The Nationalist Movement in Indo-China

SUMMARY OF THE TOPICS  ON WHICH QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ARE GIVEN: 

Emerging from the Shadow of China 
The Dilemma of Colonial Education 
Hygiene, Disease and Everyday Resistance 
Religion and Anti-colonialism
The Vision of Modernisation 
The Communist Movement and Vietnamese Nationalism 
The Nation and Its Heroes 
The End of the War 

 I. Answer the following questions : 

Q1. The famous blind poet Ngyuyen Dinh Chieu (1822-88) bemoaned
what was happening to his country:
I would rather face eternal darkness
Than see the faces of traitors.
I would rather see no man
Than encounter one man’s suffering.
I would rather see nothing
Than witness the dismembering of the country
in decline.
 (a) What are the feelings of the author in the above stanza?
 (b) What values the above paragraph inculcates?

1. The author is against the foreigners who had made his country a slave country.
2. As the poet is blind he does not want to see any foreigner in his country and be a witness to the dismemberment's of the country.
3. The values are love for the country, loyalty and patriotism. 

Q2. Discuss the influence of China on Vietnam's culture and life?

1. The early history shows many different groups of people living in this area under the shadow of the powerful empire of China.
2. Even when an independent country was established its rulers continued to maintain the Chinese system of government as well as Chinese culture.
3. The elites in Vietnam were powerfully influenced by Chinese culture and used Chinese language.
4. Confucianism, the the religion of China was followed by large number of people in Vietnam.
5. Phan Boi Chau a Vietnamese scholar was also educate in Confucian tradition.

Q3. How were Vietnamese people colonised by the French?

1. French troops landed in Vietnam in 1858 and by the mid-1880s they had established a firm grip over the northern region.
2. French assumed control of Tonkin and Anaam in 1887and French Indo-China was formed.
3. The French consolidated their position and started building infrastructure projects to help transport goods for trade, move military garrisons and control the entire region.Construction of a trans-Indo-China rail network was started to  link the northern and southern parts of Vietnam and China.

Q4.What was the main motive of French to develop the infrastructural projects in Vietnam? Explain how far did they succeed in their mission?

The objectives of French in the development of infrastructural projects in Vietnam were:

1. Colonies were considered essential to supply natural resources and other essential goods, French started building infrastructure projects.
2. The French began by building canals and draining lands in the Mekong delta to increase cultivation.
3. The vast system of irrigation works such as canals and earthworks were built with forced labour.
4. The increased rice production allowed the export of rice to the international market.
5. Infrastructure projects were started to help transport goods for trade, move military garrisons and control the entire region.
6. They also started the construction of a trans-Indo-China rail network that would link the northern and southern parts of Vietnam and China.
7. The final link with Yunan in China was completed by 1910 and the second line was also built, linking Vietnam to Siam via the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.
8. To ensure higher levels of profit for their businesses, French business interests  pressurised the government in Vietnam to develop the infrastructure further.
9. Paul Bernard, an influential writer and policy-maker, strongly believed that the economy of the colonies needed to be developed as the purpose of acquiring colonies was to make profits.
10. According to him if the economy was developed and the standard of living of the people improved they would buy more goods and as a result market would expand leading to better profits for French business.

Q5. Why did Bernard beleive that the economy of the colonies needed to be developed? Explain three suggestions made in the case of Vietnaam?

1. Paul Bernard, an influential writer and policy-maker  strongly believed that the economy of the colonies needed to be developed as the purpose of acquiring colonies was to make profits.
2. According to him if the economy was developed and the standard of living of the people improved they would buy more goods and as a result market would expand leading to better profits for French business.
3. Bernard said that there were several barriers to economic growth in Vietnam such as high population levels, low agricultural productivity and extensive indebtedness amongst the peasants.
4. He suggested: to reduce rural poverty and increase agricultural productivity it was necessary to carry out land reforms and also industrialisation would be essential to create more jobs.

Q6.Which were the major problems before the French in the colonial education in Vietnam? How did they try to solve these problems ? Explain.

1. Education was seen as one way to civilise the ‘native and French also needed an educated local labour force but they feared that education might create problems.
2. Once educated, the Vietnamese may begin to question colonial domination.
3. French citizens living in Vietnam began fearing that they might lose their jobs – as teachers, shopkeepers, policemen – to the educated Vietnamese.
4. Therefore they opposed policies that would give the Vietnamese full access to French education.
5. The French were faced with  another problem in the sphere of
   education: the elites in Vietnam were powerfully influenced by
   Chinese culture and to consolidate their power, the French had to counter this Chinese influence.
6. They systematically dismantled the traditional educational system and established French schools such as Tonkin Free for the Vietnamese to spread Western style of education.

Q7.Why did policy makers want to educate the people of Vietnam and use French language as a medium of instruction?
Why there was a difference of opinion among them? Explain.
                                        Or
Explain the two opinions on the question of the use of the French language as the medium of instruction in the French schools established for the Vietnamese in Vietnam.

1. Some policy makers emphasised the need to use the French language as the medium of instruction as they felt that the Vietnamese would be introduced to the culture and civilisation of France.
2. This would help the French to consolidate their control over the Vietnamese.
3. The educated people in Vietnam would respect French sentiments and ideals, see the superiority of French culture and work for the French.
4. Others were opposed to French being the only medium of instruction and suggested that Vietnamese be taught in lower classes and French in the higher classes.

Q8. Explain how school text books in Vietnam glorified the French and justified colonial rule?

1. School textbooks glorified the French and justified colonial rule.
2. The Vietnamese were represented as primitive and backward and capable of only manual labour and could not have intellectual thoughts.
3. They could work in the fields but not rule themselves and they were termed as skilled copyists but not creative. 
4. School children were told that only French rule could
   ensure peace in Vietnam.
5. They taught that since the establishment of French rule the Vietnamese peasant no longer lived in fear of pirates.
6. The French have created calm and the peasants can work with a good heart. 

Q9. What was Tonkin Free school?

1. The Tonkin Free School was started to provide a Western style
   education which included classes in science, hygiene and French.
2.  The classes were held in the evening and had to be paid for separately. 
3. The school’s approach was to be ‘modern’as it was not enough to just learn science and Western ideas.
4. But to be modern the Vietnamese had to also look modern. 
5. The school encouraged the adoption of Western styles such as having a short haircut.
6. For the Vietnamese this meant a major break with their own identity since they traditionally kept long hair.

Q10.The Vietnamese students developed a chant on hair cutting. The chant was:

   Comb in the left hand 

Scissors in the right,

Snip, snip, clip, clip!
  Watch out, be careful,
   Drop stupid practices,
 Dump childish things
        Speak openly and frankly
    Study Western customs

Read the chant above and answer the following questions: 
a. Why was the chant framed?
b. What did the Vietnamese students oppose?
c. What values did you learn?

1. The chant was framed because the French felt that it was not enough to give Western education only, which included classes in Science, Hygiene and French but the Vietnamese had to look modern.The schools encouraged the adoption of Western style.
2. The Vietnamese students were expected to have short hair. The Vietnamese felt that their own identity would be lost because traditionally they kept long hair.
3. It is not easy to give up one's traditions and customs but sometimes we are forced to submit to the situations as to do best to the community interest.  

Q11. How teachers and students organised a resistance against the French in Vietnam?

1. Teachers and students did not blindly follow the curriculum sometimes there was open opposition,at other times a silent resistance.
2. When the numbers of Vietnamese teachers increased in the lower classes they quietly modified the text and criticised what was stated in the books and taught according to their traditions.
3. The students of  Saigon Native Girls School staged a historic protest in 1926 when 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.
4. When she refused the principal expelled her, which led to further protests but the government forced the school to take the students back.
5. Students all over Vietnam fought against the colonial government’s efforts to prevent the Vietnamese from qualifying for white-collar jobs.They were inspired by patriotic feelings and the conviction that it was the duty of the educated to fight for the benefit of society. The French as well as the traditional elite saw their positions threatened by the educated Vietnamese students.
6. The students formed various political parties such as the Party of Young Annan, and published nationalist journals such as the Annanese Student.
   

Q12.How did the battle against French colonoial education become a part of the battle against colonialism and for independence in Vietnam? Explain.

1. Schools became an important place for political and cultural battles as the French sought to strengthen their rule in Vietnam through the control of education.
2. They tried to change the values, norms and perceptions of the people to make them believe in the superiorityof French civilisation and the inferiority of the Vietnamese.
3. Vietnamese intellectuals feared that Vietnam was losing not just control over its territory but its very identity, culture and customs were being devalued and the people were developing a master-slave mentality. 
4. Thus battle against French colonial education became part of the larger battle against colonialism and for independence struggle.

Q13. Explain the factors that lead to the outbreak of bubonic plague in the modern part of Hanoi?

1. The French decided to rebuild Hanoi in order to create a modern Vietnam.
2. The latest architecture and modern engineering skills were used to build a new and ‘modern’ city.
3. 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. 
4. 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. 
5. The large sewers in the modern part of the city 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 homes of the French through the sewage pipes.
6. Rat hunt was started in 1902 and the French hired Vietnamese workers and paid them for each rat they caught.
7. 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
8. Some people began raising rats to earn a bounty.
9. None of this prevented the bubonic plague which swept through the area in 1903 and in subsequent years.

Q14. What is referred to as Scholar's Revolt?

1. Scholars Revolt was an early movement against French control
   and the spread of Christianity. 
2. This revolt was led by officials at the imperial court angered by the spread of Catholicism and French power. 
3. They led a general uprising in Ngu An and Ha Tien provinces where over a thousand Catholics were killed 
4. The French crushed the movement but this uprising served to inspire other patriots to rise up against them.

Q15. What was Hoa Hoa movement?

1. Hoa Hao movement was started by a man called Huynh Phu.
2. It began in 1939 and gained great popularity in the fertile Mekong delta area. 
3. It was based on religious ideas popular in anti-French uprisings of the nineteenth century.He performed miracles and helped the poor. 
4. He criticised useless expenditure and opposed the sale of child brides, gambling and the use of alcohol and opium.
5. 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. 
6. But the doctor who had to prove him insane became his follower, and finally even the French doctors declared that he was sane. 
7. The French authorities exiled him to Laos and sent many of his followers to concentration camps.

Q16.What was Phan Chu Trinh’s objective for Vietnam? How were his ideas different from those of Phan Boi Chau?

1. Phan Boi Chau  was a nationalist and became a major figure in the anti-colonial resistance after he formed the Revolutionary
   Society (Duy Tan Hoi) in 1903 with Prince Cuong De as the head.
2. Phan Boi Chau met the Chinese reformer Liang Qichao in Yokohama  and The History of the Loss of Vietnam was written under the strong influence and advice of Qichao.
3. Phan Boi Chau wanted to make use of monarchy and wanted to drive out the foreign enemy first so as to restore the nations independence.
4. Other nationalists strongly differed with Phan Boi Chau. 

1. Phan Chu Trinh was also a nationalist leader of Vietnam. 
2. He was intensely hostile to the monarchy and opposed to the idea of resisting the French with the help of the court. 
3. His desire was to establish a democratic republic. 
4. He was influenced by the democratic ideals of the West. 
5. He didn't wanted a wholesale rejection of Western civilisation.
6. He was inspired by the French revolutionary ideal of liberty but charged the French for not abiding by the ideal.
7. He demanded that the French set up legal and educational institutions, and develop agriculture and industries.

Q17. Explain the features of 'go east movement in Veitnam'.

1. The‘go east movement’ became popular in the first decade of twentieth century.
2. In 1907-08 about 300 Vietnamese students went to Japan to acquire modern education.
3. 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.
4. These nationalists looked for foreign arms and help. They appealed to the Japanese as fellow Asians. Japan had modernised itself and had resisted colonisation by the West.
5. Vietnamese students established a branch of the Restoration Society in Tokyo but after 1908, the Japanese Ministry of Interior clamped down on them and including Phan Boi Chau deported them and forced them  to seek exile in China and Thailand.

Q18. Briefly describe the career and achievements of Ho Chi Minh.

1. Ho Chi Minh brought together nationalist groups to establish the Vietnamese Communist Party and later renamed it Indo-Chinese Communist Party. 
2. He was inspired by the militant demonstrations of the European
   communist parties.
3. Minh became an active member of the Commintern and met Lenin and other leaders of Europe. 
4. In May 1941, after 30 years living in Europe, Thailand and China, Minh finally returned to Vietnam. 
5. In 1943 he took the name Ho Chi Minh (He Who Enlightens). He became president of the Vietnam Democratic Republic. 
6. Ho Chi Minh died on 3 September 1969. He led the party successfully for over 40 years.

Q19. Examine the decisions taken about Vietnam in 1954 negotiations at Geneva.
                                          Or
Explain the challenges faced by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

1. The League for the Independence ofVietnam (Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh), which came to be known as the Vietminh, fought the Japanese occupation and recaptured Hanoi in September 1945. 
2. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam was formed and Ho Chi Minh became Chairman.
3. But the new republic faced a number of challenges as the French tried to regain control by using the emperor, Bao Dai, as their puppet.
4. The Vietminh were forced to retreat to the hills.and after eight years of fighting they defeated French in1954 at Dien Bien Phu.
5. In the peace negotiations in Geneva that followed the French defeat,the Vietnamese were persuaded to accept the division of the country as North and south Vietnam were seperated.  
6. Ho Chi Minh and the communists took power in the north while Bao Dai’s regime was put in power in the south. 

Q20. Division of Vietnam set in motion a series of events that turned the country into a battlefield. Support the statement.

1. After the division  of Vietnam a series of events turned Vietnam into a battlefield bringing death and destruction to its people as well as the environment.
2. The Bao Dai regime was overthrown by a coup led by Ngo Dinh Diem.
3. Diem built a repressive and authoritarian government. Anyone
   who opposed him was called a communist and was jailed
   and killed.
4. Diem retained Ordinance 10, a French law that permitted Christianity but outlawed Buddhism.
5. His dictatorial rule was opposed by a broad opposition united under the banner of the National Liberation Front (NLF).
6. With the help of the Ho Chi Minh government in the north the NLF fought for the unification of the country.

Q21.Explain the reactions with in the United States to its involvement in the Vietnam war during the 1960's.

1. When Ho Chi Minh government in the north and the NLF joined hands for the unification of the country, the US watched this alliance with fear.
2. They thought 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.
3. Worried about communists gaining power US decided to intervene and started sending in troops equipped with heavy weapons, tanks, bombers B52s, chemical weapons, arms and auminitions.
4. 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. 
5. Anger and resentment grew when the youth were called  for the war as compulsory service in the armed forces.
6. Those sent to fight did not belong to the privileged elite but were minorities and children of working-class families.
7. The US media and films supported as well as criticised the war.
8. Hollywood made films in support of the war, such as John Wayne’s, Green Berets (1968) which was considered as a propaganda film that was responsible for motivating young men to die in the war.  
9. Francis Ford Coppola’s, Apocalypse Now (1979) were more critical as they tried to understand the reasons for this war which  reflected the moral confusion that the war had caused in the US.

Q22.Write a short note on the importance of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

1. Ho Chi Minh trail symbolizes the way Vietnamese used their limited resources to fight the war against the US who had the advantage of advance technology.
2. The trail a network of footpaths and roads was used to transport men and materials from the north to the south. 
3. About 20,000 North Vietnamese troops came south each month on this trail.
4. The trail had support bases and hospitals along the way.
5. 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.
6. Most of the trail was outside Vietnam in neighbouring Laos and Cambodia with branch lines extending into South Vietnam.
7. The US regularly bombed this trail  to disrupt supplies, but failed because the trail was repaired  and rebuilt very quickly.

Q23.What was the role of women in the anti imperial struggle in Vietnam?

1. During the struggle against US woman played an important role. They were brave fighters formed militia and shot down planes.
2. They were brave and dedicated they joined the army and could carry a rifle. 
3. Some stories spoke of their incredible bravery where they  single-handedly killed the enemy – Nguyen Thi Xuan,shot down a jet with just twenty bullets.
4. Women were represented not only as warriors but also as workers:In pictures they were shown with a rifle in one hand and a hammer in the other. 
5. Whether young or old, women selflessly worked and fought
   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.
6. 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, neutralised 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.
7. According to one military historian argues there were1.5 million women in the regular army, the militia, the local forces and professional teams.

Q24. Who were Trung sisters? 

1. 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.
2. In this play he depicted these sisters as patriots fighting to save the Vietnamese nation from the Chinese.
3. After Phan’s play the Trung sisters came to be idealised and glorified. 
4. They were depicted in paintings, plays and novels as representing the indomitable will and the intense patriotism of the Vietnamese. 

Q25.Why was Trieu worshiped in Vietnam?

1. Trieu was an orphan who lived with her brother in the third century CE.
2. On growing up she left home, went into the jungles, organised a large army and resisted Chinese rule. When her army was crushed, she drowned herself. 
3. She became a sacred figure, not just a martyr who fought for the honour of the country. 
4. Nationalists popularised her image to inspire people to action.

(Dear students all the questions for the chapter are published.)