Indonesian Republic Formed
p Occupation by the Japanese imperialists did not put an end to the national liberation war in Indonesia. Underground organisations of various political tendencies continued their work among the populace, the students and soldiers of the Indonesian armed forces which Japan had created for her own purposes. Yet until the very end of the war there existed in Indonesia neither a single resistance movement centre nor a programme to guide a nationwide armed uprising. The Japanese dealt summarily with members of the underground organisations. But as the German defeat drew nearer and anti-Japanese activities in the occupied countries increased, Japan was forced to change her tactics.
p On January 1, 1945, a commission was created to study the problem of Indonesian independence. Its opening session was addressed by Sukarno, who demanded immediate complete independence. Developing the theses he had advanced back in the 1930s, Sukarno dwelt at length on the five principles, or "Pantj a Sila”, on which the Indonesian Republic should be founded, namely, nationalism, internationalism, democracy, prosperity of the people, and religious tolerance. He wound up with the slogan "Liberty or Death!”, and this speech of his was accepted by the Indonesian fighters for independence as their programme.
p On August 17, 1945, with Japan’s defeat an accomplished fact, Sukarno, acting on behalf of the people, declared Indonesia’s independence. He and Hatta were elected president and vicepresident, respectively. The constitution of the August revolution 409 was adopted, the basic part of which had been worked out while the country was still under Japanese occupation.
p The moment chosen for the declaration of independence was fully propitious, for, on the one hand, the Japanese occupation force was no longer in a position to offer resistance now that the act of unconditional surrender had been signed, and, on the other hand, the armed forces of Indonesia’s former masters and their allies were gone. The promulgation of the republic was thus effected without any interference. A central government and a provisional parliament were set up. The new government received support throughout the country; and local government agencies were organised. The partisan detachments and units of the regular volunteer forces came to form the nucleus of a national army.
p Neither Holland nor any of the other colonial powers, however, had any intention of recognising Indonesia’s independence, and towards the end of September 1945, British troops began to land in Java, under the pretext of disarming the Japanese. With them came van Mook, the Dutch governor-general pro tern.
p On November 10, armed resistance began in Surabaya, provoked by high-handed action on the part of the British military command (the day is celebrated annually in Indonesia as Heroes’ Day). Thus the fledgling Republic found itself forced to fight its former colonial masters. The government moved to Jogjakarta in the interior of Java, which became the temporary capital. All patriotic elements joined forces to repel the imperialist aggression. Moreover, progressive forces everywhere backed the Indonesian Republic. In the spring of 1946, D. Z. Manuilsky, delegate of the Ukraine, speaking for the Soviet Union, bluntly put before the United Nations the question of the imperialist aggression against Indonesia and the consequent threat to national security and world peace. In Holland, Australia and elsewhere workers refused to load arms and equipment for the Dutch forces and came out openly in support of the just cause of the Indonesian people. The Indonesian revolution re-echoed in other Asiatic countries that were fighting for their independence. In India, where the national liberation struggle was on the upswing, a movement began to gather force for the immediate recall of Indian soldiers, who formed a considerable part of the British expeditionary corps in Indonesia.
p While fighting a war against heavy odds, the Republic carried on its organisational work. In November the first cabinet responsible to parliament was formed, headed by Sutan Sjahrir, a Rightwing Socialist. New deputies representing various parties and mass organisations were admitted to parliament membership. Trade unions were gradually re-established and a trade union centre was soon set up. Peasant organisations began to appear. Political parties emerged from underground or were re-established.
410p The Indonesian Communist Party was few in numbers, many Communists who had fought the Japanese invaders having perished before the country s independence was proclaimed. The Party’s Central Committee decided that it should remain underground, carrying on its work through the Socialist Party headed by Amir Sjarifuddin and the Indonesian Labour Party headed by the Communist Setiadjit, just back from abroad, where he had sought refuge. The membership of both these parties grew rapidly. But the Communists, who had waged a steadfast struggle in defence of the Republic, in the interests of the people and to bolster the country’s internal strength, now operated largely under an assumed name, so to speak, and this made it impossible for them to make full use of the results of that struggle in order to extend the Party’s influence. Amir Sjarifuddin’s Socialist Party, moreover, made the mistake of joining with the Socialist Party formed late in 1946 by Sjahrir. Sjarifuddin’s great popularity, resulting from his pre-war patriotic activities and his participation in the struggle against the Japanese, enabled Sjahrir, whose anti-national and pro-imperialist sentiments were growing stronger and stronger, and his followers to strengthen their own influence.
p Towards the close of 1945 a National Party was formed, which appropriated to itself the prestige of the pre-revolutionary party of the same name and, using this prestige and supporting the five "Pantja Sila" principles, soon became one of the most influential parties in the land. Its leadership stood generally for the interests of the progressive national bourgeoisie, though its Right wing sought first to strengthen the class supremacy of the bourgeoisie. One of the numerically strongest parties during the early postrevolution period was the Mashumi, which had gathered in all organisations founded on the religious tenets of Islam. It was also the most heterogenous of all in respect of leadership and general membership. Its Right-wing leadership supported the big comprador and money-lending bourgeoisie and landlords, opposed all radical democratic reforms, and preached outright anti-communism. Its Left wing was associated with various strata of the bourgeoisie, as well as with the peasantry and the lower strata of the patriotically-minded Moslem priesthood, which helped the party win over important segments of the populace. The national unity achieved in the course of the struggle against Dutch intervention was to bring success in the unequal armed encounter with the powerful imperialist foe; but it could not prevent contradictions and collisions in the sphere of domestic and foreign policy.
p The heroic resistance put up by the Indonesian people and the weight of progressive public opinion all over the world compelled the Dutch to agree to negotiations with the Republic. Opened in 1946 at Linggadjati, through the good offices of a representative 411 of Great Britain, these negotiations culminated in the signing of an agreement in November of the same year which was given the form of a treaty in March 1947, in the teeth of violent opposition on the part of the reactionary extremists in Holland and the Right-wing forces in Indonesia.
p In accordance with the Linggadjati agreement Holland accorded de facto recognition to the Indonesian Republic, comprising the islands of Java, Madoera and Sumatra; and the territories occupied by the Dutch and British troops were subject to inclusion therein. The Republic undertook to co-operate with Holland in the creation of the United States of Indonesia, a federated democratic sovereign state, which, together with Holland, would form the Netherlands-Indonesian Union, with the queen as head of state. The Dutch imperialists immediately proceeded to break the terms of the treaty. Thus, they sent fresh troops and equipment to Indonesia and did not withdraw from the occupied areas. With the support of the country’s extreme reactionary elements they proceeded to create puppet states headed by figureheads of their own choosing.
p The ready acquiescence of Sjahrir’s government in Dutch demands brought its downfall, in June 1947, when a new cabinet was formed, headed by Sjarifuddin and with a preponderance of democratic elements. On July 20, the Dutch resumed large-scale military operations. Employing modern weapons, they were able to penetrate deep into the territory of the Republic, though the Indonesian people put up a heroic resistance and the enemy rear was harassed by the partisans and national army units. Democratic elements the world over voiced their indignation, and the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries once again tabled the Indonesian issue before the United Nations.
p Blockaded, and with a considerable part of its territory held by the interventionists, the Republic found it difficult to carry on its resistance. Moreover, many in Indonesia still fostered hopes and illusions of forthcoming American aid in winning independence and strengthening the national economy, as well as of help from the Good Offices Committee comprising the representatives of Australia, Belgium and the United States, set up by the United Nations. Biased actually in favour of the Dutch, the Good Offices Committee initiated talks, which ended in the signing, on January 17, 1948, of an agreement, on board the American warship Renville. This agreement confirmed the provisions of the Linggadjati agreement and established a demarcation line between the Republic and the Dutch-held territory, which coincided with a line drawn through the farthest points of Dutch advance.
p This served to substantially reduce the area controlled by the Republic, which was precisely the aim of the Dutch, who were 412 interested in bolstering the puppet states they had set up in Indonesia. Soon after the signing of the Renville Agreement the Mashumi and other reactionary parties succeeded in forcing the government of Amir Sjarifuddin to resign, and a new, " presidential" cabinet was formed under vice-president Hatta, in which the Mashumi Party played a prominent role while the Left-wing parties were not represented. This was followed by a split within the united Socialist Party, Sutan Sjahrir forming an independent Socialist Party of Indonesia, which gradually became one of the leading anti-national forces. Yet even the Hatta government, for all its willingness to make a deal with the imperialists and its antidemocratic and above all anti-communist internal policy, could not comply with the Dutch demands. And the Dutch went ahead setting up a provisional government of the United States of Indonesia without the Republic, hoping with its help to do away with Indonesian independence.
p Such were the conditions when the Communist Party of Indonesia held a conference, in August 1948, which carried a resolution entitled "New Road for the Republic of Indonesia”, providing for the merging of the Communist Party, the Socialist Party under Amir Sjarifuddin and the Labour Party into a single Communist Party of Indonesia. The Conference met under the chairmanship of M. Musso, one of the oldest members of the Communist Party, recently back after many years of self-imposed exile. Musso was made secretary-general of the new party. The above-mentioned resolution set before the party the task of fighting for a united national front led by the working class; yet it was not without certain sectarian errors. In September reactionary elements provoked an armed clash in Madioen, and this clash, as well as a campaign of terror unleashed against progressive organisations, brought death to Musso, Sjarifuddin, Setiadjit and other leaders of the Communist Party. As to the party itself, it carried on on a semi-legal basis.
p This outbreak of civil war weakened the Republic, and the Dutch were quick to profit by the occasion: they resumed military operations without a warning and in December took Jogjakarta. Sukarno and most of the members of his government were arrested and deported from Java. Nevertheless, powerful support given Indonesia by the socialist countries, India and other states prevented Holland from re-establishing its colonial rule over the country.
p In the long run Holland was compelled to free the Indonesian leaders and consent to a Round-Table Conference at the Hague, with the participation of a representative of the Good Offices Committee. The Conference resulted in the signing, on November 2, 1949, of an agreement whereby Holland recognised the United States of Indonesia as a sovereign state. It included numerous 413 reservations, however, affecting the Republic’s status as an independent state and providing for the re-establishment of Dutch capital in its former rights and infringing, through the Netherlands-Indonesian Union, upon the political sovereignty of the United States of Indonesia. The problem of West Irian remained open in view of Holland’s refusal to have it incorporated with the new state and it was assumed that it would be settled through subsequent negotiations.
p The Dutch did not seem to realise that the post-war balance of power, as between the forces of reaction and those of democracy, and the existence of a world socialist system, would present unpredictable opportunities once independence was accorded, provided there was unity among the national forces and a nationaldemocratic government was in power. In future, the Indonesian people’s struggle to abrogate the onerous treaties concluded at the Round-Table Conference, to achieve the liberation of West Irian, develop the national economy, and end the dominance of foreign monopolies would be closely associated with the struggle of democracy against reaction in Indonesia itself.
p One after another the Indonesian states voted in favour of adherence to the Republic and the hopes of the Dutch that Indonesia might be partitioned faded accordingly. By the fifth anniversary of independence, that is, by August 1950, a union republic had been re-established and a provisional constitution adopted in lieu of the constitution of the United States of Indonesia. The democratic forces enjoyed greater prestige again. The Communist Party went about the re-establishment of its various organisations; trade unions and peasant associations were growing stronger. The bourgeoisie and the bourgeois-landlord parties were in process of differentiation. The Right wing of the Mashumi Party became the centre of overt reaction associated with counter-revolutionary plots and separatist revolts, while its Left wing became an independent organisation known as Nahdatul Ulama.
p In 1953 the sequence of reactionary cabinets ceded place to a government headed by Ali Sastroamidjojo, Leftist leader of the National Party. Indonesia established diplomatic relations with the USSR and the other socialist countries. On August 10, 1954, an agreement with Holland was signed, dissolving the NetherlandsIndonesian Union; but it took two more years to annul the rest of the onerous treaties resulting from the Round-Table Conference, and a law abrogating these agreements, passed by parliament, was signed by Sukarno only in May 1956. The forces of reaction within the country were not yet broken and the positions of the progressive elements were not yet sufficiently strong.
p On September 30, 1965, several army units under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Untung staged a coup d’etat, set up a 414 Revolutionary Council, seized the radio broadcasting station at Djakarta, and announced that their action had been undertaken in order to prevent the seizure of power by rightist military elements headed by General Nasution. By the evening of October 1, however, the insurrection had been put down. Using the incident as a pretext, the Indonesian reactionaries unleashed a brutal campaign of anti-communist terror throughout the land, which brought death to several hundred thousand Indonesians, members of the Communist Party and other leftist organisations. Resorting to vicious mass reprisals, arrests, and intimidation, the reactionary elements of the Indonesian bourgeoisie, big landowners and the military gained control of the entire archipelago. General Soeharto, who had “distinguished” himself in the suppression of the "movement of September 30”, was granted extraordinary powers to conduct mass repressions and to form a new government. President Sukarno was gradually shorn of power and subsequently even judicial proceedings were begun against him. The workers and the working peasantry, who constitute the main mass of the country’s population, lost all they had gained with the aid of the Communists. Lands turned over to landless and land-poor peasants by virtue of the agrarian reform reverted to the landlords and kulaks, and exploitation of the workers was back again in all its cruelty. Foreign monopolies were back in operation, and native enterprises, unable to compete, were being strangled. The Indonesian intellectuals, particularly the scores of thousands of school-teachers who lost their jobs, found themselves in a difficult position.
Indonesia’s foreign policy also undergone a change: it was gradually abandoning the principles of anti-imperialist struggle and neutralism.
Burma Wins Independence
p In Burma, as in Indonesia, armed resistance to the Japanese invaders went hand in hand with efforts to use all legal means to win independence. Despite the fact that it was included in the so-called Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and a treaty of alliance with Japan had been signed, actual power remained in the hands of the Japanese. Dissent was on the increase among the Burmese people, and so was the desire to unite all the national forces. In August 1944, an illegal Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL) was formed, constituting de facto such a national front and comprising the Communist and other revolutionary parties. Aung San and Than Tun, a Communist, were elected chairman and secretary, respectively.
p Operating in deep conspiracy, the AFPFL steadily gained greater and greater influence, and by the end of 1944 had a 415 membership of 50,000. The so-called Defence Army, created by the Japanese in the expectation that it could be used in support of their own forces, was looked upon by the patriotic elements as a fighting force that would play an important part in the coming armed uprising. Every effort was made to co-ordinate the struggle against the Japanese invaders with the military operations of the Allied forces. The revolt of the Burmese garrison at Mandalay, in March 1945, greatly aided the advance begun by British troops from across the Indian frontier. Yet the British Government refused to come to terms with the national liberation movement even while Burma was under Japanese occupation.
p The National Army (as the Defence Army was now known) and the partisan forces, which had started a national uprising, were the decisive factor in driving the Japanese out of Burma. As new areas were liberated legal AFPFL organisations were set up, frequently functioning as local government bodies.
p As compared with Indonesia, Burma had the advantage of having a national front with a centralised leadership by the time the Second World War came to an end. Offsetting this advantage, however, was the presence of important British forces in Burma when the Japanese occupational regime was terminated; for the work of re-establishing the British administration was begun as soon as the country was liberated. A kind of diarchy came to exist then, a situation which, of course, could not last long.
p In September 1945, an agreement was reached between the British authorities and the AFPFL, whereby the Burmese National Army was to be disbanded and its officer personnel and rank and file were to be incorporated in the regular army. It was not long, however, before the Burmese came to realise the need of having armed forces of their own that could resist the British encroachments. A mass para-military People’s Volunteer Organisation was set up, composed chiefly of semi-proletarian rural elements and headed by Aung San. It was this organisation that became the support of the AFPFL and the Communist Party.
p In October 1945, the British Headquarters solemnly turned the state power over to a civil administration headed by the governorgeneral who had held that post before the war. This act served merely to give a stronger impetus to the anti-imperialist movement. A determined strike movement developed in 1946, involving rice mill and lumber mill workers, dockers and personnel of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, etc. Nor were the peasants willing to put up with the return of the landowners and the old oppression.
p The First All-Burma Congress of the AFPFL, meeting early in 1946, condemned colonialism, and demanded a provisional national government and elections to a constituent assembly with powers to make decisions regarding the country’s future. In April it was 416 announced that a constituent assembly would be convened in a year hence to work out a constitution for Burma as a self-governing state within the framework of the British empire. This was unacceptable to the country’s patriotic elements, and a warning was voiced by Aung San at a mass meeting that if the British Government didn’t transfer state power to the Burmese people the latter would seize it by force of arms. It must be said here that the AFPFL still remained an embodiment of the national front, but within it a process of re-alignment of forces and consolidation of the rightist elements was going on.
p The anti-imperialist movement, meanwhile, gathered momentum among the masses. A wave of strikes and peasant actions swept the country in the late summer. Even the police force of Rangoon, the country’s capital, went on strike. When the general political strike was at its height, talks with rightist leaders and the AFPFL leadership resulted in the formation of a coalition Executive Council, which included five AFPFL representatives, Aung San taking the post of vice-chairman.
p Differences of opinion regarding membership in the Executive Council led to a split within the AFPFL and the withdrawal of the Communists from that body. But the anti-imperialist struggle went on notwithstanding the split in the national front. The League presented an ultimatum to Great Britain, demanding acceptance of Burmese independence, recognition of the Executive Council as the Provisional National Government, and elections to a Constituent Assembly. In January 1947, a Burmese delegation headed by Aung San departed for London to conduct negotiations, leaving Burma with the independence movement gaining momentum. There were mass demonstrations in the streets and the People’s Volunteer Organisation was preparing for armed struggle. The political crisis had reached its peak.
p Such was the situation when an agreement was signed in London, on January 27, 1947, by Attlee, prime minister of the Labour government, and Aung San. Under the terms of the agreement Great Britain consented to hold, in April, elections to a constituent assembly which would decide whether or not Burma would remain a member of the British Commonwealth. Britain hoped for a decision in the affirmative, taking into account the existing national contradictions and separatist tendencies of the leaders of the various national minorities.
p Despite all the efforts of the reactionary elements to the contrary, the elections proved the popularity of the League, which gained 194 seats out of 210. An AFPFL conference, convened in May under the chairmanship of Aung San, discussed the draft constitution and carried a resolution to proclaim the country an independent sovereign republic to be known as the Union of Burma, 417 which would also include the areas peopled by the various national minorities.
p The draft constitution was incorporated in the resolution on independence submitted by Aung San and unanimously approved by the Constituent Assembly convened in June 1947. Aung San proposed that negotiations should be begun with Great Britain regarding the transfer of state power in accordance with the decisions of the Constituent Assembly. A goodwill mission headed by U Nu left for London accordingly, but the British governing circles dragged out the settlement in the hope of making a deal with the Burmese reactionaries.
p On July 19, 1947, Rangoon became the scene of a terrorist attack without precedent: an armed band burst into the conference hall where the Executive Council was in session and, firing pointblank, killed Aung San and seven Council members. The death of the most popular leader of the Burmese patriots at the hands of assassins hired by the reactionaries dealt the country’s patriotic forces a heavy blow.
p This act of terrorism served merely to fan the flames of antiimperialist feeling, however. Great Britain was eventually compelled to recognise the Constituent Assembly’s right to rule on the future of Burma without waiting for the end of the Executive Council’s session and to regard the Council as constituting a national government as from August 2, 1947, which meant the granting to Burma of a dominion status. U Nu became independent Burma’s first prime minister.
p On September 24 the new constitution of the Union of Burma was unanimously approved by the Constituent Assembly. Besides proclaiming the democratic freedoms the constitution made provision for the demands of the people in the social sphere, as in regard to the agrarian problem and the protection of workers’ rights. The constitution received the approval of all the patriotic forces of Burma.
On January 4, 1948, Burma’s independence was proclaimed and state power transferred to the new government in a solemn ceremony at Rangoon. The British flag was hauled down and the colours of the Union of Burma run up in its stead.
End of British Rule in India
p When India was declared a belligerent—without being asked her consent—and the governor-general was given broad powers by the British Government in the matter of dealing with organisations and persons who might be "defence risks”, indignation ran high throughout the country. In the autumn of 1939 the executive 418 committee of the National Congress Party declared that British consent to full self-government for India was a sine qua condition for her support of Great Britain in the war. When the war began the National Congress Party had the greatest and most representative membership of all, including not only Hindus, but also numerous members of various other religious communities. The Communist Party, driven underground, worked through the Congress in the interests of a united national front.
p Anti-war demonstrations, strikes and other action swept the country from end to end. Resorting to measures of repression, the British made efforts at the same time to gain the support of the propertied classes. The British Government, however, and the various missions arriving in India did not go beyond promising to grant India the status of a dominion "in the shortest possible time" after the end of the war. The National Congress countered with a demand for the immediate creation of a responsible national government. There were efforts to organise a non-violent disobedience campaign under the leadership of Gandhi so as to bring pressure to bear on Great Britain, and these led to mass arrests and prohibition of any activities on the part of the National Congress. Many Congress leaders found themselves in prison most of the time.
p As the war progressed, the Indian Communist Party issued a call for all-out support of the war effort of the anti-Hitler coalition, considering that India’s prospects of independence were closely linked to the victory of the democratic forces, which now rested mainly with the Soviet Union. The National Congress stood for non-cooperation with Britain all through the war. Subhas Chandra Bose, one of its former leftist leaders, formed and headed a National Indian Liberation Army in Japanese-occupied Burma, which was made up of Indians living in Indo-China and Indian war prisoners. The Indian bourgeoisie saw a chance to make money out of the war. Leading Indian capitalists and particularly the upper monopolist strata were able to improve their economic position to some extent, but there was no spurt of industrial development comparable to that of the First World War.
p The people at large were worse off during the war. Agriculture, with its vestiges of the feudal system, continued to deteriorate, and the peasants faced impoverishment. The working class, now increasingly exploited, suffered from rising prices, as did the other strata of urban dwellers. Towards the end of the war South and Central India were seriously threatened by famine. In this situation India was ripe for a vigorous upsurge of the movement for national liberation and social rights.
p The imminent defeat of nazi Germany and her European satellites, assured by the victories of the Soviet Army, spurred Indian 419 bourgeois political leaders to renewed activity as early as 1944. In line with its efforts on behalf of the creation of a national government as a step towards independence, the National Congress leadership attempted to reach an agreement with the Moslem League, which demanded a separate Moslem Pakistan. Gandhi, recently liberated from imprisonment on account of ill health, discussed the problem in September 1944, with M. Jinnah, the leader of the Moslem League, but no agreement was reached. Mutual desire for united action did, however, lead to an agreement between the president of the Congress and the secretarygeneral of the League, early in 1945, under which Congress and League were to have 40 per cent of the seats each in the national government, the remaining 20 per cent going to the other organisations.
p The consequences of the victory over the fascist coalition, such as the greatly increased prestige of the USSR, the emergence of People’s Democracies in Europe, and the growing liberation struggle in Asia, caused Great Britain serious alarm. A conference was convened on May 14, 1945, by A. Wavell, viceroy of India, at Simla, with the National Congress represented by Gandhi and also J. Nehru and V. Patel, both released from prison for the occasion, and with the participation of the leaders of the Moslem League and other religious communities. Great Britain offered to give the Moslems (represented by the League) and the Hindus ( represented by the Congress) 40 per cent each of the seats in a government that would be an expanded Executive Committee responsible to the viceroy, and the remaining 20 per cent to the religious minorities. In insisting on representation for religious communities, rather than for political parties as agreed by the secretary-general of the League and the president of the Congress, the British imperialists sought to aggravate relations between Congress and League, foster Hindu-Moslem disunity, and then hold the Indian organisations responsible for the failure of efforts to form a provisional government.
p The Simla Conference coincided in point of time with parliamentary elections in England, which brought the Labourists to power. There were many in India who hoped that this event would lead to important concessions. But the Labour government followed essentially the policy of their predecessors in regard to India. It announced elections, between November 1945 and April 1946, to the central and provincial legislative assemblies, from among whose members it was proposed later to set up a body for the purpose of drafting a new constitution. Great Britain thus hoped to decoy the masses into a peaceful parliamentary campaign and use the elections to increase the discord between Hindus and Moslems.
420p During the second half of 1945 India became the scene of numerous strikes, which often assumed a political colouring and produced clashes with the police. The declaration of independence in Vietnam and Indonesia and the growing anti-imperialist struggle in East and Southeast Asia gave a new impetus to the anti-imperialist movement in India. Two events highly incensed the country: the sending of Indian soldiers to quell the liberation revolutions in Vietnam and Indonesia and the British-organised trial of captured officers of the army formed by S. C. Bose (killed in an air crash in 1945).
p Members of that army were held by most Indians to be fighters for the country’s independence, not traitors, and the trial, conducted in Calcutta, produced mass demonstrations, street fighting, bloody clashes with the police. The movement spread to Bombay and other cities, and in spite of the efforts of National Congress leaders to restrict it to peaceful protests it developed into a campaign against British domination.
p There was unrest in the armed forces as well. A strike of air force flyers began in January 1946; and in February navy personnel went on strike at Bombay. Starting on board one ship, it was supported by all twenty vessels then in Bombay harbour. Demonstrating seamen carried such slogans as "Long Live the Revolution!”, "Hindus and Moslems, Unite!”, "Down with British Imperialism!”, etc. Dockers and harbour shop workers joined the strikers. Hindu and Moslem delegates worked side by side in the strike committee. And it was necessary for the leaders of both Congress and League, alarmed at the scale and aims of the strike, to intervene, before it was called off by the strike committee.
p Towards the close of 1945 and early in 1946 anti-imperialist and anti-feudal actions of the peasants grew in number. The growing revolutionary crisis and the prospect of the nation as a whole being drawn into the struggle were clear enough evidence that Great Britain was no longer able to exercise complete sway over India. The partitioning of India into two states seemed to the British to be the only way of controlling the anti-imperialist movement and maintaining their status. Efforts to set up a provisional government with limited powers based on equal Moslem and Hindu representation were made in the spring of 1946 but came to nothing: the National Congress refused to participate and the Moslem League soon announced that it would not send its representatives either to a provisional government or to a Constituent Assembly.
p In the legislative assemblies elections the League campaigned under the slogan of a separate Pakistan state, but it was able to win a majority only in the Moslem electorate and in areas with a 421 predominant Moslem population. All told, the Congress gained 930 seats in all of the provinces and the League 497. In June 1946, elections were held to the Constituent Assembly, which consisted of 296 deputies representing the various provincial legislative assemblies, the Congress winning 192 seats, the League 70, while 10 went to the other parties. 93 members of the Constituent Assembly represented the princely states. Despite the Congress’s refusal to take part in the provisional government, the viceroy asked J. Nehru (who had been elected by the June session of the Executive Committee of the Congress as its chairman) to form a government in accordance with the conditions specified by the British authorities during the past spring and providing for the following distribution of seats: Congress—6, League—5, the “minorities”—3. The National Congress accepted, but the Moslem League claimed that the interests of the Moslem population would not be sufficiently fully taken into account, refused to join in the government, and declared that it would henceforth campaign openly for a partitioning of the subcontinent.
p August 16 was proclaimed a Pakistan Campaign Day. At Calcutta a demonstration was staged in protest against the formation of a provisional government. Several Hindu shops were pillaged by agents provocateurs in the employ of the British, and this led to bloody clashes between Hindus and Moslems. Moslem League extremists and bands formed by a reactionary Hindu organisation pillaged homes and killed each other. In a few workers’ districts mixed Hindu-Moslem self-defence units were formed through the efforts of the Communists, and these were able to stave off any further pillaging. Nevertheless, Hindu-Moslem massacres spread through Bengal and Bihar, and reached Bombay.
p The plan to turn the anti-imperialist movement into an internecine massacre fell through, however. A strike movement swept the land, and the anti-feudal struggle of the peasantry spread, especially since early in 1947. The struggle against British oppression engulfed many of the princely states as well. The British authorities found themselves unable to deal with the situation. In this atmosphere the actual authority and power of the provisional government headed by Nehru proved greater than Great Britain had expected. In a statement on international policy Nehru declared that India would seek to establish friendly relations with all states, including the USSR; support the national liberation movement; and fight colonialism.
p On February 27, 1947, the head of the British Labour government stated that Great Britain would transfer state power in India to the Indians not later than July 1948. Should no coordinated constitution be worked out by that time, state power would be transferred to the provincial governments. Meantime, in 422 an effort to bar any understanding between Congress and League, the British provoked a Hindu-Moslem massacre in the Punjab. Attlee’s statement and the bloody clash in the Punjab, which the League was determined to include in the future Moslem state, induced Congress to give its consent to the creation of Pakistan, though with the provision that it should include only such districts that had a preponderant Moslem population.
p In the beginning of June 1947, the British Government made up its mind to divide the subcontinent into two states. The legislative assemblies of Bengal and the Punjab were to establish the boundaries of the two provinces. Both the new states were to be granted dominion status. As to the princely states, these were to decide independently whether to join with one of the dominions or to continue their present relationship with Great Britain.
p The boundary dispute between Bengal and Pakistan [422•1 culminated in massacre and destruction on religious grounds unprecedented in scale. It is estimated that over 500,000 lost their lives, while the number of those who suffered one way or another during the strife and the shifting of populations reached 12,000,000. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus abandoned home and property to fly from the areas to be given to Pakistan; and, conversely, as many Moslem refugees fled from the areas to be ceded to India. The problem of homeless and destitute refugees assumed enormous proportions.
p Progressive elements, notably the Communists, strove to avert bloodshed and to achieve Hindu-Moslem unity. Gandhi was especially active in this respect, arguing that Moslems and Hindus need not be enemies and that their enmity played into the hands of a third party. His campaign for unity earned him the hatred of the extreme reactionaries, and he was assassinated in 1948. His death was viewed as a calamity by the peoples of the subcontinent.
p Thus, as a result of a common struggle of the people against imperialist rule Great Britain had been forced, for the first time in her history, to grant dominion status to a colony with a " coloured" population. This spoke of the growing crisis of the colonial system. The British monopolists were disappointed in their expectations of maintaining their political and economic domination on the subcontinent, as in their hopes of holding on at least to the larger princely states that remained outside the new dominions. Even Hyderabad, one of the largest of these, whose efforts to stay out of the Indian Union had been seconded by the British, ended by joining with it in 1948. By 1949 all the princely states except Kashmir had been admitted into the Union.
423p The Indian Independence Act went into effect on August 15, 1947. Throughout 1948 and 1949 work was carried on on the new constitution and preparations for its implementation.
The constitution was finally adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949, and on January 26, 1950, India became a sovereign democratic republic, without, however, rupturing its ties with the British Commonwealth of Nations.
Independent States of Southeast Asia
p After the Second World War the political map of Southeast Asia was radically revised.
p Thailand, which had taken part in the war on the side of Japan and had been to all intents and purposes under Japanese occupation, found itself freed of Japanese rule. Yet the insignificance of the democratic forces in the country led to the establishment of a landlord-comprador dictatorship which helped subjugate it to American capital.
p In view of the patriotic movement against the Japanese that had developed in the Philippines and in an atmosphere of a growing liberation movement throughout Asia, the United States was constrained to proclaim the formal independence of the Philippines. On July 4, 1946, the Philippine Republic was proclaimed a sovereign state, though the United States kept its military bases in the islands and retained its other prerogatives, and American capital could continue exploiting the country.
p In February 1948, that is, soon after the emergence of the dominions of India and Pakistan the British were compelled to grant dominion status to the island of Ceylon. And during the 1950s the people of Ceylon got the British to relinquish their military bases on the island, which contributed to its political independence. [423•1
p In Malaya, the national liberation movement that swept the country after the Second World War developed, in 1948, into an armed struggle. Dragging on and on, this colonial war made the British realise their inability to cope with the situation. Resorting to devious manoeuvres, Great Britain finally made a deal with the Malayan propertied classes, and in August 1957, recognised the country’s independence.
p When India became an independent state an end was put to the isolation of the Himalayan state of Nepal from the rest of the world, which had been artificially fostered by Great Britain. In 1951 Nepal was proclaimed a constitutional monarchy and, in 424 its capacity as a sovereign state, proceeded to establish diplomatic relations with other countries.
The reader is already aware of the particularly strenuous struggle against colonial rule on the peninsula of Indo-China. It should be added that by virtue of the Geneva Agreements of 1954 the French imperialists were forced not only to withdraw from Vietnam, but also to recognise the independence of Laos and Cambodia.