Myanmar. British Burma in the new century, 1895–1918 By Stephen L. Keck Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Pp. x + 230. Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Abstract

British Burma in the new century, 1895-1918 By STEPHEN L. KECK Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Pp. x +230. Notes, Bibliography, Index. doi: 10.1017/S0022463416000643 This book, one in the series Britain and the World edited by the British Scholar Society, pursues two lines of approach. One is to focus on a specific period in the history of Burma that the author considers has been neglected, that between the end, about 1895, of the ten years of British 'pacification' that followed the third Burma war and the abolition of the kingdom, and the emergence of nationalist activity around the end of the First World War, in particular with the opening of the University of Rangoon. Dr Keck thinks that the period has an integrity that historians have rather neglected, and that his book is 'the first to delineate this moment as a relatively discrete historical entity' (p. 3). In his view the period shows the 'colonial state' at work and permits clarification of its objectives and effectiveness. And that, he considers, ought to make it more of a feature in the history of Burma/Myanmar than it does in writings that tend to proceed rather too rapidly from conquest to nationalist movement. There is surely something to be said for this point of view, though it seems to be a bit exaggerated. A drawback is that it risks playing down the influence on the policies and assumptions of the period of the experience of the earlier conquests of 'Lower' Burma. The second line of approach is to make use less of the official records than of 'colonial knowledge', to work, as the author puts it, 'outside the grain' (p. 22). In this he particularly refers to the writing about Burma in the period with which he is mainly concerned, especially those he calls 'Burmaphiles', such as Sir George Scott (Shway Yoe), V.C. Scott O'Connor, Harold Fielding-Hall, Colin Metcalfe Enriques, 'the most important strand of British intellectual history for this study' (p. 18). The aim is to let 'these largely forgotten figures'--he adds in missionaries, 'memorialists', travellers and satirists--'introduce new century Burma' (pp. 24-5). After the first chapter has introduced these approaches, the second concerns itself with 'locating' Burma. The most interesting conclusion Dr Keck draws from his sources is their indication that Burma would develop as a new nation, but separate from India, of which it had been made a province. That notion is indeed worth bearing in mind when historians consider 'separation' in the inter-war period. The third chapter, 'Governing Burma', draws on 'colonial knowledge' rather less and official records rather more. It discusses the role of the headman (though without the usual critique of the irrelevance of Sir Charles Crosthwaite's approach), policing, prisons, the use of Insein as a reformatory, corruption, public health, and the handling of the outbreaks of bubonic plague. …