Champa independence movement
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The Champa independence movement is a movement for the independence of the Cham people and its attempt to separate from
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
.


Background

Champa Champa (Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ; km, ចាម្ប៉ា; vi, Chiêm Thành or ) were a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is contemporary central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd cen ...
was a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is today central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd century AD until 1832 when it was annexed by the Vietnamese Empire under
Minh Mạng Minh Mạng () or Minh Mệnh (, vi-hantu, 明 命, lit. "the bright favour of Heaven"; 25 May 1791 – 20 January 1841; born Nguyễn Phúc Đảm, also known as Nguyễn Phúc Kiểu) was the second emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of V ...
. Once an independent kingdom, Champa had managed to develop its own culture that was strongly influenced from the Indian cultural zone, resulting with its own cultural heritages that separated them from the Sinic Vietnamese in the north, making Champa one of the most important parts of the Indic civilization sphere due to its strong Hindu remnants. However, with the Vietnamese nation emerged after Chinese occupation, Champa and Đại Việt had engaged in a number of wars. The war series had slowly, but effectively crippled Champa as the country was unable to fend off both threat from the Khmer Empire in the west and the Vietnamese in the north. In order to rescue the country, the Chams adopted
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
as its religion from 15th century, but the Vietnamese conquest at 1471 finally put a ''de jure'' end of Champa as an independent state. Since then, the Chams had rebelled a number of times against Vietnamese domination, the most important rebellions happened to be in the 19th century with
Katip Sumat uprising Katip Sumat uprising ( vi, Phong trào Hồi Giáo của Katip Sumat) was a revolt in 19th century Southern Vietnam. It was led by Cham Muslim leader Katip Sumat. This is the only ever-recorded jihad war involving Vietnam.(Extracted from Truong Va ...
and
Ja Thak Wa uprising Ja Thak Wa uprising ( vi, Khởi nghĩa Ja Thak Wa) was a revolt led by two ethnic Cham leaders, Ja Thak Wa and Po War Palei, against the Vietnamese government under Emperor Minh Mạng in 19th century southern Vietnam. Events Northern Champa wa ...
, making it the first and, so far, the only jihadist war in Vietnamese history. Both had been crushed by the Vietnamese Empire. In 20th century, especially the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, the Chams were active as part of
Front for the Liberation of Champa The Front for the Liberation of Champa (french: Front pour la libération du Champa; abbreviated FLC) was a Cham nationalist organisation active in Ninh Thuan province and the Central Highlands of Vietnam. It was founded in 1962 and merged with ...
, and later, the
United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races The United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO; french: Front unifié de lutte des races opprimées, vi, Mặt trận Thống nhất Đấu tranh của các Sắc tộc bị Áp bức) was an organization whose objective was auton ...
, rebelling as part of their desire for independence. All these rebellions were eventually crushed down by the unified communist government, and the Cham population was significantly reduced.


Arguments about Cham identity


Arguments in favor for independence

Cham advocacy groups argued that, as Champa had been an independent country until being finally annexed to the Vietnamese territory at 1832, the Chams have the rights to regain back what it had lost. Cham advocacy groups have also criticized the Vietnamese government of usurping history and denying the existence of Champa as a state and its systematic atrocities against Chams. Many Chams believed that the Vietnamese government would never allow any official researches over the Cham history in fear of possible uprising against Vietnamese rule by the Cham population. However, due to the small size of Cham population today, it often meets with strong counter-argument from the Vietnamese side. Cham independence advocators often cite its war against Vietnamese expansionism as an example how Champa should be independent as it used to be.


Arguments against independence

According to Cham activists, the Vietnamese, regardless of political stances, have been strongly against any kind of independence movement by the Chams, and thus hostile to the Champa independence movement. This has never extended to racial relationship, however, as Vietnamese people, including many
Overseas Vietnamese Overseas Vietnamese ( vi, người Việt hải ngoại, or ) refers to Vietnamese people who live outside Vietnam. There are approximately 5 million overseas Vietnamese, the largest community of whom live in the Vietnamese Americans, Unite ...
, are totally indifferent on their view with the Chams as a fellow people and unaware of historical discourses, according to Julie Thi Underhill.
Po Dharma Po Dharma (9 October 1948–22 February 2019) was an activist of Vietnam. He was also a Cham cultural historian. Po Dharma was a Cham, his birth name is Quảng Văn Đủ. He was born in Chất Thường Village (Cham: Palei Baoh Dana), Ninh P ...
, who was a major researcher of Champa's history, while critical to the Vietnamese government's treatment of the Chams, believed that Vietnam should respect the Cham heritage as Champa's history is often intertwined with Vietnamese history, if not to say, part of it. Among all Vietnamese historical war accords, wars against Champa also take a popular feeling of pride among majority of Vietnamese and the conquest is highly venerated in the country. Many Vietnamese also believe that if not for the conquest, Champa might have remained an underdeveloped country like Laos and Cambodia, and improvement could be seen under Vietnamese rule rather than Cham rule. Another popular Vietnamese narrative is, although Champa did not exist, but the Vietnamese government since modern days had tried to reconcile and research history of Champa as an entity and its own civilization, culture and customs, thus the Cham nationalist narrative of persecution is untrue.


Other opinions

In the Muslim world, where the Chams seemed to have a close bond due to religious conversion to Islam in 15th century, the persecution of Chams is little-known in the Muslim world. This is due to it being overlooked and due to strong Muslim sympathy to the Vietnamese during its war for independence from France. On the other hand, its Islamic conversion happens to be a huge disadvantage, due to the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
which antagonized Muslims across the world may have further alienated Champa independence movement. This lack of awareness might have also contributed to the factor that Vietnam has never been targeted by Islamic extremists despite its maltreatment of Cham people. In the United States, the Chams were considered to be ally during the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, but the Americans' main objective was to help reinforcing Chams and
South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
into a common alliance against North Vietnam, which was never achieved due to historical antagonism of two sides. Following the fall of South Vietnam and intensifying persecution, many Chams resettled in the United States and had sought to revive and protect the Cham culture while dealing with a much larger and more populous Vietnamese American community that is not fond of Champa's independence objective either. The
Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. ...
was initially antagonistic to the Chams and had committed mass atrocities against Chams, but due to the
Cambodian–Vietnamese War The Cambodian–Vietnamese War ( km, សង្គ្រាមកម្ពុជា-វៀតណាម, vi, Chiến tranh Campuchia–Việt Nam), known in Vietnam as the Counter-offensive on the Southwestern border ( vi, Chiến dịch Phản ...
, had turned on and tried to seek support from the Chams to fight the Vietnamese invasion.


See also

* Human rights in Vietnam


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Champa Independence Movement Champa Hinduism in Vietnam History of Vietnam Independence movements Indigenous land rights International disputes Islam in Vietnam National liberation movements Rebellions in Vietnam