Unit 1 – Colonialism and Nationalism ( और र )
Topic 1: Main Perspectives on Colonialism: Liberalism, Marxism,
Postcolonialism
1: र र : र , , र
Colonialism: Definitions and Meaning
Colonialism, originating from the latin word colonus, meaning farmer, denote transfer of
population to a new territory, where they live permanently while maintaining political allegiance
to their country of origin.
Colonialism is a way of domination or subordination where one country establishes an
administrative hold over another country. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it a country or
area under the full and partial control of another country typically a distant one and occupied by
settlers from that country. The Collins English Dictionary also seems to support the exploitative
aspect of colonialism by defining colonialism as the policy of acquiring and maintaining
colonies, especially for economic exploitation. Colonialism is a practice of domination, which
involves the subjugation of one people to another. For example: The East Indian Company
(British Rule) as a powerful country directly controlled India and made it a British Colony and
used India’s resources, capital, land, labour to increase Britain’s own power and wealth.
So, colonialism is different from imperialism. Imperialism is driven by the ideology of the
superiority of the centre with the assertion and expansion of state power across the globe.
Colonialism is normally a pragmatic state of activity at the periphery or colonies. Thus,
imperialism is a much wider concept as compared to colonialism. Imperialism, originated from
Latin term imperium, meaning to command, denotes the way that one country exercises power
over another. It may be through settlement or indirect mechanisms of domination and control.
Like US command systems in the world, blue jeans, cultural hegemony, pizza, pop music.
Harry Magdoff in ‘The Age of Imperialism’ (1969) traced the pattern of new imperialism and a
new period in world capitalism. He distinguished between old and new imperialism. To him,
new imperialism marks a new period in the United States of America, Germany, France and
Japan to challenge England. The power of monopoly capitalism has shifted to small, integrated
industrial and financial firms-the multinationals (MNCs), which have become especially
predominant since the Second World War. He examined patterns of US aid and trade and looked
at the foundation of the ever-expanding US empire.
Consequences of Colonialism
Colonialism had both positive and negative effects on Indian growth and development.
1. Colonialism imposes alien and authoritarian regimes on subordinate societies. The regimes
trained a few of their subjects in bureaucratic management and required passive submission.
2. It had a major purpose to exploit colonies economically. Colonies were used as sources and
suppliers of raw materials and markets of the finished good.
3. In course of time the core that is UK became economically powerful and developed, and India
as a periphery remained underdeveloped
There are mainly three perspectives to understanding Colonialism and Nationalism in
India:
Liberalism
The liberal perspective generally accepts that colonialism is a normal phase of economic and
political relationships which is rational. It brings changes in colonies which perhaps promote
freedom, life, and liberty and protect individual rights in colonies. Many of the world's political
systems are based on the values and concepts evident in liberalism.
Liberals see it as Part of Capitalist Expansion: Colonialism came into world history as part of
the global political-economic world order, which has been taking shape since the sixteenth
century. As soon as the industrial revolution in Britain went to peak, India was considered a big
market for finished goods and a supplier of raw materials like cotton, indigo, coffee, and
sugarcane. So, liberals had seen the colonial expansion of the British in India as part of Capitalist
expansion.
It has seen as a Totality and a Unified Structure of the World System: India's economy and
society were completely and intricately integrated into the global capitalist system during
colonialism, which was carried out for roughly 200 years in a subordinate or passive position. It
should be noted that the colonial economy and society's dependence or subservience was the
most important or determining factor, "not mere linkage or integration with world capitalism or
the world market." However, the Marxists like A.R Desai and R.P. Dutt had critical of the British
administrative intervention in the Indian state.
Drain of wealth is the natural phenomenon of colonialism which came along with natural
foreign and foreign domination of colonies: Economic drain is the natural phenomenon of East
India Company's administrative and economic policies. The colonial power utilized the Indian
revenue, infrastructures, and natural resources to strengthen the British administrative system.
Even though the company had profited from oppressive land policies, unequal bullion trade, and
acquisition of rare objects like diamonds and exporting them to Britain remain the priority of
British rule in India.
Naoroji and Gandhi that British rule was squarely responsible for the total ruination of the rural
life of India, leading to the mass popularisation of the peasantry, handloom, and other handicraft
industries. He wrote that the malfunctioning of British rule lead to rural indebtedness.
fragmentation of landholdings, the emergence of middlemen or sahukars or money lenders.
landless labourers, and absentee landlords in the forms of Zamindars.
"Civilizing Mission"
• Universal human nature: humans as part of same species have same natural faculty, express
themselves in similar ways, and hence entire human civilisation is one unbreakable chain
• Part of humanity, living in remote places, progressed less; those who became more developed
have moral obligation to handhold their undeveloped brethren
• A temporary period of political dependence or handholding was necessary in order for
"uncivilized societies to advance to the point where they were capable of sustaining liberal
institutions and self-government.
• Pulling "uncivilized" societies towards civilization./modernization was white man's burden.
• Ideological effort to appropriate history as a means of establishing cultural hegemony and
legitimizing British rule over India.
Liberal political thinkers like John Locke, James Mill, J.S. Mill, Herbert Spencer etc in their
writings established the following points:
1. Utilitarianism:
Act of colonization is morally good as it increases net pleasure
2. Laws of nation:
People of colonies were not a sovereign political community, hence laws of nation was
not applicable to them.
Interpersonal relations between all men were subject to the laws of nature, international
relations were subject to laws of nation
3. Wastage principle:
John Lock principle that humans have God imposed duty to maximize the conveniences of life
by best utilization of natural resources. People of colonies were wasting natural resources (not
utilizing in best way); hence, colonizing people were justified in best utilization and
improvement of natural resources of the colonies.
4. Historical progression of civilization
The idea that civilization is the culmination of a process of historical development, in which
some part of the humanity are left behind and they need to be shown path and pulled up.
5. Social Darwinist Approach
if history is a struggle between various peoples and cultures, akin to the struggle among the
species, Britain having come to the top could be ipso facto legitimately considered to be superior
and as the fittest to rule.
Marxism
The colonial state is a bourgeoisie state: The Marxists have seen colonialism as the contradiction
and conflict that developed between the interests of the Indian people and the British rulers and
see that as the principal reason for the development of nationalism but they also recognize the
inner contradictions and conflict of interests between the various economic classes. They
highlight and bring out the difference in the interests of the Indian rich elite and the poorer
classes and integrate that into their analysis of the development of Indian nationalism and the
resistance to colonialism. They argue the Indian national movement was a movement of the
bourgeois.
Economy and Social Needs are determined by the Dominant Social Classes: To Marx
colonialism is a phase when is been completely integrated into the world capitalist system in a
subordinate and subservient position. Subordination means that the fundamental aspects of the
colony's economy and society are not determined by its own needs or the needs and interests of
its dominant social classes but by the needs and interests of its dominant social classes but by the
needs and interests of the metropolitan economy and its capitalist class.
Colonies as a supplier of raw materials: The next feature of colonialism is encompassed by the
twin notions of unequal exchange (Aghiri Emmanuel) and internal disarticulation of the colonial
economy and articulation of its different disarticulated parts. For example, during the British
colonial period agriculture does not directly relate to the colony's industrial sector; rather
articulated to the world capitalist market and is linked to a metropolitan market which buys a
product like cotton, indigo, tea and coffee etc. The colony in that way experienced a
"disarticulated generalized commodity production. Thus, colonies specialized in the production
of raw materials and the metropolis is concerned with manufactured goods.
Substantial part of the surplus generated in the colonies is being utilized in the imperialist
centre: Another important feature is the drain of wealth or unilateral transfer of social surplus
that went to the metropolis through unreciprocated exports.
Postcolonialism
Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political, and economic legacies of
colonialism and imperialism. With an emphasis on the effects of human control and exploitation
of colonized people and their territories. A critical theory analysis of the history, culture,
literature, and rhetoric of (mostly European) imperial power is what it is particularly. The
postcolonial ideas mainly questioned the generalized understanding that colonial powers are
superior in their culture and tradition. Ultimately they wanted to destroy the main parts native
tradition and culture. Furthermore, they wanted to continuously reform the existing traditional
pattern of life in colonies. The post-colonialist in the real sense oppose the change offered by
British power and other colonial powers. Some of the eminent postcolonial theorists are Edward
Said Frantz Fannon The ultimate goal of postcolonialism is to finish the enduring effects of
colonial cultures. It vehemently opposes the western countries that had described a the ex-
colonial countries under a uniform umbrella label such as the third world' or global south.
Postcolonialism recognizes that there is still resistance to the west among various nations. This
resistance is practised by many including subalterns, marginalized groups and other least
powerful strata
Thus, the main objective of post-colonialist theories is to clear the space for multiple voices. The
main objective of postcolonial writings is 'to speak their voices'. Anti-Colonial thinkers
emphasized what they called 'subaltern perspectives. The perspective talks about the tales of
ordinary people and their cultural impact on them. However, by colonial rule, all cultures have
become increasingly mixed and hybridized. Anti-colonial thinkers had always insisted that
decolonization had to begin by changing mentality.
Fanon explains that the "black man is made to believe in his inferiority to the white colonialized
through psychological aspects of colonialization, such as impositions, the colonized came to
believe they are culturally inferior to others. The internalization made it easier for colonizers to
justify and maintain their rule in colonies.
