2026-06-25 –, Room 304 PC Desk (Seats 36)
This book emerges from two key questions: Did imperialism “end” at the moment of decolonisation or did it merely adapt to changing circumstances? And why has ethnonationalism become so powerful in so many post-colonial states? To answer these questions and to untangle the association between them, this work examines British imperialism in late colonial Burma and finds that the imperialists attempted to protect their strategic and economic interests by supporting ethnonationalism. It argues that, as the rise of a powerful Burmese nationalist movement in the 1930s and 1940s made it increasingly clear that formal colonialism in Burma would eventually end, British colonial officials in London and on-the-spot formed a tacit preference for Burmese ethnonationalists in order to combat the more revolutionary trends within Burmese politics. The relationship between imperialists and ethnonationalists may at first seem paradoxical: ethnonationalists, by definition, demand political independence. But formal rule was often the least of British imperialists’ concerns, a “burden” even. The far more important end was the preservation of the foothold of British capital and geo-strategic operations in the long term.
The work makes two key interventions into academic literature. First, for studies of imperialism, it bridges the gap between works on colonial “divide-and-rule” policies and works on neo-colonial “Containment” policies during the Cold War. It provides a key case study for how imperialists – and authoritarian states in general – utilise ethnonationalist politics as a force of passive revolution, providing the aesthetics of revolution while preventing real transformation. Second, for studies of Myanmar, it identifies the origins of the racial regime that scapegoats Indians and Muslims as foreign invaders and exploiters. The present-day Rohingya genocide is a result of the persistence of this racial regime. Ultimately, this book presents a symbiotic relationship between imperialism, capitalism, and ethnonationalism.
Burma; ethnonationalism; imperialism; colonialism; decolonization
Dr. Matthew Bowser is an Assistant Professor of Modern World History at Ohio Wesleyan University. He is the author of Containing Decolonisation: British Imperialism and the Politics of Race in Late Colonial Burma, which was published with Manchester University Press in September 2025. His research focuses on decolonization in Southeast Asia, examining the intersections of imperialism, race, nationalism, and capitalism in the process of achieving independence from colonial rule. His work has been published in the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, the Journal of Asian Studies, and the Journal of Modern Asian Studies.