A little piece of India in Yangon
- Junction of Merchant Street and Bo Aung Kyaw Street
- Not open to the public
The India – Myanmar connection
Gandhi Hall may not look exceptional, but it has an interesting story to tell. In the 1910s, it was the office of The Rangoon Times, one of the most influential newspapers in British Burma. Later in 1951, after independence, it was purchased by the Indian ambassador to Myanmar, MA Rauf as a symbol of the strong India-Myanmar connections.
Gandhi Hall declaration
In 1990, history was made here. Ghandi Hall was where Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) issued their now famous Gandhi Hall Declaration that proved to be the tipping point in Myanmar’s power balance and resulted in the military regime loosening its grip on the country.
Nice to know
Mahatma Gandhi visited Gandhi Hall three times in his lifetime, but the hall that bears his name now stands empty. The board of trustees proposed to demolish the building and redevelop it as a 12-storey apartment block. A joint lobbying effort by the Yangon Heritage Trust and the Indian Embassy resulted in the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) rejecting the plan.