Since the British set up the penal system, Burmese prisons have been sites of political contestation, symbolism, ideological advancement, as well as new forms of agency and resistance. Burmese prisons have also been places of deep terror, violence, and inhumanity. What are the psychological and cultural legacies left behind by the practice of mass political incarceration in Burma? How has the experience of detention shaped the subjectivity of political prisoners, their families, and the broader Burmese public? How did acts of political imprisonment suppress or upend political protest, while simultaneously creating new modes of solidarity and resistance? How are practices and legacies of detention linked to the history of colonization and how can we better understand the postcolonial through the lens of the prison? In what ways did widespread detention change the structure of family, the nature of communities and social networks, and broader imaginings of nationhood for those who participated in the Burmese democracy movement? 

A roundtable discussion with members of DIGNITY - the Danish Institute Against Torture - on the history of political detention in Burma as it links up with the country's democracy movement and with the current Civil Disobedience Movement. DIGNITY has been conducting research on historical and contemporary Burmese prisons since 2016.