On June 24th, 1932 a group of army officers and civilians staged a coup d'etat and put an end to the aged-old absolute monarchy. Although this event is far from being a "Glorious Revolution", it has always been idealized as an unusual "Bloodless Revolution". There have been several studies, of journalistic and scho¬larly nature, on the so-called Revolution of 1932" i. e. Tawatt Mokrarapong’s The History of Thai Revolution : A Study in Political behaviour (Bangkok: Chalermnit, 1972), Kiatichai Pongpanich’s Revolution of 1932 (Bangkok; Praepittaya, 1971). These studies tend to treat the June 24, 1932 phenomenon as a one-short affair, stressing the causes leading to this historic event, analyzing the leadership of the Promoters and end up by emphasizing its successes and failures. This thesis takes a different view from other works on the same topic. It attempts to treat the June 1932 incident not as the end of the political conflict, but as the beginning of a pro-longed struggle between the icing and his loyal entourage on one hand and the Promoters (Khana Rat) on the other. To elaborate this point, the writer has chosen to study and analyze the Baworadej Rebellion (October 1933) in great depth and full details. The Baworadej Rebellion, in spite of its short duration, had several consequential meanings. It did not only reflect the underlying animosities between various factions at that time, but was also instrumental in bringing about many other political changes. It was partly responsible for the abdication of King Prachatipok in March 1934 and resulted in the stabilization of the Promoters’ power, while destroying dissident elements, which in large part, were not directly connected with the Rebel Group. The Baworadej Rebellion, which lasted for only 14 days, was the first large-scale civil war in Thailand. Hundreds of lives were lost on the battle field. About 50 persons were sentenced to life-imprisonment, 44 persons were sent to Tarutao Island while other 100 were convicted and deprived of their civil rights. Viewing the-Rebellion in these terms, Baworadej’s attempt to put pressure on the Promoters for reforms was in a way the last bid for power on the part of the Conservative-Royalist elements. Moreover, it points out to the fact that political conflict which should have been violently contested in June 1932 culminated in the devastating civil war in October 1933. This thesis concludes that political conflict in Thai Political history, particularly that of the 1932-1934 period, was actually a chain of events, and not a one-short affair as it used to be treated in other scholarly works.
