Review on Imperial History and Post-Colonial

Theory
By Ghulam Mustafa
Roll no: 3407
Assigned by Dr. Shahid Imtiaz.
In this article, the writer talks about historiography of British Imperialism by the political and
methodological conservatism of practioners along with post- colonial theory and colonizers
discourse. What are the concepts and ideas which took part to shape the imperialism abroad?
Decolonization shrank the wide spread empire and robbed imperial history. The imperialists got
limited in their boundaries. But after this there came another shape of colonialism that is
political, cultural and economical imperialism that is successfully working under the banners of
free countries. They consider themselves free but in fact they are not! This new term, practice
and theory is called New- Colonialism. We are unconsciously became mentally slave.
With the emergence of Post- colonial theory, the studies of anthropology and Feminism are
popular subjects now. Post-colonial theory inspired people to search relation between native
and alien. The question of Culture swells with abrupt jump. Now a days it has become a wide
spread and the most famous and tasty subject to be discussed.
Dane stated that some historians fail to understand and reckon with it but this kind of literature
has gained popularity all over the world. The history of Post colonialism and History is two
different subjects. History is our past and bundles of experiences that may be wrong or right.
Dane shows differences between post colonial theory and discourse. According to him:
Colonial discourse analyzes and refers to examination and interpretation of particular colonial
text, while post colonial theory refers to the political and ideological position of the critics who
undertake this analysis.
He also stated that Edward Saids Orientalism is the foundational text for post colonial theory.
The term Orientalism is transfiguration study synonym to western imperialism and racism.
Edward Said is the founder of this theory who cast deep and dark shadows on this study. If we
want to comprehend the term of post colonialism and discourse, we will have to understand
the mind of Said and the present world scenario.
According to Dane, Edward Said is a critique and critic of imperialism. In his book, he shows the
true picture of colonialism and harsh realities related to it, with the help of post colonial theory
and discourse.
According to him (Dane), Edward said was much impressed by Foucault, Antonio, Gramsci and
Erich Aurbach, but the work and ideas of these persons made the Edwards mind hodgepodge.
Dane claims that Homy Bhabha concept about culture is better than the other theorists that
have been cited in this journal article. He talks about the language and vocabulary of the theory
of post-colonialism that is to great extent difficult to comprehend for a layman, like
hetrography, alterity, aporia etc. He declares it Devil Dictionary of Cultural Studies to make it
terminologies accessible to the uninitiated.
Dane gives references from the Kenyan novelist Nagugi Wa Thiong who has said,
decolonization of mind, he also uses local words like other post-colonial writer to show the
intensity of the situation, but Dane does not call it rational to justify his stance. Homy Bhabha
calls it escape totalizing claim of the west, but the problem is to use the language of the
colonizer to clarify their stance.
According to Dane, now subalterns are struggling to reconstruct history from a non Eurocentric
perspective. How can they rid of it, is the major question, history of the native is written by
colonizer and this is question of hierarchy. He states that according to Laura E Donaldson: it
does not matter whether the history is written by Alien or native.
Dane claims that literary scholars have shown more severity and sensitivity to historical record
in their work and the same author rejects anti historical orientation of theoretical pursuits.
He asserts that Mary Louis Patt like David Spurr, range freely across countries and continents.
There is effort to establish the historical texture of the text made by European adventurers that
is called travel literature is much more nuanced and sophisticated.
Dane in this article, states that European authors through their books make the thing possible
that the Indians may remain polite and submissive towards their rulers. He says that post
colonial theory brought into to light the true picture of imperialism, its thinking and discourse
as well.
There is fear of resistance from native in the mind of the people of high culture, who are ruling
class. The made it possible that every tool might be used to harnessed the subalterns to raise
movement. Marxists inspired critics in this particular way to take post-colonial theory to task
for ignoring what Sumit Sarkar called Micro physics of the colonial power.
European left very deep prints on the mind and language of the native and still they are ruling
over these in a new way.
On the whole, there are some terms that show the importance of European discourse, like
diaspora, identity, etc. Post colonial theory provides wide range of studies from imperialism to
decolonizastion.