Challenges to ethnic harmony in Burma: a historical overview.
Issued Date
2007
Resource Type
Language
eng
Rights
Mahidol University
Suggested Citation
Heikkila-Horn, Marja-Leena. (2007). Challenges to ethnic harmony in Burma: a historical overview.. Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/35003
Title
Challenges to ethnic harmony in Burma: a historical overview.
Author(s)
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
Burma faced independence in 1948 as a deeply divided country. The British had
ruled the area, which now was declared as “Union of Burma” in two entirely
different administrative systems. The southern parts of the country were taken
over gradually after the wars in 1824-1826 and 1852, and became the main geobody
of “Burma Proper” or “Ministerial Burma”. The rest of the country was
taken over in a war in 1885-1886, and much of this area was administered
indirectly through the local Shan and Kachin chiefs as an administrative entity
known simply as “Frontier Areas” or “Scheduled Areas”. Like in the Indian
Subcontinent and in the Malayan Peninsula the British administrative
arrangements created a serious challenge to the leaders of the new independent
country.
Burma Proper was basically populated by the ethnic Burmans, Arakanese, Mons
and Delta Karens, whereas the Frontier Areas were populated by the Shan
people, Salween Karens, Kachins, Karennis, Chins and various subgroups of the
aforementioned. The same year, as the independence was granted, the Union of
Burma plunged into a civil war, which continues until today.
This paper discusses the ethnic categories created by the colonial authorities and
it looks into how these ethnic categories have been – and continue to be -
imagined, invented, manipulated and politicised for economic purposes. The
paper is mainly a historical overview but points out a few continuities to the
present time. The paper looks into how the Burmese authorities dealt with these
issues in the first constitution of 1947 by dividing the country into ethnically
based “states” and “divisions”, and how the international community of today
continues supporting these ethnic categories.
Description
The 3rd International Malaysia-Thailand Conference on Southeast Asian Studies, Mahidol University Internaitonal College, Thailand. November 29- December 1, 2007