(The Indian Express has launched a new series of articles for UPSC candidates written by experienced writers and scholars on topics and concepts of history, politics, international relations, art, culture and heritage, environment, geography, science and technology, etc. Read and reflect with subject experts and increase your chances of cracking the very prestigious UPSC CSE. In the following article, political scientist Amir Ali describes postcolonial theory.)
Post-colonialism has become one of the most recognized concepts in academic and intellectual circles over the past four decades. This article begins by distinguishing two dimensions of the concept. The first is a simple, temporal and factual dimension, in which post-colonial refers only to the historical period that came into existence after the end of colonization by European powers.
The second dimension refers to intellectual frameworks that have contributed significantly to academic debates. This article will focus on the second dimension. Postcolonial theory has adopted a highly critical stance towards European colonialism and attitudes commonly dubbed Eurocentrism. Eurocentrism or Eurocentric perspective refers to a world view that places Europe at the center of historical, intellectual and cultural narratives.
Postcolonial theory challenges these Eurocentric narratives by opposing the values associated with the 18th-century European Enlightenment.
From a postcolonial perspective, Enlightenment ideals—such as rationality, progress, and universalism—often serve to justify colonial exploitation and cultural dominance. Thus, postcolonial theory rejects such measures and Seeks to promote a more inclusive understanding of global history and culture.
Edward Said and the Emergence of Postcolonial Theory
This intellectual stance against the Enlightenment has led postcolonial theory to the position that colonial societies should not be measured against the standards of colonized countries. A process that inevitably characterizes them as deficient. Among the most influential figures associated with the rise and origins of postcolonial theory is Edward Said – a distinguished academic at Columbia University.
Written by Professor of Comparative Literature Orientalism (1978), a book that was to achieve the status of a modern classic during his lifetime. He died of a rare form of leukemia in September 2003. During his visit to India in December 1997, Said gave a lecture on the title Reaction to Orientalism in Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi where he expressed surprise at the prestigious status the book had achieved.
Said’s book talks about three different forms of Orientalism, British, French, and American, spanning the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The British and French variants were based on the discipline of philology or the study of languages, while the American version was based on area studies programs – academic programs that focus on a particular area of the world. Said argued that Orientalism is a particular colonial attitude or disposition to want to know about the lands of the East (East). The knowledge generated by this process was not academically isolated but facilitated the control of the colonies.
In Said’s own words, Orientalism is ‘a way of dealing with the East that is based on the special place of the East in the European Western experience’. Theoretically speaking, Sade drew from the intellectual insights of the French philosopher Michel Foucault whose ideas on power, knowledge and discourse strongly suggested that power – traditionally understood as flowing from oppressive power – actually derives from knowledge. Discourse was created by the knowledge gained by the scholars of the East by studying the societies of the East. shaped The ‘reality’ of the former.
Major thinkers of post-colonialism
To reiterate, what makes postcolonial theory intellectually distinct is its opposition to Eurocentrism and the Enlightenment. This arose from Said’s intellectual position on Orientalism in which he significantly drew insights from Michel Foucault. Foucault, in turn, was inspired by the 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whose influential and powerful writings marked a significant departure. From the main branch of knowledge.
Because of its origins in literary theory, postcolonial theory emphasizes the element of the discursive—how colonialism and its legacies are perpetuated through systems of knowledge, language, and cultural representation. Over time, postcolonial theory has spread its influence to other disciplines such as political science and history. In political science, this has manifested itself in the context of providing insights into the post-colonial state where the work of scholars such as Sudipta Kaviraj values what he calls “the magic of the Indian state”.
Post-colonial theory and its influence are also seen in the writings of political scientist Partha Chatterjee, especially in his famous writings on nationalism. Chatterjee raised the issue with arguments of the famous theorist of nationalism, Benedict Anderson. In his book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Diffusion of Nationalism (1983), Anderson argued that nationalism was ‘modular’ – a universal model that colonial nations could adopt in their struggle for independence from colonial rule.
Chatterjee passionately argued that if nationalism were to be accepted as ‘modular’, it would also mean losing the possibility for post-colonial societies to imagine their own forms of nationalism. In this spirited postcolonial critique of what was Anderson’s Marxist argument, Chatterjee brings out the exceptions and differences of postcolonial societies, Questioning the need to slavishly scale Western and European models of nationalism.
A critic of post-colonial theory
In the discipline of history, the voluminous writings of the subaltern school—beginning with the works of historian Ranjit Guha and expanding to include some of the most distinguished scholars of South Asian history—stand as evidence of the deep influence of postcolonial theory on the discipline. Beyond Literary Theory. 1987 saw the publication of Selected Subaltern Studies, which included a foreword and endorsement by Edward Said. Subaltern studies emphasized the agency of those marginalized by bottom-up histories and top-down nationalist historical accounts.
Although the influence of postcolonial theory has been significant, its critics have expressed concern about its jargon-laden and inaccessible style. They also point out its highly eclectic use Theoretical framework. With its philosophical roots identified in the writings of Foucault and Nietzsche, postcolonial theory also borrows extensively from the Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci. In fact, the subaltern school, considered the most influential extension of postcolonial theory, derives the term ‘subaltern’ from the writings of Gramsci.
Critics of the subaltern school and post-colonial theory, such as Ejaz Ahmed, have noted theoretical inconsistencies in this context, pointing to Marxist and materialist backgrounds. Gramsci’s writings did not sit well with the largely discursive focus of postcolonial theory. One of the leading critics of postcolonial theory is the sociologist Vivek Chibber, who in his book Postcolonial theory and the specter of capital (2006), acknowledges the “remarkable” and “available” beginnings of postcolonial theory in literary studies. However, Chibber laments its rapid spread to other disciplines, which he believes has been overreached in favor of “ideological inflation” and postcolonial theory.
Post the questions you read
What is Eurocentrism, and how does it shape historical and cultural narratives?
How does postcolonial theory critique Eurocentric worldviews?
What is the significance of Edward Said’s book? Orientalism In the field of post-colonial theory?
Why does Chatterjee criticize Anderson’s notion of modular nationalism in the context of post-colonial society?
What are the main criticisms raised by Ejaz Ahmed against post-colonial theory, especially with regard to its theoretical inconsistencies?
(Amir Ali is Assistant Professor at the Center for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
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