India and Vietnam
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WORKING PAPER: X TRAVELS BY LEADERS: INDIA AND VIETNAM Himanshu Prabha Ray Susan Mishra 147 WORKING PAPER: X Travels by Leaders: India and Vietnam Himanshu Prabha Ray and Susan Mishra 1. Introduction and Sindhi merchants from Mumbai (then Bombay), The commercial, religious and maritime linkages Sikhs and other Punjabis who worked as security 3 between India and Vietnam date to the ancient period guards and shop owners. An in depth study by and continue in the medieval period as attested by Natasha Pairaudeau reveals the existence of a strong archaeological records and literary references to the Indian community in Vietnam, hailing from various travel of Indian and Vietnamese Buddhist monks. backgrounds and providing the essential man power In the colonial period Vietnam formed a part of the and investment required for the sustenance of the French colony of Indo China, and it is in this time French authorities in Vietnam. Essentially Indians period that migration and settlement of Indians into who migrated to Vietnam did so out of free will and Vietnam occurs. As for the term Indo China Pham pursued a number of economic professions ranging Quynh wrote “one side is Chi-na, while the other is from labourers to attorneys and lawyers. An-Do [India], and thus we have this land of Dong “Indians living in Cochin-china who were not Duong, which is quite rightly given the name of French citizens fell into one of two categories. If they An-Do-Chi-na”.( Pham Quynh, ‘Les annamites au originated from the French Establishments in India Laos’, France-Indochine, no 3,403, 6 March 1931, p. but had chosen not to renounce their personal status, 1; Pham Quynh, ‘vientiane la poussiérieuse’, France- they remained French subjects, albeit with a status Indochine, no. 3,397, 27 February 1931, p. 1.)1 He distinct from the French subjects’ native to Cochin- also notes in his travelogue: “The further we drove china. They were sometimes called ‘non renouncers’ from Hue, the further we stepped into the Indianized {non-renongants). Migrants originating from world, leaving the sinicized realm [of annam] behind parts of India under British rule were classified in us in the distance”.( Pham Quynh, ‘du-lich xu Lao’, Cochin-china, with the Chinese, as ‘Foreign Asians’. Nam Phong, January 1931, no. 158, p. 7 and Pham However, for some purposes, neither they nor the Quynh, ‘impressions du Laos’, France-Indochine, Indian French subjects were legally ‘Asian’.”4 no. 3388, 13 February 1931, p. 1.)2 The Indian migrants from the French colonies Most of the migrants to Vietnam were Tamils in India held a different status viś a viś the British from the French colony of Pondicherry and Karikal subjects in India, as they had a chance to become in south India. Indians migrated in the late 19th French citizens. Natives of French India could century in search of a better life or as civil servants become citizens by declaring themselves ‘renounced’ and staff for the French colony. Indians migrating of their personal laws and stood at an advantage came from varied backgrounds and included low to as compared to natives of Cochin-china for whom middle ranking Civil Servants, South Indian business obtaining French citizenship was a difficult and people, unskilled South Indian labourers, Gujarati arduous task.5 The ‘renouncers’ and Indian French 149 subjects who came to become the backbone of the embankments on the main line trans-Indochina line. colonial French administration and economy in They also were crucial links in the development of Vietnam. Saigon since they undertook major public works as contractors. Samy Appassamy, a renouncer10 who Occupations and jobs related to the French made a fortune during “the building boom of the administration were given to the ‘renouncers’ who 1920s” and in the 1900s, his contracts involved settled mostly in Saigon.6 “From the beginnings of provision of petrol lighting to public buildings. the French conquest of Cochin china, and throughout Xavier de Condappa, presumably taking over from the period of French rule, the demand for French- Samy, undertook petrol lighting for the city of Saigon speaking subordinate and middle-level functionaries from 1908 -1911,11 and other contracts undertaken in Cochin china’s colonial administration was met in by Tamils included wood supply for heating to local part by Tamils from the French of Pondicherry and administrations, and food to prisoners and college Karikal. Indians were also employed as functionaries students.”12 elsewhere in Indochina ….Many Indians working for the Cochin chinese administration were hired in In the field of transport Indians worked as s posts normally reserved for Europeans, on European conductors, guards, and other general employees. terms and with European salaries {a titre europeen, a In the arena of security they were employed as solde d ’Europe). These tended to be middle-ranking policemen, prison guards and other agents of security positions requiring a mastery of French.” 7 and surveillance. For instance, records show that Indians constituted half of the agents in the Saigon The migrating Indians were mainly employed Municipal Force in 1908 and nine of a total of 17 as clerks and accountants uptil the Second World prison guards on the prison island of Poulo Condore War ‘. Amongst these the ‘Writers’ were among in 1917 (and another seven had Corsican names). the earliest Indian functionaries to arrive in Cochin They were also employed by Cochin-china’s Security china followed by clerks and accountants employed Service (Surete) and two guards, Sarny Beamnont in many branches of the service.8 Other areas of and Saverinaden Dupas, were awarded medals of administration where Indians were employed by honour.13 the French authorities included colonial customs, revenue and registration. As per records all three The possibility of employment in varied branches tax inspectors employed in Cochin-china’s treasury of French administration proved to be an impetus in the 1880s were Indian French citizens and in for numerous Indians to migrate to colonial Cochin- the Registration service Indians were employed china. The immense influx of migrants became a as clerks, registrars, and bailiffs. The ‘renouncers’ cause of concern for the authorities in Cochin china constituted, one third of the clerks in Saigon’s Court during the 1890s with regard to cost of repartition of Appeal, in the Saigon Tribunal and three out of that “in 1908 the Cochin-chinese Governor Outrey eleven judges (judges suppliants) within the Court asked his superior in Hanoi to advise the Governor of Appeal in 1938 were also Indians. In addition to for French India (as well as high officials in Reunion this, nine out of thirteen provincial tribunals were and Corsica) that ‘there are no available jobs in the Indian clerk of court or appeal judges.9 service in Cochin-china in the foreseeable future’ and that those hopeful of employment in the public The Indian ‘renouncers’ also found employment service were to be discouraged from coming.”14 in postal and public services such lighthouses and Despite this the migration of Indians continued and railways. Their employment in Lighthouse services as per records even in the 1920’s a number of them is indicated by records of 1897 wherein nine out functioned as magistrates, legal clerks, and bailiffs.15 sixteen names are Tamil. Indians also functioned as overseers of various construction works such Indians were employed in eleventh Colonial as railways. A case in example being Gnanadicom Infantry Regiment (R.I.C.) posted in Saigon and Saverinaden, who in 1908 oversaw the building of Indians who could speak, read and write in French 150 served as those in charge with managing the stores India that were predominant. The two exceptions of the colonial troops.16 “The French troops stopped were the Saigon-based Koothanallur firm of J.M.M. to draw supplies at the ports of Pondicherry and Ishmael Brothers and the powerful Pondicherry Karikal. Indians are known to have joined them firm of G.M. Said (also spelled Syed or Saed), with aboard their ships, coming to serve as soldiers interests centred in Hanoi and across Tonkin. “These in the conquest of Cochin-china, and the other larger firms also generated employment for lower Indochinese territories as they were brought under classes of overseas Tamils as their shopkeepers, French ‘protection’. Some of these soldiers stayed cashiers, and servants. South Indian Muslims from on and settled. Mougamadoucamy (or Mamoucani the French possessions made up a disproportionate in the Vietnamese rendering of his name) wrote in number of employees, as well as petty traders or barely literate French in 1902 to appeal to colonial agents”.21 The Indian Muslims in Saigon were also authorities for financial help, he described how, active in the diamond trade and financial services originally from Karikal, he had arrived in the colony which not included only money lending but also in 1852, ‘comine simpelle solda a la guer Saigon services that helped Indians transfer money back to [sic]’ (‘as a simple soldier in the fight for Saigon’).”17 India as they were involved in money lending. 22 An interesting profession recorded are the Tamil tailors Besides government jobs a number of Indians whose shops were often located in streets adjacent were employed by French firms as accountants to areas where the cloth merchants conducted their and in other subordinate positions. “The colonial trade in Saigon. These Tamil tailors carried cloth and directory of 1913 lists several French trading houses goods into the remote areas of Cochin-china along with Indians in their employ.18 By the 1930s, Indians the riverine routes.23 were employed as accountants in a wide variety of European firms and organisations, from banks to Another trade that was dominated by Indians was oil companies to department stores to professional the cattle trade which provided for the transportation associations.” These posts were open to non- and diary needs of the French colony.