The University Socialist Club and the contest for Malaya : tangled strands of modernity /

The University Socialist Club and the contest for Malaya : tangled strands of modernity / Kah Seng Loh [and others. - Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, (c)2012. - 1 online resource (347 pages) : illustrations portraits. - IIAS publications series. Monographs ; 7 .



"The book, using a small group of left-wing student activists as a prism, explores the complex politics that underpinned the making of nation-states in Singapore and Malaysia after World War Two. While most works have viewed the period in terms of political contestation groups, the book demonstrates how it is better understood as involving a shared modernist project framed by British-planned decolonization. This pursuit of nationalist modernity was characterized by an optimism to replace the colonial system with a new state and mobilize the people into a new relationship with the state, according them new responsibilities as well as new rights. This book, based on student writings, official documents and oral history interviews, brings to life various modernist strands - liberal-democratic, ethnic-communal, and Fabian and Marxist socialist - seeking to determine the form of post-colonial Malaya. It uncovers a hitherto little-seen world where the meanings of loud slogans were fluid, vague and deeply contested. This world also comprised as much convergence between the groups as conflict, including collaboration between the Socialist Club and other political and student groups which were once its rivals, while its main ally eventually became its nemesis"--Publisher's description.



9048515890 9789048515899 9781283698313


University Socialist Club (Singapore)--History.


Students--Political activity--History.--Malaysia
Students--Political activity--History.--Singapore
Student movements--Malaysia.
Student movements--Singapore.
Universities and colleges--Societies, etc.--History.--Singapore
Universities and colleges--Societies, etc.--History.--Malaysia

History, geography, and auxiliary disciplines Political science Nation building Democracy process Malaysia


Electronic Books.

LA1238 / .U558 2012