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nationalist movements in the period before World War Two. How far do
you agree?
While religion and culture like Buddhism, Hoa Hao, Cao Dai and
Catholicism laid the foundation for nationalist movements to take place as
they fostered unity within the locals and provided the basis for national
leaders to gain their support, it was ideologies from outside influence such
as nationalism and communism that provided direction and strategies for
nationalists to progress towards independence. Hence this essay seeks to
argue that ideology was indeed more important than religion and culture
for the growth of nationalist movements because not only did it expand
the support base further after religion and culture did, it trimmed down
diversity between nationalist groups and provided tried-and-tested
strategies for nationalist groups to progress towards independence in
ways religion and culture were never able to.
Ideology compensates for religion and cultures weakness by giving
nationalist movements proven strategies to work towards independence
thus allowing the scope of tactics of nationalist movements to evolve in
pursuit of nationalism. Communism for example, refined the
organisational structure of nationalist groups and shaped the nature of
nationalist movements for the advancement of their nationalistic aims.
This can be seen in Vietnam. Led by Ho Chi Minh, the Indochinese
Communist Party (ICP) founded in 1930, aimed to use revolutionary tactics
to secure independence from French colonial rule to establish a
communist state. It provided leadership for the 1930-1931 Nghe An and
Ha Tinh revolt following the temporary collapse of the French authority in
those provinces. Moreover, communism was able to help ICP secure a
strong support base in Tonkin and Annam. Since ideology is able to
transcend regional boundary and territorial division under the intolerant
French rule which religion and culture were unable to previously, its
contribution to the growth of nationalism is therefore significant. The
inspiration given by communism can also be seen in Indonesia. Indische
Sociaal-Democratische Vereening (ISDV) formed in 1914 had a support
base of urban labourers. In 1920, it renamed itself Partai Komunis
Indonesia (PKI) and adopted radical communist methods of uncooperation
and uprisings like the PKI revolts in 1926 and 1927 to advance their
nationalist agenda. Not only did they want to overthrow their colonial
masters, they also wanted to set up a communist state after gaining
independence. As such, ideology contributed to the growth of nationalist
movements in a way religion and culture has failed to do so by providing
them with tried-and-tested strategy that could actually advance them
towards independence.
On the other hand, religion and culture provided a common platform for
the pre-war SEA nationalist to effectively reach out to the masses
especially in the rural areas and acquaint them with the idea of
nationalism which they would otherwise by alien to, thereby greatly
to internal conflict over issues of cooperation with the Dutch and the role
of Islam, PPPKI was nevertheless instrumental in the proclamation of the
Sumpah Pemuda (youth oath) of 1928, in which nationalist symbols of
Indonesia were secured, namely the national flag, the national anthem,
Indonesia Raya and the national language Bahasa Indonesia, hence,
laying the foundation for the forging of a common Indonesian identity.
Similarly in Burma, the Thakins, students of Burma, were able to unify the
Pongyis and the communists under Dobama Asiayone in 1935 through
nationalism. The communists were atheists whereas the Pongyis were
Buddhists. Unifying the two forces was definitely not easy and by virtue
that ideology was able to do that, it is more effective than religion and
culture because it has the ability to reunify nationalist movements in the
midst of divergence and augment support bases and the scope of
membership, now with the support of rural masses through its broadlyencompassing nature that espouses differing beliefs and ideas for the
common goal of nationalist movements.
In conclusion, ideology is definitely more important in contributing to its
growth because even though there were diversity set apart by both
ideology and religion and culture, ideology has the ability to reunite and
pull the nationalist groups together which religion and culture was unable
to, thereby making it more effective in creating a stronger and a more
cohesive united front for the nationalist movement. Also, it is able to
expand the support base of nationalist groups better than religion and
culture into areas they were previously unable to have their influence in.
For any nationalist movements worth their salt to flesh out effectively,
unity and support bases are of paramount importance. By virtue of the
fact that ideology is more successful than religion and culture in uniting
the nationalist groups and gaining absolute support bases from the
masses, it is definitely more significant in contributing to the growth of
nationalist movements.