Explain the following statement with reasons: The British granted independence to Myanmar in 1948.

Answer:

• National awakening in Myanmar grew through organisations such as the Young Men's Buddhist Association; Myanmar was separated from British India in 1937.
• During the Second World War Japan occupied Myanmar. Aung San's Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League fought the Japanese and then demanded complete independence from Britain.
• Britain, weakened by the war and under a Labour government, could not hold the colony; by the Aung San–Attlee agreement (1947) it agreed to independence.
• Myanmar became independent on 4 January 1948.