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Biography of Ba MawName: Ba MawBirth Date: February 8, 1893 Death Date: May 28, 1977 Place of Birth: Maubin, Burma Nationality: Burmese Gender: Male Occupations: premier, nationalist Ba Maw Ba Maw (1893-1977) was the first premier of independent Burma (now Myanmar) and the leader of the wartime government that ruled in cooperation with the occupying Japanese from 1942 to 1945.Ba Maw was born in Maubin on February 8, 1893. His father was U Kye, who had been an official of the courts of former Burmese kings Mindon and Thibaw and who had actively opposed the establishment of British colonial rule. By far the most learned of the first generation of active nationalist agitators against the British imperial presence, Ba Maw was educated at Rangoon College and at Calcutta University in India. Like many other Burmese nationalists, Ba Maw turned first to teaching as a profession, becoming the first Burmese to be appointed to the faculty of British-run Rangoon College in 1917. He later studied at Cambridge University in England, qualified as a barrister-at-law at Gray's Inn, London, in 1924, and received a doctorate in philosophy …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…the war, Ba Maw returned to Burma in 1946 but never again played a major political role. As a highly articulate critic, however, he persisted in challenging his country's younger rulers. He was jailed by military dictator Gen. Ne Win in 1966 for contact with proclaimed rebels against the regime. Following his release with other political detainees in 1968, Ba Maw returned to the private practice of law. He died on May 28, 1977. Further Reading Ba Maw's own perceptive account of the important years 1939-1946 can be read in his Breakthrough in Burma: Memoirs of a Revolution (1968). The same period is also treated by U Nu in Burma under the Japanese: Pictures and Portraits (1945; trans. 1954). A broader perspective is provided in, John F. Cady, A History of Modern Burma (1958). Also recommended is Frank N. Trager, Burma: From Kingdom to Republic: A Historical and Political Analysis (1966). A brief obituary appears in the New York Times (May 31, 1977). |