General elections were held in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

on 9 November 1932,"Separation Issue In Burma To-Day's Election": ''The Times'', 9 November 1932, p11, Issue 46286 having originally been planned for 29 October. The election was held almost solely on the issue of whether Burma should separate from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

,"Separation Issue In Burma Buddhist Monk's Appeal", ''The Times'', 10 September 1932, p9, Issue 46235 as the British government had indicated that it would take the outcome of the elections as an indication of Burmese opinion.Haruhiro Fukui (1985) ''Political parties of Asia and the Pacific'', Greenwood Press, p148 Prior to the elections many of the major parties joined either the

Anti-Separation League The Anti-Separation League was a political alliance in Burma. History The alliance was formed in July 1932 by parties that were not in favour of Burma being separated from British Raj in order to contest the 1932 general elections,Haruhiro Fukui ...

or the

Separation League The Separation League was a political alliance in Burma. History The alliance was formed to contest the 1932 general elections by parties that were in favour of Burma being separated from British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rā ...

. Despite expectations that the separationists would win, 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. 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."The New Constitution: Separation from India", ''The Times'', 20 April 1937, p36, Issue 47663

Campaign

A total of 207 candidates contested the elections; The People's Party headed by U Ba Pe, part of the Separation League, put forward 54, whilst the Independent Party of

Joseph Augustus Maung Gyi Sir Joseph Augustus Maung Gyi ( my, ဆာ ဂျိုးဇက် အော်ဂပ်စတပ် မောင်ကြီး; 12 December 1871 – 9 March 1955) was a Burmese barrister, judge, politician and administrator who served as the A ...

had 49. Within the Anti-Separation League, the Maw-Myint-Bye Party of

Ba Maw Ba Maw ( my, ဘမော်, ; 8 February 1893 – 29 May 1977) 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 ...

and the party led by

Chit Hlaing Chit Hlaing ( my, ချစ်လှိုင်, 1879 – 31 October 1952) was a notable Burmese politician. During his time, he was called a Burmese king without a crown, and was popular in rural Burma. He was imprisoned when the British Crown ...

participated in the elections."Burmese Election Anti-Separationists Decline Office", ''The Times'', 18 November 1932, p13, Issue 46294 The Anti-Separation League was well-funded by Indian commercial interests concerned about potential separation, and was backed by Buddhist monks,Fukui, pp113–114 who the Separation League sought to ban from politics. By contrast, the Separation League was poorly-funded and had little widespread support.

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. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' 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"."Burma Election: An Anti-Separation Majority", ''The Times'', 16 November 1932, p14, Issue 46292

References

{{Burmese elections

1932 in Burma Elections in Myanmar

Burmese Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese (hor ...

Election and referendum articles with incomplete results