Colonial and Post Colonial Theory

IJRAR - International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews, 2019

Postcolonial is a period of freedom and exemption from European colonial clutches and grasping. It is quite necessary to define the word 'colonialism' before understanding 'postcolonialism.' P K Nayar in his seminal book Postcolonial Literature: An Introduction projects light upon the etymology of the word as thus "The term 'colony' once meant something very different. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that the fourteenth-century term, 'colonye,' derived from the Latin 'colon-us,' meaning farmer, cultivator, planter, or settler in a new country, was used to describe the Roman settlements in the fourteenth century" (1-2). Colonialism is a gradual process of settling down Europeans in various corners of the world and considering themselves superior to those where they settled down. They migrated to non-European countries and started forming colonies and began to establish their own rules and regulation and imposed upon the colonized. Sometimes it was quite harsh and, most of the time, inhuman. The process of migration is continued since the existence of the earth and human beings kept on moving in quest of a better life and safe places. But the eighteenth and nineteenth-century scenario is extremely awful and consternation where the colonizers moved to exploit the colonized places and contaminated the previously established social cultures and introduce their own. Let's see what OED reads, "Colonialism is an alleged policy of exploitation of backward, or weak peoples by a large power." Colonialism is a derogatory word and it is a sort of stigma on colonizers. It is the second name of cruelty, oppression, exploitation, hate, servitude, racism and inequality. Colonization is dreadful for native races, cultures and spaces. Their intention at the beginning of these settlers was just to trade and later, seeing the gullible and hospitable nature of the people, their cunningness came out and they invited several people from their country and gradually tried to control and train the native people in their own way. They came to trade with the permission of local Nawabs and rulers, but with the passage of time, these traders conquered those local nawabs and rulers and became the ruler of those areas and started subjugating the people of the area. Colonialism brought destruction for the native knowledge, culture, art and understanding. Colonizers started to command the economy, politics and society as per their crafty intention. They introduced massive changes by demoralizing Indian values, customs and practices. Native people began to see their own customs and rituals with susceptible eyes in which they used to believe firmly. In India, they replace dhoti, kurta, turban, saree with shirts, pants, coats, ties and gowns. The products of colonialism are hybrid; they oscillate between their native culture and colonial culture. The colonization process started forcefully but later on it impacted on the mentality of the native people. They began to subjugate mentally, making the natives considered inferior, uncivilized, illiterate and so on. P K Nayar, quoting the most famous Orientalist scholar Edward Said, says, "Colonialism cannot be seen merely as a political or economic 'condition': it was a powerful cultural and epistemological conquest of the native populations" (Postcolonial Literature: An Introduction 3).

Much of the history of international relations is characterized by the violent attempts of one community to subjugate another. In 1955, Aimé Césaire wrote of the "great historical tragedy" that befell Africa in its encounter with European colonialism, an encounter that led Césaire to conclude that "Europe is responsible before the human community for the highest heap of corpses in human history " (2000: 45). A range of important ethical issues emerges from a consideration of the past interaction between colonizing and colonized peoples, both in the African context and elsewhere in the world. This article first seeks to describe the key characteristics of colonialism as a system of domination and subjugation, before considering the legitimacy of contemporary judgments on the morality of historical colonialism. It then examines how the particular character of colonialism complicates arguments relating to the rectification of injustice. It concludes by asking what lessons those interested in ethics can learn from the diverse body of work produced by writers in the postcolonial tradition.

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter nose than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea--something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to.

Post Colonial is the study of the history ,culture ,literature and that was the main concern in the former colonies of England ,Spain ,France and other powers .Post-Colonial study reveals the exploitation done on the colonized country by the colonized powers .Here, the aim of this study is to analyses the theoretical approach in various colonies that is concerned with the impact of colonization in various countries .Post-colonialism represents an ideological response to colonial thought describing a system that comes after colonialism.

Postmodernity provides us with an intellectual discourse in order to discover, enhance and engage problems, oppositions, differences, or tensions central to the continuity or discontinuity of modern discourse. It is an alternative platform through which one could in theory highlight through analysis theoretical, historical, political, cultural, and social practices that exposes tension in dominant western philosophies and theory of absolute reason.

Colonialism has a great impact on the colonized culture, culture that is subjugated by the colonizers. Colonialism is the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition, and expansion of colony in one territory by a political power from another territory. Ronald J. Harvath in his essay A definition of colonialism says, “Colonialism is a form of domination-the control by individuals or groups over the territory and/or behavior of other individuals or groups. (3)” Invasion towards culture by the colonizer was always prominent as it domination of this was a great tool for them to hegemonize the colonized. Even though the colonizers left, they burdened us with their culture’s impact on ours for which we have seen the birth of a mimic man, rise of language debate, identity crisis, etc. Post colonialism is an academic discipline featuring methods of intellectual discourse that analyze, explain, and respond to the cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism, to the human consequences of controlling a country and establishing settlers for the economic exploitation of the native people and their land. Through post colonial analysis the role of a mimic man to social change, language debate and identity crisis of the colonized can be re discovered.

After-effects, or continuation, of ideologies and discourses of imperialism, domination and repression, value systems (e.g. the domination of western values and the delegitimization of non-Western values); • After-effects of colonialism on the daily lived experiences of participants; • Regard in which peoples in post-colonial societies are held; • Valorization of multiple voices and heterogeneity in post-colonial societies; • Resistance to marginalization of groups within postcolonial societies; • Construction of identities in a post-colonial world. • From Emmanuel N. Obiechina (Culture, Tradition and Society in the West African Novel 1975) and Mohamadou Kane (Roman africain et Tradition 1982) to Abiola Irele ("The African Imagination" 1990).

Post-colonial theory is a post-positivist/reflectivist/constitutive and non-mainstream International Relations (IR) i theory which posits a critical thinking to dominant IR theories. It is assumed to offer an alternative to the Eurocentric stance and concepts of classical International Relatios theories and carry a potential to move beyond these mainstream theories, even to restructure them. Post-colonial theoreticians, like all critical scholars, have tried to shift the classical thinking in the discipline and save it from the hegemony of Western conceptions by challenging "Western-theorizing" and "decolonizing" it. However, it is not a single theory but a set of different theories. There is an immense diversity of post-colonial theory which focus on different issues such as literature, art, music, linguistics, slavery, migration, discrimination, historiography and discusses different kinds of subjugation like racism, gender, nationalism and identity.