The GCBA was formed at the 1920 conference of the Young Men's Buddhist Association following the student strike earlier in the year and Burma's exclusion from British proposals for limited self-government in Indian provinces.
A proposal known as the Craddock Plan to give ethnic minorities separate representation was opposed by the GCBA, which saw it as an attempt at divide and rule.
This eventually led to 21 dissidents leaving to form the 21 Party, which emerged as the largest faction in the Legislative Council following the elections.
[2] The GCBA split again in the build-up to the 1925 elections due to differences over another boycott, as well as the organisation's finances and the role of monks.
[1] Dissidents left to form the U Chit Hlaing Faction, which subsequently splintered into the Home Rule Party and the Hlaing-Myat-Paw GCBA.