THE
NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN INDO-CHINA
IMPORTANT TERMS/ PERSONALITIES:
1.
INDO-CHINA:
It is a small peninsula in South-East Asia. It consists
of
Laos,
Cambodia and Vietnam.
2.
NATIONALISM: It is the feeling of oneness among the people of a country.
3.
COLONY:
It is a country which is ruled by another powerful country.
4.
TRANS INDO-CHINA RAILWAY: This railway network was built by the French. It
connected northern and southern parts of Vietnam with China and Thailand. It
was completed in 1910.
5.
PAUL BERNARD: He was a famous writer and a
policy maker. He wanted the French to take steps to develop Vietnam.
6.
INDENTURED LABOUR: It means
contract labour, employed in the plantations of Vietnam. Employers had the
power to punish and jail the workers.
7.
CIVILISING MISSION [OR] WHITE MAN’S BURDEN]: Europeans
believed that they belonged to superior civilisation. They wanted to spread
western civilisation in Asia and Africa. Colonialism was used for this purpose.
8.
ASIATIC FRANCE: The French wanted to create a
westernised colony in Vietnam. They took steps to educate Vietnamese for this
purpose.
9.
TONKIN FREE SCHOOL: It was started in 1907 to provide western education.
Science, hygiene and French were taught along with the other subjects. The
school encouraged students to adopt western style of living. Students had to
cut their hair short.
10 COCHIN CHINA: The southern
part of Vietnam was called Cochin China.
10.
PARTY OF YOUNG ANNAN: In 1920’s the students of Vietnam formed a political
party called the Party of Young Annan. They published a journal called Annanese
student.
11.
SEWERS: They are underground drainage channels meant
for taking sewage water away.
12.
CONFUCIANISM: It is a Chinese religion
founded by Confucius. It gives importance to good conduct and relationships.
13.
SCHOLAR’S REVOLT: It was an
armed revolt led by the officers of the Kings Court. It was against the spread
of Christianity and the French rule.
14.
SYNCRETIC RELIGION: It is a combination of many religious beliefs
and local traditions.
15.
HOA HAO MOVEMENT: It was a
religious movement started by Huynh Phu So in 1939. He performed miracles and
helped the poor. He opposed child marriages, useless expenditure, gambling and
the use of liquor. The French called him mad [MAD BONZE] and sent him to a
mental hospital. Later he was sent out of Vietnam.
16.
PHAN BOI CHAU: He was a Vietnamese
nationalist. He formed the revolutionary society in 1903. He wrote a book
titled ‘The History Of The Loss Of Vietnam’. He wanted to overthrow the French
rule with the help of the Monarchy.
17.
PHAN CHU TRINH: He was a Vietnamese
nationalist. He was against Monarchy. He wanted to establish a Modern
Democratic Republic. He supported the French ideas of Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity.
18.
CONCENTRATION CAMPS: They were the
jails meant for those who opposed the French rule. The prisoners were made to
do a lot of hard work.
19.
PRINCE CHONG DE: He belonged to
the Vietnamese royal family which had no power. He became the head of the
Revolutionary Society founded by Phan Boi Chau.
20.
LIANG QICHAO: He was a Chinese reformer. His thoughts and ideas influenced Phan Boi chau.
21.
GO EAST MOVEMENT: Nearly 300
students of Vietnam went to Japan to get modern education. Their real aim was
to overthrow the French rule with the help of Japan. They set up Restoration
Society in Tokyo.
22.
SUN YAT SEN: He was a Chinese nationalist.
In 1911, he overthrew the Chinese monarchy and established a republic.
23.
THE GREAT DEPRESSION: It started in
1930 in USA. It is a situation in which the production was more than the
demand. Therefore goods remained unsold and factories closed down. People lost
their jobs.
24.
ELECTRICAL FUSES OF VIETNAM: Vietnamese
provinces of Nghe An and Ha Trinh were called Electrical Fuses. They were the
first provinces to start revolts.
25.
VIET CONG SAN DANG [VIET CONG]: It was the
communist party of Vietnam founded by Ho Chi Minh in 1930.
26.
VIETMINH: The league for the independence of Vietnam was
formed by Ho Chi Minh to fight for freedom. It was a people’s army. It fought
against the Japanese invaders. It defeated French in the battle of Dien Bien
Phu.
27.
BATTLE OF DIEN BIEN PHU: It was a battle
fought between the French and the Vietminh in 1954. The French were defeated in
this battle.
28.
GENEVA CONFERENCE OF 1954: It was
organised by the U.N. It was decided to divide Vietnam into two parts. The
North under Communist rule and South under Bao Dai[Puppet of the U.S.A]
29.
NGO DINH DIEN: He overthrew Bao Dai’s government in South Vietnam and established a
dictatorial government. He killed or imprisoned all those who opposed him. He
allowed Christianity and banned Buddhism.
30.
NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT [NLF]: NLF was formed
by the people of South Vietnam. They wanted to overthrow the American supported
government and unite with North Vietnam. It fought against the American forces
along with the North Vietnamese troops.
31.
COMMUNISM: It
is scientific socialism. It is an ideology based on human equality. It supports
a workers government.
32.
DOMINO EFFECT: USA believed that if Vietnam
becomes a communist country it would have some effect on the neighbouring countries too and they would all
become communist. The policy of domino effect grew out of USA’s fear for the
spread of communism.
33.
TRUNG SISTERS: They were two Vietnamese women
who fought against the Chinese domination. Phan Boi Chau wrote a play based on
their lives. When they lost the war, they killed themselves. The Vietnamese
people considered the Trung sisters as
great patriots.
34.
HO CHI MINH’S TRAIL: It was a
network of roads and footpaths which connected North Vietnam with South
Vietnam.
35.
NHAT LINH: She was a famous Vietnamese novelist. She
wrote a novel in which a girl refuses a forced marriage and goes with her lover
who is a nationalist worker.
36.
TRIEU AU: She organized an army to fight against the
Chinese. She lived in the forest and led the war. She killed herself when she
lost the war.
37.
NGUYEN THI XUAN: She was a
Vietnamese women soldier. She shot down an American jet with just 20 bullets.
38.
COLONS: The French citizens settled
in Vietnam were called Colons.
Q.23. Discuss the protest of Saigon Native Girls School
Ans:
In 1926 a major protest erupted in the Saigon Native Girls School. A
Vietnamese girl sitting in one of the front seats was asked to move to the back
of the class and allow a local French student to occupy the front bench. She
refused. The principal, being French expelled her. When angry students
protested, they too were expelled, leading to a further spread of open
protests. Seeing the situation getting out of control, the government forced
the school to take the students back.
Q.24. Name the political parties formed by students.
Ans:
By the 1920s, students were forming various political parties, such as the
Party of Young Annan, and publishing nationalist journals such as the
Annanese Student.
Q.25. Schools thus became an important place for political and cultural
battles. Explain.
Ans:
- Schools became an important
place for political and cultural battles.
- The French sought to strengthen
their rule in Vietnam through the control of education.
- They tried to change the
values, norms and perceptions of the people, to make them believe in the
superiority of French civilization and the inferiority of the Vietnamese.
- Vietnamese intellectuals, on
the other hand, feared that Vietnam was losing not just control over its
territory but its very identity: its own culture and customs were being
devalued and the people were developing a master-slave mentality.
- The battle against French
colonial education became part of the larger battle against colonialism
and for independence.
Q.26. Examine the reasons for eruption of plague in Hanoi.
Ans:
- When the French set about
creating a modern Vietnam, they decided to rebuild Hanoi.
- The latest ideas about
architecture and modern engineering skills were employed to build a new
and ‘modern’ city.
- In 1903, the modern part of
Hanoi was struck by bubonic plague.
- The French part of Hanoi was
built as a beautiful and clean city with wide avenues and a well-laid-out
sewer system, while the ‘native quarter’ was not provided with any modern
facilities.
- The refuse from the old city
drained straight out into the river or, during heavy rains or floods,
overflowed into the streets.
- Thus what was installed to
create a hygienic environment in the French city became the cause of the
plague.
- The large sewers in the modern
part of the city, a symbol of modernity, were an ideal and protected
breeding ground for rats.
- The sewers also served as a
great transport system, allowing the rats to move around the city without
any problem.
- The rats began to enter the
well-cared-for homes of the French through the sewage pipes.
- This led to the outbreak of
plague in Hanoi.
Q.27. write a note on rat hunt.
Ans:
- A rat hunt was started in 1902.
- The French hired Vietnamese
workers and paid them for each rat they caught.
- Rats began to be caught in
thousands: on 30 May, for instance, 20,000 were caught but still there
seemed to be no end.
- For the Vietnamese the rat hunt
seemed to provide an early lesson in the success of collective bargaining.
- Those who did the dirty work of
entering sewers found that if they came together they could negotiate a
higher bounty.
- They also discovered innovative
ways to profit from this situation.
- The bounty was paid when a tail
was given as proof that a rat had been killed.
- So the rat-catchers took to
just clipping the tails and releasing the rats, so that the process could
be repeated, over and over again.
- Some people, in fact, began
raising rats to earn a bounty.
- Finally the program was
scrapped.
Q.28. what were religious beliefs of people of Vietnam?
Ans:
Vietnam’s religious beliefs were a mixture of Buddhism, Confucianism and
local practices. Christianity, introduced by French missionaries, was
intolerant of this easygoing attitude and viewed the Vietnamese tendency to
revere the supernatural as something to be corrected.
Q.29. write a short note on scholar’s revolt.
Ans:
- An early movement against
French control and the spread of Christianity was the Scholars Revolt in
1868.
- This revolt was led by
officials at the imperial court angered by the spread of Catholicism and
French power.
- They led a general uprising in
Ngu An and Ha Tien provinces where over a thousand Catholics were killed.
- Catholic missionaries had been
active in winning converts since the early seventeenth century, and by the
middle of the eighteenth century had converted some 300,000.
- The French crushed the movement
but this uprising served to inspire other patriots to rise up against
them.
Q.30. How was religious beliefs spread among the peasants?
Ans:
- The elites in Vietnam were
educated in Chinese and Confucianism.
- But religious beliefs among the
peasantry were shaped by a variety of syncretic traditions that combined
Buddhism and local beliefs.
- There were many popular
religions in Vietnam that were spread by people who claimed to have seen a
vision of God.
Q.31. write a note on Hao Hao movement. How did the French tried to suppress
the movement?
Ans:
- Hoa Hao movement began in 1939
and gained great popularity in the fertile Mekong delta area.
- The founder of Hoa Hao was a
man called Huynh Phu So.
- He performed miracles and
helped the poor. His criticism against useless expenditure had a wide
appeal.
- He also opposed the sale of
child brides, gambling and the use of alcohol and opium.
- The French tried to suppress
the movement inspired by Huynh Phu So.
- They declared him mad, called
him the Mad Bonze, and put him in a mental asylum.
- Interestingly, the doctor who
had to prove him insane became his follower, and finally in 1941, even the
French doctors declared that he was sane.
- The French authorities exiled
him to Laos and sent many of his followers to concentration camps.
Q.32. who was Phan Boi Chau?
Ans:
Phan Boi Chau became a major figure in the anti-colonial resistance from the
time he formed the Revolutionary Society (Duy Tan Hoi) in 1903, with Prince
Cuong De as the head.
Q.33. Discuss the contribution of Phan Boi Chau.
Ans:
- Phan Boi Chau was a nationalist
educated in the Confucian tradition.
- He met the Chinese reformer
Liang Qichao in Yokohama in 1905.
- Phan’s most influential book, The History of the Loss of Vietnam was
written under the strong influence and advice of Qichao.
- It became a widely read
bestseller in Vietnam and China and was even made into a play.
- The book focuses on two
connected themes: the loss of sovereignty and the severing of ties with
China, ties that bound the elites of the two countries within a shared
culture.
Q.34. who was Phan Boi Chau?
Ans:
- Phan Boi Chau was a nationalist
who was intensely hostile to the monarchy and opposed to the idea of
resisting the French with the help of the court.
- His desire was to establish a
democratic republic. Profoundly influenced by the democratic ideals of the
West
- He did not want a wholesale
rejection of Western civilization.
- He accepted the French
revolutionary ideal of liberty but charged the French for not abiding by
the ideal.
- He demanded that the French set
up legal and educational institutions, and develop AGRICULTURE and INDUSTRIES.1
Q.35. what is meant by republic?
Ans:
It is a form of government based on popular consent and popular
representation. It is based on the power of the people as opposed to monarchy
Q.36. what was ‘go east movement’?
Ans:
- In the first decade of the
twentieth century a ‘go east movement’ became popular.
- In 1907-08 some 300 Vietnamese
students went to Japan to acquire modern education.
- For many of them the primary
objective was to drive out the French from Vietnam, overthrow the puppet
emperor and re-establish the Nguyen dynasty that had been deposed by the
French.
- These nationalists looked for
foreign arms and help.
- They appealed to the Japanese
as fellow Asians Japan had modernized itself and had resisted colonization
by the West.
- Besides, its victory over
Russia in 1907 proved its military capabilities.
- Vietnamese students established
a branch of the Restoration Society in Tokyo.
Q.37. How did developments in China inspire Vietnamese nationalists?
Ans:
- Developments in China also
inspired Vietnamese nationalists.
- In 1911, the long established
monarchy in China was overthrown by a popular movement under Sun Yat-sen,
and a Republic was set up.
- Inspired by these developments,
Vietnamese students organised the Association for the Restoration of
Vietnam.
- The nature of the anti-French
independence movement changed.
- The objective was no longer to
set up a constitutional monarchy but a democratic republic.
Q.38. when was the Vietnamese Communist Party established?
Ans:
In February 1930, Ho Chi Minh brought together competing nationalist groups
to establish the Vietnamese Communist (Vietnam Cong San Dang) Party, later
renamed the Indo-Chinese Communist Party. He was inspired by the militant
demonstrations of the European communist parties.
Q.39. Describe the formation of The Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Ans:
In 1940 Japan occupied Vietnam, as part of its imperial drive to control
Southeast Asia. So nationalists now had to fight against the Japanese as well
as the French. The League for the Independence of Vietnam (Viet Nam Doc Lap
Dong Minh), which came to be known as the Vietminh, fought the Japanese
occupation and recaptured Hanoi in September 1945. The Democratic Republic of
Vietnam was formed and Ho Chi Minh became Chairman.
Q.40. what was the immediate challenge faced by the new republic?
Ans:
- The new republic faced a number
of challenges.
- The French tried to regain
control by using the emperor, Bao Dai, as their puppet.
- Faced with the French
offensive, the Vietminh were forced to retreat to the hills.
- After eight years of fighting,
the French were defeated in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu.
Q.41. What was the impact of the division of Vietnam?
Ans:
- In the peace negotiations in
Geneva that followed the French defeat, the Vietnamese were persuaded to
accept the division of the country.
- North and south were split:
- Ho Chi Minh and the communists
took power in the north while Bao Dai’s regime was put in power in the
south.
- This division set in motion a
series of events that turned Vietnam into a battlefield bringing death and
destruction to its people as well as the environment.
- The Bao Dai regime was soon
overthrown by a coup led by Ngo Dinh Diem.
- Diem built a repressive and
authoritarian government.
- Anyone who opposed him was
called a communist and was jailed and killed.
- Diem retained Ordinance 10, a
French law that permitted Christianity but outlawed Buddhism.
Q.42. how did Dien Bien Phu became a very important symbol of struggle?
Ans:
- At Dien Bien Phu the French
were outwitted by the Vietminh forces led by General Vo Nguyen Giap.
- The French Commander, Navarre,
had not thought of all the problems he would face in the battle.
- The valley where French
garrisons were located was flooded in the monsoon and the area was covered
with bushes, making it difficult to move troops and tanks, or trace the
Vietminh anti-aircraft guns hidden in the jungle.
- From their base in the hills,
the Vietminh surrounded the French garrisons in the valley below, digging
trenches and tunnels to move without being detected.
- Supplies and reinforcements
could not reach the besieged French garrison, the wounded French soldiers
could not be moved, and the French airstrip became unusable because of
continuous artillery fire.
- Dien Bien Phu became a very
important symbol of struggle.
- It strengthened Vietminh
conviction in their capacity to fight powerful imperial forces through
determination and proper strategy.
- Stories of the battle were
retold in villages and cities to inspire people.
Q.43. how did the entry of U.S.A. affected Vietnam?
Ans:
- US entry into the war marked a
new phase that proved costly to the Vietnamese as well as to the
Americans.
- The phase of struggle with the
US was brutal.
- Thousands of US troops arrived
equipped with heavy weapons and tanks and backed by the most powerful
bombers of the time – B52s.
- The wide spread attacks and use
of chemical weapons – Napalm, Agent Orange, and phosphorous bombs – destroyed many
villages and decimated jungles. Civilians died in large numbers.
Q.44. what was the effect of Vietnam War in the U.S.A.?
Ans:
- The effect of the war was felt
within the US as well.
- Many were critical of the
government for getting involved in a war that they saw as indefensible.
- When the youth were drafted for
the war, the anger spread.
- Compulsory service in the armed
forces, however, could be waived for university graduates.
- This meant that many of those
sent to fight did not belong to the privileged elite but were minorities
and children of working-class families.
- The US media and films played a
major role in both supporting as well as criticizing the war. Hollywood
made films in support of the war, such as John Wayne’s Green Berets
Q.45. what led to the entry of U.S.A. in Vietnam War? What was its effect?
Ans:
- The war grew out of a fear
among US policy-planners that the victory of the Ho Chi Minh government
would start a domino effect
- Communist governments would be
established in other countries in the area.
- They underestimated the power
of nationalism to move people to action, inspire them to sacrifice their
home and family, live under horrific conditions, and fight for independence.
- They underestimated the power
of a small country to fight the most technologically advanced country in
the world.
Q.46. what was Napalm?
Ans:
Napalm was an organic compound used to thicken gasoline for firebombs. The
mixture burns slowly and when it comes in contact with surfaces like the human
body, it sticks and continues to burn. Developed in the US, it was used in the
Second World War. Despite an international outcry, it was used in Vietnam.
Q.47. write a short note on Ho Chi Minh trail.
Ans:
- The story of the Ho Chi Minh
trail is one way of understanding the nature of the war that the
Vietnamese fought against the US.
- It symbolizes how the
Vietnamese used their limited resources to great advantage.
- The trail, an immense network
of footpaths and roads, was used to transport men and materials from the
north to the south.
- The trail had support bases and
hospitals along the way. In some parts supplies were transported in
trucks, but mostly they were carried by porters, who were mainly women.
- These porters carried about 25
kilos on their backs, or about 70 kilos on their bicycles.
- Most of the trail was outside
Vietnam in neighboring Laos and Cambodia with branch lines extending into
South Vietnam.
- The US regularly bombed this
trail trying to disrupt supplies, but efforts to destroy this important
supply line by intensive bombing failed because they were rebuilt very
quickly.
Q.48. Discuss the role of women in Vietnam.
Ans:
- Women in Vietnam traditionally
enjoyed greater equality than in China, particularly among the lower
classes, but they had only limited freedom to determine their future and
played no role in public life.
- As the nationalist movement
grew, the status of women came to be questioned and a new image of
womanhood emerged.
- Writers and political thinkers
began idealizing women who rebelled against social norms.
- In the 1930s, a famous novel by
Nhat Linh caused a scandal because it showed a woman leaving a forced
marriage and marrying someone of her choice, someone who was involved in nationalist
politics.
- This rebellion against social
conventions marked the arrival of the new woman in Vietnamese society.
Q.49. How was rebel women glorified in Vietnam?
Ans:
- Rebel women of the past were
celebrated.
- In 1913, the nationalist Phan
Boi Chau wrote a play based on the lives of the Trung sisters who had
fought against Chinese domination in 39-43 CE.
- He depicted these sisters as
patriots fighting to save the Vietnamese nation from the Chinese.
- After Phan’s play the Trung
sisters came to be idealized and glorified.
- They were depicted in
paintings, plays and novels as representing the indomitable will and the
intense patriotism of the Vietnamese.
- Other women rebels of the past
were part of the popular nationalist lore. One of the most venerated was
Trieu Au who lived in the third century CE.
- Orphaned in childhood, she
lived with her brother. On growing up she left home, went into the
jungles, organized a large army and resisted Chinese rule.
- Finally, when her army was
crushed, she drowned herself. She became a sacred figure, not just a
martyr who fought for the honour of the country.
- Nationalists popularized her
image to inspire people to action.
Q.50. How did women help in the Vietnam War?
Ans:
- Women were represented not only
as warriors but also as workers:
- They were shown with a rifle in
one hand and a hammer in the other.
- Whether young or old, women
began to be depicted as selflessly working and fighting to save the
country.
- As casualties in the war
increased in the 1960s, women were urged to join the struggle in larger
numbers.
- Many women responded and joined
the resistance movement. They helped in nursing the wounded, constructing
underground rooms and tunnels and fighting the enemy.
- Along the Ho Chi Minh trail
young volunteers kept open 2,195 km of strategic roads and guarded 2,500
key points.
- They built six airstrips,
neutralized tens of thousands of bombs, transported tens of thousands of
kilograms of cargo, weapons and food and shot down fifteen planes.
- Between 1965 and 1975, of the
17,000 youth who worked on the trail, 70 to 80 per cent were women.
- One military historian argues
that there were 1.5 million women in the regular army, the militia, the
local forces and professional teams.
Q.51. when did the war between Vietnam and U.S. end?
Ans:
A peace settlement was signed in Paris in January 1974. This ended conflict
with the US but fighting between the Saigon regime and the NLF continued. The
NLF occupied the presidential palace in Saigon on 30 April 1975 and unified
Vietnam.
NCERT TEXTBOOK QUESTIONS
Q.1. Write a note on what was meant by the ‘civilising
mission’ of the colonisers.
Ans. Unlike other colonisers, the French colonisers did not
only aim for economic exploitation of their colonies. The French colonising mission was also
driven by the idea of a ‘civilising mission’. Just as the British had done in India, the
French claimed that they would introduce modern, civilised life to the Vietnamese. The French
believed that like all the Europeans it was their duty to civilise the colonies even if this meant
destruction of local cultures, religion and traditions.
Q.2. Explain the following —
(a) Only one-thirds of the students in Vietnam would pass the school level
examinations.
(b) The French began building canals and draining lands in
the Mekong delta.
(c) The Government made the Saigon Native
Girls School
take back the students it had expelled.
(d) Rats were most common in the modern, newly built areas
of Hanoi.
Ans. (a) Just about one-thirds of the students in Vietnam would
pass the school examinations. This happened mainly as a well-planned policy was followed to
fail the final year students. This meant they could never qualify for the white collar jobs. On
an average 2/3rd of the students were failed.
(b) The French began building canals and draining lands in
the Mekong delta. They did this to gain increase in cultivation especially of the rice crop.
By doing this, they would be able to sell rice in the international market and earn a lot of
money.
(c) At Saigon Native Girls the School, a problem came up in
1926. A Vietnamese girl refused to vacate her front seat for a local French student. For
this, she and later her supporting students were expelled from the school. Soon the agitation
spread and protests began.
When the situation became pretty serious the French
government forced the school authorities to reinstate the girls in the school.
(d) The French wanted to modernise Vietnam. They
modernised a part of Hanoi
city with beautiful architecture and clean, wide roads. They planned a
good sewage system for the area. But the other part of Hanoi was filthy and unattended to. The rats
from the filthy areas soon reached the clean part of the city through sewage
systems and soon modern Hanoi
was suffering from rats everywhere and the accompanying plague.
Q.3. Describe the ideas behind the Tonkin Free
School. To what extent is
it a typical example of colonial ideas in Vietnam?
Ans. Like other colonisers, the French also thought that
they were on a civilising mission. Thus the Tonkin
Free School
was opened to give Western education. The school taught science, hygiene
and French, other than the common subjects. For these three
subjects the students had to attend evening classes and also pay
separately. The students were
not only made to attend these classes but they were asked to sport
modern looks too. A
typical example of this was that Vietnamese were asked to cut off their
long hair and adopt a
short hair cut which was absolutely against their culture.
Q.4. What was Phan Chu Trinh’s objective for Vietnam? How
were his ideas different from those of Phan Boi Chau?
Ans. The objectives of the two nationalists, Phan Chu Trinh
and Phan Boi Chau, were different from each other.
Phan Chu Trinh (1871 – 1926) did not want to resist the
French with the aid of monarchy. He was influenced by the Western idea of democracy and wanted
to set up a democratic republic
of Vietnam.
Phan Boi Chau (1867 – 1940) went on to form a revolutionary
society with Prince Cuong De. So we can say that Phan Boi Chau favoured monarchy and Phan
Chu Trinh favoured a republic.
Q.5. With reference to what you have read in this chapter,
discuss the influence of China
on Vietnam’s
culture and life.
Ans. China
was a large and close neighbour of Vietnam. It was obvious that the
former would influence the latter. There were strong trade links due to
sea trade as all trade between any part of Asia and China
had to pass through Vietnamese ports. The two countries shared the same religious beliefs, namely Buddhism and Confucianism. The
ideas spread by Confucius, a great Chinese thinker, religious leader and philosopher had deeply
influenced the social and cultural aspects of Vietnam.
When the trans-Indo-China rail and road network developed,
the imperialist power wanted it as a link between North and South
Vietnam and China. This brought the countries
even more close. They were under imperialist rules for long making
them share cultural, religious, historical and economic commoners.
Q.6. What was the role of religious groups in the
development of anti-colonial feelings in Vietnam?
Ans. Religion had always played a pivotal role in the lives
of people in Vietnam.
This fact was used well by the imperialists to aid in their control over the
colonies. Thinking this, the imperialists imposed their religion on the Vietnamese locals. Thus
anti-imperialist feelings arose in Vietnam
against the French imperialist forces. Vietnam followed Buddhism and
Confucianism.
The French wanted to convert the Vietnamese to Christianity.
The Vietnamese revolted against this French intention in 1868. This revolt was called the
‘Scholars Revolt’, which was followed by the killing of about one thousand Catholics. Huynh Phu So
began a movement called Hoa Hao, but he was declared mad by the French. Followers of
Huynh Phu So were sent to concentration camps. All those actions of French could still
not suppress nationalism in Vietnam.
Q.7. Explain the causes of US
involvement in the war in Vietnam.
What effect did this involvement have on life within the US itself?
Ans. The struggle for freedom by Vietnamese people was a
long-drawn one. They faced the French, the Japanese and the USA. Many
causes led the US to get
involved in the Vietnam war. The US
government was afraid that communism would find a stronghold in Vietnam.
The US feared this would endanger the other capitalist countries.
With these thoughts, the US
was always ready to fight communist strongholds in any part of
the world. The rise of communism in Vietnam
was seen as a threat and US stepped in to intervene.
France
had been facing insulting revolts from Vietnam. France being a capitalist country,
the US felt it had to step in to save French honour, as one of
the capitalist brethren. Moreover, the French had been an ally of US in the Second World War.
Q.8. Write an evaluation of the Vietnamese war against the US
from the point of view of a
(a) porter on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Ans. From 1965 to 1972, the US-Vietnam War continued and
caused losses to both US and Vietnam.
The Vietnamese people suffered human and property losses,
yet they never stopped their struggle for freedom. Here it is important to mention the
role played by the porters in getting freedom and unity of Vietnam. The porters set out
without fear on the Ho Chi Minh Trail which was a great expansive network of roads and footpaths.
The heroic porters carried as much as 25 kg to 70 kg of weight on their backs or bicycles.
They did not fear that they might fall over in the deep valleys. They bravely walked on the
narrow, dangerous roads that marked the treacherous routes. They also did not feel afraid of
being shot down by aircraft guns. They put all their fears aside and walked on to maintain the
supply line. This fact showed that the porters were heroic and patriotic.
(b) a woman soldier.
Ans. The Vietnamese women played an important role in the
US-Vietnam War. They were both warriors and workers. As warriors and soldiers, the
Vietnamese women constructed six air strips, they neutralised thousands of bombs and went on to
shoot down fifteen planes. There were 1.5 million Vietnamese women in the regular army, the
militia, the local forces and professional teams. The women workers were also engaged as
porters, nurses and construction workers.
Q.9.What was the role of women in the anti-imperialist struggle
in Vietnam?
Compare this
with the role of women in the national struggle in India. [Textual
Question]
Ans. We have read that Vietnamese women contributed to the
resistance movement as workers as
well as warriors. They were employed as porters carrying 25
kg of food and war materials on
their delicate backs.
They served as nurses to the wounded. They even went on to
dig tunnels so that the imperialist
attacks could be thwarted by hiding Vietnamese army in the
tunnels. They worked bravely to
neutralise thousands of bombs and shooting down the enemy
planes. Nearly 1.5 million women
workers were in the army. They helped in keeping strategic
roads clear and even guarded the
key points. It is difficult to imagine the state of the
Vietnamese freedom struggle with the
active role of Vietnamese women.
Women in Vietnam
showed same valour and patriotism as Indian women had shown during
India’s
freedom struggle. Aruna Asaf Ali, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Indira Gandhi, Rani
Lakshmibai — all had contributed in their own way to the
freedom struggle of India.
In
Nagaland, 13-years-old Rani Gaidiliu stood up in revolt
against the British forces. She was
caught and imprisoned for life in 1932. She spent the years
1932 to 1947 in dark cells of
various jails in Assam. She was freed in 1947 when India gained
freedom.
