Some Australian official views of New Caledonia’s Melanesians, 1941 to 1953

In the decade or so from 1941, Australian military officers and government officials paid some attention, for the first time, to the Melanesians of New Caledonia. Their comments illuminate Australian attitudes in that period, and offer perspectives on a significant stage in the history of New Caledonia, in terms particularly of the partial enfranchisement of the Melanesians.Pendant les années de 1941 à 1953, les officiers militaires et les fonctionnaires australiens, pour la toute première fois, ont porté une certaine attention aux Mélanésiens de Nouvelle-Calédonie. Leurs commentaires éclairent les perspectives australiennes de cette époque, et documentent une phase importante dans l’histoire de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, concernant notamment l’accession d’une partie des Mélanésiens au droit de vote

Protest and control in North Bihar, India, 1917-1942 : a study of conflict and continuity in a colonial agrarian society

In the Indian region of north Bihar during the 20th century a great potential for mass agrarian and national protest existed. The Bihar congress, an organization controlled by conservative, locally dominant peasants, harnessed and directed this potential to its own conservative ends. The success of the Bihar congress in doing so resulted from the guarded tolerance its activities received from the British government of the region and from British policies which sought to minimize disruption to the existing social order. Under the direction of the Bihar congress mass protest eroded the externally imposed state structure without affecting the grossly unequal distribution of wealth and power within north Bihar society. early 20th century north Bihar harboured an impoverished, rigidly stratified population dependent for its livelihood on an inefficient system of agrarian production operating within a colonial economic framework. Conflicts within north Bihar society were contained by both formal and informal mechanisms of control. The British spent less on the governance of north Bihar than on any other region in British India and hence the ’formal1 (i.e. police and administrative) control apparatus was weak. Much was left to the 'informal' control of the great landlords, European planters and locally dominant peasants who comprised the landed interest in the region. in north Bihar between 1917 and 1922 mounting population pressure and the economic disruption caused by the first world war increased the potential for popular turbulence. this potential was variously channelled into a landlord/tenant conflict over tenants' rights; into a struggle by peasants against exploitation by European indigo planters ; and into an extensive campaign, led by the Bihar congress of non-cooperation with alien rule. mass protest in the 1917-1922 period strongly tested the formal apparatus of control and revealed its fragility. in the early 1930s the congress drew on nationalist sentiment and on popular antagonism to the police and administration in order to mount an intense, extensive civil disobedience campaign against the British. Despite its public espousal of the doctrine of non-violence, congress made a carefully circumscribed use of violence to rally waverers and to intimidate its opponents. by limiting the use of violence congress ensured that it controlled the direction and character of protest. Ultimately, the British repressed the civil disobedience campaign but during its course congress violence shook the foundations of British rule over north Bihar. The limited use of violence achieved this result by contributing greatly to the impetus of a prohibition campaign which diminished the revenue the government earned from excise duties and by intimidating many village watchmen (who comprised the foundation of the region’s system of formal control) into temporarily abandoning their posts. Later in the 1930s agrarian protest challenged the system of police and administrative control. At this time a recently elected provincial congress government was challenged by a small group of left-wingers who demanded agrarian reform and who had put themselves at the head of a peasant movement motivated by the impact of the great depression on primary produce prices. the conservatives who dominated the congress government and the congress party successfully contained the left-wing challenge. The success of the conservative congressmen in maintaining stable government affected the morale of Indian officials and policemen. Officials and policemen came to regard the congress as the legitimate and soon to be established successor to the British regime. After the congress ministry left office in late 1939 they were reluctant to carry out British orders directed against the congress. in addition, the police lost popularity because of their part in curbing peasant protest. in august 1942, in reaction to harsh British repression of a congress mass civil disobedience campaign, the people of north Bihar erupted into insurrection. The insurrection combined a 'nationalist protest’ by high caste, congress supporting, locally dominant peasants and a 'rebellion of desperation' by poor and landless low caste and harijan villagers. The insurrection temporarily demolished the state structure. In the interim before the British re-established formal control an opportunity existed for the initiation of an anti-landlord movement. However the high prices prevailing in the early 1940s benefited middle peasants and made them disinclined to engage in agrarian protest. The revolt of august 1942 marked the culmination of the interrelated processes whereby in the post-1917 period the Bihar congress effectively harnessed the potential for popular turbulence to its own conservative ends and employed mass protest to erode the formal control apparatus. The British rulers of north Bihar had treated the activities of the Bihar congress with guarded tolerance and had minimized social change, thus protecting the position and interests of the conservative, locally dominant peasants who controlled the congress. Hence the 1942 revolt dissolved the structure of the imperial state but issued no challenge to the social order

Melanesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1993

MelanesiaFijiNew CaledoniaPapua New GuineaSolomon IslandsVanuat

South Pacific security: issues and perspectives

During the 1980s, the South Pacific was characterised by bitter internal conflicts in several countries, a new assertiveness by island country leaderships, and increased interest in the region by external powers. Economic problems worsened in most island countries and the South Pacific was affected by trends in the broader Asia/Pacific region. The implications of these developments for regional security provide the subject for this Canberra Paper. Topics discussed include trends and prospects in the broader Asia/Pacific security environment; the South Pacific security and defence environment; economic characteristics and prospects of the South Pacific island states (with particular reference to the role of regional cooperation); foreign and defence policies of the South Pacific islands states; the part played by Australia and New Zealand in the region; aims and activities of external powers; and the issues associated with the French presence

The Security of Oceania in the 1990s

The small island countries of the South Pacific region face a decisive decade in the 1990s. Reduction in strategic tensions at the global level and rapid growth in the economies of the Pacific Rim promise opportunities for small-state economic and political diplomacy. New generation Pacific Island leaders are determined to play a more influential role in international forums; to shed the 'back-water' image of the South Pacific region; and to sink the notion that the region is an 'ANZUS Lake.' Yet security -defined broadly with a small 's' - remains a constant preoccupaiton. To the on-going threats of economic vulnerability and resource protection have now been added those of environmental change and domestic political instability. The essays in this monograph address these security concerns and raise many additional questions including the value of regionalism, the role of 'big brothers' (Australia and New Zealand), and the impact on island polities of western ideas and values. They conclude that the prospects for a stable and secure regional order in the 1990s lie in the effective management of political and economic change and in the emergence of a coherent, 'Oceanic' view of security.v. 1. Views from the region -- v. 2. Managing chang

Community Service: Editor pride and user preference on local newspaper websites

Armed with readily accessible online traffic logs that provide detailed information about the items users are selecting to view, editors are voicing concern about the potential effect on their own content decisions. Through a survey of local British newspaper editors, this article examines the overlap between user preferences, as suggested by assessments of website traffic, and content that editors identify as their best. Results are considered in the context of two related subsets of agenda-setting theory, as well as the sociological process of “making news.” The study finds overlap between broad categories of stories preferred by editors and users, but a considerable disconnect over the nature of the items within those categories

France and the South Pacific in the 1980s : an Australian perspective

Henningham Stephen. France and the South Pacific in the 1980s : an Australian perspective. In: Journal de la Société des océanistes, 92-93, 1991-1-2. pp. 21-45