General elections were held in Burma on 9 November 1932,[1] having originally been planned for 29 October.[2] The election was held almost solely on the issue of whether Burma should separate from India,[3] as the British government had indicated that it would take the outcome of the elections as an indication of Burmese opinion.[4] Prior to the elections many of the major parties joined either the Anti-Separation League or the Separation League.
Despite expectations that the separationists would win,[3][1] the Anti-Separation League won a majority of seats. However, the anti-separationists were not in favour of maintaining the union with India, but instead called for a better constitution for a separate Burma.[5] They rejected the constitution proposed by the prime minister following the Burma Round-Table Conference, but also rejected the permanent federation with India, and declared they would enter the Indian Federation, but with the right to withdraw.[6]
The Anti-Separation League was well-funded by Indian commercial interests concerned about potential separation, and was backed by Buddhist monks,[9] who the Separation League sought to ban from politics.[4] By contrast, the Separation League was poorly funded and had little widespread support.[4]
Results
Within the Anti-Separation League the Maw-Myint-Bye Party won the most seats, whilst the People's Party emerged as the largest within the Separation League.[7]The Times noted that the surprise defeat of the separationists was caused by "wild stories" that the country would become a "white man's paradise and home to the British unemployed, that taxation would be heavily increased, even dogs and poultry would be taxed; and that the Buddhist religion would be ruined".[5]
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