# Ba Maw
**Ba Maw** (1893–1977) was a Burmese nationalist politician and British-trained lawyer who served as the first premier of colonial Burma from 1937 to 1939 and as head of state of the Japanese-sponsored State of Burma from August 1943 to May 1945.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw) • [2](https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102534/https:/www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095444112)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | February 8, 1893, Maubin, Burma (Myanmar)[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw) • [3](https://drbamawlibrary.org/about-timeline.html) |
| Died | May 29, 1977, Yangon (Rangoon)[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw) • [4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1977/06/05/burmas-first-prime-minister/bf171b97-68cc-4b16-906b-c20e8b267db3/) |
| Education | Rangoon College, Calcutta University, Gray's Inn, and a doctorate at Bordeaux[2](https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102534/https:/www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095444112) • [5](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2012210266.html) |
| Premier of Burma | April 1, 1937 to February 1939, the first under British rule[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw) • [2](https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102534/https:/www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095444112) |
| Head of state | August 1943 to May 1945, State of Burma under Japanese sponsorship[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw) • [6](https://www.oxfordreference.com/viewbydoi/10.1093/acref/9780198604464.013.0130) |
| Party | Sinyetha (Hsinyeitha, "proletarian" or People's) Party[2](https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102534/https:/www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095444112) • [6](https://www.oxfordreference.com/viewbydoi/10.1093/acref/9780198604464.013.0130) |
| Memoir | *Breakthrough in Burma: Memoirs of a Revolution, 1939–1946* (Yale University Press, 1968)[7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/breakthrough-in-burma-memoirs-of-a-revolution-19391946-by-ba-maw-new-haven-yale-university-press-1968-pp-460-875-burma-from-kingdom-to-republic-a-historical-and-political-analysis-by-frank-n-trager-new-york-frederick-a-praeger-1966-pp-455-1000-burma-through-alien-eyes-by-helen-g-trager-new-york-frederick-a-praeger-1966-pp-239-650/032B8C40B635B8C1F3AB207CB91F9FEF) |
## Origins and family
Ba Maw was born on February 8, 1893, in Maubin, in the Irrawaddy Division of British Burma.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw) • [3](https://drbamawlibrary.org/about-timeline.html)
The Library of Congress record dates his Rangoon College M.A. to 1917 and his Bordeaux Ph.D. to 1924.[5](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2012210266.html) He first made his name as a barrister defending Hsaya Hsan, the leader of the 1931 peasant revolt.[2](https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102534/https:/www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095444112)
## Career
Separation and the first premiership. According to *Britannica*, in the early 1930s Ba Maw opposed Britain's plan to separate Burma from the jurisdiction of the Indian viceroy, arguing that a separate Burma would receive less self-rule than India; in 1934 he reversed his position and supported the pro-separationists in a coalition government.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw) When the new constitution separating Burma from India took effect on April 1, 1937, he became the first premier (other sources say first prime minister) of Burma.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw) • [3](https://drbamawlibrary.org/about-timeline.html) His small Sinyetha Party formed the first coalition cabinet under the Government of Burma Act of 1935.[2](https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102534/https:/www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095444112) The government fell in February 1939, defeated by a coalition, in the face of opposition from students and workers who accused him of being pro-imperialist and of aiding foreign capitalists.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw) • [2](https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102534/https:/www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095444112)
The Freedom Bloc and the Japanese years. Out of office, Ba Maw joined student leaders including [Aung San](https://www.edgepedia.org/aung-san) and [U Nu](https://www.edgepedia.org/u-nu) in organizing the Freedom Bloc, which opposed continued British rule and Burmese participation in Britain's war against [Nazi Germany](https://www.edgepedia.org/nazi-germany).[2](https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102534/https:/www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095444112) The British arrested him for sedition; one reference work dates the arrest to 1940, while another places it after he left office in 1939.[8](https://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=145) • [9](https://erenow.org/ww/whos-who-in-world-war-ii/25.php)
After the Japanese invasion of 1942, Ba Maw was appointed chief minister of the new Burmese administration on August 1, 1942.[10](https://colorfulpeople.moemaka.net/2015/07/dr-ba-maw-1893-1977.html) • [3](https://drbamawlibrary.org/about-timeline.html) On August 1, 1943, Burma declared independence and Ba Maw was proclaimed Naingandaw Adipadi, or head of state; Oxford [Reference](https://www.edgepedia.org/reference) records the title he took as adipati ashin minkyi, a title with royalist pretensions.[3](https://drbamawlibrary.org/about-timeline.html) • [2](https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102534/https:/www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095444112) He held the head-of-state office from August 1943 to May 1945.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw) • [6](https://www.oxfordreference.com/viewbydoi/10.1093/acref/9780198604464.013.0130)
## Political influence
As first premier he gave the new 1937 constitution its first government, heading the first coalition cabinet under the Government of Burma Act.[2](https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102534/https:/www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095444112) • [1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw) His fall in 1939 came from the anti-imperialist opposition of students and workers.[2](https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102534/https:/www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095444112)
## Death and assessment
Ba Maw died on May 29, 1977, in [Yangon](https://www.edgepedia.org/yangon) (Rangoon), aged 84.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw) • [4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1977/06/05/burmas-first-prime-minister/bf171b97-68cc-4b16-906b-c20e8b267db3/)
In his memoir *Breakthrough in Burma: Memoirs of a Revolution, 1939–1946* ([Yale University Press](https://www.edgepedia.org/yale-university-press), 1968), Ba Maw argued that the independence attained in 1943 was a genuine independence, the culmination of a long struggle in which the Freedom Bloc and the [Burma Independence Army](https://www.edgepedia.org/burma-independence-army) played key roles, and he complained that credit for independence had shifted to those who won it from Britain in 1948 and to the anti-Japanese resistance led by Aung San, a movement he had refused to join though invited.[7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/breakthrough-in-burma-memoirs-of-a-revolution-19391946-by-ba-maw-new-haven-yale-university-press-1968-pp-460-875-burma-from-kingdom-to-republic-a-historical-and-political-analysis-by-frank-n-trager-new-york-frederick-a-praeger-1966-pp-455-1000-burma-through-alien-eyes-by-helen-g-trager-new-york-frederick-a-praeger-1966-pp-239-650/032B8C40B635B8C1F3AB207CB91F9FEF) • [11](https://jstor.org/stable/40199982) Britannica describes the wartime government as a pro-Japanese government, while Ba Maw himself maintained that the 1943 independence was genuine.[1](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw) • [11](https://jstor.org/stable/40199982)
## References
1. [Ba Maw | Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ba-Maw)
2. [Ba Maw - Oxford Reference](https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102534/https:/www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095444112)
3. [Timeline - Dr. Ba Maw Library](https://drbamawlibrary.org/about-timeline.html)
4. [Burma's First Prime Minister - The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1977/06/05/burmas-first-prime-minister/bf171b97-68cc-4b16-906b-c20e8b267db3/)
5. [Bha Moʻ, 1893-1977 - Library of Congress authority record](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2012210266.html)
6. [Ba Maw - The Oxford Companion to World War II](https://www.oxfordreference.com/viewbydoi/10.1093/acref/9780198604464.013.0130)
7. [Review notice: Breakthrough in Burma (American Political Science Review)](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/breakthrough-in-burma-memoirs-of-a-revolution-19391946-by-ba-maw-new-haven-yale-university-press-1968-pp-460-875-burma-from-kingdom-to-republic-a-historical-and-political-analysis-by-frank-n-trager-new-york-frederick-a-praeger-1966-pp-455-1000-burma-through-alien-eyes-by-helen-g-trager-new-york-frederick-a-praeger-1966-pp-239-650/032B8C40B635B8C1F3AB207CB91F9FEF)
8. [Ba Maw | World War II Database](https://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=145)
9. [Ba Maw, Dr U - Who's Who in World War II](https://erenow.org/ww/whos-who-in-world-war-ii/25.php)
10. [ေဒါက္တာဘေမာ္ (၁၈၉၃ - ၁၉၇၇), Dr Ba Maw](https://colorfulpeople.moemaka.net/2015/07/dr-ba-maw-1893-1977.html)
11. [Rewriting Burmese History (Journal of Asian Studies, JSTOR)](https://jstor.org/stable/40199982)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › Southeast Asia › Burma under the Konbaung dynasty and British Burma, including the three Anglo-Burmese wars (1752 to 1945)*
*Initially written Sep 24, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license