Pandit Nehru

UK's decision to quit Burma

On 20 December 1946, UK Prime Minister Clement Attlee informed the House of Commons of his government's intention "to hasten forward the time when Burma shall realize her independence, either within or without the Commonwealth". In other words, the UK had decided to quit Burma. Clement Attlee's Labour government were coping with severe and mounting economic challenges at home, and facing dire emergencies in India, Palestine, and Greece. Communal violence in India would soon claim the lives of millions. Palestine...

A Shared History of India and Burma Independence

India became independent from the British Empire on 15 August 1947. The country was partitioned and the new state of Pakistan was created at the same time. India and Burma immediately established diplomatic ties, but as Burma was then not yet an independent republic outside the Commonwealth, the country was represented in New Delhi by a High Commissioner. Burma's road to independence was intimately tied with India's. Modern Burmese politics began with the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms of 1917 and the fear...

U Aung San's historic meeting with Pandit Nehru

General Aung San met with Pandit Nehru in Delhi, where he stopped on his way to London to discuss Burmese independence with Prime Minister Clement Attlee. Pandit Nehru realized General Aung San's tropical outfit would not be suitable for London, which was then experiencing one of its coldest winters in history. He gave General Aung San a greatcoat and had two new bespoke uniforms of warmer material made for him. The winter of 1946-47 was to be the UK's coldest...

Reciprocal State Visits of Myanmar and Indian Leaders

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Myanmar in 2012 was one of the dozens of visits between Indian and Myanmar heads of government and state to each other's countries since both countries became independent. These photographs were taken during Burmese Prime Minister U Nu's visit to India in 1951. The first image shows Pandit Nehru (right of centre, all in white) at Palam Airport (now Indira Gandhi International Airport), Delhi to greet U Nu (left of centre wearing a...

On the Way to the 1955 Bandung Conference

The April 1955 Bandung meetings were a testament to Burma's then dynamic international diplomacy. They were also a testament to Mingaladon airport's position as an international aviation hub - everyone had to stop in Rangoon anyway to travel to Indonesia. Many of the leaders attending Bandung stopped in Rangoon and were treated to dinner at Government House by President Dr Ba U. The Bandung Conference was a meeting of 29 Asian and African nations held in Bandung, Indonesia. Its aim...

Burma's Key Role in the 1955 Asian-African Bandung Conference

The first Asian-African summit was held in Bandung, Indonesia, over 18-24 April 1955. Burma was one of the principal organizers of the Bandung Conference, together with India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Ceylon. The conference brought together 29 leaders of the newly independent non-Western world, representing no fewer than 1.5 billion people, more than half the entire planet. The host, Indonesia's president Sukarno called it "The First inter-continental conference of coloured people - so-called coloured peoples - in the history of mankind"....