Yes, the inclusion of Burma as a part of India was the ultimate insult to Bamar pride. The Junta in 1989 portrayed renaming of Burma to Myanmar, and the simultaneous changes to many place names (e.g., Rangoon to Yangon, Irrawaddy to Ayeyarwady, Karen to Kayin), as part of a decolonization effort—a symbolic shedding of colonial legacies. However, these reforms were less about resisting colonialism and more about consolidating Bamar ethno-linguistic dominance, a process best described as Bamarisation.
The reforms were unilaterally imposed by the military junta without consultation or participation from the country’s numerous ethnic groups—such as the Shan, Karen, Kachin, Mon, Chin, or Rohingya. These communities already felt marginalized, and the name changes did nothing to reflect their identities or languages. Rather than an inclusive redefinition of national identity, the renaming imposed Bamar linguistic norms on the entire nation. The names adopted in 1989 were derived almost exclusively from the Burmese language, which further embedded Bamar cultural dominance. For instance, Myanmar is a literary form of Bamar, essentially representing the same ethnic identity under a more formal guise. The shift from Burma to Myanmar thus didn’t distance the country from colonial naming conventions—it merely reasserted the hegemony of the Bamar majority in a different form.