The Colombo Powers: crafting diplomacy in the Third World and launching Afro-Asia at Bandung

ABSTRACT

Using documentary evidence from China, France, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the United States, this paper develops a history of the Third World through historical inquiry into the origins and activities of the Colombo Powers. As the five host nations of the 1955 Asian-African Conference in Bandung, the Colombo Powers worked to realise a new vision of Asia that integrated the outer reaches of the mainland on the basis of ancient geographical ties and a cosmopolitan international order. Most importantly, they sought to reclaim Asian agency in the international negotiations on the Korean and Indochina conflict and spread resistance to collective security pacts in Asia.

KEYWORDS:

• Third World
• Afro-Asia
• Bandung Conference
• Colombo Powers
• Non-Alignment

Notes

¹ John Lionel Kotelawala, An Asian Prime Minister’s Story (London: George G. Harrap, 1966), 81.

² Quoted in A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, Politics in Sri Lanka: 1947–1979 (London: Macmillan, 1979), 297.

³ Kotelawala, An Asian Prime Minister’s Story, 96–7.

⁴ Minutes of Meetings and Documents of the South-East Asian Prime Ministers’ Conference, Fonds Asie-Oceanie/Ceylan, 1944–1955, Box 145QO/22, Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères Français (MAEF), 2.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ By and large, surveys of modern Asia do not mention the Colombo Powers. See David J. Steinberg, ed., In Search of Southeast Asia: A Modern History (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002); Barbara Metcalf and Thomas Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia only mentions the Colombo Powers once in passing. See Nicholas Tarling, ed., The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

⁷ Even among Cold War histories that focus on the global South, historians omit the Colombo Powers from their accounts of the Third World. See Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005); Robert J. McMahon, ed., The Cold War in the Third World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013); Jason C. Parker, Hearts, Minds, Voices: US Cold War Public Diplomacy and the Formation of the Third World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016). Histories of the Cold War in Asia also ignore the role of the Colombo Powers in the 1954 Geneva Conferences. See Chen Jian and James Hershberg, The Cold War in Asia (Washington, 1996); Tuong Vu and Wasana Wongsurawat, eds., Dynamics of the Cold War in Asia: Ideology, Identity, and Culture (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010); Yangwen Zheng and Hong Liu, eds., The Cold War in Asia: The Battle for Hearts and Minds (Boston: Brill, 2010); Malcolm H. Murfett, ed., Cold War Southeast Asia (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2012).

⁸ Richard Butwell, U Nu of Burma (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969); Michael Brecher, Nehru: A Political Biography (London: Oxford University Press, 1961).

⁹ Nicholas Tarling, ‘“Ah-Ah”: Britain and the Bandung Conference of 1955,’ Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 23, no. 1 (March 1992): 74–112; See Seng Tan and Amitav Acharya, eds., Bandung Revisited: the Legacy of the 1955 Asian-African Conference for International Order (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2008); Antonia Finnane and Derek McDougall, Bandung 1955: Little Histories (Caulfield: Monash University Press, 2010); Christopher J. Lee, ed., Making a World After Empire: The Bandung Moment and Its Political Afterlives (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2010); Sinderpal Singh, ‘From Delhi to Bandung: Nehru, “Indian-ness” and “Pan-Asian-ness,”’ South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 34, no. 1 (2011): 51–64.

¹⁰ Robert Vitalis, ‘The Midnight Ride of Kwame Nkrumah and Other Fables of Bandung (Ban-doong),’ Humanity 4, no. 2 (Summer 2013): 271.

¹¹ More recent treatments of Afro-Asia importantly note the omission of African agency at Bandung but not the primacy of pan-Asian thought. See Frank Gerits, ‘Bandung as the Call for a Better Development Project: US, British, French and Gold Coast Perceptions of the Afro-Asian Conference (1955),’ Cold War History 16, no. 3 (2016): 255–72.

¹² Dewi Fortuna Anwar, ‘Indonesia and the Bandung Conference: Then and Now,’ in Bandung Revisited, 180–97.

¹³ James Cable, The Geneva Conference of 1954 on Indochina (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986), 132.

¹⁴ Gregg A. Brazinsky, Winning the Third World: Sino-American Rivalry during the Cold War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017), 93.

¹⁵ Willem van Eekelen, Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute with China (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1968), 50.

¹⁶ Amry Vandenbosch and Richard Butwell, Southeast Asia Among the World Powers (Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press, 2015), 259.

¹⁷ Amitav Acharya, Whose Ideas Matter? Agency and Power in Asian Regionalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011).

¹⁸ Jawaharlal Nehru, ‘The Eastern Federation,’ 28 October 1940, in Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru (SWJN), Series 2, Vol. 11 (New Delhi: Jawaharlal Memorial Fund, 1993), 191.

¹⁹ Jawaharlal Nehru, ‘Resolution on Congress Objectives,’ 22 November 1946, SWJN 2, Vol. 1, 21.

²⁰ Aung San, ‘Defence of Burma,’ 30 January 1945, in The Political Legacy of Aung San, ed. Josef Silverstein (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993), 16–19.

²¹ Ibid.

²² Aung San, Bogyoke Aung San Maint-Khun-Myar (Rangoon: Sarpay Bait Man Press, 1971), 86.

²³ Report of the Consultative Committee on Economic Development, 1951–52, Cmd. 8529, National Archives of the United Kingdom (TNA).

²⁴ Jawaharlal Nehru to K.M. Panikkar, 7 April 1952, SWJN 2, Vol. 18, 531.

²⁵ Political Committee Resolution, 23 March 1953, Indonesian Mission to the United Nations Files, Lambertus Nicodemus Palar Papers, Record List No. 123, National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI).

²⁶ ‘World Not Bankrupt of Leaders,’ The Times of Ceylon, 23 March 1953.

²⁷ Kotelawala, An Asian Prime Minister’s Story, 96–7.

²⁸ Ibid.

²⁹ Ibid., 118.

³⁰ Jawaharlal Nehru to John Kotelawala, 21 December 1953, SWJN 2, Vol. 24, 443–4.

³¹ Kotelawala, An Asian Prime Minister’s Story, 118.

³² Jawaharlal Nehru to John Kotelawala, 444.

³³ Kotelawala, An Asian Prime Minister’s Story, 96–7.

³⁴ Philip Crowe to the Department of State, 6 May 1954, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1952–54, Vol. XI, Pt. 2, Doc. 627.

³⁵ Ceylon Daily News, 13 March 1953, CO 936/347, TNA.

³⁶ H.S. Villard to Charles Bohlen, 29 July 1947, FRUS, 1947, Vol. 6, 994.

³⁷ Note to Wilson and Boudillon, January 1955, CO 936/347, TNA.

³⁸ Minutes of Meetings and Documents of the South-East Asian Prime Ministers’ Conference, 1–2.

³⁹ Ibid.

⁴⁰ Ibid.

⁴¹ ‘The Colombo Conference: An Analysis,’ The Nation, 5 May 1954, 2633/SEA/RES/34, NASL; Meeting of the Asian Prime Ministers 1954, 2633/SEA/RES/34, NASL.

⁴² Ibid.

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ Pakistan Fortnightly Summary, 29 April–12 May 1954, DO 35/6712A, TNA.

⁴⁵ ‘The Colombo Conference: An Analysis.’

⁴⁶ Ibid.

⁴⁷ Jawaharlal Nehru, Presidential Address, Lok Sabha, 22 February 1954, in India’s Foreign Policy: Selected Speeches, September 1946-April 1961 (New Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India, 1961), 395–7.

⁴⁸ Ministry of External Affairs to French Embassy, New Delhi, 21 December 1953, Fonds Asie Oceanie 1944–1955, Indochine 320, Box 120QO320, MAEF.

⁴⁹ Jawaharlal Nehru, Statement in Lok Sabha, 24 April 1954, in India’s Foreign Policy, 396–400.

⁵⁰ Ibid., 398.

⁵¹ Eden, Full Circle, 102–3.

⁵² John Foster Dulles to Department of State, 27 April 1954, FRUS, 1952–54, Vol. XVI, Doc. 365.

⁵³ Kotelawala, An Asian Prime Minister’s Story, 118.

⁵⁴ Minutes of Meetings and Documents of the South-East Asian Prime Ministers’ Conference, 3.

⁵⁵ Ibid.

⁵⁶ Ibid.

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ Ibid.

⁵⁹ Memorandum of Discussion at the 195^th Meeting of the National Security Council, 6 May 1954, Whitman File, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library (EL).

⁶⁰ Quoted in Nicholas Tarling, Britain, Southeast Asia and the Impact of the Korean War (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2005), 323.

⁶¹ Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 27 April 1954, F.No.1(5)-R&I/54, National Archives of India (NAI).

⁶² Eden, Full Circle, 109–10, 128, 141.

⁶³ Cable, The Geneva Conference of 1954 on Indochina, 60.

⁶⁴ SWJN 2, Vol. 25, 425.

⁶⁵ Minutes of Meetings and Documents of the South-East Asian Prime Ministers’ Conference, 3.

⁶⁶ Jawaharlal Nehru to K.M. Panikkar, 12 April 1952, SWJN 1, Vol. 18, 471–2.

⁶⁷ Jawaharlal Nehru to Zhou Enlai, 1 September 1953, SWJN 2, Vol. 23, 485.

⁶⁸ Minutes of Meetings and Documents of the South-East Asian Prime Ministers’ Conference, 3.

⁶⁹ Ibid.

⁷⁰ These were (1) mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty; (2) mutual non-aggression; (3) mutual non-interference in each other’s affairs; (4) equality and mutual benefit; and (5) peaceful co-existence.

⁷¹ Cited in D.R. SarDesai, Indian Foreign Policy in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, 1947–1964 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), 40.

⁷² Minutes of Meetings and Documents of the South-East Asian Prime Ministers’ Conference, 10.

⁷³ Zafrulla Khan to T.B. Jayah, 17 May 1954, 2633 SEA/RES/34, NASL.

⁷⁴ Minutes of Meetings and Documents of the South-East Asian Prime Ministers’ Conference, 9.

⁷⁵ News clipping from Utusan Nasional in O.C. Morland to Foreign Office, No. 83, 7 May 1954, DO 35/6712A, TNA.

⁷⁶ Jawaharlal Nehru, 2 May 1954, in Nehru’s Speeches: 1953–1957, Vol. 3 (New Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India, 1996), 253.

⁷⁷ W.A.C. Clark to S. Garner, 28 September 1954, DO 35/6712A, TNA.

⁷⁸ Alexander Clutterbuck to Commonwealth Relations Office, 6 May 1954, DO 35/6712A, TNA.

⁷⁹ Vyacheslav Molotov, Document No. 7, 29 April 1954, Great Britain, Documents relating to the discussion of Korea and Indo-China at the Geneva Conference, April 27–15 June 1954, 27, OP-Cmd.9186, BL.

⁸⁰ ‘Geneva Conference: Colombo Powers and Indo-China; Krishna Menon’s Remarks,’ FO 371/112,069, TNA; Krishna Menon to Anthony Eden, 22 June 1954, FO 371/112,081, TNA.

⁸¹ ‘Speech Given by Zhou Enlai at State Banquet,’ 19 April 1960, Acc.131, 15/3(31), NAM.

⁸² Ben Kiernan, How Pol Pot Came to Power: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Communism in Cambodia, 1930–1975 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 149.

⁸³ ‘Visit by Chou En-Lai Chinese Prime Minister to India, Burma and Hong Kong 1954,’ DO 35/5945, TNA; The United States Delegation to the Department of State, 24 June 1954, FRUS, 1952–54, The Geneva Conference, Vol. XVI, Doc. 815.

⁸⁴ Michael Leifer, ‘Cambodia and Seato,’ International Journal 17, no. 2 (Spring 1962): 122.

⁸⁵ Anthony Eden, House of Commons, 23 June 1954, Parliamentary Debates, Vol. 529, 1(5)-R&I/54, NAI.

⁸⁶ Eden wanted the Colombo Powers to serve on the supervisory commission since they were ‘truly neutral’ but Molotov rejected the suggestion. ‘Krishna Menon Proposals,’ 19 July 1954, FO 371/112,079 1071/895, TNA; Report by Eden, 16 July 1954, FO 371/112,079/1071/895, TNA; ‘Geneva Conference: Information from Krishna Menon about his talks with Chou En-Lai, Pham Van Dong, Pierre Mendes-France, and Molotov,’ 17 July 1954, FO 371/112,081/1071/935, TNA.

⁸⁷ Anthony Eden to Burma, Ceylon, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand, 18 July 1954, FO 371/112,079/1071/888, TNA.

⁸⁸ Alexander Clutterbuck to Commonwealth Relations Office, No. 696, FO 371/112,079, TNA.

⁸⁹ ‘Chou En-Lai has proposed that International Supervisory Commission should consist of India, Canada and Poland,’ 18 July 1954, FO 371/112,079/1071/889, TNA.

⁹⁰ Anthony Eden to U Nu, John Kotelawala, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammed Ali, and Ali Sastroamidjojo, 18 July 1954, FO 371/112,079 1071/890, TNA.

⁹¹ Anthony Eden, Statement in the House of Commons, 23 June 1954, Great Britain, Parliamentary Debates, Vol. 529 (23 June 1954); South-East Asia Collective Defense Treaty, 8 September 1954, Part III (Documents), 1(5)-R&I/54, NAI.

⁹² ‘Nehru Welcomes Indochina Accord,’ New York Times, 21 July 1954.

⁹³ Minutes of Meetings and Documents of the South-East Asian Prime Ministers’ Conference, 10.

⁹⁴ Ibid.

⁹⁵ Ali Sastroamidjojo, Milestones On My Journey, 1953–1957 (Bandung, 2002), 41, AAC.

⁹⁶ Mohamed Abdel Khalek Hassouna, ‘League of Arab States Report of the First Asian-African Conference,’ 29, F.No.1(13)-AAC/56, NAI.

⁹⁷ ‘Colombo Powers Plan Asian-African Action,’ New York Times, 1 January 1955.

⁹⁸ ‘Asia Against Colonialism,’ JANA: the News Magazine of Resurgent Asia and Africa, Vol. 1, no. 8 (December 1954): 3, Box 145QO/22, MAEF.

⁹⁹ P.H. Gore-Booth to Anthony Eden, 7 October 1954, D131631/24, TNA.

¹⁰⁰ Hassouna, ‘League of Arab States Report,’ 30, F.No.1(13)-AAC/56, NAI.

¹⁰¹ Invitation to Asian-African Conference, 1955, F.No.1(44)-AAC, NAI.

¹⁰² ‘Minutes of the Fourth Meeting between Premier Zhou Enlai and Nehru,’ 26 October 1954, PRC FMA 204–00007-16, 130–134, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Woodrow Wilson Center.

<http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/121749> .

¹⁰³ Eden, Full Circle, 99.

¹⁰⁴ Foreign Office to Washington, 26 May 1954, FO371/111,869, TNA.

¹⁰⁵ ‘Report of the Joint U.S.-U.K. Study Group on Southeast Asia,’ 17 July 1954, FRUS, 1952–54, Vol. XVI, 1415.

¹⁰⁶ Anthony Eden, House of Commons Debate, 23 June 1954, Vol. 529; ‘South-East Asia Collective Defense Treaty, 8 September 1954, Part III (Documents),’ F.No.1(5)-R&I/54, NAI.

¹⁰⁷ Ibid.

¹⁰⁸ Ibid.

¹⁰⁹ ‘September Report on Southeast Asia, 1954,’ F.No.1(5)-R&I/54, NAI.

¹¹⁰ Ibid.

¹¹¹ Jawaharlal Nehru to U Nu, 16 November 1954, Acc.203, 12/3, National Archives of Myanmar (NAM).

¹¹² Bogor Conference Final Communique, Asian African Conference Files, Record List No.80, ANRI.

¹¹³ ‘Asia Against Colonialism,’ JANA, 3.

¹¹⁴ ‘Nehru-Ali Talks in March,’ The Times of India, 1 January 1955.

¹¹⁵ Jawaharlal Nehru, Statement in Lok Sabha, 30 April 1955, in Indian Foreign Policy, 273.

¹¹⁶ R.R. Saksena, Monthly Report for December 1954, 9 January 1955, 80, F.No.16-R&I/54, NAI.

¹¹⁷ Invitation to Asian-African Conference, F.No.1(44)-AAC, NAI.

¹¹⁸ Kotelawala, An Asian Prime Minister’s Story, 152.

¹¹⁹ Colonial Office to U.K. Embassies (Washington, Paris, Jakarta, and Tehran), 11 January 1955, CO 936/347/D2231/28, TNA.

¹²⁰ Text of December 1954 Statement in Foreign Policy of India, 146.

¹²¹ People’s Daily quoted in ‘The Chinese Communist Position at the Afro-Asian Conference,’ Intelligence Report No. 6797, 20 January 1955, NSC Staff Papers, OCB Central Files 092.3, Box 85, EL.

¹²² ‘History of Gedung Merdeka,’ Asian African Conference Museum, Bandung (AAC).

¹²³ Sukarno, Opening Address, in Asia-Africa Speaks from Bandung (Jakarta: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Indonesia, 1955), 19–29.

¹²⁴ Ibid.

¹²⁵ Kotelawala, An Asian Prime Minister’s Story, 185.

¹²⁶ Commonwealth Relations Office, Joint Intelligence Committee Memorandum, 15 July 1955, DO 35/6099, TNA.

¹²⁷ ‘Appeal to Colombo Powers,’ New York Times, 27 August 1955.

¹²⁸ ‘Conference of Colombo Powers to Consider Question of Holding Second Asian African Conference,’ F.No.1(65)-AAC, NAI.

¹²⁹ Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 3553, 30 December 1955, F.No.2(43)-ACC, NAI; ‘Conference of Prime Ministers of the Colombo Power Countries in Delhi from 12 to 14 November 1956,’ F.No.2(1)-AAC, NAI.

¹³⁰ Carlos Romulo, The Meaning of Bandung (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1956), 11.

¹³¹ ‘Extract from the Fortnightly Report from the Consultate General of India, San-Francisco,’ 30 April 1955, F.No.1(2)-AAC/55, NAI.

¹³² Jawaharlal Nehru, Speech in Lok Sabha, 30 April 1955, Acc.1648, Special Collections/3/1, NAM; Monthly Political Report from the Embassy of India, Rangoon, April 1955, Ministry of External Affairs-A.A.C. Section, D.911-AAC/55 98/5, F.No.1(2)-AAC/55, NAI.

¹³³ ‘Nehru Role as Leader, Clash with Kotelawala,’ Time, 26 May 1955.

¹³⁴ ‘No Support for Sir John: Colombo Powers’ Meeting Unlikely,’ The Times of India, 24 September 1955.

¹³⁵ Indian Council of World Affairs, Indian Recorder and Digest 2 (1956), 18.

¹³⁶ Herbert Hoover, Jr. to Dwight Eisenhower, 10 October 1956, FRUS, 1955–57, Vol. XVI, Doc. 323.

¹³⁷ Jawaharlal Nehru to Ali Sastroamidjojo, 2 November 1956, SWJN 2, Vol. 35, 432.

¹³⁸ Periodical Report No. 21/56, 20 November 1956, Ministry of External Affairs, F.18-R&I/56(S), NAI.

¹³⁹ Ali Sastroamidjojo to Solomon Bandaranaike, 10 December 1956, 2596 P9/16/5, NASL.

¹⁴⁰ ‘Asians for Egypt,’ Life, 26 November 1956.

¹⁴¹ Quoted in W. Howard Wriggins, Ceylon: Dilemmas of a New Nation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960), 454.

¹⁴² Periodical Report No. 21/56, 20 November 1956, F.18-R&I/56(S), NAI.

¹⁴³ ‘Pak Not to Quit Colombo Powers,’ The Times of India, 10 December 1956.

¹⁴⁴ ‘Colombo Powers’ Mutual Needs to Be Ascertained,’ The Times of India, 13 January 1957.

¹⁴⁵ ‘China Wants New Meeting of Colombo Powers,’ The Times of India, 3 May 1963.

¹⁴⁶ Jawaharlal Nehru, ‘Speech at the Concluding Session of the Asian-African Conference at Bandung,’ in Indian Foreign Policy, 270.

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Notes on contributors

Cindy Ewing

Cindy Ewing is Assistant Professor of Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto. The research for this article draws on her dissertation, which examines the role of Asian neutralism in the development of the post-1945 international order.