Nichola Tarling - Nationalism in Southeast Asia: ‘If the people are with us’

Nationalism in Southeast Asia

Nationalism in Southeast Asia seeks a definition of nationalism through examining its role in the history of Southeast Asia, a region rarely included in general books on the topic. By developing such a definition and testing it out, Nicholas Tarling hopes at the same time to make a contribution to Southeast Asian historiography and to limit its ghettoisation.

The state-building of the colonial phase is seen as a directed process with unexpected outcomes: it helped to create and to provoke opposition that took the form of nationalist movements. Tarling goes on to consider the role of nationalism in the nation-building of the postcolonial phase, and its relationship both with the democratic aspirations associated with the winning of independence and with the authoritarianism of the closing decades of the twentieth century.

Finally, Tarling offers comment on the new nationalisms that authoritarianism has helped to provoke, and their prospects, as well as those of the nation-states, in the current phase of globalisation.

Nicholas Tarling is a Fellow of the New Zealand Asia Institute, The University of Auckland.

RoutledgeCurzon studies in the modern history of Asia

1 The Police in Occupation Japan

Control, corruption and resistance to reform

Christopher Aldous

2 Chinese Workers

A new history

Jackie Sheehan

3 The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia

Tai Yong Tan and Gyanesh Kudaisya

4 The AustraliaJapan Political Alignment

1952 to the present

Alan Rix

5 Japan and Singapore in the World Economy

Japans economic advance into Singapore, 18701965

Shimizu Hiroshi and Hirakawa Hitoshi

6 The Triads as Business

Yiu Kong Chu

7 Contemporary Taiwanese Cultural Nationalism

A-chin Hsiau

8 Religion and Nationalism in India

The case of the Punjab

Harnik Deol

9 Japanese Industrialisation

Historical and cultural perspectives

Ian Inkster

10 War and Nationalism in China

19251945

Hans J. van de Ven

11 Hong Kong in Transition

One country, two systems

Edited by Robert Ash, Peter Ferdinand, Brian Hook and Robin Porter

12 Japans Postwar Economic Recovery and AngloJapanese Relations, 19481962

Noriko Yokoi

13 Japanese Army Stragglers and Memories of the War in Japan, 19501975

Beatrice Trefalt

14 Ending the Vietnam War

The Vietnamese Communists perspective

Ang Cheng Guan

15 The Development of the Japanese Nursing Profession

Adopting and adapting western influences

Aya Takahashi

16 Womens Suffrage in Asia

Gender, nationalism and democracy

Louise Edwards and Mina Roces

17 The AngloJapanese Alliance, 19021922

Phillips Payson OBrien

18 The United States and Cambodia, 18701969

From curiosity to confrontation

Kenton Clymer

19 Capitalist Restructuring and the Pacific Rim

Ravi Arvind Palat

20 The United States and Cambodia, 19692000

A troubled relationship

Kenton Clymer

21 British Business in Post-Colonial Malaysia, 195770

Neo-colonialism or disengagement?

Nicholas J. White

22 The Rise and Decline of Thai Absolutism

Kullada Kesboonchoo Mead

23 Russian Views of Japan, 17921913

An anthology of travel writing

David N. Wells

24 The Internment of Western Civilians under the Japanese, 19411945

A patchwork of internment

Bernice Archer

25 The British Empire and Tibet

19001922

Wendy Palace

26 Nationalism in Southeast Asia

If the people are with us

Nicholas Tarling

Nationalism in Southeast Asia

If the people are with us

Nicholas Tarling

First published 2004

by RoutledgeCurzon

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by RoutledgeCurzon

270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.

RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

2004 Nicholas Tarling

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-203-33024-2 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-415-33476-4 (Print Edition)

For Tony Reid

If the people are with us we can be assured that if we do not triumph today, we shall do so tomorrow or in the future.

Apolinario Mabini

Contents

Part I

Definitions and chronologies

The political utility of the national idea is not matched by its analytical clarity.

James Mayall

1 Definitions

Absurdly ambitious, this book has two main purposes. One is to seek an encompassing definition of nationalism. That is, of course, not a new task, though a heavy one, and there have been many attempts at it. The novelty of the present attempt lies though Antlov and Tonnesson have tried to test the existing theory against non-European uses

Juxtaposing the possible definitions of the phenomenon with a variety of experiences in a region rarely explored in the general works that deal with it should prove a worthwhile venture, not only from an historiographical point of view, but from a still wider perspective. A world in which globalisation has at the very least speeded up is still a world of states, and the states are conceived as nations. A clearer understanding of nationalism and more apt applications of the term must be of wider benefit in understanding that world, if not predicting its future.

The second purpose mirrors the first. If studying Southeast Asia may help us understand nationalism better, that may at the same time contribute to a better understanding of Southeast Asia itself. One means by

At the same time, pursuing a definition of nationalism may contribute to the continued study of Southeast Asia through comparative study of its own diversity. That diversity has challenged historians who have attempted to write the history of the region. How are they to bind their work together? Some have tried to take diversity itself as a theme. Others have juxtaposed a series of narratives or picked a range of topics. A mixture of such strategies has also been attractive, based, more or less explicitly, on a comparative approach. The obvious danger of comparative history is to push comparison too far. But it has been helpful in explaining the distinctive histories of the various parts of the region, the distinctive features of their societies, religions, and political structures. A useful definition of nationalism makes for a sharper use of the comparative method and thus for a better understanding of the nationalism of its component parts.