This article first appeared as ‘Socio-Political Currents in Burmese Literature, 1910–1940’, in Burma and Japan: Basic Studies on their Cultural and Social Structure, Burma Research Group, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, 1987, pp. 65–83. The system of Burmese transliteration has here been altered to conform with the one normally favoured by the author. Thanks are due to Patrica Herbert for this.
The years from 1910 to 1940 witnessed the progressive attempts of the Burmese people to reassert their racial and cultural identity which had been undermined by foreign rule. These attempts took a course set by the social and political conditions which had resulted from the colonial situation imposed on Burma during the nineteenth century.1 As the twentieth century unfolded, the effects of foreign governance on Burmese culture and society became increasingly evident. In the realm of language and literature, the impact of western influences and ideas gave birth to new approaches and innovative styles which led to marked changes away from classical traditions.
The study of Burmese literature under colonialism is a wide subject which would include among its many components comparisons between classical literary forms and their modern equivalents, an analysis of the effect of new institutions and philosophies on traditional social and religious values, and an investigation into the influence of western intellectual forces. This paper does not aim at covering such broad ground: it is simply intended as an introduction to one aspect of the literature of the period.
The emergence of modern Burmese literature coincided to a large measure with the evolution of those feelings and aspirations which constituted the foundation of the Burmese nationalist movement. Therefore the study of the interrelations between sociopolitical currents and literary trends would serve to enhance the understanding of Burma under colonial rule. In drawing attention to the way in which contemporary writings reflected social conditions and political aspirations, it is hoped that some contribution might be made towards this deeper understanding.
The Colonial Situation
The early years of British rule brought some material prosperity but the laissez-faire economic policy adopted by the government and the imposition of administrative and judicial institutions which had originally been formulated for India and which were ill suited to the needs of Burmese society brought about a series of grave problems. The unchecked immigration of Indians and Chinese, the opening up of large tracts of virgin land with its attendant need for capital, the financial activities of Indian money-lenders, land alienation, the monopolies exercised by European commercial firms, the import of foreign goods which diminished the market for indigenous products, the breakdown of the monastic school system, the decline in the discipline and morals of monks removed from ecclesiastical supervision: all these circumstances combined to create forces which led to the disintegration of Burmese society.2
This trend first became obvious in Lower Burma, which had fallen earlier to British rule, but by 1910 Upper Burma was also beginning to feel the adverse effects of discordant economic forces and of the corrosion of traditional values.3 It therefore has to be more than coincidental that movements reflecting the need of the Burmese to reassert their racial and cultural identity began to make themselves manifest around this time. Burmese culture is intimately, one might say indissolubly, connected with Theravada Buddhism. Thus it was hardly surprising that the early stirrings of nationalism should have been expressed in religious terms. The first association aimed at promoting and preserving Buddhism was started as early as 1897 in Mandalay,4 but it was only in 1906 that an organization was founded which would acquire a national character. The Young Men’s Buddhist Association, inspired by the Young Men’s Christian Association, was started by a group of young graduates of Rangoon College and it quickly gained the support of influential, educated Burmese.5 At the beginning, the activities of the association were of a purely religious, cultural nature and its members could be said to have been loyal subjects of the British Empire.6 It was only in 1917, at its annual conference in Pyinmana, that the YMBA first passed resolutions of a political character: the institution of ‘Europeans only’ carriages on trains was condemned; a strong protest was made against Europeans wearing shoes in pagoda precincts contrary to Burmese custom; the government was urged to prevent land from passing into the hands of foreigners; and it was decided that a delegation should be sent to India to present Burmese views to the Montagu Mission which was assessing public opinion on proposed constitutional reforms.7
In 1918 the tenor of nationalist politics was given a belligerent tone by the activities of U Ottama, a widely travelled Buddhist monk who had recently returned from India.8 The attitudes of this unusual cleric were shaped as much by his admiration for the strength and independence of Japan, where he had spent some time, as by the satyagraha movement that Gandhi had first launched in India in 1917.9 Thus, U Ottama was representative of those Burmese who drew inspiration from Japan’s achievements but who looked to India for political ideas and tactics.10
In 1920 the YMBA and other minor associations united to form the General Council of Buddhist Associations, the GCBA. In 1921 the British government decided that the recommendations of the Montagu Mission, in the form of diarchy, should be extended to Burma. The implementation of these reforms entailed elections to the legislative council and this led to a split in the GCBA over the question of whether or not its members should stand for election. The next decade would find the Burmese divided between the supporters of diarchy and the adherents of the alternative system, Home Rule. The leaders of the GCBA subscribed to a broad spectrum of opinions with regard to the proposed constitutional reforms, and by the end of the 1930s the association had been splintered beyond reconciliation.11
It was also in 1920, the year which saw the birth of the GCBA, that the boycott against the Rangoon University Act took place. The Act, which incorporated proposals aimed at creating a residential institution along the lines of Oxford and Cambridge, was generally seen by the Burmese as an attempt to limit higher education to a privileged few.12 The students registered their protest by going on a strike which was supported by the GCBA as well as by a wide section of the Burmese public. This demonstration of solidarity among the people forced the government to withdraw the proposals which had created so much opposition.13 An important outcome of the strike was the movement to establish National Schools throughout the country and a National College in Rangoon. Few of the schools survived the first flush of enthusiastic public support, and the National College closed down in 1923. But the establishment of these institutions marked a significant phase in Burmese political development when the need for an educational system based on nationalist ideals became widely recognized.14
The 1920s might well be called the wunthanu era: wunthanu signifies the preservation of one’s lineage and as used during the 1920s it denoted patriotism in the form of a preference for traditional values and the eschewal of things foreign.15 The influence of the swadeshi movement of India was clearly discernible.
The 1930s were a decade of unrest. There were serious Indo-Burmese riots towards the middle of 1930 and by the end of the year the peasants’ revolt led by Hsaya San had broken out. This rebellion has been variously described as the manifestation of agrarian discontent, the ambitious attempts of a superstitious fanatic to crown himself king (this was the version popular with the colonial administration) and the natural outcome of nationalist aspirations.16 The insurrection was put down and Hsaya San captured within a year, later to be condemned and executed. Although the rebellion had not received widespread support, it did arouse the patriotic sympathy of the people, who were also repelled by the ruthlessness with which the British dealt with the rebels.17
It was also in 1930 that the Dohbama Asi-ayone, later to become popularly known as the Thakin Party, was founded. The word Thakin, which means ‘master’, was the term by which the Burmese were expected to address the British rulers. By adopting it as a prefix to their own names the young nationalists, many of whom would become prominent leaders in the independence movement, made an aggressive proclamation of their birthright to be their own masters. Leftist literature was introduced to Burma around this time and a number of leading ‘Thakins’ began to look to Marxist theories for guidance in their struggle against British imperialism.18
The 1930s saw the old guard of the GCBA generation losing ground to more radical young men whose ultimate goal would be neither diarchy nor dominion status but outright independence. Many of these young men had started their careers in politics as students of Rangoon University and in 1936 they led a strike which created an even greater impact than the one of 1920 and made the student leaders known to the country at large.19
The tempo of political agitations continued to increase throughout the second half of the 1930s, and in 1938 there occurred a series of events which came to be known collectively as the ‘Revolution of 1300’. (This was the year according to the Burmese calendar, extending from April 1938 to April 1939.) There were Indo-Burmese riots, a march of oil workers from Yenangyaung to demand better conditions, student demonstrations in Rangoon during which a young man died under police lathi charges, the march of peasants in sympathy with the oil workers and demonstrations in Mandalay where seventeen people were shot dead by the police.
By the end of the decade which saw the outbreak of the Second World War, the social and political scene in Burma was in some turmoil, representing a situation radically different from that of 1910 when a few religious associations had been working peacefully for the preservation of Burmese Buddhist values.
Burmese language and Literature under Colonial Rule
The deleterious effect of foreign rule on Burmese language and literature became discernible soon after the annexation of Upper Burma. The decline in the number of monastic schools and the introduction of English as the language of privilege served to belittle the position of Burmese. In contrast to what had happened in India in the late eighteenth century, Burmese classical writings did not attract the interest of western scholars during the early years of colonization. Traditional literature, which had flourished under the monarchs of the last Burmese dynasty, went into eclipse. It was only with the founding of the Burma Research Society in 1910 that an impetus was given towards the systematic study and revival of the Burmese classics. Another decade would then pass before the authorities accepted that the study of Burmese should find a proper place in the curriculum of Rangoon University.
While on the one hand British rule brought about a decline in the quality of Burmese literature, on the other hand the initial improvement in material conditions created a readership for the newspapers, magazines and books whose production had begun after the introduction of the printing press in the nineteenth century.20 In the early days the greatest number of Burmese books printed were of a religious character, with dramas and novels forming the second biggest category. Reprints of classical works, in particular poetry, were also in demand.21
The first Burmese novel, Maung Yin Maung Ma Me Ma, published in 1904,22 was partially adapted from The Count of Monte Cristo and triggered off a spate of novels which quickly became popular with the reading public. Many of these showed the influence in form and structure of Burmese drama, but as the twentieth century progressed, western influences became stronger and new literary styles began to emerge.
Only a small selection of those works which reflect social and political trends under colonialism will be discussed here. The choice has been determined partly by the role which such works played in the development of modern Burmese literature and partly, in the case of popular novels, by personal preference.
U Latt
U Latt was born in 1866 in Rangoon, then already under British rule, and educated in one of the earliest missionary schools in the city. He is said to have had a good knowledge of English and to have read many works in that language.23 His novels, however, are written in a style clearly influenced by the Burmese dramatic performances of which he was said to have been extremely fond. One of the characters in his first book, Zabebin (1912), is generally thought to represent the writer himself: a young civil servant (U Latt served for a number of years in the Burma Police) from Lower Burma who has managed to retain much of traditional manners and values and who takes a keen interest in classical literature.24 Already in U Latt’s day it was widely accepted that the people of Lower Burma, which had fallen earlier under British rule, had lost much of their own culture. It was a time when the Burmese were beginning to feel threatened by the presence of large immigrant communities and the wunthanu spirit was already in the air. The meaning of this term and the duties that it implies are specifically discussed in U Latt’s second novel, Shwepyiso (1914).25
Both Zabebin and Shwepyiso are romances in which courtly manners and conservation are depicted with exquisite grace and more than a touch of nostalgia. However, the greatest interest of these works for the purposes of this paper perhaps lies not so much in the charming romances as in the subplots which throw much light on Rangoon society at the turn of the century.
A well-known subplot in Shwepyiso introduces the image of a young westernized Burmese, Maung Thaung Hpe, who has just returned from England as a newly qualified barrister. He greets his father with a very British handshake; he refuses to sit on the beautiful new mats especially bought in his honour as he finds a chair better suited to his western clothes; he uses English expressions which impress and confuse his doting father; he speaks Burmese of that peculiar, stilted variety branded as ‘missionary Burmese’ which might serve well enough for the writing of biblical tracts but is quite out of place in normal conversation.26 Maung Thaung Hpe’s father has incurred large debts with an Indian money-lender to finance his son’s education in England, but the young man shows no sense of gratitude. Once established in a good legal practice he does not even see his father without an appointment and later makes no attempt to extricate the old man from the clutches of the money-lender. In the end the father turns to the traditional refuge of the Burmese, valid to this day: religion. He becomes a monk. Maung Thaung Hpe does not, as one might have wished, come to a bad end. He presumably continues to flourish in the manner of most English-trained barristers, for whom worldly success was considered assured in those days.27 One is led to wonder if this hint of unexpected realism in a romance of morals and manners reflects a situation where the wunthanu spirit, which urged the Burmese to preserve their culture from the corrosive effects of westernization, was strongly contested by a keen awareness of the practical advantages to be gained from modern education. This points to the dilemmas which Burma, in common with many Asian colonies, had to face in the process of selecting what should be preserved, what accepted and what rejected.
U Latt’s first novel, Zabebin, made no specific mention of wunthanu ideals (unless the young government officer’s attachment to traditional values could be interpreted as such), but it showed an awareness of the increasing role played in Burmese society by the growing immigrant communities. One of the minor characters is a Chinese man who is depicted as lewd and ridiculous and who becomes the butt of an elaborate practical joke in which an Indian policeman who does not understand any Burmese is involved. The incipient feelings of dislike and resentment which were to gather force in the next two decades to burst out in racial riots can already be discerned behind the author’s polite humour.
One of the major preoccupations of the times expressed in a subplot of Zabebin was the morals of the Buddhist clergy.28 A monk who is head of a popular Buddhist association lives in the same monastic grounds as a nun who is widely respected for her knowledge of the Pali religious texts. The propriety of their relationship comes under question, and although U Latt does not write with the frankness of a later era, the reader is left with little doubt as to the guilt of the clerical pair. There is no real denouement, nor any overt condemnation, although the episode is said to have been based on the true story of a well-known monk and nun who left the religious life to marry each other in 1910.29
An interesting feature of both novels is the almost complete absence of the British. The only English character who makes an appearance does so in a dream sequence in Zabebin and takes the form of a woman who comes to the aid of the heroine. The impression is one of distant benevolence – perhaps a reflection of the popular image of the British before the adverse effects of colonial rule began to be felt.
There are many didactic passages in U Latt’s novels expounding Burmese Buddhist values in addition to the wunthanu awareness already mentioned, but there is no real sign of political consciousness: this became evident only in the 1920s.
Thakin Kodaw Hmaing30
Between U Latt and the next writer whose works will be discussed lies a world of difference. Hsaya Lun, Mr Maung Hmaing or Thakin Kodaw Hmaing, as he was successively known, was born nine years later than U Latt. He received a traditional monastic education and spent much of his youth in Upper Burma. As a boy novice in Mandalay, Hmaing witnessed the occasion on which British troops took away King Thibaw and his queen from the royal palace on the first stage of the journey that would take them to exile in India. Despite the known iniquities of Thibaw and his queen, their removal was a traumatic event for the Burmese, whose racial pride was touched to the quick. For the young Hmaing with his strong attachment to the monarchic tradition, it was a great tragedy.31
Hmaing, who entered the world of journalism as a young monk in Moulmein, quickly developed into a prolific writer, and it is no simple matter to chart the course of his early literary and political development. However, it would be fairly safe to state that his reputation as an outstanding patriot-writer became firmly established with the publication of the extended essays known as tikas, which could be said to provide a record of the milestones along the path of the Burmese nationalist movement.32
The Boh Tika (‘On Europeans’), written in 1913, reflects the early wunthanu awareness of the problems created by colonization and the desire to protect traditional Burmese values. One of its best-loved parts is the vivid, evocative verse on a wedding in Upper Burma.33 Gifts of land, cattle, grain and household implements showered on the bridal couple are described with a relish which conjures up a joyous picture of rural abundance. But in spite of the early promise the couple fall into debt, not through improvidence but through the onslaught of irresistible economic forces. They are reduced to selling their beloved pair of oxen as well as a plot of land. Thus debt, although in this case not to an Indian but to another Burmese, and land alienation are shown as the destroyers of pastoral bliss.
Another theme of the Boh Tika is the concern over Burmese women marrying foreigners, which Hmaing again puts down largely to the dictates of economic necessity.34 This concern was shared by the Burmese in general, and three years after the publication of the Boh Tika the YMBA at its conference passed a resolution against Burmese girls marrying foreigners.
The tikas published in the 1920s demonstrate the writer’s keen interest in nationalist activities. Hmaing evinces joy over such events as the journey of the YMBA delegation to London, the all-Burma conference protesting against the Craddock Scheme and the boycott against the Rangoon University Act, and exults over the patriotic spirit behind the Hsaya San rebellion. On the other hand he expresses anger and indignation over such matters as the arrest of U Ottama and the quarrels among the members of the GCBA which led to the dissolution of the association. Hmaing’s disillusionment with the older politicians steadily increased, and in the Thakin Tika of 1935 he proclaims his decision to throw in his lot with the young nationalists of the Dohbama Asi-ayone, mentioning many of them by name in his verse.
Hmaing’s language is vigorous and abrasive. His writings show an extraordinary personality which, in spite of its fundamentally traditional character, was able to move with the currents of the times. The issues that engaged Hmaing’s attention were legion and the study of his complete works, ranging through dramas, novels, newspaper articles, essays and poetry, would provide a fairly comprehensive picture of Burmese literary and political developments before the Second World War. ‘Saya Lun never got into trouble with the Government for any of his writings, but they probably did more to disseminate advanced views in the country in their subtle way than books which brought on their authors the penalties of the law. His was political propaganda at its cleverest.’35
It was a paradoxical quality of Hmaing’s genius that while he limited himself almost entirely to the traditional Burmese world of letters, he was able to sympathize with the new ideas that younger nationalists acquired from their exposure to western thought and education. In his twilight years Hmaing became a supporter of leftist politics while remaining a devout Buddhist. It is open to question how much he actually absorbed of the Marxist socialist ideologies embraced by many of his young disciples.
Khitsan
An important landmark in the history of Burmese literature was the publication of two anthologies, the Khitsan Stories and the Khitsan Poems in 1933 and 1934 respectively. The expression khitsan means ‘to test the age’. The contributors to these volumes were young men who had been students of the first Burmese professor of Rangoon University, U Pe Maung Tin, who was greatly concerned to improve the position of Burmese within the educational system.36
A number of the students who contributed to the Khitsan stories and poems had studied not only classical Burmese (including the Pagan inscriptions which represented the earliest examples of the written language) and English but also Pali, Pyu and Mon. It has been said of the Khitsan writings that
This literary movement of the thirties retained the best in national legacy from Pagan down to Thakin Kodaw Hmaing and yet, with the aid of foreign influences, succeeded in modernizing Burmese literacy expression, making it compatible with the rapidly rising society … the advent of Khitsan was connected with the revolutionary political awakening of the thirties and this combination promised a sound basis for a national and humanistic literature.37
The short, easily comprehensible sentences free from Pali-isms used by the Khitsan writers were hailed enthusiastically as modern and appropriate to the times by some, while other criticized them as childish and contrary to classical traditions.38 The simplification of written Burmese had been proceeding for some time since the 1920s and the works of such writers as U Hpo Kya and P. Monin might well be regarded as the forerunners of the Khitsan prose style.39 The works which provide the best examples of this style are the short stories of Theippan Maung Wa, one of three writers who are universally accepted as most representative of the Khitsan spirit.
Theippan Maung Wa’s stories are based on his experiences as a civil administrator in rural Burma. They paint a vivid picture of village life with a distinct touch of humour which has provoked some critics into accusing him of contempt for the peasantry.40 Such accusations do less than justice to a writer who was not lacking in sympathy for the plight of the rural poor and whose sense of humour was directed as much towards himself as towards others. A further criticism, that he is lacking in a sense of nationalism, is more difficult to refute for he wrote as a civil servant during a period when those who upheld government policy were necessarily antagonistic to the nationalist cause. Theippan Maung Wa was a man with a strong instinct for the maintenance of law and order, but what might have been an asset in an independent nation became a questionable virtue under a foreign government out of step with the aspirations of the people.41 Some of Theippan Maung Wa’s stories indicated that his duties as a government official did not always coincide with his personal inclinations, and his writings on Burmese language, literature and history reveal a deep love for traditional cultural values. He was one of those young strikers who served as National School teachers after the boycott of 1920, and when he went back to resume his university studies he became the first student to obtain an honours degree in Burmese.
The two other writers most closely associated with the Khitsan spirit are Zawgyi and Min Thuwun, who have come to be regarded as Burma’s most eminent poets of today. Zawgyi’s poem on the padauk flower, written in 1928, is seen as the first example of Khitsan verse, where a classical theme is viewed from a new angle. His poetry, which ranges from verses on cats and ducks to nature poems with an unusual, enigmatic flavour, is considered to derive its modernity from originality of thought and content rather than from form and structure, and to reflect his familiarity with English literature.42 Zawgyi is also perhaps the Khitsan writer closest to the revolutionary nationalist spirit in those poems where he prays for the freedom of the Burmese people and exhorts them to ‘rise up’ for their country.43
Min Thuwun is a gentler poet with an almost magical touch in his descriptions of traditional life in rural Burma. His choice of words is exquisite: beautiful, evocative, yet so readily comprehensible that they make a simultaneous appeal to the reader’s heart and mind. Min Thuwun’s verse is full of images culled from the countryside and stresses continuing trends in Burmese society rather than the disruptive elements that came in with colonial rule. He paints scenes from village life in idyllic colours which contrast with the stark, impoverished communities that come to life under Theippan Maung Wa’s pen. Min Thuwun’s poems for children are particularly well known and loved, helping to keep alive memories of fast-vanishing traditions. His love poems, of which he wrote a number during the 1930s, combine the Burmese predilection for pathos with a sensitivity towards inarticulate human emotions that give them a unique appeal.
The Khitsan writers together represent a fusion of the realistic, the innovative and the romantic with a broad humanistic approach. Their nationalist spirit was expressed in terms of their efforts to inject new vigour into Burmese language and literature by adapting them to the modern situation rather than through overtly political writings. Thus they might be said to have formed a bridge between the old wunthanu spirit and the young revolutionaries who would seek an ideological framework for their political activities in the western intellectual tradition.
A Sense of History
In the course of their endeavours to give coherence to a disjointed present, it was natural that the Burmese should seek reassurance in the past, the study of which was invigorated by the work of archaeologists and historians in the early decades of the twentieth century. Pagan U Tin, Hmawbi Hsaya Thein and Thakin Kodaw Hmaing were among the traditional Burmese scholars who delved into historical records and chronicles and published works which stimulated a growing interest in history among the reading public. In the 1930s there appeared several Burmese books on history aimed at the younger generation written by men who had been educated under the colonial system.44 The form which many Burmese historical writings took in these years was perhaps dictated more by the need to revitalize a pride in their own race and culture than by a purely scientific spirit of enquiry, and this is particularly evident in the historical novels.45
• The first one was published in 1919.46 In its preface the author, Ledi-pandita U Maung Gyi, stated that he had been inspired by the example of western writers to produce a work that would encourage young Burmese to take an interest in their own history. The title of the novel took the name of the hero, Natshinnaung, a poet-king of Taungoo who lived in the sixteenth century. The story is built around his love for the princess Datukalaya, who was eighteen years his senior, a kind of aunt and also, at one point, married to one of his cousins. However, Natshinnaung eventually manages to overcome all obstacles and wins the lady of his heart, although she dies not long after. It has been said that by concentrating on Natshinnaung’s unswerving love and on his beautiful poetry which is skilfully woven into the narrative, the novel portrays only the ‘bright side’ of his life, ignoring the later period when he joins the Portuguese governor of Syriam to fight against the Burmese king of Ava, only to be defeated and executed.47 It should perhaps be said in fairness to U Maung Gyi that he did intend to bring out another volume of Natshinnaung, which might well have revealed the ‘dark side’ of the poet’s life. Certainly in a second historical novel published in several volumes during the 1920s, Tabinshwehti, U Maung Gyi shows how a great king is brought to ruin partly through association with European adventurers.
During the 1930s two historical novels appeared which depicted Natshinnaung as a traitor to his race: Nahkan-daw (1932) by U So Myint and Thabon-gyi (1936) by Maha Hswe. Both novels are built around the conflict between the Burmese king at Ava and the Portuguese governor of Syriam. In Thabon-gyi many parallels are drawn between Syriam under the Portuguese and Burma under the British: the threat to Buddhism posed by the presence of unsympathetic foreign rulers of a different creed; the sycophantic manoeuvres of collaborators; the leadership given to the people by patriotic monks; the nationalist endeavours of a group of young men whose activities range from a swadeshi-type movement to armed rebellion.
The theme of the Burmese struggle against foreign domination is once again pursued by Maha Hswe in his novel Sithtwet thu (1939). The story is based on the life of the great poet Nawadei the First and focuses on the hardships which the Burmese suffered under the oppression of the anti-Buddhist Shan King Thohanbwa. Here also the allegorical allusion to Burma under colonial rule is unmistakable. Particular emphasis is put on the pride, love and reliance which the Burmese people placed in their soldiers, thus highlighting the colonial situation where there was no national Burmese army. In both Thabon-gyi and Sithtwet thu, patriots are exhorted to sacrifice their loved ones as well as their own lives in the cause of freedom, reflecting the spirit of the 1930s which saw revolution and militant action as the most effective means of achieving independence.
Many of the historical novels touch upon a question which would assume increasing importance in the Burmese independence movement: the relations between the different races of Burma.48 In the very first historical novel, Natshinnaung, the author indicated that a primary reason for the fall of the kingdom of Hanthawaddy was the Burmese monarch’s practice of oppressing the Mons of Lower Burma. The theme of unity among the different races of the country is given even greater emphasis in Thabon-gyi where the foreign rulers’ policy of divide and rule is exposed and the Burmese, Mons and Karens are urged to stand together. Sithtwet thu on the other hand underlines hostile relations between the Burmese and the Shans, although it is made clear that only the anti-Buddhist Shans were to be regarded as the enemy.
Novels such as Myatleshwedaboh49 (1921) by Zeya and Ye Myanma (1931) by U Thein Maung, which are set in the wars between the Mons and the Burmese, are now seen as inimical to the spirit of unity among the different races of the country. Nationalism in Burma had started as a movement to uphold Burmese religious and cultural values, but as it gathered momentum political leaders began to recognize the necessity for creating unity out of the diversity which characterized the peoples who made up the nation. Parallel to the tendency to look back to past glories for inspiration there thus developed a search for new approaches and ideologies, particularly as the 1930s proceeded and leftist literature began to be disseminated in Burma.
Shwe Sun Nyo (1933) by Dagon Khin Khin Le is a historical novel which might be said to represent the spirit of the new age that preferred to turn its face towards the future. It is the story of a young man who has become the leader of a gang of bandits after the princely family he served has been destroyed by King Thibaw. The heroine is a girl who is fleeing from Mandalay to escape presentation into the royal harem. The cruelties of Thibaw’s queen as well as the inadequacies of the monarch himself are described in no uncertain terms.50 It is the avowed aim of the hero to take revenge on Thibaw, but when the British annex Upper Burma and take the royal family to exile in India the young bandit leader decides to dedicate his life to fighting the foreign invaders until a Burmese prince can once again be installed on the throne. After the death of the hero Shwe Sun Nyo, his son continues the fight; but by the time of the grandson, the winds of change come sweeping in. The young man lives on the border between Burma and China, and meets an old Russian who introduces him to the ideas of socialist thinkers. Eventually this grandson of Shwe Sun Nyo marries the daughter of the Russian in preference to the child of a fellow bandit chief who still dreams of restoring the Burmese monarchy. The young man rejects the proposal that he should marry both women, implying the conviction that all attachments to the monarchical past should be put aside so that the future might be built firmly on the foundation of modern leftist ideologies.
Thein Pe Myint
A well-known leftist writer without mention of whose works no discussion of modern Burmese literature would be complete is Thein Pe Myint, widely known as Tet-hpongyi Thein Pe after the title of a novel he published in 1937. Tet-hpongyi translates roughly as ‘modern monk’, and the book, which is a castigation of the lives of corrupt monks, created a furore on publication. Although he was to become a leading communist politician, Thein Pe was a devout Buddhist at the time he wrote Tet-hpongyi and was greatly concerned to purge the Buddhist clergy of the undesirable elements which were damaging its image.51
Thein Pe was the political writer par excellence. His very first work of fiction wove a nationalist message into a romance partly inspired by Romeo and Juliet.52 Khin Myo Chit is the story of a Burmese Muslim girl who is unable to give up her religion to marry the young Buddhist she loves. Nor can she ask the young man to convert to her religion as this would have an adverse effect on his nationalist activities. The couple decide to part and the girl dies of a broken heart, leaving a letter urging the young man to carry on with the struggle for Burma’s independence.
Thein Pe’s very first piece of fiction gives an insight into the nature of his later works: a highly talented writer with an outstanding gift for both narrative and dialogue, his heavy-handed political messages often detract from the credibility of his stories. Whether he is writing about immoral monks, capitalists, the evils of venereal disease, the privations of the oilfield workers of Yenangyaung or the miseries of children forced to earn their living, Thein Pe readily sacrifices verisimilitude to political and social considerations. The wages of sin have to be paid in full; those who are guilty of social and political misdemeanours must not be allowed to escape unscathed; and it is the duty of writers not only to point out the ills that plague society but also to suggest possible cures.53 Thein Pe Myint is representative of many young nationalists of that period in believing that such cures could be found within the range of leftist political theories. His writings indicate that the didactic role of literature kept pace with nationalist activities which were gathering force in the 1930s.
Burmese Literature and the Nationalist Movement
The relationship between literature and society is twofold. On the one hand literature is a reflection of current views and values – especially when, as in the case of Burma under colonial rule, writers do not confine themselves to exclusive intellectual circles removed from the public at large. On the other hand literature could serve to shape social and political opinion by spreading new ideas and, more important, by giving concrete verbal form to feelings and aspirations which might otherwise have remained at an inchoate level in the minds of many readers.
The close connection between literature and the nationalist spirit in Burma can be traced back to the time when British rule was first extended over the whole country. Mandalay had hardly fallen when poems lamenting the deportation of Thibaw began to appear, leading to a new genre in Burmese poetry, the pa-dawhmu (roughly ‘the taking away of the royal couple’) compositions. Together with this nostalgia for a past which although far from perfect was at least their very own, there stirred among the Burmese an insistent longing for a future when the destiny of the country would once again be in their hands. Such aspirations were expressed not only in the form of numerous rebellions (although some of these might well have been prompted by personal ambition rather than true patriotism), which the British stamped out over several years during the course of the so-called ‘pacification of Burma’; they also came out in the form of prophetic verses, tabaung, foretelling the end of British rule. The potency of these verses was such that U Saw Hla, the most popular of these writers, was arrested by the British.54 The political role of literature was thus recognized by the government during the very early stages of colonialism.
The link between literature and nationalism can be seen not only in Burma but also in other colonial territories such as India and Indonesia where freedom movements gathered momentum before the Second World War. As there are features common to most colonial situations, there are also differences which reflect not only social and cultural factors but also the particular effect of colonialism on each country. Burma, where British rule was established relatively late, was left untouched by the eighteenth-century western liberal tradition which had played an important role in shaping the intellectual processes of the Indian thinkers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Thus there did not develop to the same extent as in India a body of social and political writings that could be seen as a pointer to the ideas behind the Burmese nationalist movement. In the words of a contemporary English social and intellectual historian, ‘for all the defects of imaginative literature as a historical source, there is nothing to surpass it as a guide to the thoughts and feelings of at least the more articulate sections of the population’.55 Thus in focusing on poetry and fiction rather than on political and philosophical works (of which there are few and none which could be said to have made a major impact on the country at large) it is intended that this article should provide an insight into the impulses and ideas which inspired the people of Burma along the path to independence.