The 1930 Rangoon riots were a pair of

race riot This is a list of ethnic riots by country, and includes riots based on Ethnic conflict, ethnic, Sectarian violence, sectarian, xenophobic, and Racial conflict, racial conflict. Some of these riots can also be classified as pogroms. Africa A ...

s between

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

dockworkers and

Burman Burman is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Anneli Burman (born 1963), Swedish curler *Barney Burman, American make-up artist *Barry Burman (1943–2001), English figurative artist *Ben Lucien Burman (1896–1984), American aut ...

labourers. The first broke out on 26 May near the

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

docks. It spread to nearby districts with high Indian populations and resulted in over one hundred killed and about one thousand injured. The second, a

prison riot A prison riot is an act of concerted defiance or disorder by a group of prisoners against the prison administrators, prison officers, or other groups of prisoners. Academic studies of prison riots emphasize a connection between prison conditions ...

, began on 24 June in Rangoon Central Jail, where the staff was predominantly Indian and the inmates overwhelmingly Burman. The riots were overshadowed by the rise of Bamar Nationalism, Dobamar Asiyone and the Sayar San Rebellion. In early May 1930, in the midst of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, Indian dockworkers in Rangoon went on

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...

for increased wages. Burman labourers were brought in to break the strike, but the port became congested. An agreement was reached with the Indians to raise their wages, whereupon the Burmans were dismissed. As they returned to work the Indians jeered the outgoing Burmans and violence ensued. For days Burman mobs, often composed of toughs imported from other neighbourhoods, roamed about for Indians, who barricaded themselves in their homes and, in one case, in the local lunatic asylum. Order was only restored when the Rangoon garrison, the Cameron Highlanders, was sent in. According to British colonial government sources, roughly 120 people of Indian origin were killed and more than 900 were injured. However, more recent analyses estimate that more than 200 were killed and 2,000 injured. The majority of all killed and wounded was Indian. During the riot, pro-Burman students and nationalists formed Dobamar Asiyone, which will dominant the modern

history of Myanmar The history of Myanmar ( ) covers the period from the time of first-known human settlements 13,000 years ago to the present day. The earliest inhabitants of recorded history were a Tibeto-Burman-speaking people who established the Pyu city-sta ...

. The riot in the jail was a lesser mirror image of the dockyard riots. The Indian prison staff killed, mainly by gunshot, 34 inmates (out of 2,000) and injured 60 others.

Notes

References

* * * * {{refend Race riots Rangoon riots Indian diaspora in Myanmar Rangoon riots Rangoon riots 20th century in Yangon Rangoon riots Riots and civil disorder in Myanmar Labour disputes in Myanmar Rangoon riots Discrimination in Myanmar Prison riots in Asia Great Depression Anti-Indian sentiment in Asia Rangoon riots 20th-century mass murder in Asia Mass murder in Myanmar