Aung San – Burma’s Challenge – 1968

A rare collection of speeches by the Burmese military and independence leader Aung San (1915-1947), considered as the founding figure of the modern-day country.

After allying with various external parties during the Second World War, Aung San led political and military efforts to secure independence from Britain after 1945, negotiating with Prime Minister Clement Attlee and subsequently winning the 1947 general election. He was assassinated in Rangoon a year later, shortly before the country formally gained independence. His daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, was a key figure in efforts to overturn the military dictatorship in the 1980s-2000s, eventually winning a 2015 election before being imprisoned after the 2021 coup.

This appears to be one of the first-ever printed collections of Aung San’s speeches, which were originally delivered in 1946, and include “Problems for Burma’s Freedom”, “A Critique of British Independence”, “The Situation and Tasks”, and “The Resistance Movement”. Text is in English and Burmese: Aung San was understood to have drafted the text first in English then translated into Burmese.

Paperback, internally string-bound with a colour card wrapper. 385 pages. The string binding is tight and square. The wrapper is loosely attached and has several missing areas to the front board, as shown on photos, with creasing and staining. Neat previous owner’s name to first page, otherwise no other writing or marking inside. Pages are tanned throughout.

This is the second printing of the book, from March 1968, issued by U Aung Gyi in Rangoon, with a print run of 5,000 copies. Printed by U Nyun Wai with binding by Nyun Nyun and Brothers.

Scarce. WorldCat shows only a handful of other examples held in librairies.