However, Bengal and Punjab remained sources of anticolonial activities. Many of the rioters were antimilitarist, anticolonial and anticlerical. His conception of a republic was that of a republican, anticolonial, liberal and progressive patriot. Therefore, it had to accede to views that didn't reflect its true anticolonial position. The Indonesian government presented its annexation of East Timor as a matter of anticolonial unity. British suppression of the anticolonial riots led to the death of some 800 people. Nair was detained in 1951 by the British for anticolonial activities. In the 1920s, Saigon was the center of open anticolonial contestation in Vietnam. Its anticolonial nationalist platform also attracted many young Maures. Many individuals voiced their anticolonial sentiments in privately operated newspapers. All three organizations were major anticolonial powers in southern Vietnam. These declined with their French counterparts, and did not survive the anticolonial struggle. However, according to Puri, this is a colonial and anticolonial modernist interpretation of the text. This pre-emptive repression by the colonial power was to ethnically colour the subsequent anticolonial resistance. Three important anticolonial secret societies had been formed in Iraq during 1918 and 1919.