Arakan State is Renamed Rakhine State

On This Day in Arakan History ၊ June 18, 1989

June 18, 1989, marks a significant moment of linguistic and political restructuring, as the military junta—the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)—enacted the Adaptation of Expressions Law (SLORC Law No. 15/89). This law officially changed the English names of several states, divisions, and cities, including the transition from Arakan State to Rakhine State.

While the name in the Burmese language remained the same, the change in English was a deliberate move to distance the country from its colonial-era terminology and to reflect a more centralized, Burman-centric interpretation of national identity.

For many, this was more than a simple administrative correction; it was a unilateral decision made without the consent of the local population. The renaming is often viewed as part of a broader "Burmanization" policy, intended to assert control over ethnic history and geography.

While "Rakhine" is the term used in official state documents today, many activists, scholars, and members of the resistance continue to use the name Arakan as a symbol of historical continuity and as a refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 1989 military decree.

In the contemporary context, the debate over "Arakan" vs. "Rakhine" is a powerful marker of political alignment. The modern revolutionary movement, led by the United League of Arakan (ULA), deliberately reclaims the term "Arakan" to honor the legacy of the independent Mrauk-U Kingdom and to emphasize a vision of future sovereignty that exists outside the framework of the central state's 1989 naming conventions.