U Nu

U Nu , 1907-95, Burmese political leader, prime minister of Burma (1948-56, 1957-58, 1960-62). A nationalist, he was expelled by the British authorities from the Univ. of Rangoon law school in 1936 for his political activities. He taught school and then became a leader of the Burmese nationalist movement; he assumed the nationalist title Thakin [lord or master] and was known as Thakin Nu until he attained the honorific U. In 1942, with the growing threat of a Japanese invasion, he was imprisoned by the British. Released after the Japanese occupied Burma, he served as foreign minister in the puppet cabinet while organizing an anti-Japanese guerrilla force.

After the war he helped secure (1948) Burma's independence from Britain and was (1948-56) its first premier. He resigned in 1956, returned to power in 1957, but was forced to yield to the army, led by General Ne Win , in 1958. He was reelected in 1960 but in 1962 was deposed and arrested by Ne Win. Released in 1966, he organized (1969) and led from exile in Thailand a movement opposing Ne Win. U Nu continued in exile until 1980, when he returned to Burma (now Myanmar). In 1988 he announced the formation of a symbolic provisional government. The military retained control, however, and from 1989 to 1992 he was placed under house arrest.

A devout Buddhist, U Nu was long the popular spiritual leader of his country. Among his works are The People Win Through (1951), Burma under the Japanese (1954), An Asian Speaks (1955), and his autobiography (1975).

Bibliography: See R. Butwell, U Nu of Burma (1963, repr. 1969).

U Nu. The first Prime Minister of the newly independent Union of Burma, U Nu took office in January 1948 and attempted to govern through a political ideology based on a blend of Buddhism and socialism. He sought to forge a national community in which individuals would overcome self-interest and desire for material goods, and a society in which property and class distinctions would be transcended. Drawing inspiration from the classical model of the Cakravartin or righteous king, his goal was to develop a welfare state under the benevolent rule of a wise leader. In 1950 he created the Buddha Sāsana Council and appointed a minister of religious affairs to supervise and regulate the monasteries. He also convened a council and produced a new edition of the Pāli Canon. Critics of U Nu suggested he was overly concerned with religious affairs to the point of neglecting the political, economic, and social problems that the country faced in adapting to the modern world. U Nu's government faced an insurrection only six months into office, but survived this and was ultimately overthrown in a military coup led by General Ne Win in 1962 who, in a move away from the Buddhist values of U Nu, sought to establish a secular, socialist state.