Department of History, National University of Singapore

Imperialist Rhetoric and Modern Historiography: The Case of Lower Burma before and after Conquest Author(s): Michael Adas Source: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Sep., 1972), pp. 175-192 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Department of History, National University of Singapore Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20069984 Accessed: 23/03/2009 15:50
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Imperialist Rhetoric and Modern Historiography: of Lower Burma before and after Conquest*

The Case

MICHAEL

ADAS

One of the most prevalent and influential themes in the literature on European in an area threatened conditions between imperialism has been the dichotomy to the of colonial rule. Even and conquest prior by European following imposition writers who have disapproved of the extension of European control normally to say about indigenous have had little favourable rulers or the state of kingdoms about to be annexed. have generally pictured the pre-colonial Historians history of these areas as periods of decadence and corruption, of administrative breakdown and social chaos, and of economic and popular unrest. stagnation In contrast, most writers have viewed the early colonial era as a time of recovery In order to justify this view, they have attempted to show that the and progress.1 of European rule brought and stable establishment order, peace government, educational and legal reforms, public works projects and economic development. Most historians have implicitly assumed that the indigenous peoples accepted after conquest because overlords conditions European during the first decades were far better under alien rule than they had been under the traditional elites. or barbarism The belief in the decadence of the indigenous regime provided both motive for European and justification and political leaders who writers overseas. advocated Colonial secretaries and of leaders empire-building could that associations had been argue imperialistic costly military expeditions not only by political necessitated economic considerations but also by and/or a more altruistic motive, the salvation of oppressed peoples living under cruel and voiced this rationale in an 1896 speech rapacious monarchs. Joseph Chamberlain a the of British of Ashanti explaining necessity expedition against the Kingdom in present-day Ghana:
I think we are earliest amongst the over which the duty of this country in regard to all these savage countries some to exercise sort of dominion called at the is to establish, upon Pax Britannica, to keep and force these people the peace date, possible and by doing be the destruction of life so, whatever themselves, may

in an expedition which brings about this result, it will be nothing

balance against the annual loss of life which goes on so long away.2

if weighed
as we keep

in

The

views

of Chamberlain

reports,

correspondence

and other leaders were shaped to a large extent by the of European and published writings "men-on-the-spot"

* I would like to thank John Smail, Philip Curtin, Edwin Hirschmann, Joseph J. Brennig, and especially Allen Howard for their comments on portions of this article. The responsibility
for own. the content is my 1 Excepting anti-imperialist will scholars who be considered "Marxist" below. or "nationalist" historians and other revisionist

As quoted in R. Koebner and H.D. Schmidt, Imperialism: The Story and Significance of a Political Word, 1840-1960 (Cambridge 1964), p. 210. For similar beliefs expressed by
Jules Ferry, see H. Brunschwig, Mythes et R?alit?s de L'Imp?rialisme Colonial Francais, 1871

1914 (Paris, 1960), pp. 74-5.

176

Michael Adas

in Asia and Africa. Numerous and explorers, of whom Sir officials, missionaries Richard Burton, David Livingstone and Sir John Kirk are the better known, wrote of the excesses and cruelties of "native" rulers and of the suffering and social dislocations caused by the slave trade, "tribal" warfare, and other abuses. Further state of the indigenous evidence of the degraded kingdoms was provided by the men who conquered and ruled the vast areas in Asia and Africa which came under in the last decades of the nineteenth control like Lord European century. Men the Earl of Cromer and Francis Gamier believed that Lugard, fimly they acted in the interest of the "native" peoples who had long been oppressed by corrupt or inept rulers.3 A belief in the decadence or barbarism of the traditional regime was essential as the God-given to those who saw imperial expansion duty of a or European "race." superior white the concepts of the mission civilisatrice and the "white man's burden" Although are normally at the end of the associated with the period of high imperialism numerous of had nineteenth advocates century, European imperial expansion similar sentiments British officers and civilian before. Many expressed long officials who directed the conquest and administration of the Indian Empire in the last decades of the eighteenth that the century were convinced beginning were degenerate and that British This rule was beneficial. "native" kingdoms was a the that India "sacred trust" "before and after" dichotomy beliefs underlay to improve the condition and "character" and that the British were duty-bound These beliefs of the conquerors were taken up by the of the indigenous peoples.4 and reiterated collaborators who served the new European overlords indigenous nationalist firstand leaders.5 many by second-generation In the nineteenth of travellers, centuries the accounts and early twentieth the main sources of information and colonial administrators missionaries provided In addition, many of the historical for European historians of Asia and Africa. in this period were written by European officials or missionaries works produced became a standard the "before and after" dichotomy themselves. Consequently, areas in Asia and theme in the early works on the modern history of colonized James Mill's this theme from virulent The of Africa. expressions ranged assessments in India to milder civilization of Hindu and Muslim denunciations for the their admiration like James Cunningham who, despite by historians that European civilization concluded and, by implication, conquered peoples, John Kaye's rule were superior and that their spread was inevitable.6 European assessment of the impact of The Administration of the East India Company was 3

See, for example, Lugard, The Dual Mandate

1922), pp. 5-6, 612-19 and et passim; Cromer

in British Tropical Africa (London,

as quoted in John Marlowe's 40. Cromer

1965;
in

1st ed. Presence

Egypt(New 4

York,

1970), pp. 279-85;

Cambodia

and Gamier
(Ithaca, New

as quoted
York, 1969),

in M. Osborne,
p.

The French

in Cochinchina

See P.E. Roberts, India under Wellesley (Gorakpur, 1961; 1st ed. 1929), pp. 131, 136 et passim; and G.D. Bearce, British Attitudes Towards India, 1784-1858 (Oxford, 1961),
pp. 34-78. Even considerable administrators ambivalence like Mountstuart toward Indian displayed who and Thomas Munro, Elphinstone that the and elites concluded institutions,

populace as a whole was better off under British rule. See Kenneth Ballhatchet, Social Policy and Social Change inWestern India 1817-1830 (London, 1957), pp. 30-42, 248-51 et passim; and P. Griffiths, The British Impact on India (London, 1952), pp. 245-6.
5 For examples, (London, Addresses, 6 See pp. 1901), and Writings especially see Osborne, K.C. French Presence, 93-8; Sen, Lectures pp. numerous and selections from D. Naoroji's 322-6; Essays, . . . 1887). (Bombay, one and two of James Mill's multi-volumed volumes History in India Speeches, of British

India, 1756-83 (London, 1840); and James Cunningham, A History of the Sikhs (New Delhi, 1966; 1st ed. 1848), pp. 247-9 and his preface to the second edition, 1849.

: Lower 177 Burma and Modern Rhetoric Historiography Imperialist of Asiatic based on the assumption of the "old story of misgovernment States,"7 literature of the colonial period. which permeates most of the historical Kaye asserted that government by even the most "indolent and selfish" of British Governor He claimed that Generals was vastly superior to that of the Mughal "despots." the "luxurious selfishness" of the Mughal had nobility "depressed and enfeebled" the general populace and that over a century after the break-up of their empire India was "... still prostrated by that great curse of Mughal tyranny."8 to the interpretations of the proponents of the The first major challenges come or school from and have Marxist leftist, "imperial" anti-imperialist, historians. "nationalist" much of the work of these writers was poorly Although researched and highly polemical, have been made contributions by significant scholars like T.O. Ranger, J.F.A. Ajayi and A.A. Boahen in African, R.C. Dutt In many cases, however, in Southeast Asian history. in Indian and Le Thanh Khoi these scholars have had little sympathy for the traditional elite and social order.9 or "nationalist" More of the Marxist important, most of the historians persuasion on the same issues as the have adopted the same perspective and concentrated and scholars As a result, they have neglected policy-makers they oppose.10 to determine evidence which be used the validity of the assumed might or barbarism state and society. decadence of the pre-European The "before and after" dichotomy has survived the decades of "decolonization" and remains a basic premise in the works of many historians in the post-colonial era. In most cases the decadence or barbarism of the previous kingdom and the belief in the beneficial impact of colonial rule is tacitly accepted by contemporary reassessment authors of general histories and monographs without of the available sources relating to the area in question.11 In some works, particularly in widely read texts and general histories, the contrast between pre- and post-annexation is vividly drawn.12 Often scholars who readily admit to the shortcomings conditions of European the standard view empire-builders persist in uncritically reiterating of the depopulated state of vast areas about to be annexed.13 and devastated Kimberley to Gladstone, 10 Sept. 1873, quoted by CD. Malaya (London, 1961), p. 169. 8
other

Cowan

in Nineteenth-Century

1966 (1st ed. 1853), p. 50. For expressions to views with of similar reference Allahabad, areas see J.S. Keltie, The Partition Revised ed. (Philadelphia, of Africa, 1906) pp. 47, 60-1, and Camille La Conqu?te d Alger 68, 75, 126 et passim; Rousset, (Paris, 1880), pp. 1-3 et passim. 9 Le Thanh treatment of the Nguyen and bureaucracy Khoi's See, for example, nobility in Le Vietnam: et civilisation histoire et passim. (Paris, 1955), pp. 322, 354-65 10 of the best discussions One of these unfortunate trends may be found in John R.W. Smail's article This "On the Possibility of an Autonomous History of Indonesia," Journal of South

east Asian History 11

Rewrite pp. 90-8.

2/2 (1961), pp. 80-82.

was as early as 1953 by L.J. Ragatz criticized in his article, "Must We tendency the History of Imperialism?" Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealand, Vol. 6, a decade M.D. Lewis noted later that little serious had been given to the attention

problem. See "One Hundred Million Frenchmen: The Assimilation Theory in French Colonial Policy," Comparative Studies in Society and History 4/2 (1962), p. 149. With the
exceptions 12 See, East Africa the The "before most Good noted for 3rd. and recent below, examples, ed., after" and the problem Z. Marsh (Cambridge, question forceful of remains and 1965), for G.W. pp. much neglected. An Introduction 183 of et passim; 131-4, to the History L.S.S. O'Malley and be of Kingsnorth, 115-7,

(ed.), Modern

India and theWest (London,

1941), especially pp. 13-43 which set the tone on

generation British, after" and American theme Indian in

a whole of be

historians; and H. Miller, The Story of Malaysia

restatement the found

(London,
"before in the and texts

1965), pp. 99 and 125 et passim.

may surveys found

L.H. Gann and Peter Duignan, The Burden of Empire (New York, 13
examples this pattern may

1967).
general of Percival

Spear. See India: A Modem History

(Ann Arbon, Michigan,

1961), pp. 172-81.

178
Even

Michael

Adas

to the sufferings of the colonized scholars who are highly sympathetic often the of the rhetoric and colonial conquerors accept European imperialist early The following historians. from Jacques Goutor's and France passage Algeria to extricate 1830-196314 illustrates how difficult it is for the historian strikingly himself from the "before and after" framework:
Before the of coming and disease, so the history the French, books said, of civil strife and banditry, subjected Algeria to the was a land

of hunger

domination

of conquerors who left the land bereft of any of the trappings of modern civilization. It was the French who brought Algeria from the dark ages to the
modern pestilence, French world, and on these who who refurbished made her it possible since they who rid economy, for the population did in fact fulfil the to land increase of of and hunger two to from claims.

ten million

in one hundred years.

points,

In many ways it is difficult to quarrel with the

a number these

In recent years a number of historians dealing mainly with areas in sub-Saharan to dispute Africa have substantial evidence the decadence and presented barbarism half of the "before and after" dichotomy. William Tordoff, M.S.M. to show that and others have attempted Kiwanuka, Philip Igbafe, James Graham as grim as were in various African not conditions pre-annexation kingdoms historians had previously asserted and/or that the causes of political fragmentation or social disruption in these areas differed from those normally cited.15 In contrast on areas colonized to African few scholars working in Asia have historians, on which to a re-examination the serious attention of the evidence given of the pre-colonial is based. Although of the decadence assumption kingdoms in numerous the adverse effects of colonial rule have been considered studies, in pre-conquest little has been done to improve our understanding of conditions
societies.16

of writers like Tordoff the evidence and arguments and Igbafe are Although to the reassessments these writers have their limited extremely important, mainly In of the "before and after" order and aspects military dichotomy.17 political to test thoroughly the validity of this theme, the historian must make use of the He must take into information and techniques provided by other disciplines. account the such as the level of technology, the impact of disease, factors the nature of economic the birth economic role of the government, incentives, structure in the society with which he is dealing. and mortality rates, and the market
14 15 (Muncie, Tordoff, Indiana, Ashanti 1965), p. 2. under the Prempehs,

1888-1935

(London,

1965);

Kiwanuka,

"Bun

yoro and the British: A Reappraisal of the causes for the Decline and Fall of an African Kingdom," Journal of African History 9/4 (1968), pp. 603-19; Igbafe, "The Fall of Benin: A Reassessment," Journal of African History 11/3(1970), pp. 385-400; and Graham, "The
Slave Trade, A Depopulation exception and to Human this Sacrifice in Benin is Ravinder History," Kumar's Cahiers Western D'?tudes India Afri in the

caines 5/2(1965), pp. 317-34. 16

notable

generalization

Nineteenth Century (London, 1968). 17 Important exceptions include Kumar, ibid; and Michael Mason, "Population Density and 'Slave Raiding' ? the Case of the Middle Belt of Nigeria," Journal of African History
10/4(1969), studies of pp. 551-64. See also the comment on Mason's article by M.B. Gleave and R.M.

Prothero and a reply by Mason

sub-Saharan Non-historians political pp. aspects

in the Journal of African History

12/2(1971), pp. 319-27.

In

have also been serious consideration. Africa, patterns trading given to our understanding of non the greatest have made contribution perhaps T.R. DeGregori's See for example, situation. of the pre-colonial Technology

and the Economic Development

83-181.

of the Tropical African Frontier

(London,

1969) especially

: Lower 179 Burma and Modern Rhetoric Historiography Imperialist In many cases the sources employed by the historian in the examination of these factors will be more or less the same as those used by earlier scholars. Consequently new interpretations will depend primarily upon more careful appraisal and cross checking of the available evidence, new criteria for selection, new questions posed of analysis based on those of related social sciences, particularly and new methods Scholars should also make use, wherever possible, and epidemiology. anthropology of oral sources of information that have been virtually ignored by earlier generations of historians. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate through a case study of Lower Burma how a thorough reappraisal of the existing evidence relating to conditions in an area prior to its conquest by a European power may yield a very different sources in from that the standard picture expressed by the "before and after" I In this will focus the half of the dichotomy, upon study pre-colonial dichotomy. era. As the following but similar questions must also be applied to the post-colonial examination will show, the decadence of the pre-colonial society cannot be assumed. More it will demonstrate that many of the previously accepted causes important, state of an area prior to European of the "underdeveloped" conquest may be false or misleading. on modern The historiography that which relates to the Burma, particularly or to delta the British annexed Lower which Burma18 Irrawaddy-Sittang region the Indian empire in 1852, provides one of the best illustrations of the continued to the belief in the decadence adherence of the previous Historians kingdom. have generally presented rule which preceded the century of Burman19 the British an era as in of and strife. Most writers mention conditions conquest suffering to discussions in this period only by way of introduction Lower Burma of the rapid growth which occurred under British rule. It has become standard procedure to begin accounts of the Irrawaddy-Sittang in the late delta's development nineteenth with of its desolate condition under the century descriptions Konbaung
monarchs.20

The origins of this view of pre-conquest in Lower Burma can be conditions traced to the attitudes of the British officials who negotiated with the Konbaung rulers and directed the piecemeal of Burma in the nineteenth conquest century. war of 1824-6, the first Anglo-Burman the British issued proclamations During inhabitants of the delta region to support the calling upon the indigenous Mon British war effort against the Burmans. The proclamations reminded the Mons of "the oppression and tyranny" and the "cruel and brutal conduct" of their Burman overlords, and urged them to compare their miserable with conditions the "comfort and happiness" of the inhabitants of nearby areas which had come under British rule.21 In the year following the Burman defeat in the first Anglo an ambassador Burman war, John Crawfurd, sent by the Governor-General of India to the Konbaung state of the delta area. court, noted the underdeveloped He concluded that since the region had good soil and a favourable its climate,
18 References to Lower current Burma the in this article term Burman do not include Arakan and Tenasserim which and

are usually grouped with the Irrawaddy delta under that designation. 19
Following presently usage refers specifically

to the majority

ethnic

linguistic group of Modern

comprise Karen and Shans, of Upper Burma,

Burma.

The

term Burmese denotes all of the groups which

including whose in the the Burmans, Mons traditional heartland 1750's after defeating was or Talaings, Chins, the Dry Zone the Mons who

the population Kachins. The conquered

of Burma

Burmans, Lower Burma

the dominant ethnic group in the region. comprised 20 The Konbaung dynasty (1752-1885) was the last and most powerful produced by the
Burman 21 people. As quoted in Dorothy Woodman, The Making of Burma (London, 1962), p. 75.

180

Michael

Adas

in a thousand shapes."22 condition was "without a doubt" due to "bad government After Lower Burma had been annexed to the Indian Empire following the second war in 1852, Lord Dalhousie, then Governor-General of India, Anglo-Burman noted the "progress" that had been made under British rule and declared that it was proof of the "vast improvement which the introduction of British rule and the .. ."23 Dalhousie's have effected sentiments were efficiency of the administration also voiced by the British officials who administered the new province. These men made numerous to their mission references of assisting the "semi-civilized" a development to raise themselves from the "Sloth of Ages," indigenous peoples which had been under the "extortionate" Burman impossible regime.24 The views of Crawfurd, Dalhousie and early British administrators regarding in Lower Burma prior to 1852 have been accepted conditions all by virtually to John Cady. of Burma from G.E. Harvey historians These views have been into the theme of the "devastated delta" .which is based on three incorporated era: the history of the pre-British main (1) that Lower assumptions regarding wars to the Burma was widely cultivated and well-populated Burman-Mon prior of the mid-eighteenth that warfare and Burman continued misrule century; (2) laid waste to large tracts of fertile and productive land ;and (3) that these conditions of many areas of the delta. A small and highly selective led to the de-population set of stock quotations taken from the travel accounts of several British officials in the Konbaung Lower Burma who furnished most visited of the period were based. They have never been verified these assumptions evidence on which sources. of the available examination by a detailed and extensively A vision of Lower Burma once "teeming with population"25 and devastated is implicit in the standard view that it was depopulated cultivated in the Konbaung by scholars like John Cady and J.S. Furnivall period. Assertions .. . reverted to areas of Lower Burma cultivated that "many previously jungle" and that intermittent warfare "laid waste to vast areas"26 imply that the land in and settled. This belief is based on the evidence question was once cultivated in Burman times and by the Burman provided by travellers who visited the Delta Sit tans (Burman revenue rolls). These the Hanthawaddy officials who compiled areas of Lower Burma were covered with dense that many observers recorded these writers seldom jungle and great plains of kaing or elephant grass. Although been inhabited indicated that the areas which they were describing had previously This position is most historians have assumed that they were. and productive, in Siok-hwa: stated the passage by Cheng following explicitly
The later Irrawaddy-Sittang to become the and a greatly series of delta most region, once well-populated important paddy-growing in the middle years depopulated unsuccessful uprisings of and prosperous and was in Burma, region of the eighteenth century the Mons against oppressive

devastated following Burman

conquerors.27

Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava in the Year 1827 (London, 1928), pp. 11-12. 23 Letter from Dalhousie to Arthur Phayre, the first Chief Commissioner of the Province
of Burma, Vol. and

22

24

13, No.

4 December, 255.

1857, Govt.

of

India,

Political

and Foreign

Proceedings,

Range

203,

See the Govt. of India, Political and Foreign Proceedings, Range 201, Vol. 21, No.

165

39, No. 12; and 205, Vol. 160; Foreign 63, No. {Revenue), Proceedings Range on for the Province the Administration the Report 1855-6, (hereafter RAP) of Pegu of 267. paragraph 25 Burma The British Gazetteer H.R. I, 443. 1880), (Rangoon, Spearman, 26 An Introduction Burma A History 69; and Furnivall, 1958), (Ithaca, of Modern Cady, to the Political p. 41. 1957), Economy of Burma (Rangoon, Vol.

27

The Rice Industry of Burma 1852-1940

(Singapore,

1968), p. 3.

: Lower 181 Rhetoric and Modern Burma Imperialist Historiography most tracts The available that of the evidence demonstrates, desolate however, in the accounts of travellers and Burman officials had not been mentioned to the Konbaung If this is the case, terms like period. developed prior to cannot accurately and "relapsed" be applied "devastation," "depopulation"
them.

A survey of potentially productive regions in the delta during the Konbaung the same state as they had been in period reveals that most areas were in much times. The area around Rangoon and north of the city along the pre-Konbaung was in pre-Konbaung river less inhabited and cultivated times probably Hlaing than travellers like Francis Buchanan and John Crawfurd found it in the 1790's or Dagon as it was then and 1820's28 Prior to the Burman conquest, Rangoon There is no called, was a minor village whose chief attraction was its pagoda.29 near the town or to indicate any sizable concentration evidence of population river to the northwest. The plains lying along both banks of the along the Hlaing south of the town of Henzada could not have been occupied Irrawaddy prior to the mid-eighteenth for the same reason they were reported to be century the Konbaung throughout unoccupied period.30 The area was inundated annually of the Irrawaddy which turned it into a vast swamp unfit for by the flooding habitation.31 None in the Konbaung of the travellers who passed through Lower Burma area. town the western visited Bassein in the delta of However, period Gasparo Balbi spent several days in this area in the sixteenth century when the Mon culture of Lower Burma was at its height. He reported that the country along the Bassein river and around Bassein, or Cosmin as it was then called, was covered with jungle and swamp which was "frequented with Parrots, Tigres, wilde Boores, Apes, and such like creatures."32 The region was not extensively until Burman developed from the north arrived in the last decades of the eighteenth migrants century. references to towns like Myaungmya, little is known of the Except for occasional south-central in pre-Konbaung times. It is probable portion of Lower Burma that the area was as sparsely populated and cultivated as the British found it when they first surveyed the delta in the 1860's. in which travellers or Burman officials not only describe the desolation Passages of an area but also indicate that itwas once prosperous,33 are exceptions in accounts written an in the Konbaung observers Most that stated period. merely apparently fertile tract of land was not cultivated. Later writers have inferred that it once had been. Prior to the Burman of Lower Burma in the 1750's, most of the conquest was concentrated in the valley of the Sittang river in the region's population vicinity of the Mon capital of Pegu, along the river route from Cosmin (Bassein) to Pegu, and on the plain that runs along the Martaban littoral between Thaton
28 ..., 5-6. 29 30 Debrett, 31 B.R. Michael ed., Henzada Pearn, 30 & 37. History of Rangoon 1939), pp. (Rangoon, ... to the Kingdom An Account of an Embassy of Ava and Crawfurd, 11-12. II, 157-9; Journal, pp. 1800), Symes, District Gazetteer (Rangoon, Hakluytus 1915), p. 58. in 1795 Francis India Buchanan, Office Archives, Extracts MSS and European, Observations D. 106, Respecting p. 31; and the Dominions of Journal, Ava pp.

Crawfurd,

(London,

32
Italian 1905), 33 p.

Gaspar o Balbi, "His Voyage

Relation," 151-2. X, in Samuel Purchas,

to Pegu, and Observations

Posthumus

There, Gathered
His Pilgrims

out of His
(Glasgow,

or Parchas

Account V. 11, 15-16; Symes, of Ava, "Some Historical 101; and J.S. Furnivall,

Sangermano Documents"

The Burmese in the Journal

(London, Empire 1893), Research of the Burma

Society

8/1(1918), pp. 43 & 47 and 9/1(1919), p. 41.

182

Michael

Adas

These were the core areas of the Mon kingdom and Martaban.34 of Pegu which the peak of its power and prosperity in the early sixteenth reached century. Because many of the Mon chronicles were lost in the wars of the late sixteenth and our main sources of information later centuries, regarding Pegu are the travel accounts and letters of European merchants and missionaries who visited Lower Burma in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The picture of Pegu that state paralleling the emerges from these sources is not one of an agrarian-based wet-rice complex which centred on Ava in the Dry Zone, but rather of a kingdom on the former. based on a combination of trade and agriculture with emphasis came in references to the plains around The only notices of extensive rice cultivation the city of Pegu and along the coast of Martaban.35 Since Tome Pires reported that the entrepot of Malacca was dependent upon Pegu for part of its grain supply a surplus, in the early sixteenth century,36 it is clear that these areas produced was exported. rest of the surplus was used to support The part of which the populations of the urban trading centres which dominated the political, social and economic life of the kingdom of Pegu. centres of Pegu carried on extensive The urban trade with Malacca, the states of the Indonesian the Coromandel Coast commercial archipelago, Bengal, and with ports as far distant as Gujerat and the Red Sea. The extent of the kingdom's trade can be gauged from W.H. Moreland's that over eight per cent estimate India were carried to (5,000 tons) of the total volume of exports from Mughal Tome Pires stated that Malacca's chief import from Pegu was Pegu.37 Although rice,38 most of the kingdom's exports were minerals, manufactured goods, precious In identical summaries stones and luxury items, rather than agricultural products. in the sixteenth century, Cesar Frederick and Ralph of the exports of the kingdom Fitch mentioned rice and sugar last after a list of precious gems and metals, minerals and exotic goods like musk and benjamin.39 Pegu was best known commercially for these latter items, as well as its martaban jars, lac and sizable shipbuilding the end of the sixteenth century, the Mon population of Lower industry.40 Until in commerce Burma was predominantly and oriented urban, primarily engaged toward the highly developed Asian trading network. The flourishing Mon culture of Lower Burma came under Burman rule in the
were towns The the of Prome and Toungoo, which around regions independent were in this period, also fairly densely Unlike the lower delta, however, kingdoms populated. areas was the population Burman. of these predominantly 35 on Duarte in the second of the sixteenth who wrote decade claimed Barbosa, century, was the area the basis of second hand evidence that around well cultivated. See Pegu M.L. Dames, The Book of Duarte Barbosa (London, 1921), II, 153. Andrew Boves related 34

that Martaban had been well cultivated prior to the last decades of the sixteenth century. See "Indian Observations Gathered out of the Letters of Nicholas Pimenta, Visitor of the J?suites
in India, and many de Varthema also others reported ofthat that Societies" there was in Purchas, Pilgrims, a "great abundance" Vol. of X, grain Ludvico pp. 215-16. in the region around

Pegu. See R.C Temple, The Itinerary of Ludvico de Varthema of Bologna from 1502 to 1508 (London, 1928), p. 81. 36 Suma Oriental (London, 1944), I, 98. 37 India at the Death of Akbar (London, 1920), pp. 235-7.
loc. cit. Oriental, and Frederick, "Voyages Collection and Travels of Voyages 39 by Mr. 40 Ralph J.H. von Fitch, Merchant 38 Suma Travels in India" in Robert A General and Keer, History "A Voyage Perform'd p. 197; and Fitch, 1812), ..." in John Harris Atque (ed.), Navigantium II, 88-9; Archipelago and M.A.P. between

(Edinburgh, of London

Itinerantium Bibliotheca
Meilink-Roelofsz,

(London, 1705), p. 212.

to the East Indies Linschoten, (New York, Voyage n.d.), Asian Trade and European in the Indonesian Influence

1500 and About 1650 (The Hague),

1962, pp. 69-71.

: Lower 183 and Modern Rhetoric Burma Imperialist Historiography of the sixteenth from middle decades aside the However, century. city of which was sacked after a long siege, Mon Martaban cities like Pegu and Syriam to prosper under the Toungoo monarchs continued Tabinshwehti and Bayinnaung. A combination of unsuccessful internal strife and Siam, campaigns against in the last decades of the sixteenth century proved invasions from Siam and Arakan disastrous for the urban trading culture of the Mons. Armies from Ava, Prome and Arakan cities and levelled them, or sacked them and turned them captured Mon over to foreign mercenaries like Philip de Brito. Mon rebels and Siamese invaders and Martaban the river The situation in Lower ravaged Pegu-Sittang valley. Burma to Siam. The number of Mons led to the first waves of Mon migration who left or were carried off from Lower Burma cannot be determined, but it was of Mons in Thailand.41 sufficient to serve as the basis of the present-day community Over a century and a half before the armies of Alaungpaya, the founder of the Konbaung entered Lower Burma, the Mon dynasty, people had suffered reverses from which they never fully recovered.42 some urban centres, Although including Pegu, were partially restored in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the surviving Mon population was more dispersed and more agrarian than it had been in the sixteenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century the Mons to conquer had recovered the Burman Kingdom of Ava, then weak sufficiently from prolonged and internal divisions. warfare the rapid rise of However, and his successful campaign to expel the Mons from the Dry Zone Alaungpaya demonstrated that the recovery was superficial. After the ravages of the late sixteenth century, the Mons had neither the numbers nor the wealth to withstand once the latter were united under an effective the Burmans, leader. to the established version of Burmese in the According history Konbaung period, the delta homeland of the Mons was devastated during its conquest by the Burmans in the 1750's. In the following century, the area was impoverished and neglected. It was a land "mainly of swamp and jungle"43 where agricultural production was carried on by only "a few scattered families" who grew rice "in small clearings in the forest."44 of the evidence provided by contemporary Careful examination travellers and the Sittans, as to reveals considerable however, disagreement in various regions and Lower Burma generally. conditions The contrast between the descriptions of the Rangoon-Hlaing river area made by various European an excellent travellers of the contradictions illustration in found provides Michael in 1795, eighteenth and early nineteenth century accounts. Symes wrote that the country along the Rangoon river and surrounding the town of Rangoon was covered with forest and sparsely inhabited, while his companion Buchanan found the Hlaing river region "a succession of grassy plains as far as the eye can see."45 Hiram Cox, who passed through the Delta in the following year, observed an "extensive of southwest of Rangoon, and found plain paddy grounds" the country along the Hlaing river "well-cultivated."46 Both Henry Gouger and John Crawfurd, who journeyed through the Rangoon-Hlaing region in the mid
41 H.G. Wales, Ancient Siamese Government and Administration, (London, 1934), p. 64.

For an account of the Mon migrations 1& 14-15.

42 the D.G.E. Hall Lower 736. has also Burma seen was the most late time when

see R. Halliday,
sixteenth century devastated

The Talaings (Rangoon,

and and not the Konbaung

1917), pp.

seriously

depopulated.

as period See A History

Asia (London, 1964), pp. 362 & 736. of South-East 43

44 45 Ibid., p. Furnivall, Political Account of Economy, p. 41. I, 323 and II, in the Burmhan and 31. the Court of

Symes, 46 Journal

ofAva, a Resident

112-13; Empire

Buchanan, Extracts, and More Particularly

p. at

Amorapoorah (London, 1821), pp. 10-11 & 21.

184

Micheal

Adas

H.L. Maw who served 1820's, found it poorly cultivated and thinly inhabited.47 in Lower Burma in 1824 reported that the area around Rangoon was well-cultivated, who travelled along the Hlaing and Howard Malcolm river in 1835 noted extensive cultivation and numerous villages.48 in the delta area The estimates provided by European observers of conditions as a whole also differed sharply. Maw claimed that Lower Burma was the granary of the Konbaung that little empire, while two years later Crawfurd complained commerce and agriculture was to be found in the region.49 Contradictions some in one passage that T.A. Trant claimed the same account. times appear within with had been given over to the exception of three or four towns the Delta In earlier portions of his account, however, the "uncontrolled dominion of nature." in Rangoon and the "great he told of "innumerable of rice found granaries" to Upper Burma.50 of the grain which were sent annually quantities" account of A number of factors may for the contradictory descriptions in the Konbaung Most in Lower Burma provided by observers conditions period. route to Upper travellers viewed the area from boats which followed a common could have been Burma (see map on p. 185). The accuracy of their impressions impaired by the height of the Irrawaddy river, which fluctuates widely, and by the in the lower Irrawaddy fact that mangrove swamps fringe most of the waterways delta and often obscure extensive cultivation Since all of the travellers inland.51 who recorded the dates of their passages were in Lower Burma during the monsoon season when cultivation was in progress, to cannot be attributed their differences have the seasonal nature of agricultural production. however, resulted, They might in the lower delta during from the fact that shifting cultivation was widely practised the Konbaung period.52 This pattern may explain why an area found covered with by another. kaing grass or jungle by one observer was said to be well-cultivated are account and into If the limitations of these eye-witness taken descriptions by the information provided by the Sittans and by British they are supplemented to determine which areas of Lower officials in the decade after 1852, it is possible in the Konbaung Burma were cultivated map of the period. A topographical is the 1862 chief source Ferdinand dated delta region by Fitzroy Irrawaddy-Sittang If corrections, based on in the early British records.53 available of information was ten years are to fact made for that the allow the made sources, map Konbaung it serves as a fairly accurate gauge of the extent of after the British annexation,54
47

A Personal Narrative Gouger, 17; and Crawfurd, Journal, pp. p. the first Anglo-Burman Crawfurd after

48

Years of Two Imprisonment 5-6. Gouger passed through war. . . .and a Full

in Burma Lower

(London, 1864), and Burma before

Maw, Memoir
Travels

of Early Operations of the Burmese War

Asia Account of

(London,
the Burman

1832), p. 82; and

Empire (Boston,

Malcolm, Maw,

in South-eastern

I, 84. Maw 1840), 49

Memoir,

arrived after the outbreak of the war.

pp. 82-5; and Crawfurd, Journal, pp. 11-12.

50 Two Years in Ava (London, 1827), pp. 29 & 237. 51 U Tin Gyi, Report on the Original Settlement Operations
the Myaungmya District 1924-5 to Henry Havelock's appended 52 Journal, Crawfurd, pp. 26. 1854-5, paragraph 53 India Office Records, Map

in The Labutta Township of

Memoir, p. 82; and a map 1926), p. 3; H. Maw, (Rangoon, . . . in Ava Memoir Three 1828). of Campaigns (Serampore, Account and RAP, II, 15-16; 6, 421 & 448; of Ava, Symes, Department, in Colonial Topographical Map of British Burma, p. 59, Pegu that was value

Division, April 54
J.S. there finally as an was

1862.
points economic out growth the Therefore, and Practice (New York, Policy Burma until after 1861, when ten year not affect does interval seriously in Konbaung times. in Lower 1956), pacification the map's

Furnivall little

completed. of conditions indicator

Imperialist Lower Burma

Rhetoric

and Modern Period.

Historiography:

Lower

Burma

185

in the Konbaung

THATON

MATOAB?N

GULF O F MARTABAN
TL Main Route

ZEE
of Travellers through the Delta.

Source

: Based

upon

H. Yule's

Narrative

...

(1858).

186

Michael

Adas

era. There were large concentrations of paddy culti in the Konbaung cultivation in the vation around the towns of Bassein, Myaungmya and Ngathainggyaung western portion of the Irrawaddy delta; near the town of Myaunaung, northwest on the upper Irrawaddy; and of Henzada and between Prome and Thayetmyo near Pyapon, Dallah, Danubyu in the central and east portions of and Toungoo in the Rangoon Lower Burma. As noted above, the extent of cultivation and Pegu areas is difficult to determine. It is probable that considerable numbers of shifting cultivators were active in these regions, as well as in the lower central delta and in the area between the Pegu and Hlaing rivers.55 A comparison and travel accounts from the Konbaung of the Fitzroy Map era demonstrates that Lower Burma was more developed prior to 1852 than the there lead one to assume. Unfortunately, general statements of most writers would nor are there each of these tracts was cultivated, is no record of how extensively in Lower Burma as a whole. If one estimates of how much land was occupied was area in first British rule that worked the of the assumes, however, years roughly in the in the decades before 1852, the extent of cultivation equal to that cropped The most reliable district figures of the late Konbaung period can be estimated. area occupied in the first years of British control were those compiled in 1856-7. In that year over 662,000 acres of land in the Irrawaddy-Sittang delta region were in rice.56 If corrections listed as cultivated of which 616,000 acres were planted are made land not yet reoccupied for undercounting officials,57 by indigenous to due to local resistance the 1852 warfare and land newly abandoned following British rule, the total area under rice cultivation would have been at least 700,000 to 800,000 acres. to that occupied in later This amount of cultivated area was small compared decades. By 1872, 1,146,000 acres were cropped in Lower Burma, and by the mid 1930's when the area occupied reached its greatest extent, over 8,700,000 acres were under cultivation.58 Vast tracts of fertile land on the Henzada-Tharrawaddy plain, in the Pegu-Sittang river valley and in the lower Irrawaddy delta remained un in the that were to be highly productive in Konbaung times. Areas cultivated British period were covered with kaing grass, scrub or swamp and dense forests to the absence of embankments much of Lower and kanazo. Owing of mangrove season and the lower delta, was flooded during the monsoon Burma, especially of the year.59 unfit for habitation for several months like Father Sangermano Most historians, reflecting the attitudes of travellers for the have asserted that Burman misrule was responsible and John Crawfurd,60
55 22, 31,

See

39 &

II, pp.

and H. Cox, the Fitzroy Journal, pp. 31 & 426-8; Map Vol. Travels, I, pp. 86 & 90; M. 334; H. Malcolm, Ill, 96-9, 154, 159, 165-6 & 168; and Vol. 18-19, 27-9,

J. Crawfurd, Journal, pp. 7, Account of Ava, Vol. Symes, Memoir, p. 250; H.L. Maw,

p. 83; and RAP (1860-1), p. 27; and (1856-7), Appendix F. 56 RAP (1856-7), Appendix F.
57 than Although in earlier a far years, larger portion of Burman the cultivated and from turned Mon area was indigenous officials actually did most measured of the in counting 1856-7 for

revenue purposes. They felt little loyalty to the British, were unfamiliar with British revenue
concepts between Govt. and H. 1888-9 58 Govt. of and profited and methods, revenue collected and that India, Matthews, (Rangoon, on Report of Burma, Political Report greatly actually the difference and pocketing underreporting over to the new regime. See, for example, 160; 201, Vol. 63, 8 Aug. 1856, nu. Range in the Bassein and Thongwa Appendix Districts and

and Foreign Proceedings, on Settlement Operations of Burma Report, p.

1890), p. 23. the Administration Season and Crop Empire,

1871-2

59
60

1935-6, 101; and

Acreage

(hereafter Use

RAB), Tables.

cix;

Robert Gordon,
Sangermano,

The Irrawaddy River (1885), p. 5.

Crawfurd, Journal, pp. 11-12.

Burmese

187 Lower Burma Historiography: state of Lower Burma prior to 1852. G.E. Harvey established underdeveloped stain" on the Burman this belief when he wrote in 1925, that it was an "indelible to administration that the fertile region "should have been found by the English ... "61 This explanation not only ignores evidence be mainly an uncultivated waste it also obscures the fundamental of Burman efforts to develop Lower Burma, reasons for the area's limited productivity. his first visit, Michael Symes During measures to conciliate the Mons, while a number of sources praised Bodawpaya's indicate that considerable into Lower Burma prior numbers of Burmans moved In the Sittans, to 1852 and brought new lands under cultivation.62 local officers reported their attempts to develop tracts in the Pegu area and stated that they had been ordered to do so by high-ranking Burman officials.63 were more than nullified by the It can be argued that these positive measures measures and by the Burmans' frequent wars waged by Burman monarchs to suppress Mon to their rule. The impact of these factors on Lower resistance to the dampening Burma's development, effect of a however, was minor compared monarchs policy which the Konbaung probably viewed as humane and farsighted, of the export of rice from the empire. Rather than export the surplus the prohibition rice produced in Lower Burma, the Burmans stored it in granaries and used it to was a areas food This where there shortage or where famine threatened. supply store of rice, which comprised most of the revenue which the government received to Upper Burma by great fleets of from the delta provinces, was carried annually river vessels.64 Although there was a foreign demand for the rice produced in Lower were restrictions ensured that of Burma, government exports paddy practically In addition, non-existent. the limited domestic market was regulated and stabilized the price of rice was by the great quantities held by the government. Consequently, in low the very Konbaung period.65 The low return which the cultivator received for the extra labour required to little incentive for him to harvest more than he needed produce a surplus provided for food, seed and taxes. There was no reason for him to bring new areas under cultivation. Even if he were able to harvest a sizable surplus for the market, the cultivator would have little to buy with the bullion he received for his produce. Consumer goods imported into Burma prior to 1852, were limited in quantity and In addition, there were many quality and subject to heavy duties.66 sumptuary a laws in Konbaung The size of man's the domestic and house, type society. to use, his clothing he was permitted and jewelry were all rigidly implements and social standing.67 The cultivator was low on the regulated by his position social scale and thus his options as a consumer were very limited. was The absence of market to promote incentives agrarian development complemented by the obstacles and hazards facing the cultivator who sought to open new lands. Most of the available land in Lower Burma was covered with jungle and swamp. Considerable capital and labour were required to bring this land under cultivation. Because monetary and market systems were poorly developed, Imperialist Rhetoric and Modern
See also J. Cady, Modern London, 1967, 236. Burma, of Burma, p. 69; and Burma Hall, (London, 1950), p. 156. see the Account For Symes, see the District For Burman II, 166-7. of Ava, immigration Gazetteers for Bassein, Henzada and Insein, pp. 25, 18 and 43 respectively. History D.G.E. 62 61

63

Furnivall, "Historical Documents"

M. See B. Account Symes, the Comparative sold Pearn, Symes, for eight Rangoon, Account of Ava, prices times more p. 67 and II,

6/3, pp. 218-9;

8/1, pp. 40, 43, 46 & 49; and 9/1,

p. 41. 64 65

example, 66 67

and H. Gouger, 19-20. 166-7; Narrative, pp. I, 75. Wheat, Malcolm, Travels, quoted by Howard than rice.

for

M.

of Ava,

J. Crawfurd, & 439-41. Journal, pp. 428-9 and II, 60-2, et passim. 189-90 I, 353-4

188

Michael Adas

times and the rates of interest were there were few sources of credit in Konbaung no was for hire. In addition, labour the malarial available There virtually high.68 conditions which prevailed in newly cropped areas severely limited the productivity of the labour which the cultivator could generate from within his own household. It was particularly intense Malaria was (and is) endemic to most of Lower Burma. in those areas which were being settled for the first time. S. Grantham reported in district to open jungle tracts in the Myaungmya 1920, that colonies attempting He observed that after were debilitated and even wiped out by malaria epidemics. of the an area had been worked for some time the death rate and general malaise to settlers this immunities He attributed declined. by developed drop population recent in the number of mosquito vectors.69 More who survived and a decrease that shown the has been It observations. out Grantham's research bears Anopheles vector in Lower Burma, becomes is the principal which hyrcanus mosquito, areas are If such areas cleared. has been in forest where recently extremely prolific to produce serious malarial the species has been known in tropical climates, with concurred districts Lower Burma in many officers British epidemics.70 efforts to bring had greatly hindered conditions claim that malarial Grantham's fertile tracts into production.71 for rice and an In the British period there was a large and growing demand earned of consumer rewards which could be purchased with the money abundance cultivators sufficient incentive for These provided through surplus production. to open new lands. In to brave the obstacles which impeded attempts invariably economic policies, and not wars or calculated the Konbaung period governmental low level of for the relatively and cruel repression, were primarily responsible a on and low market rice The ban laws, exports, sumptuary agrarian development. in Lower demand for rice reduced the rewards and thus the incentive for cultivators Burma to increase their production. Consequently, expansion was limited to the of rice culture, and vast tracts of fertile concentrations of established periphery uncultivated. land remained out that given the fertility of its soil and the have pointed Most observers prior to 1852.72 In reliability of its rainfall, Lower Burma was underpopulated wars the last few decades historians have generally assumed that the Burman-Mon were of the Delta's low the for misrule and Burman density responsible that the B.N. Kaul asserted nearly four decades ago, however, population.73 of Lower Burma had impact of warfare and Burman reprisals on the population in It is true that those Mons who were concentrated been greatly overestimated. the partially restored urban centres of Lower Burma suffered greatly in the Burman of the Delta's Mon wars. But by the mid-eighteenth century most population of these Most lived away from the large towns in small and scattered settlements. of the were unaffected small movements of armies the the day whose relatively by 68
69 p. 19.

U Tun Wai, Currency and Credit inBurma (Bombay, 1953), 1.

Report on Settlement Operations in the Myaungmya District 1916-19 (Rangoon, 1920),

70 M.F. Boyd, Malariology (Philadelphia, 1949), I, 316, 433 & 619, and II, p. 815. 71 Settlement Reports ? Henzada 2; Tharrawaddy (1900-01), p.2; Pegu (1900-01), (1901-2), p. 3; and Pegu (1911-13), p. 4.
72 There A were no of comparison indicates however, 234. History, p. 13; and pp. Cheng 235, 241 et passim; Burma J.R. Rice Andrus, Industry, Burmese p. 3. Economic Life systematic John that counts Crawfurd's there were of the population in estimate approximately in Lower 1826 and nine Burma British hundred counts in the Konbaung in the early to one

period. 1850's,

thousand

million
1855-6, 73 G.

inhabitants in the decades prior to 1852. See Crawfurd, Journal, p. 464 and RAP,
paragraph Harvey, 1948),

(Stanford,

Siok-hwa,

Imperialist

Rhetoric

and Modern

Historiography:

Lower

Burma

189

standards. Since many weapons were rather harmless by contemporary European of the inhabitants of Lower Burma practised shifting cultivation or were fishermen, troops or government they could move away from marauding "recruiting" parties. are correct, the impact of reprisal raids or recruiting campaigns If these assumptions would have been minimal.74 A careful examination of the available data also demonstrates that most of Burma have greatly exaggerated the numbers of indigenous Mons historians to Siam or were who migrated from Lower Burma carried off by Burman and Siamese in the Konbaung armies there are no reliable period. Although estimates of the exact numbers of Mons like Cheng involved, careful scholars Siok-hwa into Siam" and "vast numbers" picture "mass emigration being sold into slavery, while D.G.E. Hall of the Mons.75 refers to the "great exodus" J.S. Furnivall has demonstrated that the earlier estimates, these upon which are presumably assertions He points out, for based, are gross overstatements. records list only 10,000 immigrants in Arakan and instance, that contemporary from Burman territories between Tenasserim 1826 and 1852. Earlier writers, he in this period.76 that as many as 257,000 persons migrated notes, had calculated can be attributed It is probable that much of the decrease in the Mon population to the Burman policy to suppress the Mon language, rather than to an increase in the Mons' death rate or mass emigration. Since language was the major difference between the two groups,77 many Mons would have been listed as Burmans once cannot be The numbers of Mons who were Burmanized they spoke Burmese. but by the first decades of British rule the Rangoon district was the determined, The only other region where they only area where Mons were still in the majority. was in the vicinity of Henzada of the population comprised a sizable proportion in the northern delta.78 It is probable that any decreases in population that Mon from Lower E?urma prior to 1852 may have caused were more than migration cancelled out by the influx of Burman immigrants from the Dry Zone. Some British officials who served in Lower Burma in the first decades after 1852, were responsible for the low rejected the notion that warfare and bad government the first Chief Commissioner, population density of the area.79 Arthur Phayre, and his subordinates causes of Lower Burma's singled out some of the fundamental on the basis of a report made concluded, underpopulation. presumably Phayre in 1855, that high "child" mortality had been the major by a Lieutenant Williams check to population evidence supports this conclusion growth.80 Contemporary for Burma's infant mortality rate is currently one of the highest in the world,81 and it was probably much higher in Konbaung times. In a special report prepared for Phayre, a Dr. Stewart suggested another factor, to a high death rate in Konbaung malaria, which not only contributed Burma, but also influenced the distribution of population. Stewart referred to malaria as the "great scourge" of Lower Burma and claimed that it was the prime reason
74 Discussion based Burma Rice on B.N. Kaul, Some 3; and Aspects Hall, of the Population Asia, 1881, of Pt. p. Problem 388. in Burma

PhD Dissertation, University (Unpublished 75

76 77 Cheng, Colonial Policy, pp. Industry, 59-60. pp. p. 16-17; R. Halliday, Arthur

of London,

1930), pp. 24 & 34-9.

South-East

78
79

Takings,

and Burma on the Govt.

Census,

1, p. 64. in British Burmah

RAP, 1856-7, Appendix W.

Phayre, 1862), pp. 1855-6, Memorandum 4-5. paragraph 236; and of India, Political and Foreign Proceedings, Sparseness Population

(Rangoon, 80 RAP,

Range
Pegu." 81

201, Vol.
Norton

25,

13 July 1855, No.

Atlas of Economic

95, "Report by Lt. Williams

Development (Chicago, 1961),

on the Survey of
p. 66.

Ginsburg,

190

Michael

Adas

of the area.82 Malaria to high mortality for the low population contributed both it debilitated because of the deaths it caused directly and because its victims and The fever must have taken a parti their resistance to other diseases.83 weakened from the Dry Zone whose immunities would cularly heavy toll of Burman migrants of the different vectors found in have been of little use against the plasmodium The inhabitants of Lower Burma tended to cluster in established Lower Burma.84 the concentrations where malaria was less likely to be epidemic. They avoided to be wiped out colonies had been known swamps and forests where whole was a prime determinant in Lower of settlement patterns by disease. Malaria and in other tropical areas.85 Burma, just as it had been on Java, in Vietnam to those factors which made for a higher death rate, there were a In addition the birth rate in Konbaung number of social customs which might have depressed in research conducted and demographic times. On the basis of anthropological which hold Nash have three June and discerned Burma, practices Manning Upper down the Burman birth rate because "they delay or withdraw women from the a high percentage of These are the late age of marriage, breeding population." not to fact and often the that widows widowers choose unmarried and persons, a in is low rural these factors have Burma, very remarry. Since illegitimacy rural society in Burma has impact on population Although significant growth.86 it is likely that these familial since the Konbaung changed considerably period, norms than of the modernizing rather traditional represent products practices in Upper In this respect the fact that they characterize familial patterns process. social and cultural institutions and Burma is particularly because significant in the less affected by outside in the Dry Zones were much influences practices in Lower Burma. Therefore, it is very likely British period than their counterparts it in Burma that these practices which retard population today retarded growth era. in the Konbaung at least among and Mons the Burmans to the history Because of its dramatic effect, the "before and after" approach to is attractive the historian. of areas colonized by the European powers extremely cruel tyrants, internecine warfare and social unrest Narratives of effete dynasties, to demonstrate his aptitude make for interesting reading and permit the historian to more mun introductions for creative writing.87 They also provide compelling structures and policies, new economic of colonial administrative dane discussions But if uncritically of social and the adopted, change. developments beginnings these narratives which embody the themes of the decadence of the previous kingdom and implicity or explicitly the benefits of colonial rule (pax imperium, schools and roads, railways and telegraph lines, etc.) can seriously distort the reality hospitals, situation and in turn seriously impair our ability to understand of the pre-conquest colonial rule. the impact of European sources could conceivably reveal that of the available re-examination Critical was or African far worse in an Asian the pre-conquest situation kingdom
pp. 7-8. Phayre, Memorandum, A Summary Malaria Ronald Ross, Regarding (London, of Facts 84 M. Boyd, Malariology, II, 815. 85 Involution Clifford Geertz, p. 45; 1966), (Berkeley, Agricultural A. 83 86 and Manning Nash, "Marriage, Family Journal Southwestern 19/3(1963), of Anthropology seem to serve as a vehicle Often these narratives June themselves to admit through to and historical analyze and Population 82

1930), and

p.

5.

Pierre

Gourou, in Upper of fiction of the few historians.

L'utilisation du Sol en Indochine Fran?aise (Paris, 1940), pp. 140 & 165-77.
Growth writers Burma," 87 pp. 257-66. would-be by which

express historians

one has been C.V. Wedgwood scholarship. that motivate the latent drives many literary

See her delightful exchange with Ved Mehta

pp. 164-8.

in his The Fly in theFly Bottle (Baltimore, 1965),

: Lower Rhetoric and Modern Burma 191 Imperialist Historiography than historians have hitherto On the other hand, re-appraisal might imagined. uncover instances where the "before and after" dichotomy is completely misleading. Careful research may show that certain societies possessed viable polities, sound social arrangements and economies that were expanding prior to the imposition of colonial rule. It may further demonstrate that the policies of the new European to indigenous rulers were highly detrimental institutions and the welfare of the new is most colonized It that research and however, peoples. probable, will show that the "standard" re-evaluation view of pre-conquest conditions was a blend of error and accuracy. As in the case of Lower Burma, re-examination may reveal that in fact a given area was underdeveloped and sparsely populated to its state several decades after the imposition of colonial rule. At the compared same time, new research may demonstrate that the causes which colonial officials and historians have generally seen as responsible for a region's underdevelopment were only of secondary or irrelevant. Disease, the vagaries importance completely of climate, topography, the lack of market incentives and technological limitations, for example, may have been far more responsible for a region's underdeveloped state than corrupt dynasts or traditional warfare. In addition, the impact of pre into Africa and Asia have been far less conquest European penetration may than historians have generally assumed.88 important or far different As this study of Lower Burma the reports of European merchants illustrates, and travellers, on whom the historian must rely for much of his information relating to pre-conquest should be carefully evaluated and compared. Attention conditions, should be given to the routes they travelled, to plotting the areas they actually to the season of their journeys and to the nature of settlement and agri observed, cultural production in the areas they describe. The occupations, biases and motivations of these men should also be taken into account. In assessing or African conditions in pre-colonial Asian historians kingdoms should be wary of imposing rather recently devised Western gauges of political or economic The extent to which a state's economy or is monetized performance. the volume of its exports may say very little about the general condition of its in habitants. such as the rising volume of goods marketed, measures, Quantitative which are often used by historians to document the "progress" made after colonial To cite an obvious the increase in conquest may be equally deceptive. example, rubber and ivory exported from the Congo after King Leopold of Belgium claimed it as his personal fief in 1884 hardly reflected an increase in the standard of living of the Congolese did not strong and efficient administration peoples. Similarly, mean a were that well In ruled. the necessarily kingdom's subjects fact, general the government's control was loose populace was often best off in states where and intermittent. In Lower Burma, for example, the average villager was fairly well off if he managed to avoid military tax collectors recruiting parties, avaricious and the hungry Anopheles and fratricidal hyrcanus. Dynastic squabbles bloody the literature on the struggles among the elite in the court centres that so dominate of the population. Konbaung period had little effect on the great majority In judging the condition of the general populace it is also misleading to assume that a secular social philosophy to increased and progress, geared productivity is prima facie superior to a tradition-oriented innovation Weltanschauung stressing
88 a

On

the

beginnings

of

re-evaluation

of

societies see the fine conclusion to Philip Curtin's The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (Madison, Wisconsin, 1970), pp. 265-73; J.D. Fage, "Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Context of West African History," Journal of African History 10/3(1969), pp. 393-404; Sadia
Touval, pp. "Treaties, Borders, op. and cit.; the Partition and Mason, 279-92; Kiwanuka, op. of Africa," cit. Journal of African History 7/2(1966),

the European

impact

on African

or Asian

192

Michael Adas

stasis and social custom. travellers in the early nineteenth century did European or developed not make the sharp distinctions between and modern, traditional so dominate and underdeveloped societies which contemporary Only thought. in this context can one understand the comment of John Crawfurd, who was no admirer of the Konbaung that the state of their subjects "might bear a monarchs, with the peasantry of most European New countries."89 research comparison and re-appraisal may show that the same was true of the populace of much of the can no longer accept uncritically Afro-Asian world. the historian views Clearly and colonial administrators. conquerors propounded by European

89 Journal,

p. 469.