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Ba Maw. Author Catherine Bell.

Top 10 Interesting Facts About Ba Maw

Ba Maw was a Burmese lawyer and political leader, active during the interwar and World War II periods. Dr. Ba Maw is a descendant of the Mon Dynasty. He was the first Burma Premier (1937–1939) and head of the State of Burma from 1942 to 1945.

1. He Came From A Distinguished Family

Ba Maw came from a distinguished family of mixed Mon-Burman parentage. His father, Shwe Kye was an ethnic Mon from Amherst (now Kyaikkhami) and well-versed in French and English languages. Thus Shwe Kye had an opportunity to serve as a royal diplomat who accompanied Kinwun Mingyi U Kaung in the Burmese diplomatic missions to Europe in the 1870s.

The father also worked as an assistant tutor to Royal Tutor Dr. Mark at the last royal palace of the last Burmese monarchy.

 Ba Maw’s elder brother, Professor Dr. Ba Han (1890–1969), was a lawyer as well as a lexicographer and legal scholar and served as Attorney General of Burma from 1957– 1958.

2. He Was The First English Lecturer At Rangoon University

After graduating from Rangoon College in 1913, Ba Maw began working as a teacher at Rangoon Government High School and later at ABM school. In 1917, he got an MA from the University of Calcutta and became the first English lecturer at Rangoon University where he worked for the next four years.

3. He Was The first Burmese Premier Under British Rule

Ba Maw, (born Feb. 8, 1893, in Maubin, Burma [Myanmar]. He died May 29, 1977, in Yangon). He was also a politician who in 1937 became the first Burmese premier under British rule; he later was head of state in the pro-Japanese government during World War II (August 1943–May 1945).

4. Ba Was The Defense Lawyer of Burmese Rebel Leader

Having been educated at Rangoon College, Calcutta University, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Bordeaux, he received a doctorate in 1924. He was admitted to the English bar the same year and first came into prominence as the defense lawyer for the Burmese rebel leader Saya San in 1931.

5. He Opposed Britain’s Plan To Remove Burma From Indian Jurisdiction

During the early 1930s Ba Maw was also a prominent opponent of Britain’s plan to remove Burma (Myanmar) from the jurisdiction of the Indian viceroy. He believed that a separate Burma would receive a much smaller measure of self-rule than India as a result.

 In 1934, however, he reversed his position, agreeing to support the pro-separationists in a coalition government. That year he was made minister of education for Burma. When the new constitution, providing for the separation of Burma from India, went into effect on April 1, 1937, he became the first premier, and he held office until he was defeated by a coalition in February 1939.

6. Ba’s Law Practice Was Synonymous With Politics

From the 1920s onwards, Ba Maw practiced law and dabbled in colonial-era Burmese politics. He achieved prominence in 1931 when he defended the rebel leader, Saya San. San had started a tax revolt in Burma in December 1930 which quickly grew into a more widespread rebellion against British rule. San was captured, tried, convicted, and hanged.

Ba Maw acted as the lead counsel for Saya San, and other rebel leaders. According to Ba Maw, the government “…under the cloak of the judicial trail, went on enforcing the law against thousands of villagers who knew nothing of that law, but only how they were unable to pay their taxes in time, and their homes and villages were wrecked Politics

7. Ba Also Served The Government As Education Minister

In 1934, Ba Maw served as education minister, and then in 1937, he became premier under the new Burmese constitution. However, in July 1940, Ba Maw resigned from the Legislature. During a conference of the Sinyetha, he issued seven orders, one of which was, “to refuse to participate in the war in any way as long as freedom was refused to the Burmese.”

8. He Was Jailed For Violating The Defence Of Burma Rules

However, on 6 August 1940, he was arrested for violating the Defence of Burma Rules, and taken to Mandalay for trial. He said, “My trial in itself was a ritual sort of affair, brief and formal and without any touch of drama in it. all the drama was taking place outside…where people everywhere had begun to speak with greater racial feeling and defiance.”

On 28 August, Ba Maw was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for a year. Originally jailed in Mandalay, he was later relocated to Mogok, in northern Burma.

9. He Escaped To Japan During World War II

On 13 April 1942, Ba Maw escaped from Mogok during the Thingyan festival. He and his wife Kinmama hid out in the hills of Mang Lon until the third week in May, when they established contact with the Japanese. Later on 4 June, during the Japanese occupation of Burma, he was made Chief Civilian Administrator when Aung San reformed the Burmese Independence Army as the Burma Defense Army. On 1 August 1942, Ba Maw was inaugurated as the head of the Burmese government.

However, the new state failed to secure popular support or diplomatic recognition due to the continued presence and activities of the Imperial Japanese Army, and after their collaborationist allies, the Burma National Army defected to the Allies’ side, the government collapsed.

Ba Maw fled just ahead of advancing British forces via Thailand to Japan, where he was captured later that year by the American occupational authorities. He was held in Sugamo Prison until 1946. He then was allowed to return to Burma, after Burma became independent of Great Britain. He remained active in politics. He was jailed briefly in 1947, on suspicion of involvement in the assassination of Aung San, but was soon released.

10. He Was Also An Author

 His book Breakthrough in Burma: Memoirs of a Revolution, 1939–1946, an account of his role during the war years, was published by Yale University Press (New Haven) in 1968. In the post-war period, he founded the Mahabama (Greater Burma) Party. He died in Rangoon on 28 May 1977.