This document provides background information and analysis on decolonization in India and Vietnam. It discusses key events in British rule in India and French rule in Vietnam. Nationalist independence movements employed both violent and non-violent resistance. Theories of decolonization, such as world systems theory, view India and Vietnam as peripheries dominated by colonial powers. Both countries struggled for independence amid foreign intervention. India gained independence through non-violent resistance while Vietnam's independence involved prolonged violence and war. The document examines the consequences of decolonization, including partition in India and the prolonged death, destruction and economic/social impacts in Vietnam. It emphasizes internationalist explanations and reflects patterns of colonial assimilation and segregation.

1. Analyzing Decolonization in India
and Vietnam Through a Global
Perspective
Isabela VittaIB World History

2. +
Background Information
&
Independence
Movements

3. +
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

5. +
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)

6. India

8. +
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

10. +
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

11. +
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

12. +
Historical Theories
&
Explanations

13. + Theories
INDIA 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
Kemper Nationalism employed local
cultural forms: swadeshi
movement pro kadhi
Nationalism employed local
cultural forms: Diem
persecuted Buddhist majority
 US supported assassination

14. +
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

15. +
India
 Core: Great Britain
 Semi-periphery: South Africa
 Periphery: India

16. +
Vietnam
 Core: France
 Semi-periphery: Algeria
 Periphery: Vietnam

17. +
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

18. +
Comparison
&
Historical Relevance

19. +
Overarching Themes
INDIA VIETNAM
Negotiated independence
Incomplete 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

20. +
India:
Question
of
Partition

21. +
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

23. +
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

25. +
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

26. +
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

27. +
20th century history goes on… ‘age of globalization’
emphasizes continuous (CCOT) differences