16 November 1920 - 1929
Pantanaw National Day 1929
16 November 1920 was Burma's first "National Day". It marked the student boycott of 1920 against the Rangoon University Act of that year. The Rangoon University Act was intended to establish a very exclusive Cambridge/Oxford style residential university in Rangoon. Student demonstrations against the Act were also more generally a protest against the colonial education policies. The protests led to the establishment of a "National College" (which did not last) and "National Schools". This was, at a time of fast-rising Burmese nationalism, quickened by developments in Ireland and especially India. The General Council of Burmese Associations (GCBA) had just been formed and in 1921, the GCBA decided to mark the first anniversary of the student protests as Burma's first "National Day".
This photograph of National Day at the National school in Pantanaw 1929, shows 23-year-old U Nu is on the far right and 20-year-old U Thant standing third from the right. Both were Pantanaw schoolmasters and close friends.