Then and Now: Colonialism, Imperialism and Post colonialism
The terms colonialism and imperialism are usually considered to have some degrees of commonality between them. However, they are quite different, as I'll try to prove in this post. Also, I'll try to discuss in as much as detail as possible, the area of study that is post colonialism.
Post colonialism is not just a study of the time or life after colonialism, it is rather a study of how it continues to exist even today in one form or the other in the lives of the colonizers and those who were colonized. The fundamental aim for post colonialism, therefore, is to study how colonialism was and is understood till now. And also, specifically, to analyze how it has affected the lives of the colonizer and the colonized. Let us therefore, first understand the term colonialism and how it is different from imperialism.
The etymology of the word colonialism and its further description is best explained by Ania Loomba who, in her Colonialism and Post Colonialism explains:
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), (colonialism) comes from the Roman ‘colonia’ which meant ‘farm’ or ‘settlement’, and referred to Romans who settled in other lands but still retained their citizenship. Accordingly, the OED describes it as:
"a settlement in a new country … a body of people who settle in a new locality, forming a community subject to or connected with their parent state; the community so formed, consisting of the original settlers and their descendants and successors, as long as the connection with the parent state is kept up."
However, being a post colonial critic herself, she also finds a problem with the definition when she says that:
"This definition, quite remarkably, avoids any reference to people other than the colonisers, people who might already have been living in those places where colonies were established. Hence it evacuates the word ‘colonialism’ of any implication of an encounter between peoples, or of conquest and domination."
For Loomba then Colonialism is : "The conquest and control of other people's land and goods."
Imperialism on the other hand, if taken literally, means domination of an empire or a belief in empire building. In this sense then, imperialism can be considered the highest stage of colonialism. According to Ania Loomba, however,"imperialism can be best understood not by trying to pin it down to a semantic meaning but by relating its shifting meanings to historical processes." Further Loomba also adds that imperialism is not understood only as a political system but also as an economic system. This is the reason why imperialism doesn't require direct rule.
Post Colonialism:
As mentioned earlier, post colonialism is the study of how colonialism continues to exist even in
today's world of 'globalization'. An important thought to take note before dealing further in this topic is to consider that colonialism, wasn't and isn't, a one -way experience. It affected both the colonizer and the colonized. A further endeavour in post colonial study is to analyze the types of colonialisms. For instance, European colonialism, French colonialism, etc. And also to study how and did European colonialism develop so much that 'the sun never set' on their 'empire'. According to Peter Barry, " Postcolonial criticism emerged as a distinct category only in the 1990s." He further traces the ancestry of post colonial criticism to Frantz Fanon's The Wretched Of The Earth. He also
An important factor Loomba further discusses is the relation of knowledge and colonialism. In her opinion, "Colonialism reshaped existing structures of human knowledge. No branch of knowledge was left untouched by the colonial experience." Accordingly, in today's world:
"Knowledge is not innocent but profoundly connected with the operations of power.
This Foucaultian insight informs Edward Said's Orientalism, which points out the extent to which knowledge about the Orient, as it was 'produced' and 'circulated' in Europe was an ideological accompaniment of colonial 'power'."
Considering the above statements, it was obvious that literature is bound to get affected by colonialism too. Therefore, Loomba next explains the relation between colonialism and literature. She argues:
"If language and signs are the sites where different ideologies intersect and clash with one another, then literary texts, being complex clusters of language and signs can be identified as extremely fecund sites for such ideological interactions."
For a better understanding you can take account the various texts written and set around colonial rule. In the Indian context, novels such as Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Mulk Raj Anand's The Untouchable, etc can be included.
Equally important in post colonialist in studies is to question the universality of literature. To put in Peter Barry's words: "One significant effect of postcolonial criticism is to further undermine the universalist claims once made on behalf of literature by liberal humanist critics. If we claim that great literature has a timeless and universal significance we thereby demote or disregard cultural, social, regional, and national differences in experience and outlook, preferring instead to judge all literature by a single, supposedly 'universal', standard."
For a better understanding you can take account the various texts written and set around colonial rule. In the Indian context, novels such as Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Mulk Raj Anand's The Untouchable, etc can be included.
Adding to her explanation, Loomba argues:
"Literary texts circulate in society not just because of their intrinsic merit, but because they are part of other institutions such as the market or the education system."
The above arguments are strongly justified when understood in the 21st century where the media is at its peak of development.
Globalization & Post Colonial Studies:
The 21st century world is a post colonial world. Today a country can be both post colonial and neo colonial at the same time. To put it in Ania Loomba's words:
"The new global order does not depend upon direct rule. However, it does allow the economic, cultural and political penetration of some countries by others."
A major aspect of post colonial studies is to reinterpret history. Especially important in this endeavour is to take into account those narratives that are otherwise neglected by the master-narrative. She further states, "Globalization, they argue cannot be analyzed using concepts like margins and centers so central to post colonial studies."
Colonialism and imperialism work in newer forms today. The concept of 'empire' central to imperialism is reinterpreted by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri in their Empire, in which they explain how today's imperialism is different from European empires:
"In contrast to imperialism, Empire establishes no territorial center of power and does not rely on fixed boundaries or barriers. It is a decentered and deterritorializing apparatus of rule that progressively incorporates the entire global realm within its open, expanding frontiers. Empire manages hybrid identities, flexible hierarchies, and plural exchanges through modulating networks of command. The distinct national colors of the imperial map of the world have merged and blended in the imperial global rainbow."
These arguments are further strengthened by works like Arjun Appadurai's Modernity At Large, Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilization and P. Sainath's And Then There Was Market. The last work discusses how Market fundamentalism is the new mode of imperialism in the capitalist world.
The Research Unit for Political Economy, as quoted by Ania Loomba in her work, explains how globalization has deteriorating effects on the lives of common people:
"The great range of actual measures carried on under the label of globalization … were not those of integration and development. Rather they were the processes of imposition, disintegration, underdevelopement and appropriation." It also mentions how privatization results in the dismantling of worker's security of employment.
Ania Loomba lastly argues that imperialism also directly implicates educational institutes. The educational institutes are, without any prior understanding, declared as anti-national, just because they question the evils of the society. To put it in her words:
"If universities are to remain sites of dissent and free intellectual inquiry, if scholarship is not to be at the service of American or any other power, critiques of past and ongoing empires are going to be more necessary than ever."
Intellectual inquiry is essential in today's world of inequality. Colonialism in any form should be put to question. As long as it persists in the human society, post colonial studies would continue to question and inquire those in power.
Imperialism on the other hand, if taken literally, means domination of an empire or a belief in empire building. In this sense then, imperialism can be considered the highest stage of colonialism. According to Ania Loomba, however,"imperialism can be best understood not by trying to pin it down to a semantic meaning but by relating its shifting meanings to historical processes." Further Loomba also adds that imperialism is not understood only as a political system but also as an economic system. This is the reason why imperialism doesn't require direct rule.
Post Colonialism:
As mentioned earlier, post colonialism is the study of how colonialism continues to exist even in
today's world of 'globalization'. An important thought to take note before dealing further in this topic is to consider that colonialism, wasn't and isn't, a one -way experience. It affected both the colonizer and the colonized. A further endeavour in post colonial study is to analyze the types of colonialisms. For instance, European colonialism, French colonialism, etc. And also to study how and did European colonialism develop so much that 'the sun never set' on their 'empire'. According to Peter Barry, " Postcolonial criticism emerged as a distinct category only in the 1990s." He further traces the ancestry of post colonial criticism to Frantz Fanon's The Wretched Of The Earth. He also
An important factor Loomba further discusses is the relation of knowledge and colonialism. In her opinion, "Colonialism reshaped existing structures of human knowledge. No branch of knowledge was left untouched by the colonial experience." Accordingly, in today's world:
"Knowledge is not innocent but profoundly connected with the operations of power.
This Foucaultian insight informs Edward Said's Orientalism, which points out the extent to which knowledge about the Orient, as it was 'produced' and 'circulated' in Europe was an ideological accompaniment of colonial 'power'."
Considering the above statements, it was obvious that literature is bound to get affected by colonialism too. Therefore, Loomba next explains the relation between colonialism and literature. She argues:
"If language and signs are the sites where different ideologies intersect and clash with one another, then literary texts, being complex clusters of language and signs can be identified as extremely fecund sites for such ideological interactions."
For a better understanding you can take account the various texts written and set around colonial rule. In the Indian context, novels such as Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Mulk Raj Anand's The Untouchable, etc can be included.
Equally important in post colonialist in studies is to question the universality of literature. To put in Peter Barry's words: "One significant effect of postcolonial criticism is to further undermine the universalist claims once made on behalf of literature by liberal humanist critics. If we claim that great literature has a timeless and universal significance we thereby demote or disregard cultural, social, regional, and national differences in experience and outlook, preferring instead to judge all literature by a single, supposedly 'universal', standard."
For a better understanding you can take account the various texts written and set around colonial rule. In the Indian context, novels such as Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Mulk Raj Anand's The Untouchable, etc can be included.
Adding to her explanation, Loomba argues:
"Literary texts circulate in society not just because of their intrinsic merit, but because they are part of other institutions such as the market or the education system."
The above arguments are strongly justified when understood in the 21st century where the media is at its peak of development.
Globalization & Post Colonial Studies:
The 21st century world is a post colonial world. Today a country can be both post colonial and neo colonial at the same time. To put it in Ania Loomba's words:
"The new global order does not depend upon direct rule. However, it does allow the economic, cultural and political penetration of some countries by others."
A major aspect of post colonial studies is to reinterpret history. Especially important in this endeavour is to take into account those narratives that are otherwise neglected by the master-narrative. She further states, "Globalization, they argue cannot be analyzed using concepts like margins and centers so central to post colonial studies."
Colonialism and imperialism work in newer forms today. The concept of 'empire' central to imperialism is reinterpreted by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri in their Empire, in which they explain how today's imperialism is different from European empires:
"In contrast to imperialism, Empire establishes no territorial center of power and does not rely on fixed boundaries or barriers. It is a decentered and deterritorializing apparatus of rule that progressively incorporates the entire global realm within its open, expanding frontiers. Empire manages hybrid identities, flexible hierarchies, and plural exchanges through modulating networks of command. The distinct national colors of the imperial map of the world have merged and blended in the imperial global rainbow."
These arguments are further strengthened by works like Arjun Appadurai's Modernity At Large, Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilization and P. Sainath's And Then There Was Market. The last work discusses how Market fundamentalism is the new mode of imperialism in the capitalist world.
The Research Unit for Political Economy, as quoted by Ania Loomba in her work, explains how globalization has deteriorating effects on the lives of common people:
"The great range of actual measures carried on under the label of globalization … were not those of integration and development. Rather they were the processes of imposition, disintegration, underdevelopement and appropriation." It also mentions how privatization results in the dismantling of worker's security of employment.
Ania Loomba lastly argues that imperialism also directly implicates educational institutes. The educational institutes are, without any prior understanding, declared as anti-national, just because they question the evils of the society. To put it in her words:
"If universities are to remain sites of dissent and free intellectual inquiry, if scholarship is not to be at the service of American or any other power, critiques of past and ongoing empires are going to be more necessary than ever."
Intellectual inquiry is essential in today's world of inequality. Colonialism in any form should be put to question. As long as it persists in the human society, post colonial studies would continue to question and inquire those in power.
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