The Karen-Burman riots of WWII (2)

This post continues with the translation of chapter 5 of the text ပြည်တွင်းသောင်းကျန်းမှုသမိုင်း (အပိုင်း-၁) (The History of Revolt within the Country - Volume 1), published by the Myanmar Ministry of Information in 1990. The chapter runs 8 pages from page 21 to page 28. The translation below covers the second page (page 22) of the chapter. The complete chapter is available in PDF form here.

Vocabulary:

အကြောင်းပြု ။ to base on; act or speak with reference to someone or sth
အချင်းချင်း ။ mutually
မဲ ။ indigo
လွှမ်း​မိုး ။ influence; overwhelm; overshadow; surpass
လိုလား ။ want; need; lack; wish for; desire
ဖိဖိစီးစီး ။ effectively; thoroughly
စည်းရုံး ။ to organise; persuade
အမိန့် ။ utterance; order; command; decree; injunction; mandate.
အုပ်စိုး ။ govern; rule
ခဲယဉ်း ။ difficult; hard
သွတ်သွင်း ။ include; initiate
သာမက ။ not only ... but also
တပ်မြေ ။ bulwark
ချည်နှောင် ။ to bind, tie, fasten

Translation:

Divisions amongst the Kayin on the basis of religion emerged. The Buddhist Kayin were called the 'Indigo Kayin' and the Christian Kayin came to be called the 'While Kayin'. With the British government giving more rights to Christians and opening missionary schools for the emergence of Christian educational advancements, they implemented [Christian] religious supremacy. The imperial government's political ideology was that if the Christian population increased their rule would be lengthy. The British organised [the Kayin] in order to have the honest and loyal Kayins become an ethnic group that wanted to support them.

The divisive actions British can be famously seen in the the book entitled "The Loyal Karens of Burma" written by Donald Mackenzie Smeaton that was published in 1888. In that book the following passage written by Donald Mackenzie Smeaton concerning religioun can be seen on page 226:

"In openly sanctioning and encouraging the teaching of the Christian religion to Karens, the British Government would be in no sense interfering with the religious freedom of the people." (Getting the opportunity to be able to do like that would be for us.) It is rare and very difficult for a Christian state to be able to acquire religious influence that is legitimate and strong in that way over a people.

The British government were of the opinion that when they initiated the indigenous Kayin into the Christian religion and divided [them], if was a very special and legitimate opportunity. The British especially focused on the indigenous Kayins. Not only in religion but also in economic and social issues [the British] seperated and organised the Kayin ethnic people more than other ethnic people. Donald Mackenzie Smeaton explained the British government's activities on page 227 and 228:

"The government should work hard by any means to call the mountain Kayin to the plains and establish them on good fertile paddy land. By taking the children from exhausting work and sending them to (Christian missionary) schools before long relieved you will get an ethnic group that is happy and prosperous and moreover you will establish a firm and permanent bulwark for British rule."

"It is the highest and best policy to bind the Karens closely with ourselves, to show the highest standards to show by our attitude towards them that we wish them to be a strong and prosperous community, and to give them every facility for developing a national civilization and a national religion. If we succeed we shall not only have achieved a great triumph of administration, but shall also have raised a living wall of defence against aggression from without and turbulence from within."