The Grimshaw Review of International Affairs Vol. 2, No. 1 embedding its influence into modern power structures, political economies, and identities (Chennells, 1999, p. 110). Parshar and Schulz (2021, p. 869) argue modernity has “piggybacked on the colonial enterprise of ‘the civilising mission’,” shaping discourses of progress and development that often marginalise indigenous perspectives. A postcolonial lens thus demands moving beyond superficial humanitarian responses to address the root causes of the Rohingya’s plight, acknowledging how colonial histories shape contemporary injustices. The marginalisation of the Rohingya epitomises the enduring legacies of both colonialism and the racialised hierarchies it institutionalised. British colonial rule did more than establish a bureaucratic system; it imposed rigid ethnic and religious categories that continue to influence Myanmar’s socio-political order (Clarke et al., 2019, p. 18). These classifications, embedded in 19th-century European assumptions about identity, helped construct ethnic boundaries with fixed qualities linked to specific “races” and territories (Clarke et al, 2019, p. 18; Ferguson, 2015, p. 5). Constructivist understandings of ethnicity emphasise that such identities are socially constructed, with boundaries shaped by human interaction rather than naturally existing traits (Burke, 2016, p. 261). Yet, colonial categorisations continue to shape Myanmar’s political and social landscape, where post-independence rulers adapted these classifications to exclude communities like the Rohingya from the Burmese state, thereby preserving the former’s visions of national identity (Burke, 2016, p. 262). Consequently, such colonial legacies inform contemporary narratives of “insiders” and “outsiders” in Myanmar, where ethnic identity is central to subnational politics, conflating ethnicity with territorial and racial purity (Clarke et al., 2019, p. 38). In this context, a decolonial approach to transnational solidarity is imperative. Such an approach requires reimagining solidarity not simply as a form of humanitarian aid, but as a mechanism for systemic transformations that address the underlying structures of colonial power. Humanitarian aid has historically been instrumentalised to sustain colonialism, warmongering, and economic exploitation, revealing the need for a shift beyond Eurocentric frameworks (Aloudat and Khan, 2022, p. 3). Decolonisation involves rejecting the 13