This talk will address 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 along the Indian Ocean rim? To answer these questions and to untangle the association between them, this project examines British imperialism in late colonial Burma and finds that the imperialists attempted to protect their strategic and economic interests by supporting ethnonationalism. 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. This project 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 social and economic transformation. Second, for studies of the Indian Ocean rim, it identifies one case among many in which Indian migration was stigmatised and scapegoated by local ethnonationalists. The present-day Rohingya genocide is a result of the persistence of this racial exclusion in present-day Myanmar, first utilised by the British and then re-activated by the post-colonial military junta. Ultimately, this project presents a symbiotic relationship between imperialism, capitalism, and ethnonationalism.