ABSTRACT

Myanmar is characterised by ethnic diversity. The government view is that the country is composed of 135 ‘races’, although there are eight major ‘races’ that are regularly highlighted. This taxonomy serves multiple purposes. One is to unite diverse groups into a single, unified nation to the exclusion of so-called ‘alien races’, such as Hokkien and Haka Chinese, Tamil, Punjabi and Rohingya. Another purpose is to justify authoritarianism – since ‘non-disintegration of the union’ has been a central slogan of military rule. ‘Bamar’ as the majority ethnic category makes up around 60–70% of the population (Smith 1991). However, mainstream usage inside the country does not ordinarily classify Bamar as an ethnic group, as ethnicity is a minoritising discourse in Myanmar. This is unsurprising as majority identities are often taken for granted. The erasure of Bamar ethnic status, and the presentation of Bamar-ness ‘as the norm’ reflects Bamar privilege, a privilege that is ‘invisible to itself’ (Walton 2013, 5–6).