Dr. Vipul V.

Kapoor, Associate Professor

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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
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“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
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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
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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:
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 ‘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
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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)