द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

158 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE Burmans generally have no idea or intention of fighting for their freedom and they think that once the Indians are eliminated from Burma, everything will be all right for them. The hpongyis or priests on the contrary, are politically- minded and they follow the policy and tactics of the Indian National Congress. When I was in Burma, the uncrowned king of the Burmans was Rev. U. Ottama, a priest.¹ The impression that I had during my stay there was that the priests had the largest following in the country. They had boycotted the Burma Legislature since 1920 and they did not have their representatives there. That led the Govern- ment to think that the Burmans really wanted separation from India, as the English-educated Burmans generally were saying. The recent elections have shown, however, that the people are against separation. The significance of the last elections will be understood better when it is remembered that they were fought on the basis of the old electoral roll and that the request of the anti-separationist party for a revision of the electoral roll prior to the elections, was turned down. Among the separationists (the English-educated Burmans) as also among the anti-separationists, it is very difficult to have a united party, because personal considerations play an important rôle in Burma. The priests who are anti-separa- tionists are on the whole a compact party. Among the English-educated Burmans, when I was in Burma, there were several parties, the most important of them being the Twenty-One Party²—so called because twenty-one persons joined together and formed the party. The Nationalist Party in Burma is called the G.C.B.A.—that is, the General Council ¹ Rev. U. Ottama is now an exile living in Calcutta and is not allowed to return to Burma. His health is completely shattered as a result of repeated incarceration. When I was in Burma an interesting incident took place. Rev. U. Ottama was in prison and a rumour got afloat that he had been secretly transported to a prison in India. In the Burma Legislative Council, questions were put on this point. The Home Member, himself a Burman, felt annoyed at the questions and replied that U. Ottama was one of the ten thousand criminals in his jails and he could not be expected to know where he was confined at the time. At this in- sulting reference to U. Ottama, all the non-official members of the Legis- lative Council walked out as a protest. They resolved to dissolve their separate parties and start a united party—called the People's Party. ² The policy of the Twenty-One Party was to work the Constitution, while that of the G.C.B.A. was to boycott it.