Thakin Nu

Labour Party's Election Victory changed Burma's History

In July 1945, the Labour Party in the UK won a landslide victory over the Conservatives and Clement Attlee replaced Sir Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. Labour's election victory without a doubt changed the course of Burma's history. Prime Minister Attlee was committed to decolonization and within a year reversed earlier policies and began moves towards Burmese self-determination. By 1949, the Attlee government had granted independence to India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon. Attlee had visited Burma twice in the 1920s...

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...