Beyond Borders
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7 ASIAN HISTORY Goodall Beyond Borders Beyond Heather Goodall Beyond Borders Indians, Australians and the Indonesian Revolution, 1939 to 1950 Beyond Borders Asian History The aim of the series is to offer a forum for writers of monographs and occasionally anthologies on Asian history. The Asian History series focuses on cultural and historical studies of politics and intellectual ideas and crosscuts the disciplines of history, political science, sociology and cultural studies. Series Editor Hans Hägerdal, Linnaeus University, Sweden Editorial Board Members Roger Greatrex, Lund University David Henley, Leiden University Angela Schottenhammer, University of Salzburg Deborah Sutton, Lancaster University Beyond Borders Indians, Australians and the Indonesian Revolution, 1939 to 1950 Heather Goodall Amsterdam University Press Cover illustration: Nationalist graffiti in a Surabaya street © Imperial War Museum Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn 978 94 6298 145 4 e-isbn 978 90 4853 110 3 (pdf) doi 10.5117/9789462981454 nur 692 | 697 © Heather Goodall / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2019 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. For Paulie, Emma and Judith Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgments 15 Part I Seeing the Region 1 Everybody’s Revolution 21 Internationalism and nationalism 23 Forces for mobility 27 Sources for the voices of workers, lascars, and sepoys 37 Structure of the book 40 2 Connections and Mobility 47 Colonial armies – Clarrie Campbell 48 Cargoes – Indentured labourers and coolies 53 Traders – T.D. Kundan, Clarrie Campbell 57 Seamen 63 Australian perceptions 64 Indian perceptions 69 Who were the Indian seamen? 74 Working together: Indian and Chinese seamen’s unions 75 Part II An Asian War 3 Dangerous Oceans: Merchant Seamen and War 81 The Silksworth dispute, 1937 82 The Dalfram and Pig-Iron Bob, 1938 85 The Indian strikes of 1939 – Komalam Craig 87 The Atlantic Charter, 14 August 1941 97 Continued Chinese activism – Fred Wong 98 Exiled Indonesian seamen – Tuk Subianto 100 Building networks 102 4 Home and Away: Invaded or Under Arms 103 Home: Living in the Japanese-occupied Indies 104 Away: The Indian Army in Burma – P.R.S. Mani 111 5 Sharing the Home Front: Wartime Australia as Transnational Space 121 War leads to rising awareness 127 The India-Australia Association – Clarrie Campbell 130 The famine 132 The Indian Seamen’s Social Club – Phyllis Johnson 134 Indonesians in Australia – Mohammad Bondan, Haryono 143 Part III The Boycott of Dutch Shipping 6 Boycotting Colonialism: Supporting Indonesian Independence in Australia 153 Visions of new worlds – Abdul Rehman, Dasrath Singh 154 Black-banning Dutch ships, 1945-47 156 7 Seeing the Boycott in the Australian Press 173 Indonesian Independence in Australia 173 The available stereotypes in Australian media 180 The Boycott in Australia 182 8 Indian Perspectives: The Boycott as Anticolonialism 189 The press inside India 189 Forging a union 203 Part IV Fighting Two Empires 9 ‘Surabaya Burns’: Assault on a Republican City 209 Indian troops arrive in Indonesia – P.R.S. Mani 210 Surabaya, the Republican port city – T.D. Kundan 212 The 49th Infantry arrives 214 The unacceptable British ultimatum 224 10 Frenzied Fanatics: Seeing Battle and Boycott in Australia 233 Sources of news in the Australian press 234 Narrowing the focus 241 Indians challenge this imagery: Filming the Boycott 244 11 ‘The Acid Test’: Seeing Surabaya in India 251 Sources 252 Context 253 Local issues 255 Events of the Battle 258 Bombardment narrows the focus 262 ‘Extremists’ 266 Absent voices 269 Part V Aftermath 12 Breaking the Boycott 273 Labour unity splinters 275 BBad nullies – Clarrie Campbell 278 Message read – Kapila Khandvala 286 Re-focusing on Indonesia – Molly Bondan 289 Bringing back the Asian Articles 291 13 Trading for Freedom 295 Freedom and censorship: weighing the costs 296 The rice deal – T.D. Kundan 301 Protecting Indian soldiers – P.R.S. Mani 305 14 Transnational Visions 313 The tightening Dutch blockade 314 To trade or not to trade… 316 Trade after the Partition of India 322 Asian Airlines disaster – Fred Wong 323 Activists in exile – Clarrie Campbell 327 Part VI Reflections 15 Remembering Heroes 333 Conclusions 334 Remembering heroes 343 Implications 345 Visions and afterlives 347 Glossary 351 Spelling 357 Abbreviations 359 Bibliography 361 Index 377 List of Images 2.1 ‘Good Pals’ Gallipoli Truth, 21 August 1915 (Sydney) 51 2.2 T.D. Kundan in Surabaya, c. 1935 Photo from Kundandas family collection, courtesy Manoj Daryanani 60 3.1 Komalam Craig in Sydney, 1939 (with unidentified man, possibly Hari Sahodar Singh) Courtesy of the family of the late Deirdre Morton, from her private collection, interviewed by Devleena Ghosh and Heather Goodall, 24.9.2013 92 4.1 P.R.S. Mani with the Maharaja of Cooch-Behar in Burma; Captain Mani (right, with journalist’s notepad) interviewing the Maharajah of Cooch-Behar, another Indian who enlisted in the British-led Indian Army to fight in Burma Photo held in the P.R.S. Mani Collection, Blake Library, UTS, republished courtesy of the Mani family 116 5.1 Clarrie Campbell, Ada Boys, and Phyllis Johnson with unidentified Papuan seaman on picnic, c. 1944 Courtesy the late Phyllis Johnson, interviewed by Heather Goodall in 2008, 2009, and 2010. Photo from her personal collection 136 5.2 Fred Wong with Phyllis Johnson. From left: Johnno Johnson, Phyllis Johnson, Fred Wong, his elder daugh- ter Gwen, and two friends, c. 1945 With permission from Helen Wong-Liem 143 6.1 Abdul Rehman (centre, seated) and Ligorio de Costa in discussion with Indonesian activists and Clarrie Campbell. From Left: Unidentified Indonesian, Ligurio de Costa, Abdul Rehman, two unidentified Indone- sians, Clarrie Campbell. 12 Oct 1945, Tribune Photo courtesy Mitchell Library 160 6.2 Dasrath Singh, organizing secretary Indian Seamen’s Union in Australia. Published with the article ‘Dutch Gestapo Trail Indian’ 9 November 1945, Tribune Photo courtesy Mitchell Library 161 6.3 Sylvia Mullins being attacked by Dutch troops with a water hose during a demonstration on the Sydney docks against the British ship Stirling Castle, which was then taking Dutch troops to the Netherlands East Indies. 7 November 1945, The Sun Photo courtesy Mitchell Library 169 8.1 ‘When Gulliver Awakes’, 3 November 1945, Free Press Journal of Bombay. The cartoonist’s signature is illegible, but could have been RK Laxman Reproduced courtesy of Free Press Journal, Mumbai 194 9.1 Street scene in Surabaya during a lull in the fighting, showing the Nationalist graffiti commonly written in English and Hindustani on the walls of buildings. Indian troops guard the inside of the building while, out in the street, Indonesian workers sweep away debris from the SEAC bombing Photograph courtesy Imperial War Museum, SE_005639 (c) IWM 215 9.2 Indian gunners with 3.7 inch guns near Surabaya Photograph courtesy Imperial War Museum, SE_006735 (c) IWM 227 10.1 ‘Seamen Demonstrate at Dutch Shipping Company office’, 19 December 1945, SMH p. 4 Photograph courtesy Mitchell Library 243 10.2 Abdul Rehman and Clarrie Campbell taking part in the re-enactment of the activist pursuit of the Dutch ship Patras as it attempted to leave Sydney Harbour manned by a strike-breaking Indian crew Film still from Joris Ivens’ 1946 film Indonesia Calling!, published with permission from the Joris Ivens Foun- dation, Nijmegen, the Netherlands 248 10.3 Indian unionists re-enacting the return of the Indian crew to Sydney Harbour after they mutinied on the Dutch ship Patras, convinced by the pursuing activists to join the strike. Although acting the parts of naïve, newly arrived Indians who were prepared to break the boycott, the men had all chosen to show their union membership by wearing the badge of the Indian Seamen’s Union in Australia Film still from Joris Ivens’ 1946 film, Indonesia Calling! published with permission from the Joris Ivens Foun- dation, Nijmegen, the Netherlands 249 13.1 T.D. Kundan (standing, second from right) toasting President Sukarno (second from left), undated, c. early 1950s Photo from Kundandas family collection, courtesy Manoj Daryanani 304 13.2 Free Press Journal of Bombay, 10 October 1946, upper section of page 1, showing context for Mani’s article on Indian defectors, ‘A New Unity Forged Abroad Among Indian Soldiers’ (top right column) Mani’s own clipping, held in the P.R.S. Mani Papers, Blake Library, UTS; image reproduced courtesy Free Press Journal, Mumbai 311 14.1 Clarrie Campbell, in 1971, hosting ten Australian women trade unionists including Phyllis Johnson (fifth from left in dark glasses) in the Singapore Automobile Club, of which Campbell was Vice President. 11 May 1971, Singapore Herald Photo provided by the late Phyllis Johnson from her clipping collection, published with her permission after being scanned by the author in 2008 330 15.1 Kundan’s name inscribed on Wall of Heroes, 2015: Number 48 in the second column from the left Photograph by the author, taken on visit to Heroes’ Cemetery with Mrs Priya Vashdev, T.D. Kundan’s youngest daughter 349 Preface and Acknowledgments This book crosses many borders. Working with Aboriginal Australians as fellow historians, I have become increasingly aware of the diversity and tensions within the artificial borders erected between ‘White’ and ‘Black’ Australians. Many of the Aboriginal people I know had backgrounds which included South Asian seamen and African, African-American, and Chinese gold-miners.