Tobias Frederik Rettig

French Military Policies in the Aftermath of the Yên Bay Mutiny, 1930 Old Security Dilemmas Return to the Surface

This paper provides a brief summary of the Yên Bay mutiny of 10 February 1930, before examining its links to a wider insurrectionary attempt by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party in parts of Tonkin and the reasons why the attempted insurrection was to begin at Yên Bay but not in other garrison towns. It then places the mutiny in a context in which the use of Vietnamese soldiers in French service was necessary in order to maintain French supremacy as a colonial and protectorate power in French Indo-China. But instead of focusing on the mutiny itself and its causes, the main emphasis of this paper is on its consequences – in terms of the military and civilian policies subsequently adopted by the French. These included disciplinary measures, changes in the military and civilian intelligence services, as well as policies reducing the relative number of Vietnamese troops. While these measures aimed at reasserting French control and discipline in a key colonial institution, the conclusion briefly discusses their impact on the defence capability of French Indo-China and on the nature of French–Vietnamese relations.

Recruiting the All-Female Rani of Jhansi Regiment: Subhas Chandra Bose and Dr Lakshmi Swaminadhan:

The recruitment of the all-female Rani of Jhansi Regiment of the Indian National Army in Japanese-controlled Singapore and Malaya, with a particular focus on the period between the first female guard of honour on 12 July 1943 through to the opening of the regiments main camp in Singapore on 22 October 1943, has to date been insufficiently studied. Starting with the conception of the Regiment in an Axis submarine by the Indian nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945), this paper examines the ideas and figures that inspired the regiment and the role of Bose and Dr Lakshmi Swaminadhan (1914–2012) in mobilizing recruits. A division of labour can be distinguished, whereby Boses rallies and speeches awakened a desire and commitment to join the regiment, whereas Dr Lakshmi used a door-to-door approach and access to homes to convince parents and to confirm participation. By 22 October 1943, 156 women and girls from among the Indian communities in Singapore and Malaya from a wide range of ethnic, social, religious and language backgrounds had joined the regiment that was part of Boses plan to liberate India from British domination. Among the key sources used in this paper are Dr Lakshmis late-1960s autobiography and the 2007 autobiographical account of one of her then 16-year-old recruits, Rasammah Naomi Navarednam (b 1927).

Special Issue: Revisiting and Reconstructing the Nghê Tinh Soviets, 1930-2011

The seven papers presented here constitute the first collective effort in a Western language to revisit the NghÖ TÜnh Soviets of 1930–31. The NghÖ TÜnh movement, its name a compound of two neighbouring provinces in the north-central part of the French protectorate of Annam, not only occupies a special place in the history of the early Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) but also became a site for animated debate on the causes of agrarian unrest that produced two of the most influential books in South East Asian studies: James Scott’s Moral Economy of the Peasant (1976); and Samuel Popkin’s The Rational Peasant (1979). This special issue has its origins in a one-day panel at the Fourth Conference of the European Association of South East Asian Studies (EuroSEAS), which was held at the University of Paris I PanthéonSorbonne in September 2004. Entitled ‘75 Years On: Reinvestigating Vietnam’s Revolutionary High Tide of 1930/1’, the panel brought together 16 scholars, some very senior and some still PhD students, from six countries and four continents, including five scholars from the Socialist

Cracks in the Empire: Reflections of French Journalists and Authors on the Crisis in 1930s Indochina

The events of the early 1930s in Vietnam left an important legacy to Frances literature of enquiry and protest. Writers, essayists and journalists enquired on behalf of their audiences, and in the process developed Frances littérature coloniale. By showing an interest in the colonial ‘other’ and identifying discrepancies between imperial ideology and colonial reality, they formed a new body of thought. This new colonial humanism arguably changed metropolitan sensibilities towards the French civilizing mission. Nevertheless, while they are critical of colonial abuses and in favour of reforms, the authors discussed in this paper do not really question the French colonial project.