From “Imperial Caravan” to “Wind of Change”: A Journey through Decolonization

History

The Wind of Change has on the whole been gentle to Mauritius. Any administration seen as less than satisfactory came about through the free and fair choice of the electorate, and no one can complain

By Paramanund Soobarah

We are very fortunate to be living in an era when change comes with gentle winds. In a broad historical perspective, the Independence of Mauritius, celebrated last month, was but a gentle ripple. It has not always been so. There have been times when strict monotony was the order of the day. And there have been times when change came with hurricane speed and force.

Churchill: “I have not become the King’s First Minister to preside over the dissolution of his Empire…” Pic – Grunge

“The dogs can bark, but the Imperial Caravan will pass.” This was a statement that I often heard being repeated in my childhood (spanning the 1930s and 40s). It used to be attributed to Winston Churchill, then Prime Minister of Britain. But I have not been able to confirm this authorship from online sources. The saying is itself a slight modification of a common Arab dictum – caravans and camels were a normal part of life in the Middle East. The addition of the word “Imperial” could only have come from an English-speaking imperialist familiar with the Arab world; Churchill, having played a prominent part in the redrawing of the Middle East map after the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War (1914-1918), was one such.

Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940 not long after the start of the Second World War. He had been unflinchingly opposed to Germany in contrast to his predecessor Neville Chamberlain who was regarded as an appeaser and who finally lost a vote of confidence in Parliament. Churchill led his nation through a difficult war to victory, but what concerns us here is his staunch opposition to any talk of independence for any of the territories of the enormous British Empire.

Churchill was also very contemptuous of the coloured races who constituted the bulk of the inhabitants of his empire. Speaking in the House of Commons in November 1942, he said: “I have not become the King’s First Minister to preside over the dissolution of his Empire.” But the war he wagged was so expensive that it so impoverished Britain to the point that it was no longer in a position to rule the overseas territories it had amassed. Churchill was defeated in the elections that followed shortly after the war, and Clement Atlee, leader of the Labour Party, succeeded him.

The British government under Labour Party found itself struggling with economic constraints and increasing opposition to foreign rule from within territories of the Empire. To continue its role as a world power Britain would need strong American support, but America, sadly for Britain, was against the imperialistic tendencies and was calling on European countries to withdraw from the countries under their rule. Furthermore, the Labour Party had promised to engage in social reconstruction at home.

Faced with these difficulties Britain has evolved a policy of developing the ingredients of democracy leading to autonomy for all its colonies and their full independence at some stage. The principal constraint to this policy was not opposition to it from within Britain, although this was there, but the difficulties prevailing within the colonies themselves; it would take time to educate the elites and the masses, usually with opposed views, and warring factions to accept majority parliamentary rule as it was understood in Britain. Besides, very few in the colonies believed in the genuineness of the British policy statements. After Churchill’s statements, who would?

Subhash Chandra Bose& Indian Naval Mutiny

In those days, the Congress Party in India, led by the immensely popular, widely respected, and even worshipped Mahatma Gandhi and other party members, had been conducting a non-violent movement for the independence of the country, but it is widely believed that two other separate events accelerated the independence process for India.

One was the fact of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army, comprising former British Army soldiers who had been taken prisoner by the Japanese and who had volunteered to join Bose’s movement to fight the British for Independence; evidently, they lost out when the Japanese surrendered and were even court-martialled by the victorious British administration. But their action had shaken the faith of the British Government in their ability to control India using Indian personnel; they would never have been able to rule India as they did with only metropolitan British forces.

The other was the Indian Naval Mutiny in Bombay in 1946. The trigger for this major event was the abusive language used by British officers against Indian sailors who had complained about the quality of food being given to them. “Beggars can’t be choosers!” they had arrogantly replied. The Commanding Officer Frederick King had also used phrases like “sons of bitches”, and “sons of coolies” about them. This led to a mutiny that started in Bombay but spread widely to other bases of the Royal Indian Navy. It was finally brought under control but not before having seriously shaken the faith of the British in them. Giving promotions and other status rewards to some native Indians was no longer sufficient to ensure the loyalty of the military, police and civil services. It was time to go.

The initial date planned by Prime Minister Atlee for independence was June 1948, but Viceroy Mountbatten, arriving in India in the third week of March 1947, and seeing the situation on the spot, decided very hurriedly to hand over Independence to the Congress Party in August 1947, but not before carving out substantial parts to form Pakistan. It is said that thousands if not millions of Hindus and Muslims died in clashes during the process of transfer of power and consequential population transfers. But to all (public) intents and purposes Independence of India had happened non-violently.

The Labour Party in Britain continued the task of surrendering the rule of other territories of the Empire to their nationals. Shortly after India, Burma (now Myanmar) and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) also became Independent. These territories, all in South Asia, went relatively fast. The Conservative Party and Churchill came back to power in 1951; Anthony Eden, another staunch imperialist, succeeded Winston Churchill at the head of the Conservative Party and the British government, and he also tried to slow the process down, if not outrightly oppose it.

Abdel Gamal Nasser& the Suez Canal

In 1956 Colonel Abdel Gamal Nasser, leader of the revolutionary Egyptian government, took a few nationalistic steps in favour of his country against the interests of the newly created Jewish homeland of Israel. For example, he closed the Gulf of Aqaba and the Strait of Tiran to deprive Israel of access to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal and even nationalised the Suez Canal itself. Till then the Canal had been owned and operated by the Anglo-French Suez Canal Company. Israel declared war on Egypt to regain its rights; Britain and France joined in for their opposition to the Egyptian move regarding the Canal. The United States, led by President Eisenhower, strongly opposed the Anglo-French move regarding the Canal, and the attacking countries had to desist. But Israel regained access to the Red Sea.

These events convinced the British government that it was no longer in a position to conduct a foreign policy independently of American wishes. That was also the end of Britain’s imperialistic tendencies. Following the failure of the Suez adventure, Anthony Eden gave way to Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister.

There still remained the possessions in South-East Asia (Malaya, Singapore and others) and the numerous countries in Africa to deal with. In some of these countries the issues had become complicated by the large numbers of white settlers who regarded themselves as the sole owners of their new countries. Violent insurgencies had started in some of them (the Mau Mau movement in East Africa, the communist insurgency in Malaya, the Archbishop Makarios (Enosis) movement for union with Greece in Cyprus, violence also in Aden, etc). It fell largely to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to deal with them. He had fully understood that there was no point in toeing the Churchill line, and he made a virtue of necessity.

In January 1960 Macmillan went on a tour of Africa visiting Ghana, Nigeria, Rhodesia (which doggedly resisted rule by the indigenous population for two decades), Nyasaland (which became Malawi after Independence) and South Africa, the land of apartheid. Addressing the South African Parliament on 3 February 1960, he gave his historically famous “Wind of Change” speech, in which he said: “The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it.”

After this the British policy of granting Independence to all its remaining colonies was set in motion. Dissolution of the Empire became the main it not the only task of the Colonial office – which was later absorbed in the Commonwealth office. The one hard nut to crack was Rhodesia, where the white settlers, under the leadership of Ian Smith, declared Independence unilaterally in 1965. This new government faced international opposition and sanctions and internal insurgency, and Ian Smith was finally forced to agree to an internal settlement. The British government briefly re-took control of the country until elections were held in 1980, after which the country became independent under the name of Zimbabwe, under the leadership of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.

One last colony was Hong Kong, which was occupied by Britain under a hundred-year lease, agreed after two less than honourable Opium Wars. The lease expired in 1979. Efforts by Britain to extend it further, led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher failed. Mrs Thatcher even visited China to that end, but Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping refused, offering to take control of Hong Kong with its existing form of constitutional government for fifty years. This was Deng’s policy of “One Country Two Systems”. Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule on 1 July 1997.

The story of the independence of the other former British territories in Africa, the Caribbean and South East Asia is a succession of conferences at Lancaster House in London with the political leaders of those countries.

One of those countries obviously was Mauritius, where the main opposition came from the Mauritian side: one of the factions would have preferred association with Europe to Independence. This strengthened the British side to hive off the Chagos Archipelago from the territories until then under Mauritian administration. Mauritians gained Independence “in substantial measure” (to use the words of Prime Minister J. Nehru in his “tryst with destiny” speech) on 12 March 1968. They have continued their campaign through international fora to regain “full” independence with sovereignty over Chagos and are, at the time of writing, about to achieve their aim.

 From “Imperial Caravan” to “Wind of Change”

Beyond the British story: A bloodier toll in other colonies

If this is the story of colonial territories under British rule, the story of liberation of territories under French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Belgian rules involved some bloodier wars by the local inhabitants.
– The French held most of North Africa (including Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania), numerous countries of sub-Saharan Africa, including Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Madagascar (besides others), Pondicherry, Mahé, Karaikal and Yanam in India and Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in Indo-China.
– The Dutch held territory in the East Indies, now called Indonesia.
– The Portuguese held Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe in Africa, and Goa, Daman and Diu in India.
– Tiny Belgium held the vast country that is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and also Rwanda and Burundi.
– Germany had earlier held numerous territories in Africa (Tanganyika, Togo, South-West Africa, Rwanda, Burundi, etc.) but had lost them all after its defeat in World War I.
It is not possible to go into the stories of the liberation of all these countries in this article. Only a few salient points will be mentioned.

In French Indo-China, the demands and struggles for independence started immediately after the War in 1945. Following the Chinese take-over of China in 1949, the communists led the fight in Indo-China, and they were strongly supported by China. The USA, in its efforts at countering the communist advance in the world, joined in and began supplying arms and ammunition to the French side. Around this time the Korean war had started, the North Koreans supported by China opposing the South Koreans supported by the Americans.

The fighting everywhere was bitter and costly. France lost the important battle against their fortress of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and so decided to call it a day. They withdrew leaving the country divided between a communist North and a capitalist South. Technically that was the end of French colonialism in Indo-China, as Laos and Cambodia were also freed. The United States, seeing this fight as part of a global Communist effort to take over the world, joined in, supporting South Vietnam against the Communist North.

The US greatly escalated its action as from 1965. (It was in this period that the Americans came to learn about the Island of Diego Garcia, a British possession as part of the Colony of Mauritius and obtained British permission to set up a base there to position their forces.) But they could not withstand the Communist onslaught either and had to withdraw in 1973. That, however, was not the end of the war. North, with capital at Hanoi, led by Ho Chi Minh, and South, with capital at Saigon, led by No Din Diem, continued fighting until the North completely overcame the South, with the southern capital Saigon falling in 1975 and being re-named Ho Chi Minh City, and North and South unifying into the single country of Vietnam, ruled by the Communists.

Insurgencies in France’s North African territories

The French debacle in Indo-China in 1954 was immediately followed by demands for independence in their North African territories. Insurgencies there led to the independence of Morocco in 1955 and of Tunisia in 1956. Algeria proved to be a very difficult case, as more than one million French people had settled there, and they strongly opposed independence. They were backed strongly by a large part of the metropolitan French population and the French Army.

In 1958 talk of independence in government circles led to an army mutiny in Algeria organised by former Algerian Governor Jacques Soustelle; military units there captured the island of Corsica which is regarded as part of Metropolitan France. There was even talk about their moving on to Paris, and many would even have welcomed them there. Most sides called for the resignation of the government led by Prime Minister Pfimlin and the return of war-time leader General Charles de Gaulle.

On 29 May 1958 President René Coty declared in Parliament that, to avoid a civil war, he was calling on “le plus illustre des Français” to come and take over the administration. The General agreed with the precondition that a new constitution would provide for a powerful president which role he would himself assume. Thus came into Force the Fifth French republic with President Charles de Gaulle at its head.

President de Gaulle also initiated a decolonisation policy which led to the independence of all French-ruled sub-Saharan countries within a French Community, i.e. a Commonwealth type association. The colony of Guinea under the leadership of Sékou Touré in West Africa rejected the idea of belonging to any Community and was thereupon granted immediate independence but all French assistance was cut off.

Algeria still remained a hard nut to crack. Following widespread support by the French population for Algerian self-determination, the General tasked Prime Minister Michel Debré to initiate secret talks with the FLN, the Algerian National Liberation Front, for Independence. When the military units in Algiers heard of this, they regarded it as an act of betrayal by the government of Charles de Gaulle and decided to stage another coup. They launched their action on 22 April 1961. Their intention was to take the battle to Metropolitan France.

Fortunately, the commanders in the two other Algerian cities (Oran and Constantine) refused to join in; orders were given in Metropolitan France to prevent landings at all airports, and President de Gaulle made a televised address to the nation urging for help to quell this mutiny. The Left in France organised massive demonstrations against the uprising. Those were very tense few days in France and were tensely lived even in Mauritius out here. The recently introduced transistor radio played a great part in the communication and diffusion of information, and, very importantly, during those very few days the first French nuclear test was carried out in the Sahara, ostensibly independently of the mutiny, but it must surely have had an effect on the mutineers. They surrendered after four days, on 26 April 1961. They were all court-martialled and sentenced subsequently. In spite of all this the independence talks with the Algerians continued, culminating in the full independence of Algeria on 5 July 1962.

Portugal, Belgium, and the Dutch: Different Roads to Freedom

Another empire where it took a military rebellion in the metropolitan country for colonies to be liberated was the Portuguese one. India took over Goa and the other Portuguese possessions in the country with a short military action; western countries were critical of the move but did not intervene. Violent strife had long been ongoing in Angola and Mozambique for several years, but diehard imperialist Portuguese dictator O. Salazar and his similarly minded successor M. Caetano would not budge from their colonialist mindset. On 25 April 1974, military officers staged a coup in Lisbon which ended almost half a century of dictatorship in Portugal. It received strong public support and was dubbed the “Carnation Revolution.” The revolution also ended Portuguese colonialism. All colonies were freed.

In the Belgian colony of Congo, the principal difficulty came from settlers and their supporters. The province of Katanga, led by military officer Mobutu SeseSeko, seceded from the country, and the United Nations under Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöldled a major war effort against the move. When that war ended, the re-united Congo decided to elect – guess who? – none other than Mobutu SeseSeko, who had led the secession war, to lead thecountry. The new United Nations Secretary General U Thant quipped: “Nations get the government they deserve.”

The Dutch East Indies – also known as the Netherlands East Indies, was a Dutch colony with territory comprising mostly the modern state of Indonesia. The campaign for independence there started long before the War and continued under the Japanese occupation. The Indonesians proclaimed a Republic complete with an army and continued their struggle on both the military and diplomatic fronts. They had widespread international support, including from countries like the US and Australia. International pressure compelled the Dutch to join UN-brokered negotiations in January 1948. These were carried out aboard the USS Renville, an American ship anchored in Jakarta Bay.An accord was concluded, but in December of the same year, the Dutch had second thoughts and, breaking the accord, they launcheda virulent surprise attack on the Indonesians.

Operation Kraai, as it was called, was severely criticised internationally, and the United States even threatened to cut off assistance under the Marshal Plan (a major American financial aid plan to European countriesto help in the reconstruction effort after the World War II) to the Netherlands. India, Pakistan and Ceylon banned Dutch flights from their airspace. While the operation could be said to have been militarily successful, international pressure compelled the Dutch to come to the negotiating table again. Negotiators from both sides met on 7 May 1949 and concluded a cease-fire. Thefinal peace accord with full transfer of sovereignty was reached at a Round Table Conference held in the Hague between 23 August and 2 November 1949, at the end of which the Republic of Indonesia gained full Independence.

The Dutch government later officially apologized to Indonesians for the use of excessive force during the struggle.

One point of interest for us in Mauritius is that when India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, in their opposition to Operation Kraai, banned Dutch aircraft from their airspace, the British government authorised the Dutch airline KLM to route its flights from Amsterdam to Batavia (now Jakarta) through Mauritius.The route was Amsterdam-Khartoum-Mauritius-Batavia, and the aircraft used was a Lockheed Constellation fitted with extra fuel tanks. The leg from Mauritius to Batavia, a distance of 5527 kms, took 15 hours 15 minutes, and was the longest overwater flight in the world at the time and for a long time to come. Each flight, outbound or return, was an adventure and an extraordinary piece of navigational achievement, conducted without any reference to a surface radio station – it was just water all the way. There were no GPS in those days. The technical staff of KLM still look back with pride at those flights. So did the old-timers at Plaisance Airport.

Liberated colonies: post-independence performance

Were there any problems? In one country, India, the problem happened even before Independence. In 1946 it had become clear in India that the Atlee government in Britain was serious about granting independence. On 15 March 1946 Prime Minister Atlee informed Parliament about that decision and announced that a Cabinet Mission would be going over immediately to discuss the matter with Indian leaders. In India, the Congress Partyfound it necessary to elect a leader who wouldtake on the role of Prime Minister.Mahatma Gandhi himself did not plan on holding any government post. Of the 16 state representatives in the Congress Committee, 13 voted for Sardar Vallabhbhai Patelfor the role. In a palace coup, Mahatma Gandhi, taking advantage of his enormous popularity among the masses, asked Patel to stand down in favour of Jawaharlal Nehru, which he very obediently did.

Mahatma Gandhi’s motivations are not known but he did once jokingly say that he had done so because Jawaharlal Nehru spoke English better; if that is really true, then his decision would only have been a transitoryone, just for the duration of the final phase of negotiations and the initial phase of government.Mahatma Gandhi had reportedly called for the dissolution of the Congress Party after Independence. Whatever may be the truth, Mahatma Gandhi was himself killed within six months of Independence, but the country is still grappling with the consequences of his decision.

In Pakistan the first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in 1951. President Iskander Mirza assumed dictatorial powers, only to hand them over to the military chief General Ayub Khan, who ruled the country as a dictator under martial lawfor more than ten years. Since then, military governments have been alternating with civil ones every few years.

In Nigeria, a military coup overturned the government of the first prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, assassinating him. In that country also there have been military takeovers every now and then.

In Ghana, freedom fighter Dr Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown while he was on a State Visit to China. The Ghanaian embassy there refused to help him, saying that their allegiance was to the Government of the day.

In Zanzibar, which had been granted independence as a constitutional monarchy in 1963, the African majority rebelled against the Arab sultan and overthrew him. Soon thereafter the country joined Tanganyika to form the Republic of Tanzania. One self-styled Field Marshal O’Kello was involved in these changes.

In Uganda, independent since 1962, Prime Minister Milton Obote suspended the constitution in 1964 and assumed full powers as President, abolishing the post of Prime Minister; in his turn he was overthrown in 1971 by military officer Idi Amin Dada, who ruled with an iron hand for eight long years. In 1972 he expelled 40,000 ethnic Indians with pre-Independence British passports. It cannot be said that these refugees were received with open arms in Britain, but today they are a thriving community. Many of them are business magnates and some are members of Parliament and even of the Government. In Uganda, life under the dictatorship of Amin Dada was hard; he was eventually expelled from the country following a short war (dubbed the War of Liberation in Uganda) waged by Tanzania’s President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.

Our neighbours the Malagasy Republic and the Seychelles have also experienced the process of coups.

British Empire’s dissolution: Mauritius stands out

Coming to our own jewel of an island that Mauritius is, large-hearted Prime Minister Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam forgave those who had bitterly opposed the Independence of the country and installed solid democratic rule, even inviting them to join the government for some time. For the flag of the country, he chose the colours red, blue, yellow and green, these being party colours, laid out in horizontal stripes strictly in the numerical order of seats won by the contesting parties, namely the Labour Party, the Parti Mauricien, the IFB and the CAM.

SSR followed the same principle for the pictures on currency notes, namely himself, leader of the Labour Party, for the Rs 2000 note, Sir Gaetan Duval, leader of the Parti Mauricien, for the Rs 1000 note, Sookdeo Bissoondoyal, leader of the IFB, for the Rs 500 note and Sir Abdool Razack Mohamed, leader of the CAM, for the Rs 200 notes. He did not forget about long-time political fighter Renganaden Seeneevassen, even though he had already passed away, to whom he assigned the Rs 100 note. He also assigned other notes to leaders Jules Koenig and Jean Ah-Chuen.

When a student-led movement under the name of the MMM arose to throw a spanner in the works, SSR did not, as Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew might have done, crush them outright. He tolerated them on until they replaced him outright in 1982. They are still around, but the process of government change has remained democratic all through these years. Mauritius remains the one bright star in the entire British Empire dissolution process.

The Wind of Change has on the whole been gentle to Mauritius. Any administration seen as less than satisfactory came about through the free and fair choice of the electorate, and no one can complain.

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 18 April 2025