U Nu

U Nu (born May 25, 1907, Wakema, Burma [Myanmar]—died Feb. 14, 1995, Yangon) was a Burmese independence leader and prime minister of Myanmar (formerly Burma) from 1948 to 1958 and from 1960 to 1962.

U Nu was educated at the University of Rangoon (Yangon), from which he received his B.A. degree in 1929. For some years headmaster of the National High School in Pantanaw, he returned to the university in 1934 to study law, becoming president of the Student Union of Rangoon and joining student political movements. His expulsion and that of the young leader Aung San from the university in 1936 resulted in a student strike. One of the first confrontations between young Burmese nationalists and the British colonial authorities, it gained Nu national prominence. The following year he joined the We-Burmans Association and played an important part in the struggle for independence. Jailed by the British in 1940 for sedition, he was released only after the Japanese invaded Burma.

In 1943 U Nu served as foreign minister in Ba Maw’s pro-Japanese government. He soon, however, became disillusioned with the Japanese. Following the assassination in 1947 of Aung San, the principal nationalist leader, U Nu was asked to become head of the government and leader of Burma’s leading political party, the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL). When independence was declared in January 1948, U Nu became the first prime minister of Myanmar and served for 10 years, with only a brief interlude out of office in 1956–57. Although U Nu was an able and highly respected statesman, his government was plagued by communist and ethnic-minority insurrections, economic stagnation, and administrative inefficiency. His 1948 Pyidawtha (welfare) program included a Land Nationalization Act, but his efforts to elevate the living standard of the people were frustrated by the wide extent of war damage and by the drop in rice exports, which had constituted one of Myanmar’s principal sources of foreign exchange. His party retained power after winning general elections in 1952 and 1956. U Nu was one of the founders of the Nonaligned Movement in the 1950s. In 1958 he resigned his post as prime minister and a “caretaker” government took over, headed by General Ne Win. In 1960 parliamentary government was restored, and U Nu again became prime minister after his party won elections. In March 1962, however, Ne Win staged a coup d’état, establishing a military government and putting U Nu in prison.

Following his release from prison, U Nu left Myanmar (1969) and began organizing a resistance movement against the Ne Win government. When this movement failed, he took up residence in India, but he returned to Myanmar in 1980 at the invitation of Ne Win. In July 1980 U Nu returned to Rangoon to become a Buddhist monk. He made an unsuccessful bid for power after pro-democracy demonstrations toppled Ne Win’s government in 1988.