On June 24th 1932, the ‘People's Party’, which consisted of middle and low level military officers and civilians, seized power from the government under the despotic monarchy and established the constitutional monarchy. Most studies, both in the modernization approach and Marxist school of socio-economic history, regarded the Revolution merely as the substitution of oligarchic elite, without any change in the social and economic structure. Recently, this interpretation of the Revolution and society during the Revolution is being questioned by some scholars. The purpose of this paper is to show there was a rise of political consciousness among officials and intellectuals who did not participate in the Revolution directly before and after the Revolution by ‘khwam khithen (opinion)’ they submitted.
In Siam, to submit petitions to the King was the custom of all the subjects who had suffered from hardships. In 1930, petitions which included opinions were submitted to the King first. Such opinions were written mainly by officials and intellectuals. Their aim was not to ask for help from the King but to advise and suggest how to improve financial and rural economic situations damaged by the Great Depression, and some of them were critical about policy of the government. They argued that their opinions would be helpful for the King and the nation (‘chat’). After the Revolution, more than 500 opinions were submitted to the new government. People who submitted those opinions included many officials and intellectuals and more than 40% of them lived in Bangkok, while others lived in other districts. They also offered suggestions and views regarding many problems in the country and insisted that their opinions would benefit the state (‘prathet’) and the nation.
The old regime made little effort to solve the problems following the opinions. From 1933, the new government began to show more interest in them and some of the opinions were discussed by the Ministries and the Cabinet. Moreover, some of those who submitted the opinions before and after the Revolution achieved direct participation in politics later.
It is clear therefore that there was a rise of political consciousness among many officials and intellectuals who did not participate in the Revolution directly. They were not indifferent to politics, but tried to work on the government and to let it utilize their opinions, and they shared common value that they worked on for the cause of the nation and the state.

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