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Colonialism, stages of
colonialism and the colonial
state
a
Bipan Chandra
a
Centre lor Historical Studies , Jawaharlal Nehru
University , New Delhi
Published online: 02 Apr 2008.

To cite this article: Bipan Chandra (1980) Colonialism, stages of colonialism and the
colonial state, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 10:3, 272-285

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00472338085390151

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 272

Colonialism, Stages of Colonialism and

the Colonial State

Bipan Chandra*
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1. Colonialism as a Social F o r m a t i o n
(A) Quite often, the underdevelopment and the economic obstacles to develop-
ment produced by the colonial period have been seen as expressions of their pre-
capitalist or traditional backwardness or at least as the remnants of the pre-colonial
past. Even when they are seen in 'a historical perspective', in which the role of
colonalism is viewed as an unsuccessful effort at modernization. In, for example
that of India failed because of the weight of the past backwardness, and which
thus led to a dual society, part modern and part traditional. This was the domin-
ant view among the metropolitan writers during the 19th century, only they
were convinced that modernization would be accomplished in at the most a few
decades. Several 20th century writers have also seen colonialism as a transitional
society, though they do not ask the questions: transition to what? Would the
colony have developed, however, slowly or gradually, into a 'modern' or indus-
trial capitalist society, i.e. the spit image of the metropolis, if colonialism had
continued to develop 'naturally' for a sufficient period, that is without the over-
throw of colonialism?
In reality colonies have undergone a fundamental transformation under colonial-
ism. They were gradually integrated into the world of modern capitalism. The
conditions of economic, social, cultural and political backwardness in the colonies
and ex-colonies, the initial conditions from which they start the development pro-
cess after pohtical freedom, are not those of their pre-colonial past; they are the
creation of the colonial period, the era in which there occurred "the onslaught of
modernization from outside. ''~ Far from being traditional, these conditions signify
the evolution of the traditional pre-colonial societies into colonial societies. Thus,
for example, India under Britain was not basically similar to Mughal India; nor was
it pre-industrial for it had felt the full impact of industrial capitalism. In fact,
colonialism in India was as modern a historical phenomenon as industrial capitalism
in Britain; the two developed together) And, interestingly enough, the basic inte-
gration of India, as also of other colonies, with the world capitalist economy and
its transformation into a classic colony occurred during the 19th century precisely
under the banner of modemisation, economic development and transplantation of
capitalism. It is this colonial pattern of modernization which inevitably led to "the
development of underdevelopment", to use the apt phrase of Andre Gunder Frank.

* Professor of History, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
 COLONIALISM, STAGES OF COLONIALISM AND THE COLONIAL S T A T E 273

The same social, political and e c o n o m i c process which p r o d u c e d social d e v e l o p m e n t

in the m e t r o p o l i s p r o d u c e d and maintained u n d e r d e v e l o p m e n t and backwardness in
the c o l o n y . The t w o countries were organically linked and participated for decades
and centuries in a c o m m o n , integrated world e c o n o m i c system, t h o u g h w i t h o p p o -
site consequences. The c o l o n y was thus m o d e r n i z e d and u n d e r d e v e l o p e d at the
same time. s
I w o u l d like to close this section w i t h a long q u o t a t i o n f r o m what I w r o t e in
1971:
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. . . the study of colonialism would be helped if it was secn as a distinct historical stage or
period in the modern historical development of India which intervenes between the tradi-
tional, pre-Britisli society and economy and the modern capitalist or socialist society and
economy. It is not a mere adaptation or distortion of the old, not a partially modernised
society, n~r a transitional state of society. It is also not an unhappy and badly mixed amal-
gam of positive and negative features. It is a well-structured 'whole', a distinct social forma-
tion (system) or sub-formation (sub-system) in which the basic control of the economy and
society is in the hands of a foreign capitalist class wlfich functions in the colony (or semi-
colony) through a dependent and subservient economic, social, political and intellectual
structure whose forms can vary with the changing conditions of the historical development
of capitalism as a world-wide system.
I may reiterate here that the British rule did shatter the economic and political basis of
the old society. It dissolved the old pre-capitalist mode of production; but a new capitalist
system did not follow; instead a new colonial mode of production came into being. For
example, the land tenure systems introduced after 1793 completely overturned the old
agrarian relations. The new agrarian structure that was evolved to suit the needs of colonial-
ism and under the impact of economic forces released by it was undoubtedly semi-feudal
hut it was nevertheless new; it was not the perpetuation of the old. In fact, throughout the
Indian social structure, new relations and new classes - a new internal class structure -
were evolved which were the product of, and fully integrated with, colonialism. The confu-
sion partly arises from the complexity of the historical situation. World capitalism is a single
system and colonialism is a basic constituent of this system. Yet colonialism has distinct
characteristics of its own. We have, therefore, to view the same sytem of imperialism-
colonialism in the form of two separate entities, one in the colony a,ad the other in the
metropolis. 4

(B) Traditionally, colonialism is seen as the result o f i d e o l o g y or personality or

at the most policy w h i c h is itself guided b y the first two. Thus if different colonial
administrators can be s h o w n to have d i f f e r e n t personal m o t i v e s , ideas, and policies,
it is c o n c l u d e d that there is no such thing as colonialism in any meaningful sense,
e x c e p t as foreign political rule. S i m i l a d y , m a n y economists dealing w i t h d e v e l o p -
ment t h e o r y t o d a y criticise the role o f colonialism, b u t colonialism is seen m e r e l y
in its political d o m i n a t i o n a l aspect.
As p o i n t e d out earlier, the recent t e n d e n c y is to see colonialism as a structure.
The intellectual resources d o n o t yet exist to understand this structure fully and to
trace the multifarious channels and ties - t h e veins and arteries - t h r o u g h w h i c h
this structure is articulated. But we can certainly assert that colonialism is some-
thing m u c h m o r e than political c o n t r o l or colonial policy. " T h e colonial state was
u n d o u b t e d l y a part o f the colonial system: it was the i n s t r u m e n t t h r o u g h w h i c h
the system was best e n f o r c e d ; and colonial policies helped evolve and m a i n t a i n the
colonial structure. But the colonial state and colonial policies did not c o n s t i t u t e the
essence o f colonialism. Colonialism was the c o m p l e t e but c o m p l e x integration and
 274 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORAR Y ASIA

enmeshing of India's economy and society with world capitalism carried out by
stages over a period lasting nearly two centuries. ''s
Thus when we say that colonialism is to be seen as a structure, we mean that
colonial interests, policies, state and its institutions, culture and society, ideas and
ideologies, and personalities are to be seen as functioning within the parameters of
colonial structure, which is itself to be defined by their inter-relationstlips as a
whole.
(C) Colonialism is structured from the beginning of the contact between the
capitalist metropolis and the colony whose economy and society are subordinated
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to tile metropolis from the beginning, though the patterns of the subordination
undergo changes over time. Consequently, colonialism undergoes underdevelop-
merit from thebeginning. This view is contrary not only to the traditional capitalist-
colonial view that colonialism develops and modernizes the colony - or at least
tries to do so - but also the traditional Marxist view that colonialism went through
two stages, one positive and the other negative, with the positive belonging to the
first period and the negative to the second, that during the first pre-imperialist
stage the character and impact of colonialism was on the whole positive despite
many crimes and much oppression, while it turned negative once modern im-
perialism (finance imperialism) entered the stage between 1870 and 1914.
In fact, both aspects and impacts of colonialism operated simultaneously. The
so-called positive aspect was as integral a part of, and contributed effectively to the
structuring of, colonialism as was the negative aspect. The positive and negative
stages of colonialism were rather stages in the cognition and understanding of the
colonial phenomenon by its victims. Thus many colonial and metropolitan intellec-
tuals, including Marx before 1859, failed to grasp the basic features of colonial
societies in the early years of their structuring and came to have a certain positive
image of colonialism. Later, as the reality surfaced, they were able to see its essen-
tially negative features. Instead of seeing the change as an aspect of intellectual and
political history linked to the early stages of colonialism, they assumed that the
reality had undergone a drastic reversal. Hobson's and Lenin's writings, or rather
a partial reading of Lenin's writings, regarding a new stage of imperialism in the
last quarter of the 19th century added fuel to this misunderstanding.
(D) Basic to colonialism is economic exploitation or the appropriation of the
colony's social surplus. Forms of surplus appropriation or the manner in which tile
colonial economy and society is to be subordinated and put at the service of the
metropolis, undergo changes over time. And as these forms change so do colonial
policy, state and its institutions, culture, ideas and ideologies.
Colonialism is, thus, not to be seen as one continuous and the same structure;
it goes through stages which are linked to the forms of surplus appropriation. 6
Historically, colonialism underwent three distinct stages, each stage representing
a different pattern of subordination of colonial economy, society, and polity, and
consequently different colonial policies, ideologies, impact and colonial people's
response. The change from one stage to the other was partially the consequence of
the changing patterns of metropolis' own social, economic, and political develop-
ment, and of its changing position in the world economy and polity.
Stages of colonialism for different colonies are not bound by the same time
 COLONIALISM. STAGES OF COLONIALISM AND TIlE COLONIAL STATE 275

horizons; but the basic content of the stages is broadly the same in all the colonies.
Moreover, the stages do not exist in pure forms; in a sense each stage is an abstrac-
tion. Nor is there a sharp break between one stage and another. Forms of surplus
appropriation and other features of colonialism from earlier stages continue into
later ones. Each stage is, however, marked by distinct, dominant qualitative features
which demarcate it from the other stages. It is also to be noted that a dominant,
new form of surplus appropriation may become atrophied in a particular colony
because of distinct historical factors. Thus the third, finance imperialist stage was
atrophied in India; the second, free trade stage in Indonesia, and the first and the
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second, the mercantalist and free trade stages in Egypt.

I! Brief Outline o f Stages o f Colonialism

(A) The First Stage: The Period o f Monopoly Trade algl Revenue Appropriation
During the first stage of colonialism the basic objectives of colonialism were:
(i) monopoly of trade with the colony vis-a-vis other European merchants and the
colony's traders and producers. Moreover, whenever handicraftsmen or other pro-
ducers were employed on account of the colonial state, corporations or merchants,
their surplus was directly seized not in the manner of industrial capitalists but in
that of merchant-usurers. (ii) The direct appropriation of revenue or surplus through
state power. The colonial state or corporations required large financial resources
to wage wars in the colony and on the seas and to maintain naval forces, forts,
armies and trading posts. Direct appropriation of the colony's surplus was also
needed to finance purchase of colonial products since the colonies did not import
enough of metropolitan products. Directly appropriated surplus was also to serve
as a source of profit to the merchants, corporations, and the exchequer of the
metropolis. The large number of Europeans employed in the colony also appro-
priated a large part of the colony's surplus directly through extortion and corrup-
tion or high salaries.
It is to be noted that (i) the element of plunder and direct seizure of surplus
is very strong during this stage of colonialism; and (ii) there is no significant import
of metropolitan manufactures into the colony.
A basic feature of colonial rule during this period was that no basic changes were
introduced in the colony in administration, judicial system, transport and com-
munication, methods of agricultural or industrial production, forms of business
management or economic organization (except putting-out system and plantations
in some colonies), education or intellectual fields, culture, and social organization.
The only changes made were in military organization and technology, which con-
temporary independent chieftains and rulers in the colonies were also trying to
introduce, and in administration at the top of the structure of revenue collection
being geared to making it more efficient.
Why was this so? Because the colonial mode of surplus appropriation via pur-
chase of colony's urban handicrafts and plantation and other products through a
buyer's monopoly and through control over its revenues, did not require basic
socio-eeonomic and administrative changes in the colony. It couM be superimposed
over its existhzg economic, social, cultural, ideological, and political structures.
 276 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY ASIA

Also the colonial power did not feel the need to penetrate the villages deeper than
their indigenous predecessors had done so long as their economic surplus was
successfully sucked out.
This lack of need for change was also reflected in the ideology of the rulers.
There was, for one, no 'developmental' ideology or fanfare. Not changed colonial
economy but the existing economy of the colony was to be the basis of economic
exploitation. There was also therefore not much need to criticise colonial civiliza-
tion, religions, laws, etc., for they were not seen as obstacles to the current modes
of surplus appropriation. The need was to understand them so that the wheels of
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administration might move smoothly. Criticism was confined to missionaries.

(B) The Second Stage: Exploitation through Trade

The newly developing industrial and commercial interests in the metropolis and
their ideologues began in time to attack the existing mode of exploitation of the
colony with a view to making it serve their interests. Moreover, as it became clear
that colonial control was to be a long term phenomenon, the metropolitan capital-
ist class as a whole demanded forms of surplus appropriation which would not
destroy the golden goose. It realised that 'the plundering form is less capable than
others of reproducing the conditions for its own reproduction'. This is the secret of
the critique of 'colony's exploitation' which is often made during the first and
second stages by the liberals and 'radical' democrats of the metropolis. In the end,
sooner or later, for a longer or shorter period, the administrative policies and eco-
nomic structure of the colony come to be determined by the interests of the indus-
trial bourgeoisie of the metropolis.
The industrial bourgeoisie's interest in the colony lay in satisfying the need for
outlets for thief ever-increasing output of manufactured goods. Linked with this was
the need to promote the colony's exports. This for several reasons: (i) The colony
could buy more imports only if it increased its exports, which could only be of
agricultural and mineral products, to pay for them. The colony's exports had also to
pay for the 'drain' or to earn foreign exchange to provide for the export of business
profits and the savings and pensions o f Europeans working there. (ii) The metropolis
desired to lessen dependence on non-empire sources of raw materials and foodstuffs.
Hence the need to promote the production of raw materials in the colony. The
colonial rulers must enable the colony to do so. The colony had to be developed as
a reproductive colony in the agricultural and mineral spheres. (iii) Thirdly, as the
subordinated complement of a capitalist economy, the use of the colony both as
a market for goods and as a supplier of raw materials must occur within the perspec-
tive of extended reproduction.
Thus the essence of the second stage of colonialism was the making of the
colony into a subordinate trading partner which would export raw materials and
import manufactures. The colony's social surplus was to be appropriated through
trade on the basis of selling cheap and buying cheap. This stage of colonialism could
even embrace countries which retained political freedom.
A question that still awaits solution is the mechanism through which colony's
surplus is appropriated under conditions o f the metropolis' buying and selling at
competitive prices. The dominant school of European economists has, for nearly
 COLONIALISM, STAGES OF COLONIALISM AND THE COLONIAL S T A T E 277

two centuries,denied that any exploitation is involved in this particular relationship;

rather, it has maintained through the theory of comparative costs and international
division of labour that both sides of the economic relationship benefit. Many of
the critics of this stage ofcolonialism have argued that the exploitation of the colony
occurs through the terms of trade which on the whole move against primary pro-
ducts. This is not always true. Export prices of the metropolis may fall faster than
import prices, reflecting falling costs due to technological improvement and greater
and better use of machinery partly made possible by expanding trade and widening
markets. Rising import prices and falling export prices may expand exports fast
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enough to lead to rising productivity in the raw material producing colony. Hence
the basic question for this stage of colonialism is what happens to productivity in
the metropolis and the colony.
The question of the mechanism of surplus appropriation in this stage of colo-
nialism has been reopened in recent years in the works of Arghiri Emmanuel and
Samir Amin.
The colony could not be exploited in the new way within its existing economic,
political, administrative, social, cultural and ideological setting; this setting had to
shattered and transformed all along the line.
This transformation was actively undertaken under the slogan of development
and modernization. In the economic field this meant integrating the colonial eco.
nomy with the world capitalist economy and above all the metropolitan economy.
The chief instrument of this integration was the freeing of foreign trade in the
colony of all restrictions and tariffs, especially in so far as its trade with the metro-
polis was concerned. For most of this period, the colony was to be far more of
a free trading country than the metropolis itself. Free entry was now given to the
capitalists of the metropolis to develop plantations, trade, transport, mining, and
in some cases industries in the colony. The colonial state gave active financial and
other help to these capitalists, even when the doctrine o f laissez faire reigned sup.
reme at home. The agrarian structure of the colony was sought to be transformed
with the purpose of making the colony a reproductive one by initiating capitalist
agriculture. Similiady, a major effort to improve the system of transport and com-
munications was made.
Major changes occurred in the administrative field. Colonial administration had
now to become more detailed and comprehensive as well as to seep down if metro-
politan products were to penetrate the interior towns and villages and the agricul-
tural produce was to be drawn out o f them. Legal structure in the colony must be
overhauled as sanctity of contract and its enforcement were essential if the millions
of transactions needed to promote imports and exports were to become viable. It
was during this stage that the Western capitalist legal and judicial system was intro-
duced in the colonies and semi-colonies. The changes, however, often related only
to criminal law, law of contract, and civil law procedures; personal law, including
that of marriage and inheritance, was often left untouched.
Modern education was now introduced, to a greater or lesser extent, basically
with a view to man the new, vastly expanded administrative machinery,but also as
an aspect of the transformation of the colony's society and culture, which was
promoted both with a view to make the colony reproductive and to promote the
 278 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORAR Y ASIA

culture of loyalty among the colonial people. Many intellectuals in the colonies
also picked up the banner of social and cultural modernization but for opposite
reasons.
The second stage of colonialism generated a liberal imperialist political ideology
among sections of the imperialist statesmen and administrators who talked of
training the colonial people in the arts of democracy and self-government. It was
believed that if the colonial people 'learnt' the virtues of law and order, sanctity
of business contract, free trade, and economic development, the economic relatio-
ship lying at the heart of this stage of colonialism could be perpetuated even if the
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metropolitan power was to withdraw direct political and administrative control.

The effort at the transformation of the colony's socio-economic structure ine-
vitably required that its existing culture and society be declared inadequate and
decadent. They were now subjected to sharp criticism. This stage also witnessed
the birth and flowering of the ideology of development. Because of the emergence
of 'development' economies after the Second World War in the period of the success
of the movements of national liberation, it is often forgotten that the colonializa-
tion of the economies of most of the colonies occurred under the banner of the
ideology of development. Moreover, often the two theories of economic develop-
ment are similar, even though separated by entire epochs. The earlier theory of
economic development emphasised (i) law and order, (ii) private property in land,
(iii) investment of foreign capital to compensate for lack of capital in the colony
and to act as an example to domestic enterprise, (iv) development of means of
transport, (v) promotion .of foreign trade, (vi) modern education which would
enable the colonial people to understand these theories of development, and
(vii) modern culture that would promote habits of thrift (savings) and enterprise.
One point needs to be stressed in this connection: The colonial authorities
did not deliberately set out to underdevelop the colony. On the contrary, their
entire effort was to develop it so that it could complement, though in a subordinate
position, the metropolitan economy and society. Underdevelopment was not the
desired, but the htevitable consequence o f the inexorable work#zg o f colonialism
o f trade atul o f its inner contradictions. For the same reason, there was no imperial-
ist theo O, o f underdeveh~pment - underdevelopment was the resttlt o f the prac-
tice o]'particular theories o]'deveh~pment.
The earlier l'ornls of surplus extraction continued during this stage and became
a drag on its full working. Moreover, since the colony had also to pay the costs
tff its transformation, H~e burden on the colonial peasant rose steeply.
In practice the transformational effort was limited in many sectors and above
all in the agricultural sector because of the inner contradictions of colonialism.
For example, it was during this stage that most of the colonies acquired what
came to be known as the 'semi-feudal' features of their agriculture.

(C) The Third Stage. The Era o f Foreign hn,estmettts and International Coml~e-
tition fi~r G)hmies.
A new stage of colonialism was ushered in as a result of several major changes in
the world economy; spread of industrialization to several countries of Europe,
North America. and Japan; intensification of industrialization as a result of the
 COLONIA LISM. STAGES 01;"COLONIA LISM AND TIlE COLONIAL S TA TE 279

application of scientific knowledge to industry; further unification of the world

market due to a revolution in the means of international transport. There now
occurred an intense struggle for new, secure, and exclusive markets and sources o f
agricultural and mineral raw materials and foodstuffs. Moreover, expanded repro-
duction at home and extended exploitation of colonies and semi-colonies produced
large accumulations of capital in the developed capitalist countries. There occurred
simultaneously concentration of capital and merger of banking capital with indus-
trial capital in several countries. This led to large scale export of capital and search
for monopolised fields and areas where it could be invested. All the three aspects,
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namely, markets, sources of raw material, and capital export, were interlinked, and
none of them should be over-emphasised at tile cost of the others. For example,
investment abroad would sustain the rate of profit at home, aid the production of
raw materials, and create a market for home industrial products directly or in.
directly. As struggle for the division and redivision of the world among the imperial-
ist countries was intensified, fresh use was found for the older colonies. Their social
surpluses and manpower could be used as counters in this struggle. Colonialism at
this stage also served important political and ideological purpose in the metropolis.
Nationalism or Chauvinism, adventure, and glorification of empire could be used to
tone down the growing social divisions at home by stressing the common interests
in empire. More specifically, empire and glory were used to counter the growth of
popular democracy and the introduction of adult franchise, which could have
posed a danger to the political domination of the capitalist class and which in-
creased the hnportance of the ideological instruments of hegemony over society.
In this hegemony the idea of empire played an increasingly important role.
Where colonies had been acquired in the earlier stages, vigorous efforts were
made to consolidate metropolitan control. Reactionary imperialist policies now
replaced liberal imperialist policies. To preserve direct colonial rule on a perma-
nent basis was now essential on all counts, but especially to attrac{ metropolitan
capital to the colony and to provide it security. It must however be noted that in
this respect the role of most of the existing colonies was more that of the hope or
the potential that motivated than that of the actual. However, as potential, as mo-
tive for metropolitan control it was very powerful and important. In reality, many
of the first and second stage colonies and semi-colonies failed to absorb large
quantities of metropolitan capital and in nearly all cases were net 'exporters' of
capital, that is, the social surpluses exported from them far outweighed the imports
of capital into them. Often, even the limited extent of foreign capital invested in
them was but a small part of their social surplus appropriated by the metropolis.
The major reason w h y the metropolitan capital was not #ivested in these colonies
to a signiJ~cant extent was that their economies had been wrecked or underd .eveloped
during the secotul stage o f colonialism. If foreign capital was to be invested in the
colonies, its products must be in the main sold in the colgny - but the failure
to make them reproductive colonies during the second stage now stood in the way~
More Ihan capitalism at home, it was capitali.~m bl the colonies that was in a mori-
bund stage! Consequently, even the limited foreign capital was invested in only
th~,se agricultural or industrial enterprises whose products had a ready market
outside the colony or in providing infrastructure for,such exports. The colonial
 280 JO URNA L OF CON TEMPORA R Y A SIA

market was of little use to the foreign capitalist, for in most cases it had already
been captured, squeezed to the maximum and wrecked. It must, however, be again
stressed that as potential absorbers of foreign capital these colonies continued to
remain El Doradoes powerfully affecting colonial policy.
Once again the earlier forms of surplus appropriation continued into this stage.
In fact, in some of the colonies, for example India, the earlier two forms of surplus
extraction remained more important than the third one.
PoliticaUy and administratively the third stage of colonialism meant renewed and
more intensive control over the colony. Moreover, it was now even more important
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that colonial administration should permeate every pore of colonial society and
that every port, town, and village be linked with world economy. The administra-
tion also now became more bureaucratic, detailed and efficient.
A major change now occurred in the ideology of colonialism. The talk of train-
ing the colonial people for independence died out and was revived later only under
the pressure of anti-imperialist movements. Instead came the talk of benevolent
despotism, of the colonial people being a permanently immature or 'child' people
over whom permanent trusteeship would have to be exercised. Geography, 'race',
climate, history, social organization, culture and religion of the colonial people
were cited as factors which made them permanently unfit for self-government. This
was in stark contrast to the second stage belief that colonial people were capable
of being educated and trained into becoming carbon copies of the advanced
European people and therefore into self-governing nations.
Efforts at the transformation of the colony's economy, society, and culture
continued during this stage also though once again with paltry results. However,
the tendency developed to abandon social and cultural modernization, especially
as the anti-imperialist forces began to take up the task. Colonial administration
increasingly assumed a neutral stance on social and cultural questions and then
began to support social and cultural reaction in the name of preserving indigenous
institutions.

IH The Cokmial State

In this last section, 1 would like to make a few preliminary and tentative remarks
regarding the colonial state, while keeping in view the fact that a truly historical
study of the nature of the colonial state and its relation to colonial society has yet
to be made. The main difference with the theory of the capitalist state is that of
historical specificity; otherwise our theoretical framework is the same as evolved
for the study of the capitalist state by Marx, Engels, and Lenin and developed
further by Antonio Gramsci, Ralph Miliband, Nicolas Poulantzas and others. Our
major effort will be to outline what is specifically colonial about the colonial state.
(A) What Marx said about the state being "merely the organised power of one
class for oppressing another" applies to the colonial state but with a basic differ-
ence: the colonial state is the instrument for o p p r e s s h l g e n t i r e societies. This
virtually amounts to a truisrn but has to be stressed because neariy all historians
and other social scientists of the imperialist school ignore or obscure this aspect.
The cohmial stale plays a much greater role, quantilatively as well as quali-
tatively, m the colonial system than perhaps in any other social formation. First
 COLONIALISM, STAGES OF COLONIALISM AND THI="COLONIAL STATE 281

of all, colonialism is structured by the colonial state. 7 Unlike in the capitalist

system, where the state's chief role is to provide the legal and institutional infra-
structure lot capitalist production relations and where the state often does not
intrude into the production process till tile 20th century and the system is main-
tained by the production process itself, the colonial state is not a super-structure
erected oil tile base of colonial economy; it is an integral and intrusive element in
the structuring and functioning of the colonial economy While "the 'ruling class' of
capitalist society is that which owns and controls the means of production and
which is able, by virtue of the economic power thus conferred upon it, to use the
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state as its instrument for the domination of society", ~ under colonialism the
reverse is the case. It is because of its control over the colonial state that the metro-
politan capitalism is able to control subordinate, and exploit the colonial 'society.
This is true even of the laissez faire period.
The colonial state guarantees law and order as also its own security from internal
and extem',d dangers. It also, directly or indirectly, through acts of omission or
commission, represses indigenous economic forces and processes hostile to colonial
interests. It directly serves as a channel for surplus appropriation, mainly during
the first stage but also during the other stages. This is a major point of departure
from the capitalist state. Another is the role of the colonial state in preventing
unity among the colonial people. While the capitalist state tries to prevent working
class unity but makes active efforts to promote unity and harmony among the pro-
pertied and the non-propertied classes, the colonial state tries to break up the
emerging national unity in the colony, promotes segmentation of colonial society
into any and all kinds of social groups, including social classes, and sets them at
odds against one another. Simultaneously, it puts forward the theory that the
colonial society would disintegrate in the absence of colonialism and that its unity
is possible only under the colonial state. Thus, the antihmperialist struggle of the
colonial people is sought to be diverted into the struggle of caste against caste,
'community' against 'community', 'tribe' against 'tribe', and sometimes even class
against class.9
More positively, the colonial state not only ,naintains favourable conditions for
continuing appropriation of colonial surplus, but acth, ely a i d directly produces
and reproduces these conditions, including production of goods and services, to a
much greater extent than the capitalist state does. it actively aids foreign enter-
prises. Above all it directly undertakes the econonlic, social, cultural, political, and
legal transformation of the colony so as to make it reproductive on an extended
scale.
The colonial state is, however, not able to carry the heavy burden of such a long
catalogue of functions. A major contradiction within colonialism arises out of the
relative weights to be assigned to its police and direct appropriational functions on
one side and its 'transformational' or 'developmental' functions on the other. This
contradiction finds expression in a perpetual crisis in the colonial budget, heavy
taxation on the colonial people, and the atrophying of the 'developmental' func-
tions.
In colonial society, the relationship between the state and the underlying econ,~-
mic structure is direct and explicit. Consequently, the anti-colonial forces are
 282 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORAR Y ASIA

easily able to penetrate and expose the character of the colonial state as the instru-
me it o f colonial economic st ructure. Once the economics of colonialism are analysed
and understood, tile colonial character of the state is easily and readily grasped and
the anti-colonial struggle invariably moves over to tile plane o f tile state and is
increasingly pohtlcised. While under capitalism the struggle between the working
class and capitalism occurs at trade union and econon~ic plan~s and the task of rais-
ing it to the political plane, especially' to the place of struggle for state power,
remains a serious, complex, and prolonged problem, under colonialism the anti-
colonial forces, almost from tile beginning, even in their early moderate phases,
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put fi~rward the demand for sharing of state power, and then rapidly move into the
politics of its capture. This is one of tile reasons wily a national liberation struggle
is easier to organize than social (class) movements in capitalist or post-colonial
societies where the connection between the state and the dominant economic
structure is complex and hard to understand and explain.
(C) Similarly, tile mechanism o f colonial control lies on the surface, that is,
nearly all of colonial policies can be explained through instrumental processes,
which are easier to grasp and expose. Whose interests does the colonial state serve?
The anti-imperialists have a simple and unambiguous answer from the begilming.
The relationship between colonial administrative policies and metropolitan interests
is easily established. ~Vhy does it serve metropolitan interests? Obviously, because it
is visibly controlled from abroad, h,~w can it be proved that the colonial state serves
foreign interests: By simple instrumental analysis. While under capitalism, the com-
plex policies and apparatus of tile state cannot be adequately explained in terms o f
their manipulation by tile ruling class, under colonialism the task is not difficult.
1'he colonial people have no part in the policy making and controlling state appara-
tuses and processes. Moreover the colonial state possesses, because o f its basic
character, very little capacity to undertake ameliorative and welfare measures and
so to promote hannt, ny between the rulers and the ruled.
In other words, the opaqueness of the colonial state, of its mystifying shell,
is easily penetrated. Its legitimacy is easily destroyed. The empirical proof o f tile
anti-imperialist position is easy to gather and propagate. History and contemporary
hfe are full of glaring incidents and examples. This aspect has two important conse-
quences for the post-colonial societies. Most o f the anti-imperialist leaders operate
during the freedom struggle with instrumentalist analysis and exposures and, c~ln-
sequently, fail to undertake the breaking up of the total structure of colonialism
after political liberation. They come to believe that once the political mechanism
comes under indigenous control, the colony is successfully decolonised. Similarly,
they miss the role of colonial ideology and culture and tile ideological apparatuses
which often continue to exist and function fully and freely in the post-colonial
situation. Secondly, faced with the difficult and complex task of organising social
struggle within the post-colonial society, the left wing political groups hark back
wi~tfully to the ease with which the anti-colonial movement was organized and
are tempted to look once again for tile colonial situation and the national liberation
tasks in their society.
(D) Iiowever. m a prol\~und sense, the scope for slruclural analysis is even
greater in the colonial state Ihan in Ihe capilalisl state. In fact, both the instlumen-
 COLONIA LISM. STAGES OF COLONIA LISM A ND TIlE COLONIAL S T A T E 283

tal and structural aspects get exaggerated in a colonial slate. Clearly, it is not the
bureaucracy and other instruments of the colonial state which determine the
functions of the colonial state and the thrust of colonial policies. ~° For that we
must sludy tile structure o f colonialism, and above all its eco,lonffc structure. This
is particularly hnportant, as we have shown in Section II, because colonial struc-
ture and consequently colonial policies undergo basic changes in the different stages
of colonialism even though the instruments of the state more or less continue to
be tile same. Colonialism is from the beginning riven with inner contradictions.
Colonial policies are determined by these contradictions and the efforts to resolve
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them at each stage of colonialism.

( E ) Tile colonial state relies nmch more heavily than tile capitalist state on
domination and the political, coercive apparatuses and much less on 'leadership'
or 'directiun' based on consent. Under colonialism, consent of the ruled is at tile
most passive. Colonial society is much less a civil society. Tiffs terrain, which is
often treated by colonialism as potentially hostile to itself, is more or less vacant.
This has two consequences: (i) the colonial state very soon enters into a state of
crisis; and (it) the vacant space is rapidly occupied by the anti-imperialist forces
whose main task becomes that of mobilising political forces to fight the domina-
tion o f the colonial state. This, in fact, is another reason why it is initially much
easier to organize a national liberation movement than a social movement.
Within this limited framework, colonialism does have a mystifying ideological
element which has two distinct aspects: One is the belief system of the colonial
bureaucracy, and the other that of the ideological penetration and control of the
ruled. Unfortunately, neither has been studied adequately. It is necessary to analyse
the ideology of colonialism in its different stages both theoretically and empiri-
cally. In the second stage o f colonialism, for example, colonial people are sought to
be won over with the promise of total modernization including economic develop-
ment, m o d e m culture, and the introduction o f modern politics and political ideas
including self-government and democracy. In the tlfird stage, on the other hand,
the emphasis is on benevolence and depoliticisation. The permanent incapacity of
the colonial 'child-people' to rule themselves or to practise democracy is empha-
sised. A 'child-people" could also have no politics, they could only be passive reci-
pients of benevolence.
Thus, colonial authorities actively oppose politicisation of the people and preach
the ideology of no-politics. For a long period they propagate not loyalist politics
but non-participation in politics. They take recourse to loyalist politics and divi-
sive communal, caste, or 'tribal' politics only after all efforts to check the growing
anti-imperialist politicisation have failed.
(F) What is the relationship between the colonial state and the foreign and indi-
genous exploiting classes? The colonial state is completely subordinated to the
bourgeois state of the metropolis and the metropolitan bourgeoisie as a whole.
llence it possesses little of the relative autonomy that characterizes the capitalist
states. It is, however, autonomous vis-a-vis the individual capitalists or individual
capitalist groups. It serves the long-term interests of the metropolitan capitalist
class as a whole, it acts on behalf o f the metrot'x)litan capitalists but not at their
behesl. In Ihis sense, il perhaps possesses even a greater degree of relative autonomy
 284 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORAR Y ASIA

than the capitalist state. Tile colonial state structure on the colony is not an arena
o f strife for the promotion o f sectional interests o f the different metropolitan
capitalists groups. That strife occurs in the organs o f the metropolitan state. For
example, the political struggle for making the colonial state the instrument o f
transition from one stage of colonialism to another occurs in the metropolis.
Colonialism is basically a relation between human beings. But while under capital-
ism this relation exists between classes, under colonialism it is established between
the foreign ruling class and colonial people as a whole. This is because tile para-
tneters of the colonial state are very different. Its main task is not to enable the
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extraction of surplus value from subordinate class or classes, but to make the
entire colonial economy and society subservient to the metropolitan economy,
to enable the exploitation of the colony as a whole. Consequently, colonialism
dominates all the indigenous classes in the colony. One o f the most important
aspects of the class structure of colony is that the ruling class is alien and the
domestic propertied c'lasses are mgt a part o f the ruling class; they are not even its
subordinated allies or ]unior partners; they are completely ruled by it; they all
"'equally in|potent and equally mute, fall on their knees before" it. ~' The metro-
politan bourgeoisie may share the social surplus in the colony with the indigenous
upper classes but it does not share state power with .them. Not even the send-
feudal landlord3 and compradors have a share in colonial state power. This is
another aspect of the general proposition that the ruling class of colonial society
does not control state power because of economic power derived from the owner-
ship o f the means o f productuion in the colony. Similarly, the colonial state protects
the indigenous exploiting classes but in its own interests, that is, free of their poli-
tical control, it does not have to protect them except in so far as defence of private
property is inherent in any bourgeois society, including its colonial version. ~2 In
fact, this aspect gives the colonial state a certain manoeuvring ground politically.
it is able, for a certain period and in certain situations, to play the landlords and
tenants and the capitalists and workers against each other. Thus it is inaccurate to
describe any section of the colonial upper or middle classes as a political elite. The
foreign ruling class stands in the relationship of a master to all o f them.
This relationship between the colonial state and the indigenous upper classes is
a crucial difference between colonies and semi-colonies. In the latter, for example,
Chi,la, Egypt affer 1920, Thailand, and Latin American countries, the landlords,
the compradors, or even sections of the national bourgeoisie can be part of the
class coalition that constitutes the ruling class; they can be junior or even senior
partners in the state.
Nor is there any question of competition over state policies between the colonial
ruli,lg class and the indegenous upper classes, as certain political theorists would
have it. No group of the colonial people form a 'competing interest group' in the
colonial state structure. The indigenous classes influence the colonial state policies
]hint outside the state structure, through Ioyalism or through anti-imperialist
panties and movements; they extort concessions. Thus, once the anti-imperialist
movement arises, il does have an impact on colonial policies because the colonial
state has to "~espond" tt~ it, SOlnetimes with the carrot and sometimes with the
stick. This is fully recognized by the indigenous upper classes.
 COLONIALISM. STAGES OF COLONIALISM AND THE COLONIAL STATE 285

In conclusion, it may be pointed out that colonialism, metropolitan control,

and the colonial state are best illunfinated through a study of the numerous inner
contradictions o f colonialism. For example, the crucial economic contradiction of
colonialism arises out of the objective need to make the colonial economy repro-
ductive and the objective consequence of colonialism in producing the opposite
result. This in turn leads to two other contradictions: (i) the ' e x t e m a r one between
colonial people and their social development and colonialism leading to the subjec-
tive process o f colonial peoples' struggle for the overthrow of colonialism; and
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(it) the internal one which tends to make the colony increasingly 'useless' or in-
capable of serving the needs of metropolitan capitalism on an extended scale.
During the third stage, a large n u m b e r of colonies fail to serve as adequate outlets
for metropolitan capital or even metropolitan manufactures. Moreover, many of
thent beconre net importers of foodstuffs! The colonial state has now to play the
role of overcoming both these contradictions, in one case through suppression and
mystification and in the other through 'development' which can even take the
form of 'aid' in the case of send-colonies and post-colonial societies.

FOOTNOTES

I. Myrdal, Gunnar, Asian Drama, Penguin Edition, Vol.l, 1968, p.704.

2. As J.S. Furnival put it: "Modern India grew up with modern Europe". Colonial Policy
and Practice, 1956 reprint, pp.537-8.
3. This is one reason why the tradition - modernity model is a misleading tool for analysing
post-colonial societies. The colonies have already undergone one course of modernization.
4. Chandra, Bipan, "Colonialism and Modernization", Proceedings o f Indian ttistory
Congress, Jabalpur Session, pp.22-23, 1971. Since then further contributions to this
theme have been made by Jairus Banaji and Hamza Aiavi.
5. Chandra, Bipan. "Colonialism and Modernization", op.cit., p.21.
6. Definition of colonialism as mere political domination obscures this basic aspect.
7. Moreoverthe conquest of the colony itself is in many cases made by the colonial state
and is in almost all cases paid for by the colonial state and people.
8. Miliband, R.) The State in Capitalist Society, 1969, p.22.
9. In the historical or political analysis of the imperialist social scientists, this phenomenon
finds reflection when the anti-imperialist struggle of tile colonial people is seen as an
'ideological' version of 'interest group' struggles within colonial society.
10. It is clearly seen at the colonial level that individual administrators and statesmen,
however 'tail' they may appear as individuals, axe so definitely limited by the colonial
structure that they cannot even think of going beyond it.
11. The quotation is from Marx, who is referring to the relationship between French classes
and Louis Bonaparte. The Eighteenth Brumaire o f Louis Bonaparte: New York, Interna-
tional Publishers, n.d., p.106.
12. Colonial history, however, abounds in instances where the colonial state expropriated
private property of the indigenous propertied classes.