Answers: Myanmar's Coups and Fault Lines

Abundant in teak and at the time emerging as the world’s largest rice exporter, colonial Burma’s relative prosperity attracted mass migration, especially from the rest of British India. 1930s Rangoon had more Indians than Bamars (Burmans). The British marginalisation of Burma’s largest ethnic group had lasting consequences, pitting Buddhist Bamars against ethnic and religious minorities. Burma was severely affected by World War II, heavily bombed first by the Japanese and then by the Allies during the Japanese occupation.

The run-up to Independence was marred by the assassination of General Aung San and multiple ministers. The chaotic march to freedom paved the way for some of the longest-running conflicts in the world, with the military fighting ethnic minorities such as the Kachin, Karen and Shan. The military coup of 1962 led to Burma’s retreat from the world. The generals gave it a new name - Myanmar - with the crushing of the 1988 uprising and the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Elections were held in 2015 and Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy gained control of some levers of government. But the past few years have been marred by the severe crackdown on the Rohingya and a UN report concluded Myanmar’s military leaders should face genocide charges. Now the uneasy detente between Suu Kyi and the generals is over.

Answers

1) This Burmese term/name literally means ‘royal city of the sun’ and is often interpreted as ‘seat of the king’. It was used as a suffix to the names of old royal capitals such as Mandalay. What is the name?

Naypyidaw or Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar’s capital from 2005. More here and here

2) This iconic 1952 film (regionally and not globally) features three brothers leading prosperous lives in Rangoon, who are forced to leave by Japanese bombing during the Second World War. This film had a major political impact regionally in the 1950s and elements stoked by it had national repercussions in the next decade. Name the film.

Parasakthi in Tamil, the powerful acting debut of Sivaji Ganesan. The film was scripted by M. Karunanidhi, who later became Chief Minister of India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu. Parasakthi turned out to be a huge propaganda vehicle for the Dravidian movement centred on Tamil identity, language and culture. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) took power in the state in 1967.

More about Burma as a recurring motif in Tamil cinema here.

3) Burma formally filed a complaint with the United Nations in 1953 over rebel troops from a foreign country amassing territory within its borders (the troops were backed by the CIA). International pressure led to the repatriation of many of these troops. However, some remained in the borderlands of Burma and Thailand and went on to play a big part in the drug trade. Name the group.

Kuomintang or the Nationalist Party of China. Kuomintang was forced out of the mainland by Mao Zedong and the Communist Party of China in 1949 and decamped to Taiwan. The Kuomintang forces who fled to Burma were thwarted in their efforts to attack China’s Yunnan province. After Burma complained to the UN, most of them were repatriated to Taiwan. More here, here, here and here

4) Which city officially recognised a Burma Bazaar in 1969 set up by refugees from Burma, which became a hub for grey market trade?

Chennai, the capital of India’s Tamil Nadu. Burma Bazaar was set up by Tamils from Burma who were expelled by the military junta in the 1960s. More here, here and here. As moneylenders, the Tamil Chettiar community had played a crucial role in transforming Burma into Asia’s rice bowl. Many of their old mansions are now in ruins.

Many expelled Tamils settled in the Indian state of Manipur bordering Myanmar.

5) India’s last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled to Rangoon by the British and spent his last years in Burma. Thibaw, the last King of Burma and his family were ousted and exiled by the British in 1886. Where did he spend the rest of his life? (the town and district are known for its mangoes)

Ratnagiri in India’s western state of Maharashtra. It was only in 2012 that a Myanmar leader (then President Thein Sein) visited the tomb of King Thibaw in Ratnagiri.

6) What runs from Ledo in India's north-eastern state of Assam, through Myanmar and ends in Kunming in the Chinese province of Yunnan? It’s a relic of the Second World War and largely disused now. A U.S. military propaganda film on this from 1945 was narrated by Ronald Reagan.

Stilwell Road, named after the U.S. General Joseph Stilwell, who was the top American commander for China-Burma-India and Chief of Staff to Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek. More here and here.

8) Myanmar’s military rulers banned a Hollywood film in 2008, in which the protagonist is seeking to rescue Christian missionaries detained by soldiers in Myanmar. The soldiers are shown pillaging villages and committing massacres. Which film?

Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo 4. More here and here

9) December 1974 saw the biggest protests since the military coup of 1962 (still larger protests followed in 1988). University students angered by the military’s refusal to honour X with a state funeral snatched the body from the official procession and buried him on the campus of Yangon University. Soldiers stormed the campus, retrieved the coffin and buried X near Shwedagon Pagoda. Who is X? (Hint: globally known personality at the time)

U. Thant, UN Secretary General from 1961 to 1971. A first-hand account of the 1974 student protests here. More from the New York Times here and here.

10) In 1961 Prime Minister U Nu pushed through a new law making Buddhism the state religion, causing resentment among non-Buddhist minorities. The military cited minority unrest as a reason to justify its coup the very next year and went on to reverse the law. The short-lived law also included a ban on something, an issue which separately reverberated in neighbouring India in the 1960s as well as in the past several years.

Cow slaughter was largely banned. Muslims were required to apply for exemption licenses to slaughter cattle on religious holidays. The ultra-nationalist Buddhist group known as Ma Ba Tha has been demanding the reinstatement of the ban in recent years.

11) The military action known as Operation Nagamin (Dragon King) in 1977 was the first of several. What did Nagamin lead to?

Operation Nagamin was the first large-scale forcible displacement of the Rohingya to Bangladesh by Burma’s military. In 1982 Rohingya were excluded from citizenship by a new law that granted full rights only to ethnic communities considered to have been living in the country before the first Anglo-Burmese war of 1823.

12) The 2018 UN report mentioned in the introduction that accused Myanmar’s military of ‘genocidal intent’ against the Rohingya also concluded that Facebook ‘has been a useful instrument for those seeking to spread hate’ and that its response was ‘slow and ineffective’. Facebook responded by doing something for the first time. What? (Facebook has done something similar in the U.S. recently)

Facebook removed the accounts of senior Myanmar military figures including commander in chief and now coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. It marked the first time Facebook moved against political or military leaders in any country. More about Facebook’s popularity in Myanmar here, here and here.

13) In 2011 Myanmar unexpectedly suspended the construction of the Myitsone dam, a huge hydroelectric project, which would have flooded an area the size of Singapore. What was the political significance of the decision, besides being a nod to popular sentiment?

The first time Myanmar halted a China-backed infrastructure project, surprising the world. There’s been controversy over revelations that most of the power generated from the dam was intended for China. More here, here and here.

14) In 2008 the military rulers’ credibility was severely hurt by a major event that led to the death of 140,000 people. The junta faced international criticism for a slow and secretive response. What happened?

Cyclone Nargis. More here, here and here.

15) This India-born author served in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma for several years before turning to full-time writing. His first novel was Burmese Days, a sharp critique of British colonialism. However, the book also portrayed a prominent Burmese character as greedy and corrupt and it was banned in the country for decades. In recent years though, the book has enjoyed a revival and its translation won the Myanmar government’s top literary award for 2012. Name the author.

George Orwell. More here, here, here and here.

16) 1962 coup leader and Myanmar’s junta leader for decades, Ne Win, considered nine as his lucky number. What disastrous measure derived from Ne Win’s fondness for the number nine was introduced in 1987? The economic turmoil caused by the move had a big role to play in the mass protests of 1988.

Demonetisation. 25, 35 and 75 kyat notes were taken out of circulation and replaced by 45 and 90 kyat notes (multiples of 9). More here and here.

17) Which town in eastern Shan state was the venue of a historic agreement on February 12, 1947 between General Aung San and ethnic minority leaders? The agreement is viewed as a symbol of national unity, and Union Day is observed on February 12. Separatists have long held that the government ignored the agreement’s autonomy guarantees. Aung San Suu Kyi also chose the town to hold talks with ethnic minority leaders in recent years.

Panglong. More about the Panglong agreement here and here

18) This country was a major donor to Myanmar during the decades of military junta rule (it was top donor from the 1960s to the 1980s). It refused to impose sanctions and its companies have been expanding operations in Myanmar. It was the first to support Myanmar in the case on the Rohingya issue at the International Court of Justice. This country officially asserts that no genocide was committed in Myanmar and has not acknowledged the Rohingya as an ethnic minority. Its ambassador in Myanmar referred to the Rohingya as ‘Bengali’, the term favoured by the Myanmar government. Name the country.

Japan. More here, here, here and here. Notably Burma was the first country in Asia to strike a deal with Japan for war reparations in 1954. Earlier Aung San and his group of ‘Thirty Comrades’ that included future dictator Ne Win received military training in Japan and aided in the Japanese invasion. But they switched sides later amid the brutality of Japan’s colonial rule and the Allies’ military gains.

19) This island in the Bay of Bengal spanning 40 square km was formed only in 2006 due to sediment deposited from the river Meghna. Name the island and why it’s been in the news from December 2020?

The island of Bhasan Char, where Bangladesh has started sending Rohingya refugees from camps in Cox’s Bazar on the mainland.

Addendum

Myanmar’s coup played a role in how ethnic tensions spiralled into violence in India’s neighbouring Manipur state two years later. More in my quiz on Manipur.