Dobama Asi-Ayon

(literally, Our Burma Association), Burmese political organization in the 1930’s. Also known as the Party of the Takins (lords, masters).

Dobama Asi-ayon was founded in 1930 as a political circle of the radically inclined students at Rangoon University. During the late 1930’s Dobama Asi-ayon united important patriotic and democratic-revolutionary elements on a national scale, especially young people, and became the leading political organization of Burma, advocating national liberation and progressive, democratic reforms. Dobama Asi-ayon actively participated in the large-scale anti-imperialist movement of the masses in 1938-39 and created trade union centers of peasants and workers.

At the end of the 1930’s the influence of the left radicals and Marxist elements in Dobama Asi-ayon increased. They participated in the formation of the National Revolutionary Party (1939-40) and of the Communist Party (1939). After 1938 the leader of Dobama Asi-ayon was Aung San. Intensification of the struggle against the English colonialists by the Block for the Freedom of Burma, founded by many parties and small groups at the initiative of Dobama Asi-ayon (October 1939), led to a sharp increase in repression by the colonial authorities. In the summer of 1940, Dobama Asiayon ceased to exist as an effective political force, and its members dispersed among various illegal organizations.