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British Burma - The Emergence of Political Movements

The fall of the Konbaung Dynasty in 1885 and the removal of national and local elites from positions of power created a political vacuum, perhaps best symbolized by the British removal of the king's throne from the "center of the universe" -- the palace at Mandalay -- to a museum in Calcutta. Nationalism was initially reactive. There was a great fear that Burma, tied administratively to India by the British, would be overwhelmed both demographically and culturally by the subcontinent and its huge population.

These fears seemed to be confirmed by increased Indian immigration and the continued reliance of the British on Indian personnel in government and modem enterprise. The focal point of early concerns, however, was Buddhism. It was generally agreed that national identity was summed up in the proposition that "to be Burmese is to be Buddhist." The government's stated policy of religious neutrality and the spread of Christian mission schools offering a modern education were seen as direct threats, and a number of nonpolitical organizations were established in order to revitalize the faith. These included a reformed Buddhist school set up at Moulmein in 1897, the Buddhist Missionary Association founded in Mandalay the same year, and the Ashoka Society, established in 1902 at Bassein.

In 1904 a Student Buddhist Association was started at Rangoon College; the Baptist Judson College and Rangoon College were the only institutions of higher education in Burma at the time. A Young Men's Buddhist Association (YMBA), modeled on the Young Men's Christian Association and similar to one set up in Ceylon in 1898, was established in Arakan in 1902 and in Rangoon in 1906. The YMBA maintained student hostels, emphasized la observance of Buddhist precepts, and sponsored seminars and discussions, which quite otfen touched on politics. It attracted members of the still small Burmese professional class-lawyers, journalists, and government clerks. The YMBA soon had 50 branches in towns thmughout the country. A national organization, the General Council of Buddhist Associations, was set up and held annual meetings.

The "shoe question," which had bedeviled relations between Burmese kings and the British befire annexation, resurfaced in a new form to spark a national contivversy. Contrary to custom, British visitors to temples and pagodas did not remove their shoes. In 1916 a meeting of YMBA brances in Rangoon called for the government legally to sanction a ban on footwear in pagodas that would apply to Burmese and Europeans alike. This the government refused to do. The Ledi Sayadaw, a highly respected monk, wrote a book in the Burmese language, On the Impropriety of Wearing Shoes on Pagoda Platforms, which gained widespread support for the YMBA's cause. The issue came to a head in October 1919 when a group of Europeans wearing shoes was attacked by monks at a pagoda in Mandalay. Although four of the monks were arrested and punished, including one sentenced to life imprisonment, the government felt forced to compromise. It gave the custodians of pagodas the right to exclude persons wearing shoes from their premises. Exceptions, however, were made in the case of soldiers and police engaged in the maintenance of public order. This point continued to rankle Buddhists.

Two issues stirred nationalist movements in the period between 1918 and 1923. The first was the proposal to grant a very limited system of self-government, known as dyarchy, to British India. Legislative councils, including both elected and appointed members, would be given governmental responsibilities, though the most important powers would be retained by the Londonappointed viceroy. In December 1917 a group of YMBA representatives had visited E.S. Montagu, the secretary of state for India who had formulated the plan, expressing the opinion that Burma should be separated from India. This, and the general impression that Burma was "the most placid province in India," led Montagu to recommend that political reforms such as dyarchy be postponed there indefinitely.

Despite continued hesitation about remaining a part of British India and wide criticism of the limited nature of dyarchy, the initial Burmese reaction to the recommendation, expressed through the medium of the YMBA, was to insist that Burma be included in the reforms. A delegation was sent to London to secure this end. Yet Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi's opposition to dyarchy, sparked by the Amritsar Massacre of April 17, 1919, in which unarmed demonstrators in that Indian city were killed by British soldiers, aroused considerable sympathy in Burma. The dyarchy system was implemented in Burma in 1923, and the nationalists subsequently organized an antidyarcy boycott that gained wide popular support. Thus, in the election for the Burma Legislative Council in 1922, only 7 percent of the eligible voters participated, though this did increase to 16 percent in the 1925 election and 18 percent in the 1928 election.

The General Council of Burmese Associatiow (GCBA) was organized in 1919-20 by YMBA members and other nationalists; it replaced the General Council of Buddhist Assocations, drawing from a wider constituency that included Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. A faction of the new organization, identifying itself with the aims of Gandhi's Indian National Congress, led the boycott bf the dyarchy reform and was the most important political group during the 1920s. It gained a following in the villages through its local-level wunthanu athin ("own race societies"; also translated as "national interest defender organizations").

The second nationalist issue involved education. Because there was a shortage of trained administrative personnel in Burma, the government decided to establish an independent, degree-granting Rangoon University; previously Rangoon College and the Baptist Judson College had prepared students to take degrees from the University of Calcutta. The new university was organized on the model of Oxford or Cambridge--a residential institution having a relatively small enrollment, high academic requirements, and a curriculum emphasizing the arts and humanities. The elitist nature of the new institution aroused the opposition of college students who organized a strike on December 4, 1920. They set up strike headquarters at the Shwedagon Pagoda, working closely with Buddhist monks and gaining widespread public support.

Their ranks were soon swelled by high school students from the Rangoon area. They demanded that the university be made more open and called for the establishment of "national schools" that would teach Burmese history, literature, art, and technical subjects. A number of national schools were established between 1920 and 1922, largely in Buddhist monasteries, but most were soon disbanded owing to inexperienced management and lack of resources. Although the student strike, which lasted about a year, did not obtain its major objectives, it brought the students into the center of the political arena.

"Political" monks were another important force that appeared around this time. U Ottama, the most articulate of these, had lived in Japan and India and was familiar with Gandhi's methods of nonviolent civil disobedience. In 1921 he began preaching sermons in which he claimed that ulbhana (nirvana-freedom from the endless cycle of rebirth) could aot be obtained until the people were liberated from earthly slavery. Under foreign rule, which had allegedly corrupted people's minds, spiritual developd moecntrt inwea st on osut pppoossrti bale s. pAelcthifoiullgyh nationawliasst indoetohlionggy , ino rB fuodrd thhisatt matter any form of political activity, memories of the traditional ties of kdng and wagha prompted monks to take the lead in opposing British rule.

The General Council of Sangha Associations (GCSA) was established in 1922 to coodinate the activities of "political" monks. This new "worldly" orientation surprised many observers, including some Buddhists. In fact, monks were almost ideally suited for political action. They were still highly respected by the general population, lacked the family ties that would counsel caution and moderation in other men, and lived in huge monastic communities that coutld be easily mobilized. Monks were arrested for instigating violence and making seditious speeches. This put the British in the delicate position of having to imprison monks, their treatment becoming still another passionate issue. U Ottama spent much of the 1920s and 1930s behind bars, and a second political monk, U Wisara, became a national martyr in 1929, when he died in jail during a hunger strike undertaken to force the authorities to allow him to wear his Buddhist vestments.