| Descript |
xxx, 674 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Some Key Characters -- Prologue: An Unending War. |
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1. 1945: Interregnum. The new Asia -- The last journey of Subhas Chandra Bose -- Nations without states -- Three weeks in Malaya -- The fall of Syonan. -- 2. 1945: The pains of victory. Burma intransigent -- India: the key -- Bengal on the brink -- The reckoning. -- 3. 1945: A second colonial conquest. 'Black Market Administration' -- A world upside down -- Liberal imperialism and New Democracy -- 'Malaya for the Malays, not the Malayans'.-- 4. 1945: The first wars of peace. The crescent regained -- Britain's forgotten war in Vietnam -- Britain and the birth of Indonesia -- Freedom or death in Surabaya. -- 5. 1946: Freedom without borders. The passing of the Malayan Spring -- Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat -- British and Indian mutinies -- Dorman-Smith's Waterloo -- A new world order? -- 6. 1946: One empire unravels, another is born. The killing begins -- Britain's terminal crisis in Burma -- The burial of the dead -- Business as usual in Malaya. -- 7. 1947: At freedom's gate. The last days of the Raj -- The crescent fragments: Bengal divided -- Tragedy in Rangoon -- Disaster approaches. -- 8. 1947: Malaya on the brink. The crescent fragments: orphans of empire -- Malaya's forgotten regiments -- The strange disappearance of Mr Wright -- 'Beware, the danger from the mountain' -- A people's constitution. -- 9. 1948: A bloody dawn. Boys' Day in Burma -- The genesis of communist rebellion -- A summer of anarchy -- Karens and Britons -- India recedes, India reborn -- 10. 1948: The Malayan revolution. A third world war? -- The frontier erupts -- Calls to arms -- Sten guns and stengahs -- The road to Batang Kali. -- 11. 1949: The centre barely holds. Britain, India and the coming of the Cold War -- The centre barely holds -- The battle for the ulu -- Freedom and revolution -- The generation of 1950. |
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Epilogue: The end of Britain's Asian Empire. Freedom, slowly and gently -- Freedom from fear? -- Flawed memories -- A flawed inheritance. |
| Summary |
"In September 1945, after the fall of the atomic bomb -- and with it, the Japanese empire -- Asia was dominated by the British. Governing a vast crescent of land that stretched from India through Burma and down to Singapore, and with troops occupying the French and Dutch colonies in southern Vietnam and Indonesia, Britain's imperial might had never seemed stronger. Yet within a few violent years, British power in the region would crumble, and myriad independent nations would struggle into existence. Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper show how World War II never really ended in these ravaged Asian lands but instead continued in bloody civil wars, anti-colonial insurrections, and inter-communal massacres. These years became the most formative in modern Asian history, as Western imperialism vied with nascent nationalist and communist revolutionaries for political control"--Jacket |
| Bibliog. |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 626-651) and index |
| Note |
Sequel to: Forgotten armies |
| Subject |
World War (1939-1945) (OCoLC)fst01180924 |
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Southeast Asia -- History -- 1945- |
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World War, 1939-1945 -- Southeast Asia -- Influence |
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Great Britain -- Colonies -- Asia -- History -- 20th century |
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British colonies. (OCoLC)fst01910374 |
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Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.) (OCoLC)fst00972484 |
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Asia. (OCoLC)fst01240495 |
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Southeast Asia. (OCoLC)fst01240499 |
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Since 1900 |
| Genre |
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628 |
| Alt Author |
Harper, T. N. (Timothy Norman), 1965- |
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Bayly, C. A. (Christopher Alan). Forgotten armies |
| ISBN/ISSN |
9780674021532 (alk. paper) |
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0674021533 (alk. paper) |
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