Aung San

Aung San, born on 13 February 1915 and killed on 19 July 1947, was a Burmese revolutionary and politician who led the fight to end British colonial rule. He died only six months before independence was achieved. Today, he is regarded as the architect of modern Myanmar and its armed forces, the Tatmadaw, and is often called the "Father of the Nation," "Father of Independence," and "Father of the Tatmadaw."

Throughout his life, Aung San worked to overthrow British control, founding or joining numerous political groups and experimenting with different ideologies. He was a committed anti-imperialist and studied socialism while a student. During his first year at university, he was elected to the executive committee of the Rangoon University Students' Union and edited its magazine, *Oway*. In 1938, he joined the Thakin Society and became its general secretary. The following year, he helped establish the Communist Party of Burma but left soon after due to sharp disagreements with its leaders. He then co-founded the People's Revolutionary Party (later the Burma Socialist Party), which focused on winning independence from Britain.

Just before World War II, Aung San fled to China to seek foreign backing for Burma’s independence. During the Japanese occupation, he served as minister of war in Dr. Ba Maw’s Japanese-backed State of Burma. When the war turned against Japan, he changed sides and combined his forces with the Allies to fight the Japanese. After the war, he negotiated Burma’s independence from Britain through the Aung San-Attlee agreement. He became the fifth Premier of the British Crown Colony of Burma in 1946 and led his Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League to victory in the 1947 general election. However, he and most of his cabinet were assassinated just before the country gained independence.

His daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, is a stateswoman, politician, and Nobel Peace Prize winner. She served as Burma’s State Counsellor and its 20th (and first female) Minister of Foreign Affairs in Win Myint’s cabinet until the 2021 military coup.

**Early life and education**

Aung San was born on 13 February 1915 in Natmauk, Magway District, during the British Raj. His family was middle-class. He was the youngest of nine children, with three older sisters and five older brothers. His brother Aung Than gave him his name. He began his education at a Buddhist monastic school in Natmauk but moved to Yenangyaung in the fourth grade after his eldest brother, Ba Win, became principal of the high school there.

As a child, Aung San rarely spoke before age eight. As a teenager, he would spend hours reading and thinking alone, often unaware of people around him. He paid little attention to his appearance or clothing. In his early writings, published in *The World of Books*, he rejected the Western-style individualism supported by U Thant, favoring instead a social philosophy based on the "standardization of human life." He later became friends with U Thant through their mutual connection with U Nu.

**University years**

When Aung San entered Rangoon University in 1933, he quickly rose to become a student leader. He was elected to the executive committee of the Rangoon University Students' Union (RUSU) and became editor of its magazine, *Oway* (Peacock's Call). Fellow students described him as charismatic and deeply interested in politics.

In February 1936, he and U Nu were expelled from the university for refusing to name the author of an article in the student newspaper titled "Hell Hound at Large," which had criticized a senior university official. The expulsion sparked a three-month student strike, known as the Second University Students' Strike. The university eventually reinstated both Aung San and Nu.

The 1936 events changed Aung San’s life. Before that year, he was little known outside Rangoon University. During the strike, his name and image appeared in daily newspapers, making him a nationally recognized nationalist revolutionary and student leader. He held his first leadership roles during this time: secretary of the student boycott council and student representative on the government’s University Act Amendment Committee, created in response to the strike. Later in 1936, after the strike ended, he was elected vice president of the Rangoon University Student Union. Because of his involvement in the strike, he could not sit for exams that year and earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1937.

After graduating, Aung San began studying law, intending to "take a shot at the examinations for the Indian Civil Service... and go into politics." In 1937, he and other student leaders founded the All Burma Student Union (later the All Burma Federation of Student Unions), where he was elected general secretary. In 1938, he became president of both the All Burma Student Union and the Rangoon University Student Union. But these commitments left him no time to study, and he failed his law exam in 1938. After that, he abandoned the idea of a conventional career and devoted himself fully to revolutionary politics.

**Thakin revolutionary**

In October 1938, Aung San left his law classes and entered national politics. By then, he was anti-British and firmly anti-imperialist. He became a Thakin—a title meaning "master," used by Burmese nationalists to assert equality with the British.