U Razak rose from the position of headmaster of Mandalay Central National High School to become minister of education and national planning in Burma’s pre-independence government. His career was brought to a brutal end at the age of 49, when he was gunned down by assassins on July 19, 1947, together with independence leader Gen Aung San and seven other cabinet members and colleagues. The nine murdered leaders are commemorated annually on the country’s Martyr’s Day.
Mandalay, where U Razak taught, is a center of Burmese Buddhist faith and culture. Yet U Razak, of ethnic Indian-Burmese origin, was fully accepted by the community.
His former students remember him with affection, retaining a picture of their former headmaster dressed in a white shirt, black jacket and green sarong, holding a cheroot in one hand and a cane in the other. A new book published in July titled U Razak of Burma: A Teacher, a Leader, a Martyr, collects some of their reminiscences.
“Whenever we saw Sayagyi (headmaster), he always smiled back at us. Even when he was holding a cane to punish the students for their misdeeds, one could not see any hint of anger on his face but only a grin on his lips,” retired air force Lt-Col Tin Aung wrote in a school memoir.
U Razak was the child of an Indian father, Sheik Abdul Rahman, a police inspector, and a Burmese Buddhist woman Nyein Hla. While his brothers and sisters chose to be Buddhists, he maintained the Muslim name Razak, in honor of his father. Although nominally Muslim, U Razak was a secularist who deeply loved Burma and encouraged unity in diversity.
As a bachelor of arts student at Rangoon University, the staunchly nationalist U Razak took part in the 1920 demonstrations against the British colonial education system. He demonstratively switched to a BA course with the alternative Council of National Education, established by Burmese nationalists. He graduated with the council’s BA degree, and carried the academic title with pride.
In 1921, U Razak founded the Central National High School in Mandalay and became headmaster in 1922. Envious rivals referred to his school as Nay-jin-dai School—nay-jin-dai describes an undisciplined place where people come and go as they please.
Undeterred, U Razak built his school into one of the two leading academic establishments in Mandalay. It produced an impressive number of national and local leaders, civil and military leaders, diplomats, scientists, sportsmen and women, artists, writers and journalists.
Although a Muslim, the young U Razak won high respect for his proficiency in Buddhist studies and the Pali language. He frequently visited Shwe Kyaung, Mandalay’s “golden monastery,” to study Buddhism and Pali, demonstrating his personal belief that young people need to respect and learn their religion for its moral values and national culture.
U Razak’s school routine ensured that all Buddhists students attended their prayers and religious lessons. The newly emerging national education system frequently ran short of funding and often could not pay staff salaries. But he won great trust among his teachers and the parents of his students with his school program of reinvigorating Burmese studies and promoting Burmese culture, patriotism and nationalism.
U Razak also encouraged his pupils to participate fully in sports. He employed a former Indian boxing champion to train his students, some of whom went on to represent Burma at the Olympic Games.
