Page 202 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

postcolonial analysis 1503

Salman Rushdie:
Postcolonialism in India

nomena of European colonialism and its legacies. It con- Post-colonialism, often associated with the inde-
tinues to critique social inequality and structures of power pendence movements of states from the empires of
around the globe, supporting the resistance of subordi- Europe, was hardly limited to rebellion against
nated peoples to dominant traditions. Postcolonial analy- western powers. In Midnight’s Children, Salman
sis tends to be self-consciously critical as it attempts to Rushdie describes protests in India against the
fashion new forms of cultural and political activity. border warfare with China of 1965.
Canonical in the development of postcolonial analysis
The disease of optimism, in those days, once
has been the work of Edward Said, whose book Orien-
again attained epidemic proportions; I, mean-
talism (1978) discussed the ways in which European rep-
while, was afflicted by an inflammation of the
resentations of the “Orient” were responsible for pro-
sinuses. Curiously triggered off by the defeat of
ducing enduring stereotypes that have persisted to this
Thag La ridge, public optimism about the war
day. More recently, postcolonial historians have also
grew as fat (and as dangerous) as an overfilled
been deeply concerned with recording the lives and
balloon; my longsuffering nasal passages, how-
voices of subaltern (disempowered) peoples. Drawing
ever, which had been overfilled all their days,
from a range of theories spread across disciplines, these
finally gave up the struggle against congestion.
subaltern historians have generated a renewed interest in
While parliamentarians poured out speeches
questions of power, inequality, and human agency. How-
about ‘Chinese aggression’ and ‘the blood of our
ever, this mode of inquiry has its share of critics. While
martyred jawans’, my eyes began to stream with
some have critiqued the possibility of ever writing sub-
tears; while the nation puffed itself up, convinc-
altern histories, others dismiss these postcolonial writers
ing itself that the annihilation of the little yellow
as migrant “Third World” intellectuals enjoying the ben-
men was at hand, my sinuses, too, puffed up and
efits of a restructured capitalist global economy. Still oth-
distorted a face which was already so startling
ers criticize postcolonial theorists for their use of in-
that Ayub Khan himself had stared at it in open
comprehensible language and excessive indulgence in
amazement. In the clutches of the optimism dis-
intellectual gymnastics.
ease, students burned Mao Tse-Tung and Chou
En-Lai in effigy; with optimism-fever on their
Postcolonial Analysis
brows, mobs attacked Chinese shoemakers, curio
and World History
dealers, and restaurateurs. Burning with opti-
Postcolonial writings examine a range of topics that
mism, the Government even interned Indian cit-
interests world historians, such as colonial encounters,
izens of Chinese descent—now ‘enemy aliens’—
diasporic (scattering) and immigrant experiences, and
in camps in Rajasthan. Birla Industries donated
modern capitalism and its discourses of development. In
a miniature rifle range to the nation; schoolgirls
such writings postcolonial analysts tend to unpack long-
began to go on military parade. But I, Saleem, felt
held views of scholars to reveal the nuances that are
as if I was about to die of asphyxiation.The air,
inherent in any historical phenomena but that are often
thickened by optimism, refused to enter my lungs.
ignored by others. For instance, postcolonial writings
Source: Rushdie, S. (1980). Midnight’s children (p. 380). New York: Alfred A.
have contributed significantly to broadening our under- Knopf.
standing of long-studied phenomena such as European
colonialism. Colonizer-colonized interactions are no long-
er seen as colliding worlds but rather as complex, hybrid, race, sexuality, ethnicity, and nationality in explaining
and sometimes contradictory flows that shape both the historical processes.Writers have given critical attention
colonizer and the colonized. Postcolonial writers have also to how Europe’s intellectual legacies (Enlightenment
been careful to take into account the role of class, gender, [a philosophic movement of the eighteenth century