and 79% of families respectively were completely without land. If an overwhelming majority of families that owned land were close to starvation in the 1930s, imagine what the conditions were like for landless peasants! The peasants who rented the land of landlords had to pay rent in two ways: they had to give a share of their produce and also work on the fields and in the homes of the landlords. Apart from this, they also had to pay different kinds of taxes imposed by the landlords. This forced the peasants to borrow rice and money from the landlords and pushed them further into debt bondage.

The “Civilising Mission”

The French colonisers, like the British, were convinced that the people of the colonies were uncivilised. So, the objective of their rule was to bring the benefits of modern civilisation to Vietnam. Education was one way to civilise the ‘natives’. The French needed an educated local labour force but they also feared that education might create problems. If the Vietnamese people got educated, they may begin to question colonial domination. Moreover, the French citizens who lived in Vietnam (called colons) feared that they might lose their jobs – as teachers, shopkeepers, policemen – if the Vietnamese people got educated. So, they opposed policies that would give French education to the Vietnamese people. Even though Vietnamese language was taught in the primary level in schools, all higher education was in French. Only the Vietnamese elite – who were a small part of the population – could enroll in these schools. Even after they got admitted, very few ultimately passed the school-leaving examination. School textbooks glorified the French and justified the colonial rule.

Emergence of Vietnamese Nationalism

in schools, teachers and students did not blindly follow the curriculum given by the French. Sometimes they openly opposed the curriculum, at other times, they silently resisted. As the numbers of Vietnamese teachers increased in the lower classes, it became difficult to control what was actually taught in the class.what was written in the books about French rule. The colonial government also tried to prevent the Vietnamese people from qualifying for white-collar jobs. The students opposed and fought against this also. They were inspired by patriotic feelings. They believed that it was the duty of the educated to fight for the benefit of society. This created conflict between the students and the French as well as the traditional

Why were the railways and canals developed in Vietnam by the French?

What was the difference between a landless peasant and landless workers?

You read about the condition of peasants inthe British rule in India. In what ways was it similar to that of Vietnam?

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Try to remember the policies followed by the British in India. Compare the colonial policies followed by the British in India and the French in Vietnam. What similarities and differences do you find between them?

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