Literary theory

Post colonialism and its relevance.

Postcolonial literature is any literary text that is produced from formerly colonised countries.
Almost all continents apart from Antarctica have contributed to the postcolonial literature. It
often addresses the problems and the aftermath of the decolonization of a country keeping in
focus the questions related to the political and cultural independence of formerly subjugated
and oppressed populations. They explore themes like racialism and colonialism as well. A
variety of theories and literary theory has evolved around this subject of post colonialism.
The theories and theorists address the role of literature in preserving and stimulating what a
famous postcolonial critic Edward Said refers to as Cultural Imperialism, i.e. the way the
colonisers systematically impose and promote practice of their own cultures over the cuture
of the colonised.

Indians have come far from being a British colony. It has been almost 72 years since we
gained independence and the immediate effects of the colonisation have been left far behind.
But the postcolonial theory questions this. It asks if the divisions and exploitations taking
place in our society on the basis of caste, class, religion, gender, colour, ethnicity, etc., are not
“colonization” in disguise. It questions are these practices not a reminiscent of the colonial
times? It asks whether the foreign factors are not only influencing but also operating many of
our socio-economic systems even today, after 72 years of gaining freedom from their
clutches. And it questions whether India has actually “progressed” if these factors still has a
paternalistic hold over our ideologies, beliefs and practices. Post colonialism seeks to
recognize and remove this new mark donned by colonization and the tools it is equipped
with. And most importantly, it seeks to answer the question whether decolonization means
going back to the previous state of pre-colonised times or creating and balancing a new,
global and amalgamated sense of identity for the society and its citizens.

Previously colonised countries like India, Pakistan and almost all of Africa, US etc. cannot
avoid the importance of Postcolonial studies that address such relevant questions even today.
Colonialism was a multifaceted monster that operated on multiple layers. And hence it needs
to be tackled in a trans-disciplinary perspective. Post colonialism aims to explore the legacies
and consequences of colonialism in its various aspects- spatial, figurative, literal, historical,
economic and political. They aim to bring to the forefront the past and current entanglements
and interdependencies in a trans disciplinary manner rather than placing specific focus on
particular countries or regions. That which is often referred to as modern Europe is an
outcome of the colonisation even though the former colonies are recognized as laboratories of
modernity. The postcolonial discourse helps in recognising and reconstructing and
deconstructing of the coloured identity of the subjects of the colonised countries.

The whole process of colonisation is said to have making these subjects desire and demand
protection, guidance and parenting and this internalised dependence spreads through to their
seemingly independent state, laying the foundation for the outplaying of colonisation.
Shankar Raman (2011), says that “Following and going beyond Edward Said, much
important work has shown how the ways we think about national identities, racial identities
and gendered identities persistently reveal patterns of misinterpretations and inequity that can
be traced to early colonial pasts.” Hence, it is extremely crucial to keep questioning and
problematizing the intricate and fabricated thought process involved in estimating ‘identity’
as these may further influence what identity a nation holds for itself as well as the process of
the governance and policies it makes for developing and honing that identity. The disparity
between the reality and the recording and telling of history and facts which is highly distorted
has also played a very important role in the colonization process and its effect is still seen in
present reality in the post-colonial times too. Hence, decoding and rediscovering history is
necessary for a better understanding of today.

An example of the same was given by Gauri Vishwanathan in her book masks of Conquests
(1990) and aims to prove how the degradation of the Sanskrit and Arabic languages in India
was brought about by diverting funds from institutions teaching these languages to those
teaching only English and thus contesting the claims made by the British who said that it was
due to the corrupting influence of these languages and the debauched morality it apparently
represented. Education is another tool that has been used to tamper with the roots and growth
of any mind of any institution or nation. In postcolonial India, reputed academics have been
questioning and re-examining the cultural, ideological and psychological consequences of the
way English studies had been introduced, developed and is presently functioning in Indian
institutions. Thus postcolonial theorists like Homi. K. Bhabha, Gauri Vishwanathan, etc.
Have been instrumental to understand the English gears that put in motion the biased and
manipulative academic policies in the colonies and how the native hands are inadvertently
operating them still. The education system in India- where children are fined for speaking in
any other language than English, to the primers taking place in English in the form of nursery
rhymes, fairy tales etc. is proof of the persisting power of the education system deeply
colonised in India. This takes hold of and shapes the cultural imagination of native’s right
from their childhood which alienates them from their indigenous identity.

There are many such examples of the English supremacy over regionalism and native
identity, especially over regional literature and the subconscious disregard for Indian
scholars, authors, poets and academics in comparison to the foreign works.

Rationale behind choosing Postcolonial theory.

As said in the relevance of postcolonial studies, the stronghold of these colonial roots in
academics is even more corrosive in the current times for students like us when more than
75% of the syllabus of the assessment of a person’s ability to become a college and university
level teacher of English literature in India, still revolves around the literature produced in
Britain. Thus, studying postcolonial theory is invaluable as it keeps troubling the well-set
belief that progress is moving towards and mimicking the West which is known as the centre
of the world. Postcolonial theory questions this idea. Thus we wanted to test whether the
people of India have also unconsciously built in these ideas and following them. This topic
gives us an opportunity to explore whether the people of a previously colonised country like
India realize that even after 72 years of independence; we are still under the clutches of the
ideals that were set by the British. Colonialism is something everyone is aware about and
have their own ideas about it but the prominence of the knowledge about post colonialism is
what we were keen to find out.

In the current times especially when there is a range of the idea of Us v/s Them can be seen
between the cold war between India and Pakistan like we saw in the recent Pulwama attack
and its retaliations, the communal warfare between Hindu and Muslims, the regionalism seen
between North Indians and South Indians and so on, we were curious to see that whether
people were aware that many of these disparities were caused by the British when they
encouraged the Partition, favoured Hinduism and tried to create a cultural divide in the Indian
subcontinent.

After a generation of people who lived through the freedom struggle and the colonisation,
and the present generation consists of just those who have heard stories or seen movies about
it. So it is a goldmine for research to see whether we still have an idea about the identity held
by the country before colonisation and because the root of all their knowledge of colonisation
is literature, is there any awareness about the writers and poets and academics from India and
about the texts written by them during and after colonisation. We wanted to see if they
realized this fact that all their knowledge was on the freedom struggle was based from
literature.

Also, we thought it would be interesting to see how post colonialism theories are present even
in today’s setting even without people realizing it, whether it be in our way of communication
and the acknowledgement that one word can have multiple meanings like knowing that the
word ‘gay’ can mean both happy and a homosexual man. Also, how we now celebrate
hybridity and diversity in our everyday lives when it comes to different cultures, languages,
religions, etc. It’s an unconscious realisation that even today we think that history is always
two sided and can be told very differently from the two or more parties involved. Just like
after reading the theory, these facts were brought into our conscious, we wanted others to
have this realisation as well, like the fact that the identity that India has adopted is of being a
Post-Colonial nation, itself and the perceptions that other foreign countries have of India is of
that as well as the skewed representation and history told by the British. We wanted to see if
there was any awareness of these facts by the people who had not read about these theories,
even if it was in their unconscious.