Analyzing Decolonization in India and Vietnam Through a

Global Perspective

Isabela VittaIB World History

+

Background Information

&Independence

Movements

+India

“The sun never sets on the British empire”

British Rule: Key Events 1729: British East India Company established

1750: profits from trade rapidly growing

1850: entire subcontinent under British influence

1858: Act for the Better Government of India (empty promise)

1871: All-India Census w/ objective of implementing policies to better control colonial population

1914: British join WWII

1919: Rowlatt Bills & Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

1937: elections

1940: Lahore Resolution

+India

Non-violent resistance: satyagraha

1905: swadeshi movement

1916: Home League Rules

Rowlatt Bills Gandhi launches satyagraha

1920: Non-Cooperation Movement

1928: Gandhi launches Civil Disobedience

1930: Salt March

1942: Quit India Movement (largest campaign since Great Revolt of 1857)

India

+Vietnam

40 AD: Trung Sisters led army & expelled Chinese Han from Vietnam

By 1887: Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos under control of French, who referred to countries collectively as Indochina

1946–54: Vietnamese vs. French

1954: French out; USA & two Vietnams in

1954–73: USA & South Vietnam vs. (Communist)

North Vietnam

1973: USA out

1975: Vietnam united and Communist

20th century wars in Vietnam

+Vietnam

Complexity (structural analysis) in determining what wars in Vietnam were about:

There was a nationalist war of independence against the colonialist French

Then, according to Hanoi, there was another war of independence against the imperialist Americans

There was also a civil war between Vietnamese to decide what the future of Vietnam should be

+Vietnam

What did they want? What did they get?

USA No Communist gains Half of Vietnam was not Communist, half was

USSR Decreased Cold War tension

Settlement that did not last

China Keep US out. Gain international recognition

Recognition, but US stayed in Southeast Asia

France Respite. Retain some influence in Indochina

Got out. Hardly retained influence

Ho Chi Min Control over as much of Vietnam as possible Got half of Vietnam

Diem Control over as much of Vietnam as possible

Got half of Vietnam, but soon lost it

UK Peace in Southeast Asia. Halt spread of Communism

Uneasy, temporary peace. Communist not halted

Geneva conference on Indochina, 1954

+

Historical Theories&

Explanations

+TheoriesINDIA VIETNAM

A.G. Hopkins Process of decolonization accelerated by WWII in which Indian soldiers went abroad to fight & kill ‘white men’ globalization

Process of decolonization understood through colonialist French, imperialist American intervention & national communist reaction

Gayatri Spivak Subaltern based voice and nationalism upon religion & did ‘speak’ through non-violent resistance until independence

Subaltern based voice upon Communist ideology & ‘spoke’ through violent resistance & guerrilla warfare

Benedict Anderson Force behind nationalism was religion led to creation of Indian (Gandhi) AND Pakistani (Jinnah) nations

Force behind independence movement was communism led to creation of communist Vietnam (Ho Chi Min)

Kedourie Nationalist independence leader, Gandhi, educated in metropole nationalism carried to colony

Nationalist independence leader, Ho Chi Min, educated in metropole nationalism carried to colony

KemperNationalism employed local cultural forms: swadeshi movement pro kadhi

Nationalism employed local cultural forms: Diem persecuted Buddhist majority US supported assassination

+Wallerstein’s World System Theory

Social analysis based on the world system (global), not nation-states

Refers to division of labor which divides world’s countries into:

Core: higher skill, capital-intensive production (manufactured goods)

supplies to periphery & semi-periphery, which it dominates

Semi-periphery: low-skill, labor-intensive production (raw materials)

supplies to core & periphery countries; dominated by core but usually

dominates periphery countries

Periphery: low-skill, labor-intensive production (raw materials)

supplies to core countries; dominated by core & periphery countries

+India

Core: Great Britain

Semi-periphery: South Africa

Periphery: India

+Vietnam

Core: France

Semi-periphery: Algeria

Periphery: Vietnam

+Explanations

INDIA VIETNAM

NATIONALIST

Nationalist independence movements started w/ Great Revolt (1857) & gained strength w/ Gandhi (1905 swadeshi movement until independence in 1947).

Nationalist independence movements started w/ Trung Sisters & gained strength w/ Viet Cong, led by Ho Chi Min, until end of Vietnam War in 1975.

METROPOLITAN

In G. Britain, media portrayed Gandhi’s actions as heroic & citizens opposed maintaining India as colony. Post-WWII crisis in Britain allowed independence to succeed.

France willing to ‘give up’ Vietnam (more than Algeria) because it was not a settler colony & country exhausted post-WWII occupation by Nazi Germany.

INTERNATIONALIST

United Nations intervened only post partition, w/ resolutions 39 and 47 (1948). In WWII (global conflict), UK employed Indian soldiers Home League Rules (radical)

In Cold War context, United States intervened in Vietnam. “American Plan” proposed unification elections under UN supervision rejected by Soviet delegation

+

Comparison&

Historical Relevance

+Overarching ThemesINDIA VIETNAM

Negotiated independenceIncomplete and violent decolonization

Non-violent resistance Violent resistance

World system theory: periphery World system theory: periphery

Coincidence (structural analysis): nationalist independence leader, Mahatma Gandhi, educated in metropole

Coincidence (structural analysis): nationalist independence leader, Ho Chi Min, educated in metropole

Synthesis: - Religion & decolonization - Nationalism & decolonization

Synthesis: - Communism & decolonization - Nationalism & decolonization

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India: Questio

n of Partitio

n

+India: Consequences

Partition of Indian subcontinent into (lines devised by Radcliffe Award):

India

West Bengal: Hindu-dominated

Pakistan, w/ 2 regions

West Pakistan – Baluchistan, part of the Punjab, Sind & the

North West Frontier Province

East Pakistan – East Bengal (Muslim-dominated) & part of

Assam

1971: East Pakistan becomes Bangladesh

+Vietnam: Consequences

Death and destruction Dead and wounded: 2.5 mi Vietnamese died & 1.5 mi wounded

Mental wounds: ‘what did he die for?’

Physical wounds: victims of American napalm disfigured; herbicide Agent Orange; ‘American grass’ (weeds)

Vietnam’s economic and social problems Vietnam’s problems in 1975: suffered from shattered economy, social & political

divisions, exhausted people, ruined urban & rural areas; 20 years after US withdrawal Vietnam remained one of world’s poorest nations

Unpopular communist policies: followed Soviet model collectivization; black market preferred over gov’t agencies

‘Boat people’: massive exodus of ‘boat people’ one of biggest 20th cent. Migrations (1 mi left btw. 1975 & 1990)

Political divisions: ‘re-education’ in concentration camps; emigration to US

+Vietnam: Consequences

Vietnam’s foreign friends & enemies after 1975

Communist Vietnam & the USSR: ‘seesaw’ relations war in 1979 & Soviet economic aid until 1991

Vietnam & American MIAs: resentment during search for Americans missing in action; 62% of Americans believed MIAs still held as prisoners in Hanoi

US–Vietnamese diplomatic relations: in 1991 US stopped International Monetary Fund granting economic aid to Vietnam; in 1994 Bill Clinton started reconciliation

+Relevance: So What?

For India & Vietnam, internationalist explanations important: both had to struggle & fight for independence amidst foreign ‘alien’ intervention

French wanted Vietnamese to assimilate w/ colonizer while British promoted segregation between them & Indians Reflects countries’ patterns in 20th century w/ both

periphery & semi-periphery countries

France: assimilation in Algeria 1950s

Great Britain: segregation in South Africa apartheid

+20th century history goes on… ‘age of globalization’

emphasizes continuous (CCOT) differences