ABSTRACT
The chapter begins with a brief consideration of the linguistic aspects of discussing identity in Myanmar. It considers the ways in which the content of the national community shifted during the first half of the twentieth century, culminating in the solidification of an ethno-religious core of the nation, as a result of the military's pacification efforts throughout the 1950s. The chapter also considers various nation-building efforts among several of the non-Burman ethnic groups and the Rohingya ethno-religious minority. It looks at education as a tool that has contributed to exclusionary conceptions of national and sub-national identity, but could also be reconfigured to be the vehicle through which a new understanding of Myanmar national identity could be discussed, critiqued, and inculcated. The counterparts to Myanmar government and military attempts at nation-building are the efforts by various non-Burman ethnic groups to build and strengthen what they consider to be their own national identities.
