British Colonial Policy In Burma

This influential 1948 study investigates the effects of colonial rule in Burma through comparison with the Dutch East Indies.

Burma has lived under military rule for nearly half a century. The results of its 1990 elections were never recognized by the ruling junta and Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Burma's pro-democracy movement, was denied her victory. She has been under housearrest ever since. Now an economic satellite and political dependent of the People's Republic of China, Burma is at a crossroads. Will it become another North Korea, will it succumb to China's political embrace or will the people prevail? Michael Charney's book -the first general history of modern Burma in over five decades - traces the highs and lows of Burma's history from its pre-colonial past to the "Saffron Revolution" of 2007. By exploring key themes such as the political division between lowland and highland Burma and monastic opposition to state control, the author explains the forces that have made the country what it is today.

This book examines the British colonial expansion in the so-called unadministered hill tracts of the Indo-Burma frontier and the change of colonial policy from non-intervention to intervention. The book begins with the end of the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–26), which resulted in the British annexation of the North-Eastern Frontier of Bengal and the extension of its sway over the Arakan and Manipur frontiers, and closes with the separation of Burma from India in 1937. The volume documents the resistance of the indigenous hill peoples to colonial penetration; administrative policies such as disarmament; subjugation of the local chiefs under a colonial legal framework and its impact; standardisation of ‘Chin’ as an ethnic category for the fragmented tribes and sub-tribes; and the creation and consolidation of the Chin Hills District as a political entity to provide an extensive account of British relations with the indigenous Chin/Zo community from 1824 to 1935. By situating these within the larger context of British imperial policy, the book makes a critical analysis of the British approach towards the Indo-Burma frontier. With its coverage of key archival sources and literature, this book will interest scholars and researchers in modern Indian history, military history, colonial history, British history, South Asian history and Southeast Asian history.

Using previously unexplored archives from colonial institutions and individuals, and primary materials produced by the Burmese Chinese, this comprehensive study investigates over a century of history of the Burmese Chinese under British colonial rule. Due to the peculiar position of Burma in the British imperial world and the Southeast Asian Chinese network, the Chinese community had a unique experience in a Southeast Asian colony governed by Europeans with an India-based system. This book reveals, through everyday life experience, prominent community figures, and milestone events, the internal rivalry and integration among different regional groups within the community, and the general impressions it left in contemporary observations and communal memories. The book also traces historical roots of some unsolved ethnic issues in present-day Myanmar.

"In May 1942 colonial Burma was in a state of military, economic and constitutional collapse. Japanese forces controlled almost the whole country and thousands of evacuees were trapped in a huge area of no-man's-land in the north. They made their way to India through the so-called 'jungles of death', attempting to trek out of Burma amidst perilous conditions. Drawing on diverse and previously unpublished accounts, Michael D. Leigh analyses the experiences of evacuees in both Burma and India and critically examines the impact of evacuation on colonial and Burmese politics in the lead-up to independence in 1948. This study will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Burmese history, 20th-century imperialism and the global reach of the Second World War."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

This study investigates the connections between opium policy and imperialism in Burma. It examines what influenced the imperial regime's opium policy decisions, such as racial ideologies, the necessity of articulating a convincing rationale for British governance, and Burma's position in multiple imperial and transnational networks.