ABSTRACT
The history of Burma, renamed the Union of Myanmar, is a tangled one, where short-lived coalitions have been made between a large number of groups and where insurrections have been almost continuous in many areas. The Shan people are the largest minority in Myanmar, though less integrated than the Karens and somewhat divided among themselves. The desperate situation of all the inhabitants of Myanmar has at last encouraged the different groups to come together despite the threatened death penalty. A number of groups have made alliance in the National Democratic Front, seeking a state of Myanmar on the basis of liberty, equality and social progress. The size of the units to be created in a new federal Myanmar is of importance. India has managed to operate a successful federal system with some units of enormous size, such as Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 140 million, and some numbering less than a million.
