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THE ADMINISTRATION of BRITISH BURMA by Janell Ann Nilsson

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THE ADMINISTRATION of BRITISH BURMA by Janell Ann Nilsson THE ADMINISTRATION OF BRITISH BURMA 1852 - 1885 by Janell Ann Nilsson Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of London January 1970 ProQuest Number: 11010282 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11010282 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 2 ABSTRACT In this thesis is outlined the development of British admin­ istration in its Burmese provinces between 1852 and the war of 1885- In 1852 the British government of India acquired its third Burmese province when Pegu was annexed, as Tfenasserira and Arakan had been annexed earlier in 1826. The difficulties of establishing British administration in Pegu are discussed, as well as the later amalgam­ ation of the three British Burmese provinces into that of British Burma and the subsequent development of administration there. This development was influenced by the indigenous system of government; by practices established between 1826 and 1852 in Tenasserim and Arakan; and by British administrative practices that were standard in all of British India. British administrat­ ive objectives were basically the maintenance of peace and order but as it was necessary for the revenue of provinces to pay for the costs of administration, economic development was also important. Accordingly the most important functions of the British adminis­ tration in Burma were those of police, justice, and revenue. Social stability and a laissez-faire economy gave impetus to economic growth within the province. This forced the administrat­ ion to expand its existing framework; to establish departmental government; and to allow the indigenous people more responsibility in it. The way in which this occurred was, however, largely deter­ mined by developments within India, to whose government the province. of British Burma was subordinate. TABLE OF CONTENTS page Abstract • • .* •• • • • • • • •• • • 2 Introduction ............. k. Chapter I Burmese administrative system and structure prior to British annex­ ation. .. 27 Chapter II Foundations of British administrat­ ion in Tenasserim, Arakan, and Pegu. ....................... 57 Chapter III Fiscal policy and financial re­ lations with In d i a ............. 110 Chapter IV The development of departmental administration 1862-1885- •• 151 Chapter V Development of civil service and executive administration 1862- 1885- ....................... 203 Chapter VI The development of police adminis­ tration1862 -1885- •• •• 2^-7 Retrospect .. 283 Abbreviations .................................. 293 Bibliography .................................. 29^+ Hap of British Burma .. 306 INTRODUCTION The annexation of Pegu and its addition to the British Indian territories in 1852 completed the process of British ab­ sorption of lower Burma. This had begun in 1826, when the form­ er Burmese provinces of Arakan and Tenasserim were formally ceded "I to the British by the treaty of Yan-dabo. By this were ended the three decades or so of Anglo-Burmese frontier friction which had first been fostered by dissident Arakanese refugees in British Bengal and finally aggravated by Burmese aggression towards Assam, 2 Manipur, and other neighbours. The reasons for the annexation in 1852 seem less clear. Richard Cobden claimed that annexation occurred through 'our insatiable love of territorial aggrandise- 3 ment'. Whether this was so or whether annexation was largely The spelling of Burmese proper names and words throughout the thesis is the modern one favoured by the Burmese Department at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, except where the modern spelling makes the word completely unfamiliar to those accustomed to the old and frequently varying spelling. Thus Mandalay has been spe3^t^ah-d^2eiMr^>ut Moulmein has not been spelt .as Maw-lamyaing. Whfrre Anglicised names have now lapsed in ^modern Burma, the old names and spelling have been used, thus \Akyab rather than Sit-twei and Mergui rather than Beik have been /retained. The modern spelling has also been used for the names / of well-known people, but for those less well-known the spelling is as found in the records. In the case of any confusion a list of old and modern spelling is to be found on page 292. 2 D.G.E.Hall, A History of South-East Asia, (London,195$) PP-505-17* and Maung Htin Aung, The Stricken Peacock, (The Hague,19^5)*PP*11» 29-31. ^Richard Cobden, How Wars are got up in India: The Origin of the Burmese War, *fth ed.,(London,1&53)»p.56. Cobden' s view was sup- ported by Dorothy Woodman, The Making of Burma,(London,1962), pp.122-1^7 and by Maung Htin Aung, op.cit.,pp.4l-51. They an accident stemming from an,attempt at gunboat diplomacy, there were for the British several attractive aspects to the acquisit- k ion of Pegu. A troublesome neighbour was effectively hamstrung by being deprived of its maritime provinces and confined as a landlocked state to a greatly reduced sphere of influence. Furthermore, the British acquired a province of promising economic potential. The province had suffered during the recent war and had been racked by centuries of violence caused by the internecine strife between Burmese and Mons, whose traditional homeland Pegu was. Yet despite this, the rich delta and riverine land of Pegu had long been an important supplementary granary for the dry Burmese believed the war and the subsequent annexation was unprovoked by the Burmese and entirely due to British imperialist arrogance and aggression. The attitude of the governor-general of India, the Marquess of Dalhousie, though not entirely consistent, seemed to have been that the war and annexation were necessary to preserve British prestige in the East. J.G.A.Baird (ed.), Private Letters of the Marquess of Dalhousie, (London and Edinburgh,1910) pp.192-215* D.G.E.Hall believed the events of 1852 were due to the ’traditionalism, pride and ignorance of the Court of Ava’, Op.cit., pp.518, 526-7. Dalhousie had despatched Commodore Lambert with several ships to Rangoon to back the demands of two British traders for reparations from the Burmese. It was largely due to his exceeding his instruc­ tions that hostilities began. 5 The irrigated area around Kyauk-hse was the main granary of the north, but traditionally there was heavy reliance on rice imports from the south. Michael Symes, An Account of the Burmese Empire and the Kingdom of Assam, (Calcutta,1959)> p . 10 and John f.Cady, A History of Modern Burma, (New York,1958),pp . T h r o u g h o u t .the thesis those referred to as Burmese are mostly those for whom I the Burmese language is their mother tongue. However, due to the facts that Arakanese is only a dialect of Burmese, that many Mons no longer spoke Mon as their mother tongue during the period under review, and that many British officials considered it unnecessary 6 5 heartland of the north. Even in the straitened circumstances of this ravaged region in the reign of King Bo-daw-hpaya (1782- 1819)» rice was frequently produced in such abundance that 'the £ combined efforts of men and cattle could not consume it'. Once the British lifted the ban on rice exports, imposed by the Burmese largely for fear of famine, the province promised to develop into a greater granary than either of the two Burmese provinces annexed earlier. Moreover, there was also the lure of Pegu becoming a springboard for British trade to the fabled markets of western China* Arakan and Tenasserim had been similarly 'disrupted: before their annexation. The former had been torn by a century of civil war before being forcibly incorporated within the Burmese empire. Tenasserim had long been the battle ground for Burmese-Siamese contentions. Both had been further depopulated by mass executions, by mass deportations to other areas, and by mass requisitioning of 7 men for war and pagoda building.' In terms of increases in pop­ ulation and in area cultivated, both had responded to two and a half dedades of British rule and Arakan had become a great rice to make such distinctions in their records among people so alike, the word 'Bu^mesavl has sometimes been used to refer to people be­ longing tothe l}cn-Burmese-Arakanese groups, as opposed to the hill peoples pr to Indians or Chinese. The work 'BujCEiflnJ Wafers, in general, t 6 indigenous inhabitants of Burma. 6 ^ G.E.Harvey, HistPry of Burma, (London,1923),p*357« Rice was grown for internal consumption only, although Arakan had had a consid­ erable export trade in rice in the 17th century. D.G.E.Hall, op.cit.,p.53^« 7 Ibid.,p.l68; D.G.E.Hall»op.cit.,pp.299 and 398; Michael Symes, 7 exporting province. There was every reason to expect Pegu to pros­ per similarly. British policy objectives The basic objectives of British adminis­ trative policy were thei establishment of peace and order, of an adequate governmental organisation to achieve this, and of a revenue yield sufficient to maintain it. For much of the period administrative policy was coloured by a comparatively neg­ ative attitude to government, perhaps best defined by Palmerston when he declared f,tthe business of government” is to leave things Q ' alone.'c Yet early nineteenth century liberal concern for equality before the law and freedom from oppression and corruption and the belief by Bentinck and the radicals in the panacea of western culture 9 for the' ills of India, also influenced administrative policy.
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