The Beginnings of Burmese Socialism and Buddhist-Marxist Syncretism

Abstract

From the standpoint of the principal Burmese politicians of the 1920’s such outbreaks of “superstition” were neither intended nor politically-relevant.¹ In spite of them, the impact of Saya San’s Peasant Revolt was such that for the most important of their successors of the 1930’s this “Galons-Movement became a symbol of Burmese solidarity. U Saw, one of the Burmese politicians supporting the “Galons,” took himself the title Galon and under this name of Saya San’s army organized a private force. This association with the crushed peasant revolt attracted to Galon U Saw considerable popular following. The same motivation induced him to perform the Plowing Ceremony, associated with the kings of independent Burma (cf. p. 50f.).² U Saw’s “Myo-chit” (“Patriotic”) Party had a rival in Ba Maw, a brilliant counsel for the defense of Saya San in 1931. While U Saw attempted to capitalize on the folkloric symbols of that Galon chief, Ba Maw emphasized the economic grievances underlying the Peasant Uprising of 1930–1932. Ba Maw called his own organization Sinyetha (the Poor’s) Party and gave it a platform of far-reaching social and economic reforms. Dr. Ba Maw, the most western cultured of Burma’s statesmen, was the first to attempt an application of Marxist socialism to Burmese politics.