Colonialism, Imperialism and post-coloniality

Further examining on Post-colonial Literature, this week's column provides a foreground which led to the birth of Post-colonial Literature.

Last week, I briefly examined the fundamental difference between colonialism and imperialism. I said that a fundamental difference between colonialism and imperialism is that 'imperialism' is the ideology and the 'colonialism' is the practice. In other words, imperialism is the ideology of colonialism. If the colonialism was driven by the desire to conquest non-European lands for settlements, imperialism was a mechanism to fulfil the need to acquire wealth. Imperialism is a process of deliberate expansion of European powers into non-European geo-natural spaces. It is important to recognise that the nature of imperialism is not one and the same. Considerable differences can be observed in French and British imperialism of the nineteenth century and in the American imperialism of the Twentieth century.

Post-colonial 'condition'

At a rudimentary level, one can argue that offering mere 'political independence' or 'decolonisation' of non-European nations set 'post-colonial' conditions. However, the political control may provide a clue as to the nature of control. Often the harsh reality is that though the political control has shifted from Europeans to natives, economic control of the nation may still be controlled directly or indirectly by European powers. In other words, so called 'free' nation-states continues to suffer from economic exploitation by European powers and therefore, remain 'imperial'. In other words, this condition of continuous economic exploitation on non-European nations by Western metropolitan powers can be termed out as 'Neo-colonialism'.

Neo-colonialism

Neo-colonialism is the continuous economic exploitation of Asian and African nation-states by European and American powers. Particularly the term 'neo-colonialism' has been used to describe the American control over the rest of the world which is also interpreted as the new world order following the ideological collapse of Marxism. A significant aspect of neo-colonialism is that the former colonial masters continue to exploit so called 'free' colonies.

In the strict sense of the word, colonies may not be 'colonies' but they still be economically or culturally exploited by their former colonial masters. Neo-colonialism, in most cases, is achieved not by direct control or intervention by Euro-American powers but by links between politician, the bankers and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of private agencies.

Although the possibility of direct military intervention may be remote, economic sanctions by former colonial masters are coupled with the threat or imminent military action against 'wrongly behaved 'Asian and African nation-states. Very often international aid and development initiatives are coupled with economic and policy drivers and may dictate certain conditions and be able to disable third world economies. World Bank/IMF directives to cut down subsidies may be a case in point. Therefore, neo-colonialism may be a more dangerous and insidious form of colonialism.

Distinctively, colonialism and imperialism make differences between governors and governed, European and non-Europeans and white race and non-white races. Therefore, at a different level, colonialism can be considered as a method of discovering, creating and reinforcing 'difference'. While reinforcing difference between the white and the non-whites, colonialism treated all non-Europeans as a common race. Colonialism ignored the differences among non-whites and categorised them into homogeneous stock of 'natives', 'others 'or 'them'.

Post-coloniality

Professor Helen Gilbert contours of 'Post colonialism' in her now famous definition of the term:

"The term indicates a degree of agency, or ...a programme of resistance, against cultural domination: ...signals the existence of a particular historical legacy...a stage in a culture's transition into a modern nation-state: or to suggest a form of co-option into Western cultural economies ...'post-colonial' has become a convenient ...term to describe any kind of resistance, particularly against class, race, and gender oppression."

In simple terms, post-coloniality is the historical, material and actual 'living' conditions of newly independent Asian, African and South American nation-states within the global system. Although the post-colonial is referred to 'after colonial', what should be borne in mind is that newly independent nation-states were under colonial rule for over nearly a century. As a result the colonial rule set agendas to form political governance, economic exploitation and cultural dominance. Therefore, post-coloniality refers to economic and political conditions in newly independent Asian, African and South American nation states such as India after European rule or Sri Lanka after the British rule. It also underlines the impact of geopolitics, globalisation, changed perception of Asian and African migrant workers, new economic policies of import/export of ' Third world ' products , even the formation of the European Union and change of immigration and emigration rules for 'Third World' citizens.

In a broader perspective, post-coloniality is a set of practices that seeks to negotiate history of colonialism, current state of political independence and imminence threat of neo-colonialism in the economic, cultural and social fields. The advent of cultural nationalism, religious fundamentalism and regionalism in Asian/ African nation-states can be considered as social strategies in the face of globalisation. Therefore, the reconstruction of native cultures, the revival of folk-lore based art, newer forms of narrative and rewriting of histories make up some of the prominent practices of 'Post-coloniality' and 'Post colonialism'. The post-coloniality is, therefore, coupled with the process of decolonisation.

In a way, post-coloniality is marked by a process in which Western traditional notions of development models have been critiqued. For instance, 'modernity' in its Western sense is difficult to apply to countries such as Indian and Sri Lanka. In this context, concepts such as citizenship, the state, civil society and equality before law are being contested.

The scope of 'post-colonial' and 'post-coloniality' have been widened up to include not only the narrative, representational and political strategies of newly independent Asian/African nations but also modes of negotiations adapted by African Americans /Asian American and Asian British in dealing with legacies of colonialism, cultural imperialism and cultural identity.