DECOLONIZATION The process of decolonization which started after World War I utterly reshaped the world. Rather than occurring as a coherent event, decolo- nization varied from country to country in its shape and duration, and has been evaluated in many different ways over time. But is decoloniza- tion complete? What replaces former colonial controls after independence? Are Western historical frameworks adequate to describe decolonization? Decolonization brings together the most cutting-edge thinking by major historians of decolonization, including both analytical articles by contemporary historians, and writings by statesmen and intellectual leaders of the decolonization movement such as Ho Chi Minh and Jawaharlal Nehru. The chapters in this volume present a move away from both the older Western as well as nationalist views of decoloniza- tion, toweards a deeper historical view of it as a wider and still unfinished process. This is a groundbreaking survey of a subject central to modern global history. Prasenjit Duara is Professor of History and East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Culture, Power and the State: Rural Society in North China, 1900–1942 (1988), Rescuing History from the Nation: Questioning Narratives of Modern China (1997) and Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern (2003). Series editor Jack R. Censer is Professor of History at George Mason University. REWRITING HISTORIES Series editor: Jack R. Censer ATLANTIC AMERICAN SOCIETIES From Columbus through Abolition Edited by J. R. McNeill and Alan Karras DECOLONIZATION Perspectives from now and then Edited by Prasenjit Duara DIVERSITY AND UNITY IN EARLY NORTH AMERICA Edited by Philip Morgan THE FRENCH REVOLUTION Recent Debates and Controversies Edited by Gary Kates GENDER AND AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE 1890 Edited by Barbara Melosh GLOBAL FEMINISMS SINCE 1945 Edited by Bonnie G. Smith THE HOLOCAUST Origins, Implementation, Aftermath Edited by Omer Bartov THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WORK IN NINETEENTH- CENTURY EUROPE Edited by Lenard R. Berlanstein THE ISRAEL/PALESTINE QUESTION Edited by Ilan Pappe NAZISM AND GERMAN SOCIETY, 1933–1945 Edited by David Crew THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR An International History Edited by David Painter and Melvyn Leffler REFORMATION TO REVOLUTION Edited by Margo Todd THE RENAISSANCE Italy and Abroad Edited by John Jeffries Martin THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1989 Edited by Vladimir Tismaneanu SEGREGATION AND APARTHEID IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY SOUTH AFRICA Edited by William Beinart and Saul Dubow SOCIETY AND CULTURE IN THE SLAVE SOUTH Edited by J. William Harris STALINISM New Directions Edited by Sheila Fitzpatrick TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHINA New Approaches Edited by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom DECOLONIZATION Perspectives from now and then Edited by Prasenjit Duara First published 2004 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. © 2003 Prasenjit Duara All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data ISBN 0-203-48552-1 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-56955-5 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–24840x (hbk) ISBN 0–415–248418 (pbk) vi CONTENTS Series Page ii Acknowledgements xi Notes on contributors xiv Map of Africa, Asia and Europe after World War II xvii 1 Introduction: the decolonization of Asia and Africa in the twentieth century 1 PRASENJIT DUARA Part I In their own words 2 San min chu I (The three principles of the people): selections from Lecture 4 21 SUN YAT-SEN 3 The path that led me to Leninism 29 HO CHI MINH 4 The importance of the national idea: changes necessary in India 32 JAWAHARLAL NEHRU 5 Algeria unveiled 42 FRANTZ FANON 6 Diagnosing an illness 56 JALAL AL-I AHMAD vii CONTENTS 7 Society and ideology 64 KWAME NKRUMAH Part II Imperialism and nationalism 8 Contested hegemony: the Great War and the Afro-Asian assault on the civilizing mission ideology 78 MICHAEL ADAS 9 The world of history and the world-as-history: twentieth-century theories of imperialism 101 PATRICK WOLFE 10 The revolt against the West 118 GEOFFREY BARRACLOUGH 11 My ambition is much higher than independence’: US power, the UN world, the nation-state, and their critics 131 JOHN D. KELLY AND MARTHA KAPLAN 12 Empire preserv’d: how the Americans put anti- communism before anti-imperialism 152 WILLIAM ROGER LOUIS AND RONALD ROBINSON 13 The troubled history of partition 162 RADHA KUMAR Part III Regions and themes 14 ` Don’t paint nationalism red!’: national revolution and socialist anti-imperialism 176 RONALD GRIGOR SUNY 15 Islamic renewal and the ‘failure of the West’ 199 JOHN O. VOLL viii CONTENTS 16 The dialectics of decolonization: nationalism and labour movements in post-war French Africa 218 FREDERICK COOPER 17 Social construction of idealized images of women in colonial Korea: the ‘new woman’ versus ‘motherhood’ 239 JIWEON SHIN 18 National divisions in Indochina’s decolonization 253 STEIN TØNNESSON 19 Colonial formations and deformations: Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam 278 BRUCE CUMINGS Index 299 ix SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE Few subjects are as appropriate as decolonization for this series. In part, because of the increasing interconnection among all parts of the globe, the subject retains political ramifications. Whether colonization and decolonization have completed their course even remains under debate, and continues to influence the writing and revision of this phenomenon. This volume begins with the views of significant past participants in decolonization who sought to frame the process that would free their own areas from outside domination. Although scholars’ views constitute the last two sections of this collection and all regard colonization nega- tively, they hold differing assumptions about the current place of the colonizers and the decolonized. Because of its limited embrace of old- style colonization but in its role in the modern world order, the place of the United States plays a significant and varying role in these analyses. With so many basic assumptions still undecided, this collection brings to the fore some of the best contributions in a field still much in the process of being rewritten. The vibrancy of the debates, coupled to theoretical awareness and careful research, makes this volume a guidepost for expe- rienced as well as novice historians. x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The publication of this book owes a great deal to series editor Jack Censer who persuaded me as to its feasibility and got me truly excited about its importance. His support and light handed direction have been exactly what I needed. All the contributors who wrote original peices or revised older ones for the volume, for the most part, accepted or negoti- ated my editorial scalpel with graciousness. The editorial team at Routledge headed by Vicky Peterson and including Sunje Redies, Alex Ballatine, Chantelle Johnson and Andy Soutter were generous, courteous and efficent and considerably eased the vexing business of producing a book. I extend my gratitude to all of you. Note: Because of considerations of space and readability required of a Reader, most foot- notes have been removed from the texts. Exceptions have been made for quotations. Readers interested in pursuing the sources should turn to the original texts. A bibliography for further readings on the subject follows many of the articles. We should like to thank the following copyright holders for permission to reproduce their work. Introduction: Written for the volume by Prasenjit Duara Chapter 1: Reprinted from Sun Yat-sen, San Min Chu I The Three Principles of the People trans. Frank W. Price, ed. L.T. Chen (Shanghai, China: China Committee, Institute of Pacific Relations 1927). Selections from Lecture 4, pp. 76-100 Chapter 2: Reprinted from Ho Chi-Minh, ‘The Path that led me to Leninism’ [April 1960] from Ho Chi-Minh, Selected Articles and Speeches; ed. and intro. Jack Woddis, pp. 156-158, by permission of International Publishers Co Inc Chapter 3: Reprinted from Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India (1985) pp. 515-523, by permission of Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund on behalf of Sonia Gandhi xi Chapter 4: Reprinted from Frantz Fanon, ‘Algeria Unveiled’ from Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism (1960) pp. 35-49, 58-64. Copyright © 1960 by Monthly Review Press, by permission of Monthly Review Foundation Chapter 5: Reprinted from Jalal-al-I Ahmad, Occidentosis: A Plague from the West trans. R. Campbell; annotations and intro. Hamid Algar, Chapter 1, pp. 27-35, Berkeley, Mizan Press, 1984 Chapter 6: Reprinted from Kwame Nkrumah, Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization (1970) pp. 56-77. Copyright © 1970 by Monthly Review Press, by permission of Monthly Review Foundation Chapter 7: ’Contested Hegemony: The Great War and the Afro-Asian Assault on the Civilizing Mission Ideology’ written for this volume by Michael Adas Chapter 8: Reprinted from Patrick Wolfe, ‘Imperalism and History: A Century of Theory from Marx to Postcolonialism’ American Historical Review, vol. 102, no. 2, [April 1997], pp. 338-420 by permission of the American Historical Association Chapter 9: Reprinted from Geoffrey Barraclough, An Introduction to Contemporary History, Penguin Books, 1967 Chapter 10: ‘“My ambition is much higher than independence”: US Power, the UN World, the Nation-state, and their Critics’ written for this volume by John D. Kelly and Martha Kaplan Chapter 11: Reprinted from William Roger Louis and Ronald Robinson, ‘Empire preserv’d: How Americans put anti-Communism before anti- imperialism’, Times Literary Supplement, 5 May 1995, pp.