17 Postcolonial Studies II

Dr. Rayson K. Alex

In this section, certain terms and definitions in connection to understanding Postcolonialism will be explored.

The Nation and postcolonialism

The concept of nation was first introduced in the 18th and 19th century in Europe. Postcolonial studies have, in fact, renewed the discourse on nation and nationalism after its representations by the romantics. In Europe, the Romantic theory of nation gave currency to the thought that nation is the only legitimate political and social form. The ultimate aim of this body of literature was to create loyalty to the nation-state among the citizens (Imre 22). The idea of Nation followed the changed in Europe of the earlier political structure of feudalism into new republic and new nations. Contemporary authors such as Ben Okri, Salman Rushdie, Bharti Mukherjee, Jamaica Kincaid and Rohinton Mistry who are generally called postcolonial writers dealt with nation or nationalism, implicitly or explicitly. The recent scholarship on nation suggests a more abstract notion as “a thing of social artifice – a symbolic rather than a natural essence” (Mahajan 8). In the postcolonial context, we could make two categorizations – the colonizers (The West) and the colonized (the Rest). There is a binary division between the West and the Rest. Resistance being the key term defining nation, there is seen a resistance of the colonized towards the colonizer. This resistance is in effect preserving or identifying the essence of one’s own community against foreign threats. In the context of globalization, resistance could be seen as an identification of one’s own culture or national culture against the global culture and thus there exists a conflict between the local and the global. The term “national culture” is problematic in an Indian context where we have number of cultural communities having distinct cultural patterns. How do we put all these cultures together in the term, “national culture”? Arjun Appadurai suggests that “we need to think ourselves beyond nation … the role of intellectual practices is to identify the current crisis of the nation and in identifying it to provide part of the apparatus of recognition for post-national social forms” (Appadurai 158). Appadurai suggests that one should become a citizen of the world by participating in the nation. Appadurai’s global idea of nation exists in a world of hybridity where everyone uses and reuses products of globalization. In this context, a book by Benedict Anderson titled, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (1983), which discusses the formation of a nation and how it gives rise to imagined communities.

SECTION 2: Representations of Race and Racism

Race is a concept that differentiates groups of people. Racism is traditionally believed to be a natural product of colonialism which is a privilege and is directly connected with access to power (Stoler 322). If seen closely, white or fair people had an edge over the others during colonial rule. Thus the upper castes in the society gained power and controlled the others. This clearly created a classification/difference between We and They. People began identifying with white prestige thereby creating a colonial community or at least a sense of it. The Europeans feared that the Asian and Black men would sexually assault white women – a class-based sensibility. Now, how does racism form the basis of colonial discrimination? The question can be answered only if we are aware of Todorov’s theory of racism and racialism.

Tzvetan Todorov explains the word ‘racism’ in two ways: 1. Racism is a behavior of “hatred or contempt for individuals who have well-defined physical characteristics different” from one’s own which he calls “racism” (213). 2. It is an ideology – “a doctrine concerning human races” which he calls “racialism” (213). When racism is a phenomenon seen worldwide, racialism is a “movement of ideas” (213) originated in Western Europe during the mid- eighteenth century. Todorov makes some propositions on racialism. Firstly, the existence of racism can be explained in two ways: scientific and socio-psychological. Secondly, the cultural difference of a race (collective; group) will be evidently seen in all the individuals belonging to the race. Interestingly and ironically, some racialists believe that some races are superior to the others but would not agree that races differ. Todorov holds that the contempt between races is based on their physical differences. It should be noted that the difference between the whites and the blacks were evident in the American political scenario for decades. In 1900, Albert J. Beveridge, the Senator of Indiana, referring to their physical constitution said that the Philippinos are incapable of self-governance. Though the context of the comment was the Philippine-American war, the racist comment was illogical, class-based, politically oppressive and expressed supremacy over the inferior. On the other hand, the so called admiration of a community or romanticizing of a native community is another form of colonial oppression. The US military officials in 1904 commented about the Chamarro tribe as “gentle, kindly, simple- minded race and are easily governed.” They sound much similar to Beveridge’s comment about the Philippinos. Both the comments are racial and politically oppressive. Having explained racism, it is necessary to talk about the newer form of racism as well.

1. New Racisms

For those who think that the age of racism is over, New Racism is a new revelation. The proponents of new racism argue that it is a subtle but strong, biased tendency against people of colour. This is more hidden and very difficult to identify in a person. One might argue that race as a political issue is not relevant anymore. Obama’s success could be quoted as an example to prove this argument. There are two integral elements in the argument: 1. “the thesis of covert racism” and 2. “the thesis of symbolic racism” (Sniderman 423). In the first proposition that racism is covert (meaning: not openly displayed) is because “racial prejudice is now regarded as socially undesirable, so people favour disguised, indirect ways to express it” (Sniderman 424). Such people will never expose themselves as racists but will make indirect comments such as “such students should put in extra work to get there” or “the government should have just policies for everyone.” The hypothesis that a single person is the symbol of a race is symbolic racism.

Etienne Balibar defines new racism as “a racism without race.” (qtd in Hardt and Negri 210). The premise in which he defines the concept is that it does not rely on the biological concept of race. Instead it falls back on culture. It is true that cultures are hybrid. But it does not mean that it is completely flexible and fluid. Though there are individual exceptions, Whites prefer to be whites, and Koreans form a cultural community different from the Afro-Americans – rigid forms of social differentiation and cultural separation (Hardt and Negri 210). Yet, at a social level, all these cultural communities co-exist, keeping its differences alive, thereby preserving all races.

To sum up, the five central elements of new racism proposed by Bonilla-Silva are:

1. The increasingly covert nature of racial discourse and practices
2. The avoidance of racial terminology and the every-growing claim by whites that they experience “reverse racism”
3. The invisibility of most mechanisms to reproduce racial inequality
4. The incorporation of “safe minorities” to signify the nonracialism of the polity
5. The rearticulation of some racial practices (346)

SECTION 3: Memory, Diaspora and Cosmopolitanism

1. Memory and Diaspora

The word “diaspora” originates from the Greek word “diaspeirein,” meaning “disperse.” The Oxford Dictionary defines the term as “People who have spread or been dispersed from their homeland” (“Diaspora”). The term was initially used to describe Jews who were dispersed from their homeland and settled around the world. A discussion on memory and identity is inevitable when the concept of diaspora is studied.

The diasporic people tap all their resources (consciously or unconsciously) to construct their identities. They try to assimilate themselves to the culture they have settled into by constantly constructing and reconstructing their identities. This helps them in transcending their original boundaries – physical, social and cultural. In effect they reconcile (at least act as if they reconcile) with the present physical, social and cultural boundaries “sticking” to their own. The identification of a cultural group or race is not very neutral as explained above. It is a dominant force; it is subjugation/suppression/supremacy; it is injustice. It is the position of a race in a social structure that decides the way the members of the cultural group sees the world and evaluates their experience (Matsuda). So race produces identity or crisis in identity. Considering a traditional example of the white-black racism, the white supremacists (whites who consider that they are the supreme race) support segregation – segregation between races – whereas the white liberals support integration (Peller 761). Quite contrary to these two positions came the idea of Black Nationalism in the 1960s and 70s. It was a political and social movement assumed to eventually create a separate black nation by African Americans. This came as an alternative to being assimilated into the American Nation dominated by the whites (“black nationalism”). James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938), a twentieth century black poet and novelist, in his poem “A Poet to His Baby Son” writes thus:

My son, this is no time nor place for a poet;

Grow up and join the big, busy crowd

That scrambles for what it thinks it wants

Out of this old world which is – as it is –

And probably, always will be.

Take the advice of a father who knows:

You cannot begin too young

Not to be a poet.

(Johnson)

Evidently, the speaker calls for an integration, assimilation and acculturation in a new land. This is an example of an integrationist ideology. The son is being asked to “grow up” and “join the big, busy crowd,” forgetting his dreams of changing the world, being a poet. Towards the end of the poem the pessimistic father discourages his son as he believes that his son will be denied all opportunities to be a poet.

On another note, it should be noted that identity is not an end-product. In other words, identity is evolving. Identity is a “production which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within …” (Hall 3). In this context, probing into “what we have become” gains importance than “what we are” (Hall 4). Identity, in that sense, transcends place, time, history and culture. It “undergo(es) constant transformation” (Hall 4). Let’s take for example the Indian diaspora which is settled in many countries; Writers belonging to the Indian diaspora have widely written about their experience of relocation, trying to assimilate with the host culture at the same time retaining their own identity. Identity, as mentioned earlier is a process which is constantly evolving and the literature by the Diasporic writers strive to bring out this process, sometimes through the eyes of different generations of people’s lives.

Rogers Brubaker makes a different point about diaspora. When on the one hand he argues that the three main important points of diaspora are “dispersion,” “home-land orientation” and “boundary-maintenance” on the other, he confirms that the use of the term contributes to loss of discriminating power and involves the risk of being isolated (13). When talking about the interconnection between diaspora and memory we might feel that the connection is quite natural. But when thinking about diaspora, one has to talk about the triple sense of belonging – belonging to the members of the local diasporic community, to the same community in other parts of the world and to the place of origin. In these three senses the diasporic people are bound together, either as actual or imagined homeland (Baronian 11). It is the personal experience that creates memory in a person. Shared memories about place, people, oral literatures and language create diasporic memory. Clearly, diaspora has its base in memory. This would mean that without memory, one’s diasporic identity is erased. Diasporic memory transcends time and space, and spins a connection between the present place and the lost/distant homeland. However, memory is not merely a one-time creation but transforms all the time. Memory depends on “re-articulations and re-enactments” (Baronian 12). It is always modified and invented so that it can be remembered. In the process of the formation of cultural identity, memories and histories (a form of memory) play very important roles. Memories connect places and people to unity. They establish connections with one’s individual past and collective past. This is true with any cultural community or a nation. Diasporic people have an imagined unity. But what do they imagine about; what is their memory about? As aforementioned, the memory and the nostalgia are all about their homelands. In the diasporic discourse, the issue of home becomes very relevant. In reality, a return to the once-experienced (and still in memory) homeland can never happen because the homeland would have transformed beyond identification. In that sense there is no going back. It is in this context that Avtar Brah defines home as “a mythic place of desire in the diasporic imagination.” It is also “a lived experience of a locality” (192). As diasporic people live in the memories of their lived (past) experience, home to them is the sense of connection that they keep alive. Home in diaspora is both a local and transnational idea considering the diasporic people as possessing assimilated/acculturated identity.

2. Cosmopolitanism

The word is derived from the Greek root “cosmopolis” (cosmos = the universe; polis = city- state). Cosmopolitanism is a political and philosophical concept which puts forward the position that we are citizens of the world and not attached to a particular place or nation. Recalling Arjun Appadurai’s idea that an individual participates in the nation and the world is crucial to understanding the concept of cosmopolitanism. The concept transcends the boundary of a culture, society and a nation and makes one a participant of the global culture of the world. Therefore, it poses a challenge to traditional views such as attachments to a place or culture. Cosmopolitans would argue that rather than getting attached to a community or place and talk about one’s identity that is attached to a particular culture, one should talk about harmony and peace of the world.

Derrida explains this concept in detail, tracing it back to Saint Paul (his letter to the Ephesians), to the Stoics (philosopher who attach moral values with philosophy, refer the term stoicism) and to Immanuel Kant (a philosopher). Derrida brings up the concepts of democratization and globalization to position cosmopolitanism. He presents globalization as a paradox. He argues that globalization actually “does not take place.” He asks if globalization is prevalent how there are disparities between human societies in terms of social and economic inequalities. Why aren’t there equal opportunities for all? How are people of some sections of the society malnutritioned? Why are there only some people who have access to internet? Thus he argues that globalization is not taking place. Globalisation is not a uniform universal occurrence. Another proposition that he makes is that “wherever it is believed globalization is taking place, it is for better and for worse.” It is for better for the reason that knowledge and other systems are democratized and there is a public discourse on them. So, there is some amount of democratization here. It is for worse for the aforementioned position that globalization does not happen. Beyond the mere feeling of international, one should seek for universal alliance or solidarity, says Derrida (120-124). There are various positions held by theorists on defining cosmopolitanism.

To sum up the main points of cosmopolitanism proposed by Derrida in his definition:

1. It brings forth a sense of sovereignty (complete power) of the State.
2. It transcends the idea of State as a local entity to a “world State.”
3. It is a perspective which could transform ideas of theology, politics, secularity, society, home and identity.
4. There should necessarily be a balance between the ideas of State as local and State as Universal. One idea should not stand in opposition with the other.

SECTION 4: Postcolonial Reading

This is a clip from the documentary film titled Trobriand Cricket: An Ingenious Response to Colonialism. The clip shows the game cricket, played by the Trobiand indigenous community.

Trobriand Islands are a part of the Papua New Guinea nation, North of Australia. Today it is known as Kiriwina Islands.

One might not identify the Trobriand cricket as cricket at all, but as the title of the film says, it is a response to colonialism. Though the Trobriand cricket can be seen as a form of dance form, adapted to the indigenous cultural context, it should be seen from the perspective of postcolonial theories such as mimicry and hybridity. Though the structure of this main-stream game is followed in the Trobriand cricket as well, the colonial essence of cricket – competition – is absent in it. Rather than competition, the Trobriand cricket, which is presented as a performance, brings together the community members in various capacities, as players, musicians, painters and dancers. However, the documentary itself should be seen as a colonial construction. The representation of the indigenous community as assimilated is derisive. The extensively edited pattern (representing of the movements of the people) resembling any other main-stream cricket match, is to create an element of suspense. The language of the voiceover is also colonial – “unique way of playing cricket” and “transformation of culture” are romanticizing acculturation.

SECTION 5: Audio-Visual Quadrant

Audio-Visual 1

Audio-Visual 2

The black woman in the picture is Saartjie Baartman. She was a Khoikhoi woman born in the eastern Cape of South Africa some time prior to 1790. She was a slave owned by Dutch farmers near Cape Town when the brother of her owner suggested she travel to England for exhibition. She was promised that she would become wealthy. She left for London in 1810. She was paraded around England as the “Hottentot Venus”, shaking her booty and revealing her genitalia, led by her “keeper”, and sitting, standing, or walking at his command. You can read the rest of the story here http://cerebralboinkfest.blogspot.in/2011/01/racism-and-sexism-at-its-most.html.

Audio-Visual 3

Watch the following video on YouTube:

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• Jacques Derrida. “Autoimmunity: Real and Symbolic Suicides – A Dialogue with Jacques Derrida.” Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. 120-124.
• Johnson, James Weldon. “A Poet to His Baby Son.” Poetry Foundation. 2014. Web. 20 May 2014.
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