History Of Burma
The British also further divided the numerous ethnic minorities by
favouring some groups, such as the Karen, for positions in the
military and in local rural administrations. During the 1920s, the first
protests by Burma intelligentsia and Buddhist Monks were launched
against British rule. By 1935, the Students Union at Rangoon
University was at teh forefront of what would evolve into an active
and powerful movement for national independence. A young law
student Aung San (above), executive-committee member and
magazine editor for the Students Union, emerged as the potential
new leader of the national movement. In the years that followed, he
successfully organized a series of student strikes at the university,
gaining the support of the nation. To demonstrate his conviction
that Burma was rightfully Burmese and not British, he and his
closest associates defiantly called themselves thakins, or” masters “,
which was a title previously used only for addressing the British.
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