As Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s motorcade traversed along the Signal Pagoda Road in Rangoon (now Yangon), a young Indian boy, watching from up in a coconut tree, clapped his hands in glee. Unfortunately, he lost his grip and fell down.

This visit, in 1929, was Gandhi’s third and longest in Burma. His first two visits, in 1902 and 1915, impressed him with particular views of Buddhism, Burmese women, and the complicity of the Indian diaspora in the British occupation.

The third visit — shortly before the Salt March and Gandhi’s imprisonment in Poona — was more significant. It took Gandhi to Rangoon, Prome, Moulmein, Pyinmana and Mandalay, bringing him in contact with monastic and lay Burmese nationalist leaders, students, and the Indian community.

Gandhi & the Indian diaspora

On March 7,

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