Burma in a shell

Ever since General Ne Win toppled U Nu's government and established military rule in Burma (now called the Union of Myanmar) in 1962, the country gradually fell off the world map. The junta cut the country off from the rest of the world. Expats, including a large army of intrepid Indian traders, found life difficult under the new rulers and soon left for greener pastures.

It is only now that the country has caught the world's attention. It has been sucked into the next Great Game "" the global hunt for oil and gas reserves. Both China and India have been jockeying for the country's oil deposits, though China seems to have the upper hand at the moment.

Little do people know that Burma shares a long history with India, which starts from the Mughal times (Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor, was exiled to Rangoon and he died there) and ended with the collapse of the British rule in the sub-continent after the Second World War.

Thant Myint-U, a grandson of the second United Nations Secretary General U Thant, brings the country's modern history, triumphant and tragic in equal measure, through his book. The narrative is interspersed with the fortunes of his own family. This makes The River of Lost Footsteps a superb read.

For Indian readers, the story of Burma after the British gained control of it in 1885 will sound very familiar: the tales of deceit, cunning and insensitive behaviour are just the same in the two countries.

The British saw Burma as a convenient trade route to China. For long, they wanted to reach inland China including Tibet from the Indian sub-continent. They had tried Nepal but were rebuffed by the rulers of that country. The Nepal War of 1815 finally gave them control of the Kumaon and Garhwal hills bordering Tibet. But the trade routes went through high passes and opened into desolate territory inhabited by hostile people, especially the Khampas.

So, it was for commercial reasons that Randolph Churchill, the father of Winston Churchill, an old India hand and a Conservative politician, first raised the issue of annexing Burma to the British kingdom.

Churchill, says Myint-U, needed to flog an issue for purely electoral reason. He had elected to contest from Birmingham. The industrial town was going through a rough patch. The issue that Churchill decided to raise was opening the Burma market for Birmingham's produce through a military conquest.

The last ruler of Burma, Thibaw, had got a lot of bad press, though he was not as bad as the media made him out to be, says Myint-U. Still, the British forces could not invade the country only for commercial gains. In 1884, the Burmese concluded a treaty with the French and this tilted public opinion in favour of the invasion of Burma.

What triggered the assault of 1885 was a small fine levied by the country on the Bombay Burmah Trading Company (now owned by Nusli Wadia). It was a short war. The Burmese defences were weak and Mandalay was taken with very little loss of British life and limb.

Thibaw and wife Supayalat were exiled to Ratnagiri on the west coast of India. And that is where the dynasty died "" so vividly captured by Amitav Ghosh in The Glass Palace.

Life under the British was no different for the people of Burma than of India. The British were superior and, therefore, the rulers. To aid them in the bandobast of the country were hordes of Burmese and expatriate Indians "" brown in colour but English in taste and aspiration. Rice cultivation was spread to all over the plains to feed the world markets.

But all of that started changing once the Second World War started. Japan decided to launch its attack on India from Burma. Taken totally by surprise, the British left the country, leaving their subjects to face the Japanese on their own. Indian soldiers too were left behind. Subhash Chandra Bose formed his Indian National Army with them.

But they couldn't cross into India's north-east and the British re-captured Burma. In 1948, Burma gained independence from British rule. Myint-U gives a good insider's view of what happened during the years before General Ne Win took over in 1962. His grandfather, U Thant, was a senior functionary of the government and a confidant of the country's premier, U Nu.

Over the years, Burma had become a melting pot for people from all over the world. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Europeans of all hues "" Italians, French and Portugese "" found employment in the armies of the rulers. Scottish and English traders brought Burma teak down the Irrawady to sell in the world markets. During British rule, many Indian nationalists had found refuge in Burma. After military rule, Burma slowly slipped into oblivion.

It is not possible to turn the last page of the book and not feel sorry for the people of the country.

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THE RIVER OF LOST FOOTSTEPS

Thant Myint-U
Faber & Faber
361 pages, Rs 495