The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century

by Thant Myint-U

With this distinction came the need to classify the many different ethnic communities in Burma as either “indigenous” or not. The 1921 census decided: “Races which are associated particularly closely with Burma, even if the greater part of their people live elsewhere, have been regarded as Indigenous Races, and have been classified in fifteen Race-groups” (italics in original).