BUDDHISM AND THE BURMESE ESTABLISHMENT HETHER the story of ten first Independent years is more or less vv melancholy than that of many other countries suddenly left to put their own houses in order few clear successes can be said to emerge from the first records we have Here want to show that in one of the few fields the Burmese were masters of qualified success can be claimed though its true aspect very different from that which we find in the official claims with which the Anti- Fascist-Peoples-Freedom league A.F.P.F.L. government Sought to dazzle the world refer to the Buddhist Revival sponsored by Nu and his colleagues and would like to dwell especially upon the relation between the truth as far as it is possible to document it and the official claims in the belief that this relation will teach us good deal about the nature of politics and religion in modem Asian country Briefly my principal contention is that the Revival while being presented by the government as pure religious deed in degenerate world sufficient in itself to earn Burma admission to the concourse of the United Nations can also be seen revealingly as an attempt on the part of the political authority to strengthen its ascendency over religion and its represen tatives the Buddhist Sangha Order of Monks in other words as disciplinary operation shall also though only incidentally hint at how this disciplinary operation is but the latest in series known to Burmese history aggravated by certain developments during the British Regime) and how far the very need for such operations is characteristic of long-lasting if not permanent politico- religious problems in Buddhist state In view of the accompanying paper by Christie on an early South East Asian use of higher reîigion in sanctioning its political authority it is hardly necessary to remind the reader that the Buddhism or various combined forms of Hinduism and Buddhism of South East Asian valley cultures has since the beginning been used as justification for asserting the authority of Indian-type charismatic royal courts over variety of tribal animist peoples in the surrounding hills Dr Leach has made this point in recent article

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