Tharaja U Toke Gyi (; 23 June 1884 – 10 May 1931) was a Burmese politician, administrator, publisher and newspaper editor. He was a member of the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

, the lower house of India.

Early life and education

Toke Gyi was born on 23 June 1884 in

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

, Burma to parents Maung Gyi, a merchant, and his wife Daw Gyi. He was the third of four siblings. His father died when he was five years old. He educated high school from the government high school and received a scholarship in the seventh grade. In 1904, he passed the entrance exam for the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

but instead chose to continue his education at

Rangoon College The University of Yangon (also Yangon University; , ; formerly Rangoon College, University of Rangoon and Rangoon Arts and Sciences University), located in Kamayut, Yangon, is the oldest university in Myanmar's modern education system and the b ...

. He received a scholarship to the college for four consecutive years and received his BA in 1908.

Career

After graduating, he took the mayoral exam and served as the mayor of

Dedaye Dedaye ( ) is a town in the Ayeyarwady Region of south-west Myanmar. It is the seat of the Dedaye Township in the Pyapon District Pyapon District () is a district of the Ayeyarwady Division in southwestern Myanmar. It consists of 4 cities. They ...

from 1908 to 1920. During his tenure as mayor, he became a member of the

Young Men's Buddhist Association The YMBA, or Young Men's Buddhist Association, was created in Sri Lanka in 1898. The main founder was C. S. DissanayakeHuman Rights Watch (2009)''The Resistance of the Monks: Buddhism and Activism in Burma'' p. 12. as part of a bid to provide Bud ...

(YMBA) and he opposed the tradition of kneeling down when welcoming the British district governor. In 1920, he resigned as mayor. In 1920, he served as the secretary of the both Young Men's Buddhist Association and

General Council of Burmese Associations The General Council of Burmese Associations (GCBA), also known as the Great Burma Organisation (; ''Myanma Ahthinchokgyi''), was a political party in Burma. History The GCBA was formed at the 1920 conference of the Young Men's Buddhist Associat ...

(GCBA). He has attended as YMBA's press representative to general conferences. In 1921, he worked as an editor and managing director of Thuriya newspaper until his resignation in 1927. He was also an editor of "Burma of Bazarbar", an English language newspaper published by Thuriya. He served as chairman of the Rangoon Traffic Committee after the first tram strike in

. In 1924, he was elected as a member of the

, the lower house of India. In 1927, he was re-elected for his post. Of the 144 members of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

at the time, four were from Burma. He was elected as chairman of the All India Postal Workers' Conference. On 2 August 1925, he left from the 21-member group GCBA and then founded the Tharaja Party (Burma Swart Party). Tharaja means "the right to govern one's own country." On 16 August 1929, he launched the weekly newspaper Kaythara. In 1930, he attended a assembly of the Parliament in

to open the western slope of the

Shwedagon Pagoda The Shwedagon Pagoda (, ; ), officially named ''Shwedagon Zedi Daw'' (, , ), and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda, is a gilded stupa located in Yangon, Myanmar. The Shwedagon is the most sacred Buddhist pagoda in Myanma ...

. While attending, he suffered a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

and was unconscious for 20 days. He died on 10 May 1931, aged 46, six months after returning to

Moulmein Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; ; , ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' southeast of Yangon and south of Thaton, at the mouth of Thanlwin (Salween) River. Mawlamyine was an ancien ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toke Gyi 1884 births 1931 deaths People from Yangon People from British Burma