ABSTRACT

Many Southeast Asian nationalists attended the annual sessions of the Indian National Congress, and many others visited India to consult with Gandhi and Nehru. The "nationalist" sentiment was evident in the numerous intraregional wars between the Burmese and the Thais, the Mons and the Burmans, the Chams and the Vietnamese, and the Khmers and the Javanese. Nationalist leaders continually harped on the theme of colonial economic exploitation, which could be ended only by overthrowing alien rule and ushering in independence and indigenous control of economic institutions. Nationalist governments would further curb the immigration of Chinese and Indians and redress the balance in favor of "the sons of the soil" through purposeful policies directed to that end. Perhaps the most potent factor creating nationalist consciousness among Southeast Asian elites was education. The nationalists reminded their fellow citizens that if they could have such glorious chapters in their history, they could equally mold their own future through self-government.