Through analysis of the paddy cultivation scheme announced in 1944 by the Ministry of Land and Agriculture, headed by Minister Thakin Tan Tun, this paper examines how the Ba Maw government responded to Japanese military intervention. This policy aimed to compel people in rural areas to organise themselves into village agricultural committees to allot centrally planned quotas of paddy acreage to each of their villages, and to offer agricultural loans to cultivators. Every landlord was obliged to rent their land to tenants; village agricultural committees were expected to assist in the execution of the scheme, such as by helping landlords find tenants when needed, preparing lists of available lands or workers, and collecting rent and revenue. The paddy cultivation scheme was intended to cover the whole of Burma, though consistent implementation might have been impossible. This paper analyses this scheme using previously untapped source materials from the National Archive Department in Myanmar.
Examination of this material indicates that the Ba Maw government made use of the opportunity presented by the Japanese sponsored paddy cultivation scheme to organise people in rural areas for its political ends, and that Thakin Tan Tun, who was a leader of the Burma Communist Party after the war, was the plan’s driving force.
