The Myanmar census, which many rights groups wish to see modified or postponed, now seems likely to go ahead as planned in less than a month. Alongside controversy about its racial and ethnic classifications, the exercise has generated hope among Muslim minorities. Most are not included in Myanmar’s 135 ethnic groups, and see a chance to rectify that. However, accompanying this hope is a debate among Muslims. Should they adopt “Pathi” as a racial identity, or “Myanmar Muslim” as a religious identity?

Muslims’ official identity has experienced many changes over the years. Well-known historian Ba Shin recorded that in the late eighteenth century the term “Pathi” was used by King Bodaw Paya, the sixth monarch of the Konbaung Dynasty. Ba Shin saw this as a corruption of Parsi, widely used to designate Persian Muslims. The British colonial government used the terms “Zerbadee” and “Burmese Muslim”. In the 1973 census, Ne Win’s government listed six Muslim ethnic groups among 143 in total: Burmese Muslim, Arakanese-Chittagong, Myedu, Arakanese-Kaman, Burmese-Indian and Burmese-Chinese (Panthay). However, in the 1982 citizenship law it reduced the overall number of ethnic groups to 135. Five of the six Muslim groups disappeared, with only Kaman remaining.

Muslims see the 2014 census as an opportunity to recover some of the ground lost in 1982. However, there is currently no consensus among them. Some argue for “Pathi”, while others advocate for “Myanmar Muslim”. In a series of briefings on the census at Yangon mosques in January 2014, Muslim scholar U Myint Thein stated that Pathi is a racial category that can be affiliated with any faith. He cited former UN Secretary-General U Thant as an example, arguing that he was a Pathi through his Muslim father who nevertheless practised Buddhism. Against this, advocates of “Myanmar Muslim” hold that Pathi is limited to one group of people only, and contend that a wider umbrella identity is needed to bring together Muslims of distinct racial backgrounds, without losing the religious dimension.

There are also different religious interpretations. On January 27, 2014, in response to a query from Muslims, a well-known Islamic school in Yangon issued a fatwa stating that it is permissible to use “Pathi”. A few weeks later, another school published an announcement encouraging Muslims to identify with the religion so as to comply with Quranic teachings.

Although the Myanmar government maintains that the census is a purely statistical exercise, it does have political implications particularly for under-represented minority groups. There are, for instance, constitutional provisions (in articles 161b and 161c) for political representation in regional and state legislatures for recognized minority groups with populations larger than 0.1 percent of the total population. Current debates are therefore very important, raising issues not only of social and cultural identity, but also of political power.

Zaw Htet is a PhD candidate at the University of Hong Kong.