Christopher bayly tim harper forgotten wars freedom and re sia (v5 0)

Forgotten Wars BY THE SAM E AUTHORS Forgotten Armies: Britain’s Asian empire and the war with Japan CHRISTOPHER BAYLY AND TIM HARPER Forgotten Wars The End of Britain’s Asian Empire ALLEN LANE an imprint of PENGUIN BOOKS ALLEN LANE Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Mairangi Bay, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England www.penguin.com First published 2007 Copyright © Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper, 2007 The moral right of the authors has been asserted All rights reserved Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication 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 prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-14-190980-6 Contents List of Illustrations Maps Some Key Characters Preface Prologue: An Unending War 1945: Interregnum The New Asia The last journey of Subhas Chandra Bose Nations without states Three weeks in Malaya The fall of Syonan 1945: The Pains of Victory Burma intransigent India: the key Bengal on the brink The reckoning 1945: A Second Colonial Conquest ‘Black Market Administration’ A world upside down Liberal imperialism and New Democracy ‘Malaya for the Malays, not the Malayans’ 1945: The First Wars of Peace The crescent regained Britain’s forgotten war in Vietnam Britain and the birth of Indonesia Freedom or death in Surabaya 1946: Freedom without Borders The passing of the Malayan Spring Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat British and Indian mutinies Dorman-Smith’s Waterloo A new world order? 1946: One Empire Unravels, Another Is Born The killing begins Britain’s terminal crisis in Burma The burial of the dead Business as usual in Malaya 1947: At Freedom’s Gate The last days of the Raj The crescent fragments: Bengal divided Tragedy in Rangoon Disaster approaches 1947: Malaya on the Brink The crescent fragments: orphans of empire Malaya’s forgotten regiments The strange disappearance of Mr Wright ‘Beware, the danger from the mountain’ A people’s constitution 1948: A Bloody Dawn Boys’ Day in Burma The genesis of communist rebellion A summer of anarchy Karens and Britons India recedes, India reborn 10 1948: The Malayan Revolution A third world war? The frontier erupts Calls to arms Sten guns and stengahs The road to Batang Kali 11 1949: The Centre Barely Holds Britain, India and the coming of the Cold War The centre barely holds The battle for the ulu Freedom and revolution The generation of 1950 Epilogue: The End of Britain’s Asian Empire Freedom, slowly and gently Freedom from fear? Flawed memories A flawed inheritance Notes Bibliography Index List of Illustrations Surrendered Japanese troops in Burma, August 1945 (Imperial War Museum) Japanese troops clearing the Singapore Padang before the surrender ceremony, 12 September 1945 (Imperial War Museum) Lt General Seishiro Itagaki signing the surrender, Singapore, 12 September 1945 (Empics) Mountbatten announces the surrender of the Japanese in Singapore, September, 1945 (Corbis) A forgotten army: surrendered Japanese in north Malaya, November 1945 (Empics) Seagrave’s return, 1945 (Getty) Leclerc and Gracey with Japanese sword of surrender, Saigon, 1945 (Corbis) Soldiers of the Parachute Regiment, Java, 1945 (Imperial War Museum) Bengal sappers and miners watch the reprisal burning of the village of Bekassi, Java, 1945 (Imperial War Museum) 10 Imperialism’s return? Christison in Java, 1946 (Getty) 11 Sukarno addresses an ‘ocean’ rally, Java, 1946 (Getty) 12 Charisma and revolution: Sukarno, Java, 1946 (Getty) 13 Nehru’s arrival at Kalling Airport, Singapore, April 1946 (Imperial War Museum) 14 Macdonald inspects the Malay Regiment, Kuala Lumpur, 1946 (Imperial War Museum) 15 Dorman Smith leaves Burma, June 1946 (Imperial War Museum) 16 Muslim rioters and the corpse of a Hindu, Calcutta, August 1946 (Corbis) 17 India’s interim government at their swearing in, Delhi 1946 (Corbis) 18 Aung San and Attlee, London, January 1947 (Getty) 19 Aung San and family, 1947 (Popperfoto) 20 The Mountbattens in Delhi, eve of independence, August 1947 (Getty) 21 Celebrating independence in Calcutta, August 1947 (Getty) 22 Ending the Burmese days: Rance and Burma’s president, January 1948 (Corbis) 23 Communist suspect, Malaya c 1949 (Imperial War Museum) 24 Bren gun and stengah: rubber planter in Malaya, 1949 (Getty) 25 Chinese peasants being arrested by Malay policemen, April 1949 (Getty) 26 Dyak trackers in Malaya, c 1949 (Imperial War Museum) 27 The sultan expects: the ruler of Selangor inspects Malay special constables on rubber estate, 1949 (Imperial War Museum) .. .Forgotten Wars BY THE SAM E AUTHORS Forgotten Armies: Britain’s Asian empire and the war with Japan CHRISTOPHER BAYLY AND TIM HARPER Forgotten Wars The End of Britain’s Asian Empire ALLEN... were diseased and malnourished Those surrendered in Malaya, Indo-China and Indonesia were likely to be relatively healthy and better fed There were emotional announcements in camps and work places... bands, coolie labourers, sex slaves and carpetbaggers were still on the march They were to march on for decades more as the British Empire dissolved and new nations were born amid racial and religious