For more explanation, visit our YOUTUBE channel. COLONIALISM
INTRODUCTION: Colonialism is a new literary movement
found in the literature of the colonized countries like India, Pakistan, Africa, Australia etc. Colonial literature expresses the voice of the colonized people (natives) against the colonizers (Europeans). It mainly deals with the conflict between these two. Colonialism emerged as a literary movement during the 20th century which served as the author’s weapon to fight against the colonizers. As the freedom fighters like Shahid Bhagat Singh, Shubhash Chandra Boze, Mahatma Gandhi etc. fought against the Britishers for independence, Indian authors like Salman Rushdie, Raja Rao, R. K. Narayan etc. also raised their voices against the Britishers by expressing the spirit of independence, nationalism, patriotism in their literature. MEANING OF THE TERM ‘COLONIALISM’: The term ‘Colonialism’ comes from the root word ‘Colony’. The word ‘Colony’ was first used in the late Middle English period which is actually from Latin word ‘Colonia’ meaning ‘Settlement’ and ‘Colonus’ meaning “a cultivator, a planter or a settler in a new land”. Hence, colonization means to ‘establish a new settlement at someone’s territory and achieve power and control over the natives’. Kohn has defined colonialism as under: Dr. Vipul V. Kapoor, Associate Professor For more explanation, visit our YOUTUBE channel. “Colonialism is dominating or conquering a territory and involving the subjugation of one people to another.” So we may say that colonialism means the act of dominating and controlling of one nation or race over the other nation or race. This is done for political or economic gain. HISTORY OF COLONIZATION: Colonization began during the 15th century when the pirates like Columbus and Vasco De Gama started exploring the oceans and found new lands like India, Africa, West-Indies, America and so on. The European Whites started settling at these new countries and started exploiting the illiterate native people. The countries like Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Spain, spurred on by their competitive desire to acquire new lands and resources, had colonized the whole of Africa, America, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean Islands, the Middle East and many parts of Asia. However, there was a revolt against this inhuman and undue colonization and it ended during the first half of 20th century. Westerns found that the Easterns are savage and tribal people. They thought about upgrading the natives. They rejected religion, culture, language and the ways of life of Dr. Vipul V. Kapoor, Associate Professor For more explanation, visit our YOUTUBE channel. the original natives. But the questions is, “How did they get to know that they are better?” They came with “White Supremacy” Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem ‘White Man’s Burden’. They thought that they are “the whites” and God has given them duty to refine “the blacks” and “the browns”. Hence they started controlling and commanding the natives. This gave birth to Imperialism or “Samrajyavad”. (extending boundaries, extending political power.) As a result of the colonization and imperialism, we have three ‘Indias’ now. - India before 1498 (Vasco De Gama), India between 1498 and 1947 (the period of colonization) and India after 1947 (after Independence). “What colonization causes is the identity crisis about one’s own culture.” – Lupita Niong’O
ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF COLONIALISM:
ADVANTAGES: 1. During the British Rule the missionaries introduced education in African and Asian subcontinents by establishing mission schools to educate the local people and helped them to learn more about their land and culture. 2. The Europeans brought new technology. The natives were provided with tools for farming and introduced Dr. Vipul V. Kapoor, Associate Professor For more explanation, visit our YOUTUBE channel. new crops like maize and manioc from the New World. 3. They built more infrastructures like medical facilities, transport and communication network and 4. The natives learned the languages of their colonial masters like English, French and Portuguese which has given them more advantage to be able to communicate in the present globalised world without any difficulties. 5. Social evils like Sati Pratha were abolished during the British rule. DISADVANTAGES: 1. Some of the negative effects are that the Africans were taken as slaves to the new world and forced to work on the plantations without pay. 2. The culture was diluted, traditions were taken away and their ways of life were destroyed. 3. The Europeans took away most of their resources especially gold, diamonds, ivory and agricultural primary products. 4. The natives occupied only the inferior positions of the colonial administration and never had a say in the government of their own countries. Those employed by the colonial administration felt proud and more superior to the others and it eventually led to social inequality in the colonies. MAJOR WRITERS OF COLONIAL LITERATURE: Dr. Vipul V. Kapoor, Associate Professor For more explanation, visit our YOUTUBE channel. ‘Heart of Darkness’ (1902) by Joseph Conrad
‘A Passage to India’ (1924) by E. M. Foster
‘Things Fall Apart’ (1958) by Chinua Chinua Achebe
(the father of modern African literature)
‘Season of Migration to the North’ (1966) by Tayeb
Salih
‘Midnight’s Children’ (1981)by Salman Rushdie
(Satanic Verses)
‘God of Small Things’ (1997) by Arundhati Roy
‘The Prisonwood Bible’ (1998) by Barbara Kingsolver
CONCLUSION: We may summarize the whole discussion with the following points. 1. Colonization began during the 15th century and ended in the mid 20th century all around the world. 2. Colonial and post colonial literature expressed nationalism and patriotism and literature was used as a tool to fight against the colonizers for independence. 3. Colonization around the world had its positive as well as negative impact on the society, culture, Dr. Vipul V. Kapoor, Associate Professor For more explanation, visit our YOUTUBE channel. religion, language and identity. “I would say colonialism is a wonderful thing. It spread civilization to Africa. Before it they had no written language, no wheel as we know it, no schools, no hospitals, not even normal clothing.” – Ian Smith
“I hate imperialism. I detest colonialism. And I fear the
consequences of their last bitter struggle for life. We are determined, that our nation, and the world as a whole, shall not be the play thing of one small corner of the world” – Sukarno (First President of Indonesia)