The Independent Party, also known as the Golden Valley Party or ,Maung Maung (2012) ''Burma's Constitution'', Springer Science & Business Media, p29 was a pro-British political party 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 ...

during the 1920s and 1930s. Its leadership included

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 ...

U Khin U or u, is the twenty-first and sixth-to-last letter and fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''u'' (pr ...

and

U May Oung U or u, is the twenty-first and sixth-to-last letter and fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''u'' (pr ...

. Oscar de Glanville was also a party leader.

History

The party was established as the Progressive Party in 1922, evolving from the senior faction of the

Young Men's Buddhist Association The YMBA, or Young Men's Buddhist Association, was created in Sri Lanka in 1898. The main founder was C. S. DissanayakeHuman Rights Watch (2009)''The Resistance of the Monks: Buddhism and Activism in Burma'' p. 12. as part of a bid to provide Budd ...

, whose members were conservative, western-educated and willing to accept the colonial system of government.Haruhiro Fukui (1985) ''Political parties of Asia and the Pacific'', Greenwood Press, pp133−134 Although the 1922 general elections saw the 21 Party emerge as the largest party in the Legislative Council, its leader Ba Pe refused to form a government with the Golden Valley Party, allowing Maung Gyi to head the new government.Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
The Irrawaddy, 3 November 2009 In 1925 the party was renamed the Independent Party,Sen, p27 also becoming known as the Golden Valley Party (''Shwe Taung Gyar'') in reference to the upper-class suburbs in which its leaders lived, but was not formally organised, nor had any popular support. The elections later that year (in which it won 20 of the 80 seats) and 1928 elections (12 seats) ended with the same outcome due to favouritism by the British authorities. The party contested the 1932 elections calling for the separation of Burma from India, but were defeated by the anti-separatists, who won a landslide;

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 ...

of the Maw-Myint-Bye Party became Chief Minister. It failed to win a seat in the 1936 elections.

References

{{Burmese political parties Defunct political parties in Myanmar