Thiong'o, Tharoor and Films on colonial history

Post colonialism looks into those unheard voices of colonial history that were curbed because of the biased historical sense. Films on colonialism either deal with the lost cultures of the colonized as well as how the changes in the imperial power in the political scenario. Shashi Tharoor in his An Era of Darkness, looks back at the colonial history of India and argues, to a great extent, that India could have been a better nation if it wouldn't have been colonized by the British. His way of arguing is what makes his arguments credible and notable to think about. He mentions the deteriorating economical effect the British imperialism had on the nation. He mentions such conflicts of colonial history out of which the nation hasn't been able to rise, even today.

 Revisiting the colonial history, is also a common trend among the media and entertainment industry these days. Two glaring examples of this can be The Black Prince and Victoria and Abdul. Both the movies, released in 2017 approach and discuss two different phenomena of the Indian colonial experience. The Black Prince discusses a prince's loss of and the struggle to regain his kingdom after a conflicting relationship with Queen Victoria. He tries to manage his associations both the cultures. On the other hand, Victoria and Abdul discusses the "relationship between Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her Indian Muslim servant, Abdul Karim" (Contributors). It is interesting to study how the roles of the colonizer and the colonized are portrayed in the both the movies.

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o discusses in his Decolonizing the mind, about how the idea of universality is still associated with the English language. And that European imperialism hasn't yet ended in Africa; it still continues to control economics, politics and culture of Africa. Probably, the most remarking statement by Thiong'o would be:

                   "Is it right that man should abandon his mother tongue for someone else's? It looks like a dreadful betrayal and produces a guilty feeling. But for me there is no other choice. I have been given the language and I intend to use it."

Though Thiong'o works specifically with the politics of language in African Language, it might be helpful for analyzing the politics of other languages of the colonized world after the arrival of English.

Works Cited

Contributors, Wikipedia. Victoria and Abdul. Vers. 918464105. 28 September 2019. web. 12 October 2019. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_%26_Abdul>.


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