By Sann Ni Lar Winn
THE imperialistic British Government started to rule parts of Myanmar in 1826 and the whole in 1886. Myanmar was first placed under a Chief Commissioner, then a Lieutenant Governor in 1897, and then a Governor in 1923, and ruled as part of British India until separation in 1937. In Myanmar itself, the Shan State, the Kayah State and the hill areas were administered separately from Myanmar Proper.
An appointed advisory Council was established in 1897, a partially elected legislative Council in 1923 and a bicameral legislative Council with an elected House of Representatives in 1937.
Under British rule, an economic transformation took place with economic capitalism through exploitation. Since our independence and sovereignty were lost, Myanmar's patriotic leaders started an armed struggle against the British imperialists.
Myanmar nationalists knew that our independence depended on our nationalism, so they decided to fight in the national movement against the imperialistic British Government.
In 1884, the British Government opened the Rangoon College on the Montgomery Road, Rangoon. Likewise, in 1918, Judson College was opened in the Rangoon University Compound.
Rangoon College was under the management of Calcutta University in India, according to the British Government’s colonial education policy. The patriotic national leaders who were named U Ba Phe, U Maung Gyi (MA), U Ba Yin and nationalists set up together the National Association as YMBA (The Young Men Buddhist Association) in 1906. The YMBA always struggle with its Motto ‘To uplift NATIONALITY, BUDDHIST RELIGION, BUDDHIST ERA (SAGANA) EDUCATION’.
Besides, the noble nationalist monk U OTTAMA, who subsequently played a leading part in the Myanmar National Movement against the strongly imperialistic British Government. The government feared that the YMBA movement would develop political activists; therefore, government servants were warned against taking part in the national movement.
In 1917, when a British parliamentary delegation toured India to report what reforms in the structure of government should be introduced, it did not include Burma in its itinerary. The YMBA, therefore, sent a delegation consisting mainly of barristers to travel to India to report to the parliament in London. It was found that Burma was not included in the proposed program of reforms to be granted to India. In 1919, another delegation of YMBA leaders was sent to appear before the British parliament. However, when the Government of India Act was finally passed in the same year by the British parliament, it was found that Burma again had been left out.
This was the signal for a nationwide protest, and the Burmese leaders felt that they must close ranks, agitate, and organize to grant the same measure of self-government as the Indians had been given. They also decided that the struggle was no longer social and religious but political, and religion and nationalism must now be separated. They feared lest their religion should become merely a tool of politics.
Accordingly, at a national convention, they merged the YMBA with various. Patriotic organizations, which had appeared like mushrooms in a matter of a few weeks, named the new organization the General Council of Burmese Association (GCBA). This action was most opportune, because as part of the protest against the exclusion of Bruma from the reforms, a nationalist movement called the “Wuntharnu movement” (ဝံသာနုလှုပ်ရှားမှု) had suddenly appeared and instigated a boycott of British goods
In the wake of the Wuntharnu movement came the great university strike of December 1920, which was nationalism’s first open challenge to the authority of the British government. The new University of Rangoon was established by expanding and enlarging Rangoon College the control should remain in British hands. Thus, under the University of Rangoon Act, the administrative control was vested in a council whose members were government nominees and academic control the university civil service, but as no Burmese as yet had been appointed to that senior grade, the senate consisted entirely of British professors. The University of Rangoon officially came into being on 20 December 1920, but a few minutes after the classes had assembled, the students walked out in protest against what they considered to be an anti-national University Act. The strike soon spread to the schools, and although the government had hastily suspended classes, using the approaching Christmas and New Year holidays as an excuse, the students refused to return to their homes but stayed on in the monasteries and pagoda platforms where they had taken shelter.
All monks and pilgrims shared their alms food with them, and soon the strike changed its original character and became a nationwide movement of protest against British rule in general. People vied with each other to provide food for the students to organize “parallel classes” so that the students would not miss their lessons. At first, the imperialistic British Government tried to subdue the nationalists by publishing list after list of students expelled from the university and from schools for taking part in the strike and also by giving written notices to those fathers who were government servants that they would be dismissed from service unless they called back their sons from the strike camps.
As the strike dragged on, the nationalist leaders organized the “Council of National Education”, and all the YMBA schools voluntarily came under its jurisdiction, calling themselves “National School”. The government realizing that the situation was becoming wars for them, cancelled the expulsion lists and appointed a committee, some of whose members were from the ranks of the nationalist leaders, to amend the University Act. The students called off the strike, but many of the strikers never returned to the government schools and joined the new national schools. It was a great victory for the nationalists and the Rangoon University boycotters, and the strike was to have repercussions right up to the regaining of our independence in 1948.
According to Myanmar’s historical process, the development of the country always depends on patriotic nationalism for our independence and sovereignty. This fact is the best historical lesson and duty in our History of Myanmar.
During my student life at the state High school, I participated in the ceremony of annual national day yearly. The students competed to entertain the audience with short plays, dancing, singing, etc. Our headmaster used to deliver lectures and explain the National Strike (1920) or the National Education Movement against imperialism for our independence. Then we marched to our national leader ‘Bogyoke Aung San’ monument and stood together in my native town, Sit Kwin, Tharawady District.
Besides, I had a good choice to interview with the YMBA leader U Maung Gyi MA (Retired Minister for Education) and the honorary patron of the golden jubilee anniversary, U Lu Phe Win (Retired archaeologist and the national strike leader), as a secretary of Yangoon University annual magazine according to the guidence of te Rector Dr Maung Maung Kha, professor U Tin Ohn (Soon, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs) and lecturer Dr Khin Maung Nyunt. At that time, the government of “The Revolutionary Council” celebrated the “Golden Jubilee Anniversary” of Myanmar National Day in 1970.
In the present time, we must try our best to develop highly qualified human resources required in building a peaceful, pleasant, modern and developed nation. What is HDI? The United Nations Organization (UNO) give a guide to the measurement of the country’s Human Development Index as follows. (1) Expectancy of Life and Birth (2) Adult Literacy Ratio (3) School and University Enrollment Ratio (4) Insame Myanmar Education Goal is “To create an education system that can generate a learning society capable of facing the challenges of ‘the knowledge age’. I deeply urge every youth to become intellectual citizens and statesmen for our country, hailing the 105th Anniversary of Myanmar National Day. Reference ; (1) အမျိုးသားနေ့နှင့် အမျိုးသား နရးလှုပ်ရှားမှု သမိုင်းအကျဉ်း။ အမျိုးသားနေ့ နရှေရတုသဘင် အထူးထုတ်၊ လမ်းစဉ်ပါတီဌာေချုပ်။ (၁၉၇၀ပပည့်နှစ်) (2) Colonial Policy and Practice (By JS Furnivall, Cambridge University, London 1954) (3) A History of Burma (By Dr Htin Aung, Columbia University Press USA, 1967)
