Independence Lost

Disquiet grew in the rural areas—subtle signs of resistance were detected; officials who worked at the court in Mandalay became increasingly uncooperative with their British masters.

A “loot auction” in the palace in Mandalay in 1886

The insurgency that followed was put down ruthlessly by the British—summary executions were rampant and often held in public, as were the beheadings of prisoners or “dacoits.”

However, the unrest could not be quashed. The Burmese were too eager to restore their monarchy and establish independence. 

Saya San, who named himself “King of Burma,” led a revolt against the British in 1930, forcing the government to deploy 8,000 fresh soldiers, equipped with machine guns, to quell the year-long peasant revolt.

Monks, farmers, students, workers from oil fields in central Burma and political activists joined in the struggle to regain independence.

A Burmese revolutionary being executed at Shwebo, Upper Burma, by Welsh Fusiliers on February 13, 1886

A grassroots civil campaign was born—the “Thakin” movement. Thakin, meaning “We the masters,” an expression the British colonists used to denote themselves, was adopted by the young Burmese nationalists. Social welfare organizations and the Young Men’s Buddhist Association all joined the fray in the independence struggle. Nowadays, one can draw many parallels between the civic movements, such as the “White Campaign,” the “Open Heart Campaign” and the “Signature Campaign,” which were launched by students and activists to oppose the military regime, to those early nationalist movements in Burma.

But it was the domino effect of events far away that would ultimately lead to the demise of British rule in Burma—the outbreak of World War II.

The golden land of Burma became a battlefield. In 1942, the Japanese had taken away and trained a group of young Burmese, including Aung San, to liberate the country from the British. That group would later become known as the “Thirty Comrades.”

The opening of the Rangoon and Irrawaddy State Railway in the late 19th century

“Fifty-six years after Harry Prendergast’s overthrow of King Thibaw, British rule in Burma collapsed like a house of cards, its soldiers and officials tossed out together with hundreds of  thousands of panic-stricken refugees by the elegantly mustached Lieutenant General Shojiro Iida and his Fifteenth Imperial Army. The Burmese had nothing to do with the war, but it destroyed their country,” wrote Thant Myint-U.

After the British retreated, it didn’t take long for the Burmese to realize that what the Japanese had granted them was no more than a “gold-plated independence.”

Enter Aung San, an eccentric, short-tempered law student from Rangoon University, raised by his grandfather, rebel leader Bo Min Yaung, who was later beheaded by the British.

Aung San’s single-mindedness, sincerity and straightforward speech won him friends and enemies alike. He realized that it would take nothing less than armed struggle to finally satisfy Burmese desires for independence once and for all.

Employing military tactics he had learned from the Japanese, Aung San led the Thirty Comrades in driving out the British. Ironically, a few years later, Aung San found himself allied with British battalions in bloody battles against the fascist Japanese army.

By age 32, Aung San had developed statesmanlike qualities and a readiness to lead his country. But this time the fight for independence would take place at the negotiating table.

Clement Attlee and Aung San at 10 Downing Street, January 1947

During a stopover in India on his way to London to meet Prime Minister Clement Attlee in January 1947, Aung San delivered a speech, in polished English, declaring that Burma demanded “complete independence” with no question of dominion status.

Aung San also told the assembled press that his countrymen would have no inhibitions about contemplating either a violent or non-violent struggle, or both, if their demands were not satisfactorily met.

However, in July 1947, Aung San and the members of his cabinet—comprised of national and ethnic leaders who were ably equipped to lead the new union of Burma—were gunned down by rivals.