Colonial Era
The British had used mainly Indian and Gurkha troops to conquer and pacify the country. In a divide-and-rule maneuver, the British enforced their rule in the province of Burma mainly with Indian troops later joined by indigenous military units of three indigenous ethnic minorities: the Karen, the Kachin and the Chin. The British did not trust the Burmans. Before 1937, with few exceptions, no Burmans were allowed to serve in the military.
Read more about this topic: Military History Of Burma
Famous quotes containing the words colonial and/or era:
“Are you there, Africa with the bulging chest and oblong thigh? Sulking Africa, wrought of iron, in the fire, Africa of the millions of royal slaves, deported Africa, drifting continent, are you there? Slowly you vanish, you withdraw into the past, into the tales of castaways, colonial museums, the works of scholars.”
—Jean Genet (1910–1986)
“It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past.... Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)