Arakanese nationalism is akin to Burmese nationalism. It’s centered on an ethnic identity (Arakanese), intimately linked to neoconservative Theravada Buddhism, and is characterized by a fear of being overwhelmed both by modernity and by outsiders. The difference is that, in the case of the Arakanese, the outsiders are both the kala “Bengalis” on the one side and the “Burmese” on the other.
