From Burma, but not Burman?

Politics

From Burma, but not Burman?

"The Brits certainly left you in a big mess," an American friend, who was a retired army officer, once told me.

"You said you're from Burma, but when I called you Burmans you got offended. Which was a surprise to me and even sounded childish, because no offense was meant at all when I said that."

"The more peculiar," he continued, "because even though you said you're Burmese, I found only a few of you who could speak Burmese, let alone read it. It took me quite a while to get used to the whole chaos created by the British."

Good old Jim, graciously suffering for the one careless mistake made by his cousins centuries ago when the sun never set in the British Empire. It was the one mistake avoided by its arch-rival in those days, the French.

Back then, all the countries between India and China were known as Indochina. So when the French took Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, they became collectively known as French Indochina. However, when the British took Arakan, Burma, Karenni, the Shan States and a few others, they did not become British Indochina but Burma instead. Which marked the beginning of the confusion that has persisted until today.

The British then set out to add a few more of them:

• While the whole occupied territories were called Burma, the 'original' Burma became Burma Proper, Ministerial Burma and some more, which I am unable to recall

• The majority people of Burma Proper were called Burmans and their language Burmese

• The peoples of Burma, its citizens, also collectively became Burmese

No wonder the generals in Rangoon wanted to change the whole set of nomenclature. They did it in fact and only achieved to add more confusion.

"Why don't I call the whole lot of you Burmans," he pondered, "and the guys in the lowlands and their language Burmese? You'll then be a Shan Burman, and the rest Karen Burmans, Kachin Burmans and so on. That'll simplify things."

It sounded okay to me, at least for the time being. I told him so. "But just me is not enough," I said.

He agreed and swore he would start things rolling as soon as he's back from the hospital.

He never did. His illness was diagnosed as cancer there. A few months later, he died.