Eurasian People
Throughout the former colonial world, in many instances what are referred to as ‘hybrid communities’ have evolved. In Africa, Oceania, Asia and the Americas, different groups were born of mixed relations between the colonists and indigenous peoples. In Asia, such groups, commonly known as Eurasians, developed in differing ways. These peoples were regarded varyingly from society to society. Often seen as a privileged class in comparison with the other native peoples, with the current trend in ethnic and post colonial studies, ethnographers, historiographers and sociologists frequently class Eurasians as living in some kind of ‘hiatus’ with allegiances to no one and to nowhere. However, it can be said that these peoples were more loyal to their countries of birth and origin than has been believed. In Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia (the former French Indochina), Eurasians evolved from mixed relations between the natives and French rulers. In the Philippines, Mestizos and Amerasians were born of Spanish and Filipino, and American and Filipino miscegenation. Throughout the Indian Subcontinent, Anglo-Indians emerged from mixed relations between the British and other Europeans with Indians, whilst in Sri-Lanka, Eurasians and Burghers emerged as the descendents of Singhalese and Portuguese, Dutch and British unions. In Indonesia, Dutch-Indonesians emerged, descended from colonial Dutch and Javanese miscegenation. In Burma, the Eurasian community evolved through mixed relations between the British and other settlers of European origin with the local Burmese populace, and this community came to be known in two ways: as either the Anglo-Burmans or the Anglo-Burmese.
Today’s Burma, the Union of Myanmar, is a nation situated in Southeast Asia between India and Bangladesh on the west, and Thailand, China and Laos to the north and east. Myanmar stretches more than 2,050 kilometers from north to south, and some 935 kilometers from east to west. With a population estimated at approaching some 58 million and an area of 676,577 square kilometers1, Myanmar is the largest nation of mainland Southeast Asia and joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997 amidst worldwide condemnation of its military dictatorship, human rights violations and governmental policies. Formerly known as the Union of Burma, the country was renamed in 1989 shortly after the military, known as the ‘Tatmadaw’, took over control of the country. The said intention for the name change was that the term ‘Myanmar’ better reflected the indigenous name for the country, dubbing ‘Burma’ as the colonial name for the nation. Notwithstanding, it is agreed that both terms are indeed correct appellations for the country, ‘Burma’ being the informal, spoken term, and ‘Myanmar’ equating to the literary form of the name for the country. However, minority groups such as the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB)2 all oppose the name change as an indirect and subtle means of domination by the largely Burman-controlled military government. The country is officially divided into fourteen administrative units, seven States (Pyeneh) and seven Divisions (Taieen). The States are named for the dominant racial group inhabiting each territory, thus being Shan, Karen-Kawthulé, Kayah, Chin, Mon, Arakan (Rakhine) and Kachin. The Divisions are primarily located within central Burma and populated by the Burman majority and are Rangoon (Yangon), Mandalay, Tenasserim (Tanintharyi), Magwe (Magway), Sagaing, Pegu (Bago) and Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady). In practice, the States were traditionally autonomous, whilst the Divisions were governed centrally. The current Divisions and States more or less correspond to the British methods of governance of the country whilst they ruled, the Divisions making up what was once known as ‘Ministerial Burma’ and the States corresponding to the ‘Frontier Areas’.
>> Dean Burnett <<