Date of Award
2022
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. History Dept.
Advisor(s)
Arnout van der Meer
Second Advisor
Inga Diederich
Abstract
The ongoing Rohingya Genocide is the most extreme expression of Burmese identity and has catapulted the nation of Myanmar onto the world stage. This thesis examines the development of a Burmese national identity during British colonial rule through the lens of inter-ethnic conflict between the Bamar ethnolinguistic majority and ethnic minorities living in colonial Myanmar. Through analyzing three different case studies, each representing a watershed expression of Burmese identity, this thesis illustrates how inter-ethnic conflict shaped what it means to be Burmese. Using archival material from the British Library such as political cartoons, government reports, and vernacular newspaper clippings, this thesis demonstrates that Burmese identity became increasingly defined as being part of the Bamar Buddhist majority. Furthermore, this project builds on existing scholarship to illustrate that Burmese nationalists used British conceptions of race to construct a more exclusive Burmese identity. An understanding of how Burmese identity developed during Myanmar's colonial past provides new insights as to why anti-Rohingya sentiment is virtually unchallenged within contemporary Myanmar.
Keywords
Burma, Myanmar, Nationalism, "Imagined Community, " Riots, "Plural Society"
Recommended Citation
Leong, Jason, "Whose Nation is This? Conceptualizing Burmese National Identity Through Case Studies of Inter-Ethnic Conflict" (2022). Honors Theses. Paper 1345.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/1345