Burma (Myanmar) and the political dominance of the military in Burmese politics. In the 2 March 1962 coup, the military replaced the civilian AFPFL-government headed ...

. When Burma was considering becoming a federal state under Prime Minister

U Nu Nu (; ; 25 May 1907 – 14 February 1995), commonly known as Burmese names#Honorifics, U Nu and also by the honorific name Thakin Nu, was a prominent Burmese people, Burmese statesman and the first Prime Minister of Union of Burma. He was ...

's "unity in diversity" policies, Mahmud proposed that Arakanese Indians should either have a separate province covering the area between the Naf and

Kaladan River The Kaladan (, ) or Kissapanadi River (, ), also known as the Beino, Bawinu and Kolodyne, is a river in the eastern Mizoram, Mizoram State of India, and in Chin State and Rakhine State of western Myanmar. The Kaladan River is called the Chhimtuip ...

s; or if a separate Arakan province is established with Arakanese Buddhists, it should have a confessionalist structure, with Muslims and Buddhists alternating as provincial governor.

Early life

Mahmud was born in

Akyab Sittwe (, ), formerly Akyab (), is the capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma). Sittwe is located on an estuarial island created at the confluence of the Kaladan, Mayu, and Lay Mro rivers emptying into the Bay of Bengal. As of 2019 the cit ...

in 1900. He was educated in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

Political career

When Burma was a part of British India, Mahmud held the important post of cabinet secretary in the Central Legislative Assembly in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

. During a by-election in 1957, Mahmud was elected to the

Union Parliament The Union Parliament () was the bicameral legislature of the Union of Burma from 1948 to 1962, when it was disbanded by the Union Revolutionary Council. It consisted of an upper house, the Chamber of Nationalities and a lower house, the Chamb ...

from Buthidaung North constituency. He was appointed

health minister A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

in the cabinet of

Prime Minister of Burma The prime minister of Myanmar () is the head of government of Myanmar. The post was re-established in 2021 by the State Administration Council (SAC), the country's ruling military junta, to lead its nominally-civilian provisional government. T ...

. Mahmud was re-elected during the 1960 Burmese general election. He was head of a Arakanese Muslim Association and Arakanese Muslims Organization. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340754874_Rohingya_The_History_of_a_Muslim_Identity_in_Myanmar_Summary_and_Keywords Mr. Mahmud was arrested by the British after the war because he participated in the Indian liberation movement and helped Japanese forces and BAI forces to entered Arakan during the war. He was sentenced for ten months at the Jhingergacha jail, Josore. He was freed after Japan forces surrendered. In 1962, after dictator U Ne Win coup, minister Mahmud escaped and asylum in East Pakistan. He returned to his country in 1970. During his tenure as health minister, several hospitals were established in Arakan, including the Akyab General Hospital and Buthidaung Hospital. As an MP, Mahmud persuaded the education ministry to establish several schools, including the Shaheb Bazaar State Middle School and Minglagyi State Middle School. He also managed to create a scholarship program for Arakanese Muslim students to study in Britain.

Statehood question

After winning in the 1960 general election, Prime Minister U Nu appointed an Inquiry Commission to study whether Arakan Division should be granted statehood. The commission found that most Arakanese Buddhists supported statehood, whereas most Arakanese Muslims opposed statehood. Sultan Mahmud proposed that a state for Arakanese Indians be established in the northern part of Arakan, where Indians were a majority. Mahmud cited the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

's expeditions up till the Kaladan River under

Shaista Khan Mirza Abu Talib (b. 22 November 1600 – d. 1694), better known as Shaista Khan, was a general and the Subahdar of Mughal Bengal. He was maternal uncle to the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, and acted as a key figure during his reign. Shaista Khan ini ...

in 1666 as forming the basis of the boundary between Arakanese Muslims and Buddhists. The Kaladan River divided Muslim-majority and Buddhist-majority areas.

Memorandum

On 20 October 1960, Sultan Mahmud and his colleagues submitted a memorandum to the Statehood Consultative Committee. The memorandum laid down two conditions for statehood: 1) if the Arakanese Buddhists would support their demands; and 2) if the constitution of the proposed province would include adequate safeguards for Indian

autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be ...

. The governor of the new state would alternate between Arakanese Muslims and Arakanese Buddhists. The proposal mentioned that if the governor of a state was a Muslim, then the Speaker of the State Council would have to be a non-Muslim, but his deputy, a Muslim; and vice versa. The same arrangement would apply to most other elected or appointed public bodies. The memorandum called for

freedom of religion Freedom of religion or religious liberty, also known as freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice ...

, including freedom to learn religious studies in educational institutions, according to personal beliefs. Arakanese Muslims should be allowed to develop the

Rohingya language Rohingya (; Hanifi Rohingya: , ,, ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Rohingya people living in Rakhine State, Myanmar and Chittagong Division of Bangladesh. It is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Bengali–Assamese br ...

and culture. The chief executive would have a designated officer to oversee the affairs of Arakanese Muslims .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahmud, Sultan Burmese politicians Burmese Muslims Rohingya politicians People from Rakhine State 1900 births 1982 deaths

Early life

Political career

Statehood question

Memorandum

See also

References