Legacies of Bandung: Decolonisation and the Politics of Culture

Author(s): Dipesh Chakrabarty

Source: Economic and Political Weekly , Nov. 12-18, 2005, Vol. 40, No. 46 (Nov. 12-18,
2005), pp. 4812-4818
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4417389

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Economic and Political Weekly

This content downloaded from

154.59.124.153 on Mon, 12 Dec 2022 21:14:17 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
I Perspectives

deliver on it. As Cesaire said in his Dis-

Legacies of Bandung course on Colonialism:

[I]t is the indigenous peoples of Africa and

Asia who are demanding schools, and
Decolonisation and the Politics of Culture colonialist Europe which refuses them; ...
it is the African who is asking for ports
and roads, and colonialist Europe which is
While postcolonial theorists recognise that the colonial situation did
niggardly on this score;... it is the colonised
produce some forms ofhybridity, anti-colonial theorists have beenman who wants to move forward, and the
driven by the urge to decolonise. The politics of decolonisation coloniser who holds things back.3
followed by newly independent nations of the mid-20th century This was the developmentalist side of
decolonisation whereby anti-colonial
often displayed an uncritical emphasis on modernisation;
thinkers came to accept different versions
development, that pursued with technology and tools of scientificof modernisation theory that in turn made
progress, was a "catch-up" exercise with the west. However, withthe west into a model for everyone to
the globalisation of ideas and practices, commensurate with the follow. This today may very well seem
dated but it has not lost its relevance. What
democratisationn " of politics around the 1970s, hitherto marginalised
I will focus on here is a cultural style of
groups also sought a more global, "deterritorialised" identity. The
politics the talk about development fos-
period saw the rise of post-structuralist and postmodern theories,tered. I will call it the "pedagogical style
that were opposed to the territorial imagination of the nation state.
of politics". In the pedagogical mode, the
Currently, as humans, objects and practices continue to move very performance of politics re-enacted
civilisational or cultural hierarchies: be-
seamlessly beyond nation states, this other side of decolonisation -
tween nations, between classes, or be-
representing the thoughts of the'colonised on a "dialogue acrosstween the leaders and the masses. Those
differences" - remains vital but as yet an unfinished project. lower down in the hierarchy were meant
to learn from those higher up. Leaders
DIPESH CHAKRABARTY between these groups and populations.were like teachers. But there was also
Race has thus figured as a category central another side to decolonisation that has
rT he urge to decolonise, to be rid of to postcolonial criticism while its positionreceived less scholarly attention. Anti-
the coloniser in every possible way, in anti-colonial discourse varies. The ques- colonial thinkers often devoted a great
was internal to all anti-colonial tion of race is crucial to the formulationsdeal of time to the question of whether
criticism after end of the first world war. of Fanon, Cesaire, or C L R James, for or how a global conversation of humanity
Postcolonial critics of our times, on example,
the but it is not as central to how could genuinely acknowledge the cultural
other hand, have emphasised how the a Gandhi or a Tagore thought about colonial diversity without arranging them on a
colonial situation produced formsdomination. of If historically, then, anti-hierarchical scale of civilisation - that.is
hybridity or mimicry that necessarily colonialism
es- has been on the wane since to say, an urge towards cross-cultural
caped the Manichean logic of the colonial the 1960s and displaced by postcolonialdialogue without the baggage of imperi-
discourse in the closing decades of the alism. Let me call it the dialogical side of
encounter.1 It is not only this intellectual
shift that separates anti-colonial and 20th century, it has been further pointed decolonisation. Here, unlike on the peda-
postcolonial criticism. The two genres haveout by more recent critics of post-gogical side, there was no one model to
also been separated by the political geog- colonialism that even the postcolonial follow. Different thinkers took different
moment is now behind us, its critical positions, and it is the richness of their
raphies and histories of their origins. After
all, the demand for political and intel- clamour having been drowned in turn bycontradictions that speaks directly to the
lectual decolonisation arose mainly the in mighty tide of globalisation.2 fundamental concerns of both postcolonial
the colonised countries among the intel- This seemingly easy periodisation of criticism and globalisation theory. That
lectuals of anti-colonial movements. the 20th century - anti-colonialism giving indeed may be where the global move-
Postcolonial writing and. criticism, on theway to postcolonialism giving way to ment toward decolonisation left us a heri-
other hand, was born in the west. They globalisation - is unsettled if we look tage useful for the world even today.
were influenced by anti-colonial criticism closely at discussions about decolonisation In what follows, I track these two as-
but their audiences were at the beginning that marked the 1950s and the 1960s of pects of the language of decolonisation,
in the west itself, for these writings havethe last century. Ideas regarding decoloni- starting with the historic conference in
been an essential part of the struggle tosation were dominated by two concerns. Bandung, Indonesia, where some 600
One was development. The other I will leaders and delegates of 29 newly inde-
make the liberal-capitalist (and, initially,
mainly Anglo-American) western demo- call "dialogue". Many anti-colonial think-pendent countries from Asia and Africa
cracies more democratic with respect to ers thought of colonialism as something met on April 18-24, 1955 to exchange
their immigrant, minority, and indigenous
of a broken promise. European rule, it was views of the world at a time when the cold
- though there have been tensions said, promised modernisation but did notwar and a new United Nations regime

4812 Economic and Political Weekly November 12, 2005

This content downloaded from

154.59.124.153 on Mon, 12 Dec 2022 21:14:17 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
were already important factors in inter- me simply note the historical moment when complex, which is characteristic of Indian
national relations.4 It may be timely to the conference met. The Bandung Confer- representations at international diplomatic
remind ourselves of a recent moment in ence was held at time when currents of meetings." India, Romulos judged, was
human history when the nation was some- deep and widespread sympathy with the "not so much anti-West as it is anti-
thing people aspired to and the idea ofnewly independent nations,- or with those American."11 The memoirs of Roselan
empire wielded absolutely no moral force. struggling to be independent (such as Abdulgani, once Jakarta's ambassador to
Today the opposite rules: the theme of Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, central Africa, the US and an organiser of the conference,
empire has made a triumphant return etc) - met those of the cold war. Treaties, reflect some of the competitive currents
in historiography while the nation state unsatisfactory to the US, had been signed that characterised the relationship between
has fallen out of favour. Historians of Niall
in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The the Indian and the Indonesian leadership
Fergusson's ilk even seem to recommendFrench had lost in Dien Bien Phu and the and officials. "The cleverness of the Indian
a return to imperial arrangements in the Korean war had ended. Some of the Asian delegation," he wrote, "lay in the fact that
interest of a decent global future for nations had joined defence pacts with the they had thoroughly mastered the English
mankind.5 For some critics from the Left US: Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines.language, and had very much experience
too, empire, variously understood, has Some others belonged to the Socialist bloc. in negotiations with the British. ... Some
become a key operative term for under- Bandung was attempting to sustain a sense of them were even arrogant as for instance
standing global relations of domination as of Asian-African affinity in the face of ... Krishna Menon, and, at times, Prime
they exist at present.6 It may be salutary such disagreements. This was not easy as Minister Nehru himself."12 Nehru, in turn,
today to revisit a time when both the there was pressure from the western coun- had trouble trusting the Indonesians with
category "empire" and actual, historical tries to influence the course of the con- the responsibility of organising the con-
European 'empires truly seemed to have versation at Bandung by excluding China, ference. He wrote to B F H B Tyabji, the
seen the sun set over them. for example. Nehru's correspondence with Indian ambassador to Indonesia, on Feb-
the United Nations makes it obvious that ruary 20, 1955: "I am rather anxious about
Dateline: Bandung, April 1955 sometimes he had to stand his ground on this Asian-African Conference and, more
the question of neutrality in the cold war. especially, about the arrangements. I
In 1955 when Richard Wright, the notedA letter he wrote to the Secretary General wonder if the people in Indonesia have any
African-American writer then resident in of the United Nation dated December 18, full realisation of what this Conference is
Paris, decided to attend the Bandung1954, on the subject of Bandung, reads: going. to be. All the world's eyes will be
Conference, many of his European friends"We have no desire to create a bad impres- turned upon it ...Because of all this, we
thought that this would be an occasionsion about anything in the US and the UK. cannot take the slightest risk of lack of
simply for criticising the west. Even GunnerBut the world is somewhat larger than the adequate arrangements... You have been
Myrdal, in writing the foreword to the US and the UK and we have to take into pointing out that the Indonesians are sen-
book that Wright wrote as a result of his
account what impressions we create in the sitive. We should respect their sensitive-
experience at Bandung, ended up penning rest of the world. ... For us to be told, ness. But we cannot afford to have any-
an indictment of what happened intherefore, that the US and the UK will not thing messed up because they are sensi-
Bandung: "His [Wright's] interest waslike the inclusion of China in the Afro- tive...."13 His particular concern, it turns
focused on the two powerful urges farAsian Conference is not very helpful. In out, were the arrangements for bathrooms
beyond Left and Right which he found at fact, it is somewhat irritating. There are and lavatories: "I have learnt that it is
work there: Religion and Race.... Asia and many things that the US and the UK have proposed to crowd numbers of people in
Africa thus carry the irrationalism of bothdone which we do not like at all."10 single rooms.... your Joint Secretariat will
East and West." 7 Both Myrdal and Wright's The leaders who got together in Bandung not get much praise from anybody if del-
Parisian friends appear to have misjudged thus came from a divided world. They egates are herded up like cattle. ...Above
what decolonisation was all about. It was were not of the same mind on questions all, one fact should be remembered, and
not a simple project of cultivating a senseof international politics, nor did they have this is usually forgotten in Indonesia. This
of disengagement with the west. There wasthe same understanding of what consti- fact is an adequate provision for bathrooms
no reverse racism at work in Bandung. If tuted imperialism. They did not even and lavatories. People can do without
anything, the aspiration for political and necessarily like each other. The represen- drawing rooms, but they cannot do without
economic freedom that the conference tative of the Philippines, Carlos Romulos, bathrooms and lavatories."14
stood for entailed a long and troubled for example, found Nehru to be a "highly Apart from the lack of mutual trust and
conversation with an imagined Europe or cultivated intellect" but full of "pedantry" respect, the conference, so opposed to
the west. "I was discovering", wrote Wright, (and also, one might add, opposed - as a imperialism, had no operative definition
"that this Asian elite was, in many ways, believer in non-alignment - to the Manila of the term. This was so mainly because
more western than the west, their western- Pact of which the Philippines were a there were deep and irreconcilable differ-
ness consisting in their having been made member). "His pronounced propensity to ences among the nations represented. The
to break with the past in a manner that but be dogmatic, impatient, irascible, and prime minister of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Sir
few westerners couldpossible do".8 It was unyielding ... alienated the goodwill of John Kotelawala, caused some tension in
in fact the newsmen from his own country many delegates," wrote Romulos. Nehru the political committee of the conference
who attended the conference who, Wright "typified" for him "the affectations of - and shocked Nehru - when on the af-
felt, "had no philosophy of history with cultural superiority induced by a conscious ternoon of Thursday, April 21, 1955,
which to understand Bandung..."9 identification with an ancient civilisation referred to the eastern European countries
I will shortly come to this question of which has come to be the hallmark of Indian and asked, "Are not these colonies as much
the philosophy of history that marked the representatives to international confer- as any of the colonial territories in Africa
discourse of decolonisation. For now let ences. He also showed an anti-American or Asia? ... should it not be our duty openly

Economic and Political Weekly November 12, 20054813

This content downloaded from

154.59.124.153 on Mon, 12 Dec 2022 21:14:17 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
to declare opposition to Soviet colonial- soon after the conference from the Nether-
information provided by the American
ism as much as Western imperialism?"15 lands on the theme nationalism and embassy and his own staff, he said: "The
The compromise prose drafted by the colonialism in Africa and Asia thus battle against colonialism has been a long
conference in trying to accommodate the characterised the meeting at Bandung: one,
"Theand do you know that today is a
spirit of Sir John's question clearly reveals end of Western supremacy has never famous
been anniversary of that battle? On April
the shallow intellectual unity on which the demonstrated more clearly."21 Even18, 1775, Paul Revere rode at midnight
the
conference was based. Rather than refer Chinese premier Chou En-Lai's much through the New England countryside
warning of the approach of the British
directly to "the form of the colonialism ofanticipated and controversial participation
the Soviet Union," the founding commit-in the conference succeeded because his troops and the opening of the American
tee eventually agreed on a statement thatspeeches partook of this spirit of anti-war of Independence, the first successful
called for an end to "colonialism in all its imperialism. His message that China hadanti-colonial war in history."24
manifestation". 16 no plans for dominating her neighbours
What then held the conference together?and did not intend to spread her influence Pedagogical Style
Appadorai, the Indian member of the joint through the overseas Chinese community,of Developmental Politics
secretariat set up for the conference and"that the small nations of Asia had nothing
a member of the Indian Foreign Service, to fear from their great neighbour, China" The discourse and politics of
was right in saying that "[i]n the realm of resonated with the spirit that held the con-decolonisation in the nations that met in
ideas, ... not much that is significantly newference together.22 This was indeed a time Bandung often displayed an uncritical
can be found in the Bandung Declaration.when, whatever its meaning, any consciousemphasis on modernisation. Sustaining this
Most of the points of the historical dec- project of imperialism had no takers. attitude was a clear and conscious desire
laration are found in the United Nations The organisers went to some trouble to to "catch up" with the west. As Nehru
Charter."17 Bandung surely helped the make sure that the anti-imperialismwould often say in the 1950s: "What Europe
newly independent states become parts ofundergirding the conference was open todid in a hundred or a hundred and fifty
the UN system. But it brought into thepolitical ideologies on both sides of theyears, we must do in ten or fifteen years,"
imagination of that system a shared anti-cold war divide. Even the opening day of or as is reflected in the very title of a 1971
imperial ethic. Whatever the meaning of the conference was chosen with American biography of the Tanzanian leader Julius
the term "imperialism", there was an sensitivity in mind. The planning confer-Nyerere: We MustRun While They Walk.25
absolute unanimity among the participants ence at Bogor had decided that the con-The accent on modernisation made the
of the conference that they were all op- ference would be held in the last week of figure of the engineer one of the most
posed to "it". From Nehru to Romulos, theApril in 1955. In the meanwhile, says eroticised figures of the postcolonial
message was clear. As Romulos put it in Abdulgani, news was received from developmentalist imagination. Even. the
his statement to the conference: "The age America indicating that the Americans cursory prose of a stray remark by Richard
of empire is being helped into oblivion byfeared "that Western colonialism would be Wright to a friend in Indonesia catches this
the aroused will and action of the people subjected to attack [at Bandung] and would precedence of the engineer over the poet
determined to be masters of their own be the main target. Especially so with the or the prophet in the very imagination of
fate." He was confident that "the old struc-attendance of the People's Republic of decolonisation. "Indonesia has taken power
ture of Western empire will and must pass China." Abdulgani writes: away from the Dutch," Wright said, "but
from the scene".18 Many of the speakersI and my staff thought and puzzled for a she does not know how to use it". This,
at the conference inserted Bandung into long time about how to get rid of, or how he thought, "need not be a Right or Left
a line of other international conferences to neutralise American fears. Suddenly, we issue," but wondered: "Where is the
held in the first half of the 20th century recalled the date of April 18 in the history engineer who can build a project out of
that signalled the spirit of anti-imperialist of the American Revolution; exactly what eighty million human lives, a project that
self-determination among the emergent it was, we didn't remember.... I telephoned can nourish them, sustain them, and yet
new nations in Asia or elsewhere. Thus American Ambassador Hugh Cummings
have their voluntary loyalty?"26
[and] ...asked him for data about the
president Sukarno, in his welcoming speech American revolution around the month of This emphasis on development as catch-
made at the opening of the conference on April. On the following day, Ambassador ing-up-with-the west produced a particu-
April 18, referred to "the conference of the Cummings sent several books of refer- lar split that marked both the relationship
'League Against Imperialism and Colo-ence.... It turned out that ... [o]n April 18, between elite nations and their subaltern
nialism', which was held in Brussels al- 1775,... amidst the upheaval of the Ameri- counterparts as well as that between elites
most thirty years ago".19 Appadorai writ-can revolution for independence against and subalterns within national boundaries.
ing soon after the conference mentioned British colonialism, a young patriot named Just as the emergent nations demanded
"the first (ever) expression of an Asian Paul Revere rode at midnight from Boston political equality with the Euro-American
harbour to the town of Concord, arousing
sentiment" which he "traced to August nations while wanting to catch up with
the spirit of opposition to British troops,
1926 when the Asian delegations to the them on the economic front, similarly their
who were landing at that time. ... It was
non-official International Conference for
clear that April 18, 1775 was an historic leaders thought of their peasants and
Peace held at Bierville declared in a
day for the American nation in their struggle workers simultaneously as people who were
memorandum that Asia must have its right-against colonialism. Why should we not already full citizens - in that they had the
ful place in the consideration of world simply link these two events, the date of associated rights - but also as people who
problems". The Asian Relations Confer- which was the same, the spirit of which was were not-quite full citizens in that they
ence in Delhi in March-April 1947 under the same, only the years were different?23 needed to be educated in the habits and
Indeed, president Sukarno made this
the auspices of the Indian Council of World manners of citizens. This produced a style
Affairs was mentioned as yet another American connection on the very first of politics on the part of the leaders that
precedent.20 A pictorial album produced
day of the conference. Armed with the could only be called pedagogical. From

4814 Economic and Political Weekly November 12, 2005

This content downloaded from

154.59.124.153 on Mon, 12 Dec 2022 21:14:17 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Nasser and Nyerere to Sukarno and Nehru, be more disrespectful to our national anthem modernist in its understanding of repre-
decolonisation produced a crop of leaders than to treat it as a popular song-hit, or a sentation.30 This entire assumption is now
who saw themselves, fundamentally, as "signature-tune" to be "plugged" the under challenge. Politics of being dalit
teachers to their nations. moment, any member of the government (ex-untouchable or low caste) or tribal no
appears on the scene. ...It is customary in
There are two remarkably similar inci- longer seek sanction from the realist prose
every country in the world for visiting
dents in Nehru's and Nyerere's lives that of academic social sciences. Instead, cer-
foreigners, as well as the local public, to
illustrate this pedagogical style of leader- tain de-territorialised, global imaginations
show their respect by standing to attention
ship. Both incidents involve them speak- while the anthem is being played. But it is
of identity have come to be operative,
ing to their countrymen on the subject of not customary in other countries to play challenging the connections one once made
singing the national anthem. The similari- or sing their national anthem without any between signs and their references. (I am
ties are striking. warning, just because some official of the not saying one has completely displaced
Here is Nehru speaking at a public government happens to have dropped the other; it is the nature of contestation
meeting in Dibrugarh in Assam on August in unexpectedly at a small gathering, or that I focus on here.) Two handy examples
29, 1955. Mark the teacherly voice. Nehru landed at an airstrip on a visit to his come from recent Indian debates around
mother-in-law !"28
could have been speaking at a school the ways leaders of the so-called dalit-
assembly: Even as these two excerpts from Nehru's bahujan (a coalition of ex-untouchable and
Now we shall have the national anthem. and Nyerere' s speeches confirm, the peda- low caste) groups and indigenous peoples
Please listen carefully to what I have gogical
to aspect of their politics had to do in India have sought in the last two decades
with their desire to see their respective to globalise the politics of caste-oppres-
say. One. nobody should start singing until
the word is given. I have found that nations
in take their pride of place in the sion and indigeneity. A significant debate
global order of nations. This is why the on caste broke out in the Indian press
Dibrugarh people start singing even while
I am speaking. It is all wrong, you must
reference to "abroad" or "every country in months before the UN-sponsored World
start only when I say so, not until then.
the world" in these speeches. The "voice" of Conference against Racism, Racial Dis-
Two, Jana gana mana is our national Bharatmata (Mother India) had the "inter- crimination, Xenophobia and Related
anthem. So it must be sung in loud and
national" world had its audience. Behind Intolerance was held in Durban on August
clear voices, with eyes open. You must
31 to September 2, 2001. Many of the
the idea of pedagogical politics was the
stand erect like soldiers and sing, not hum
leaders of the dalit-bahujan groups wanted
emergent and territorial nation state put-
it under our breath. Thirdly, you must
ting development ahead of diversity. to use this forum to draw global attention
remember that Jana gana mana ... has
been selected to be our national anthem. to their problems by declaring that caste-
De-territorialisation and
... It is given great honour abroad. So ... oppression was no different from the
everybody must stand up when the na-Displacement oppression related to race, that caste, in
tional anthem is sung because it is the voice effect, was the same as race. Andre Beteille,
of the nation, of Bharat Mata. We must If decolonisation was thus generally a respected and liberal anthropologist who
stand erect like soldiers and not shuffle predicated on a world-wide urge on sat theon the preparatory committee the gov-
around while it is being sung. I would like part of the formerly colonised countries to
ernment of India had set up, resigned in
to tell you that everyone must learn to sing catch up with Europe (or more broadly protest
the arguing that this was "mischie-
the national anthem. When the girls sing west), one could say that this was a dis-
vous" and that all his lifelong training in
just now all you must join in. It does not
course that saw an imaginary Europe as
anthropology had taught him that race and
matter if you do not know the words. The
the, major agentive force in the world.
caste were very different and unrelated
girls will sing one line at a time and you
Decolonisation thus may be thought of as
phenomena. A storm of protest was raised
will repeat it. Have you understood? All
the last phase in the history of whatby
right, stand up, everybody. Let us start.27
the intellectuals sympathetic to the dalit
Martin Heidegger once called "the cause, their arguments ranging from the
Compare this with what Nyerere said at
Europeanisation" of the earth.29 I say "the
proposition that a "conservative" thinker
a mass rally on July 7, 1963 explaining the
like Beteille could not appreciate the
last phase," because all this was to change
vice of "pomposity" in the new nation. It
from the late 1960s on and the pacepragmatics
of of this globalising strategy, to
is not difficult to hear the same teacherly
change hastened in the decades to follow.
the idea that the dalit "experience" of caste-
voice of the leader trying to instil in his
Some of these changes may be easily oppression was a better source of know-
audience the proper habits of citizenship:
tracked from the history of "identity ledge than academic "expertise" on the
"When we became independent," Nyerere politics" in India since the 1980s and
subject.31
said, "we started by singing the national
particularly in the last decade. The peda-Beteille has also been at the centre of
anthem every time the Prime Minister
gogical politics of the likes of Nehru, arguments related to indigeneity. While
arrived anywhere, even at supposedly
Nasser, or Nyerere, were firmly based on groups in India have increasingly
tribal
informal dinner parties." the territorial idea of the nation state sought
and the appellation "indigenous" in
order to make use of the UN Charter on
This, already, was rather unnecessary; but, on the assumption that names and identi-
as a little over-enthusiasm was understand-
ties involved in politics had clear and
Indigenous Peoples' Rights (which in-
able just at first. I had hoped that in time discernible historical-cultural references.
cludes the right of self-definition), Beteille
we should learn to reserve the anthem for
Words like "Muslim", "scheduled caste",
(and some other anthropologists) have
the really ceremonial functions at which
"tribal" were backed up in India of raised
the academic objections, arguing that
its playing is appropriate. It seems I was
too hopeful; for now we sing it whenever British period or in the early yearstheofcategory "indigenous", while useful
a minister, a parliamentary secretary, a independence by academic studies andin
right in the context of settler-colonial
regional commissioner or an area commis- disciplines like history and anthropology.
countries, is rendered problematic by facts
sioner arrives at a gathering of any kind It could be said, in other words, thatspecific
the and particular to Indian history.
anywhere in Tanganyika! Nothing could politics favoured by decolonisation Intellectuals
was on the other side, however,

Economic and Political Weekly November 12, 2005 4815

This content downloaded from

154.59.124.153 on Mon, 12 Dec 2022 21:14:17 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
have pointed out that the political and democratic changes in the west (some of tongue of the globe, but it was evident that
pragmatic benefits of globalising these which have since been reversed). Anti-soon there would be more people speaking
issues far outweigh considerations of his- colonial discourse (Fanon, Gandhi et al) English than there were people whose native

torical accuracies. Beteille's positions in travelled back to the west at the same timetongue was English.... H L Mencken has
as civil liberties movements and anti-war traced the origins of many of our American
either case, as may be easily imagined,
have not endeared him to intellectual words and that phrases that went to modify
demonstrations broke out, alongside move-
English to an extent that we now regard
ments of indigenous peoples and immi-
supporters of dalit or indigenous politics.
our English tongue in America as the
But even without taking sides, it couldgrant
be groups for cultural sovereignty and American language. What will happen
said that while Beteille is looking for a
recognition. Racist policies on immigra- when millions upon millions of new people
certain connections between identity tags tion were lifted or modified in countries
in the tropics begin to speak English? Alien
- "indigenous", "untouchables" - and such the as the US and Australia in this period. pressures and structures of thought and
historical claims they implicitly make,Battles
his were joined against racism in the feeling will be brought to bear upon this
opponents are clearly engaged in develop- west in the name of multi-culturalism (both mother tongue and we shall be hearing
ing global and de-territorialised form official
of and non-official). Postcolonial some strange and twisted expressions...
political imagination that precisely breachtheory emerges from this re-circulation of But this is all the good; a language is useless
these connections between signs and their decolonisation texts within the west. It unless it can be used for the vital purposes
cannot be an insignificant fact that Homiof life, and to use a language in new situ-
assumed historical/social referents. In other
Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Isaac Julien, for ations is, inevitably, to change it.36
words, one may say that while Beteille still
subscribes to a modernist view of repre- instance, came together to read Fanon inClearly ahead of his time, Wright
sentation, the dalits and the tribal leaders
England of the 1970s and 1980s in the glimpsed a future that would be visible
have found it to their advantage, in these context of a struggle against British rac- much later only to the generations that
particular cases, to base their quest for ism.34 This was also the period of the risewould come after Rushdie. Wright's was
further democratisation of Indian society of post-structuralist and postmodern theo- a vision of anti-colonial cosmopolitanism.
politics on premises that are reminiscent English would cease to be the master's
ries in the west, theories that were, in any
of what globalisation theorists have said language. Learning it would no longer be
case, opposed to the territorial imagination
about de-territorialisation of identities.32
of the nation state. It was as part of thisa matter of the colonised Caliban
Here, clearly, the very democratisingprocess of that debates began in Anglo- talking back to Prospero, the master. In
politics in India has moved it away from American universities about questioning stead, the vision was that as other lan-
the pedagogical model of politics that the thecanonical texts that had represented the
guages gradually died into it, English woul
Nehruvian vision of decolonisation pro- nation or the west, resulting in the emer- become plural from within so that it coul
moted even into the early 1960s. This is' of fields such as postcolonial and
gence become the new Babel of the world. The
not to say that the Nehruvian vision has cultural studies.35 Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe would echo
lost all relevance. But that vision was part this vision in ten years after Wright articu-
of the Europeanisation of the earth. The
Dialogical Side of Decolonisationlated it: "Is it right that a man should
"global" that dalit or indigenous politics abandon his mother tongue for someone
partake of today no longer conjures a mono-It is our contemporary interests in theelse's? It looks like a dreadful betrayal and
lithic Europe or the west as the most im-circulation of humans, objects, and prac-produces a guilty feeling. But for me there
portant agentive force in the world. Under
tices across and beyond the boundaries isofno other choice. I have been given the
conditions of globalisation, the clashthe is nation state that makes this other side
[English] language and I intend to use it.
often between certain norms of modern- of decolonisation - representing the ...I felt that the English language will be
isation or modernity - that took a western
thoughts of the colonised on conversationable to carry the weight of my African
model for granted - and the very global across differences - relevant to the con-experience. But it will have to a new
momentum of the forces of democratisa- English, still in full communication with
cerns of both globalisation and postcolonial
tion. Political leaders are no longer looked
theory. However, what was said by theo- its ancestral home but altered to suit new
upon as "engineers" of their societies. rists of decolonisation about "dialogue African surroundings."37
Why all this has come about in the lastacross difference" was often contradic- Yet, delivering the Robb lectures - later
few decades is for a future historian to tory. But precisely because their debate published as Decolonising the Mind: The
determine. But clearly the theme of was
Eu- of necessity unfinished, it leaves Politics
us of Language in African Literature
ropean imperialism died a global death
a rich body of ideas that speaks to the- at the University of Auckland in New
about the same time from when scholars Zealand some 20 years after these words
concept of cosmopolitanism without seek-
date the beginnings of the contemporary were spoken, Ngugi wa Thiongo, the
ing any overall mastery over the untameable
forms of globalisation: the 1970s.33 Viet-
diversity of human culture. Kenyan writer, adopted a position exactly
nam was perhaps the last war for "national
Long before academics began to talk
the opposite of that spelt out by Wright and
liberation" that was seen as delivering a "global English," Bandung brought
about Achebe. An essay by the Nigerian writer
blow to a weak link in an imperial chain Gabriel Okara in the Africanist journal
Richard Wright a premonition of the global
that was western. Other long-term struggles
future of this language that was once, ?;ansition
as illustrated for Ngugi the "lengths
- such as those of the Kurds, the Kashmiris,
Gauri Viswanathan and others have shown,to which we were prepared to go in our
the Nagas, the Tibetans for self-determi-
very much a part of the colonising mission.
mission of enriching foreign languages by
nation that occurred in a "national" context injecting Senghorian 'black blood' into
"I felt while at Bandung," wrote Wright:
would never produce the depth of anti-. their rusty joints". Okara had written:
that the English language was about to
colonial and cross-cultural enthusiasm inundergo one of the most severe tests in its
[I]n order to capture the vivid images of
the world that Vietnam did. The 1960s andlong and glorious history. Not only wasAfrican speech, I had to eschew the habit
later were also a period of some profoundly
English becoming the common, dominantof expressing my thoughts first in English.

4816 Economic and Political Weekly November 12, 2005

This content downloaded from

154.59.124.153 on Mon, 12 Dec 2022 21:14:17 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 It was difficult at first, but I had to learn. vernacular language along with French.
generally suffered in the newly emergent
I had to study each jaw expression I used We have heard for decades about the nations - my generation of Indians could
and to discover the probable situation in 'modern humanities'. Why should there
testify to the cult of engineering and
which it was used in order to bring out their not be 'African humanities'? Every lan-
management that went hand-in-hand with
nearest meaning in English. I found it a guage, which means every civilisation, discussions
can of development - while it at
fascinating exercise. provide material for the humanities, least be- survived in some of the elite univer-
Ngugi disagreed. "Why", he asks, cause every civilisation is the expression,sities of the west in the form of "area
"should an African writer, or any writer, with its own peculiar emphasis, of certain
studies". This is not an argument against
characteristic of humanity ... This then is
become so obsessed with taking from his "area studies" in the west. For it may very
where the real aim of colonisation lies. A
mother-tongue to enrich other tongues? ...
moral and intellectual cross-fertilisation, a well be a sad fact today that it is only in
What seemed to worry us more was this: the west that modern, non-western hu-
spiritual graft.40
after all this literary gymnastics of preying manities are pursdcd with some serious-
In other words, there is no cross-
on our languages to add life and vigour ness.42 But there is a risk here. As the late
fertilisation without an engagement with
to English and other foreign languages, Edward Said demonstrated it for our gen-
would the result still be accepted as good difference. Senghor's thoughts received
eration, the west has seldom performed
English or good French?"38 He for one an even sharper focus when, writing in
this task in a manner that transcends its
1961 on the question of Marxism, he made
experienced this as a "neo-colonial situ- own geopolitical interests.
ation" and went on to describe the book a passionate plea against overlooking the
And that is where Senghor's call for
always-situated human being - man in his
resulting from his lectures as his "farewell a plural tradition of the humanities
concrete affiliations to the past - in favour
to English as a vehicle for any of [his] remains a living legacy for all postcolonial
writing:" "From now on it is Gikuyu and
of the figure of the abstract human, so
intellectuals both inside and outside
favourite of the modernisers - or some
Kiswahili all the way."39 the west.ll1
globalisers of today - from both the Left
It is not my purpose to use the positions
and the Right. "Man is not without a home-
of Wright and Ngugi to cancel each other
land," wrote Senghor. Email: dchakrabarty @ yahoo.com
out. I think they anticipate two familiar and
legitimate responses to possibilities inher-He is not a man without colour or history
Notes
ent in global conversation: globalisationor country or civilisation. He is West
as liberation and globalisation as subjuga- African man, our neighbour, precisely
[This paper was presented initially as a keynote
tion. Globalisation is no one homogeneousdetermined by his time and his place: the lecture at a conference entitled 'Bandung and
Malian, the Mauritian, the Ivory-Coaster;
thing. It could indeed be both. Leopold Beyond: Rethinking Afro-Asian Connections in
the Wolof, the Tuareg, the Hausa, the Fon,
Senghor on the other hand - of whose love the Mossi, a man of fish and bone and
the Twentieth Century' held at Stanford University
of French, Ngugi was no fan - points usblood, who feeds on milk and millet and on May 14-15, 2005. I am grateful to the
participants at the conference and to Rochona
in directions of cosmopolitan vista that rice and yam. a man humiliated for cen-
Majumdar for comments. Thanks to Arvind
remind us that the ambiguities and theturies less perhaps in his hunger and
Elangovan and Sunit Singh for assistance with
richness of the moment of decolonisation nakedness than in his colour and research.]

were never exhausted by the antinomies set civilisation, in his dignity as incarnate
1 The classic statement of this is Homi K Bhabha,
up here by what we have excerpted from man.41 The Location of Culture, Routledge, London
Wright and Ngugi. Senghor's thoughts - "Incarnate man" - or man as always- and New York, 1994.
even in what he wrote on the (somewhat already incarnate - was how Senghor 2 See, for instance, Michael Hardt and Antonio
unpopular) topic of "assimilation" toimagined the world's heritage of historical Negri, Empire, Harvard University Press,
Cambridge, Massachusettes, 2000, pp 143-59.
French culture in 1945 - have much to say and cultural diversity. It was not a diversity
3 Aime Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism,
to us about what it might mean to inflectthat got in the way of cross-cultural com- translated Joan Pinkham, Monthly Review,
our global conversation by a genuinemunication nor was it a diversity that did New York, 1972, p 25.
appreciation of human diversity. Clearly,not matter. For Senghor, one way that 4 The countries that sponsored the conference
Senghor was not for nativist isolation. Hediversity could be harnessed in the cause were Burma, India, Ceylon, Indonesia, Pakistan
and Sri Lanka. In addition, 24 other countries
wrote, for instance, "... mathematics andof development was by deliberately cre-
joined the conference. They were: Afghanistan,
the exact sciences ... by definition haveating a plural and yet thriving tradition of CaFmbodia, Peoples' Republic of China, Egypt,
no frontiers and appeal to a faculty of humanities in the teaching institutions of Ethiopia, Gold Coast, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan,
reason which is found in all peoples." This, the world. The vision was different from Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Nepal, the
he thought, was true for even "history andthose of Wright or Ngugi. Neither "global" Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria,
geography" which had "attained a univer-English (or French) nor a return to one's Thailand, Turkey, Democratic Republic of
[North] Vietnam, State of Vietnam, and Yemen.
sal value." But what about languages likenative language was the option Senghor
See Selected Documents of the Bandung
"Greek, Latin and French?" He wrote: "I outlined. The way forward was a world of Conference, Institute of Pacific Relations, New
know the advantages of these languagesmulti-lingual individuals who would ap- York, 1955, p 29. It should be noted that Israel
because I was brought up on them ...." preciate language both as means of com- was invited to participate in the Asian Relations
But "the teaching of the classical languages munication and as repositories of differ- Conference of 1947 but the delegation was
is not an end in itself. It is a tool for called the 'Jewish Delegation from Palestine'.
ence. A philologist's utopia perhaps, but SeeAsian Relations: Report of the Proceedings
discovering human truths in oneself and how far from the vision of anti-colonial and Documentation of the First Asian
for expressing them under their various modernisers who, in their single-minded Relations Conference, New Delhi, March-
aspects ...." And then followed Senghor's pursuit of science and technology in order April, 1947, introduced by D Gopal,
argument for diversity in the humanities: Authorspress, Delhi, 2003. Bandung, however,
to catch up with the west, ended up leaving
excluded Israel, mainly because of "strong
Eo the west itself the task of preserving the
[I]t would be good in African secondary opposition" from Arab countries. See Selected
schools to make it compulsory to studyworld's
a humanities. The humanities have Works ofJawaharlal Nehru [hereafter SWJN],

Economic and Political Weekly November 12, 2005 4817

This content downloaded from

154.59.124.153 on Mon, 12 Dec 2022 21:14:17 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 second series, Ravinder Kumar and H Y those published in the New York Times or Pinto, 'Caste Is a Variety of Race', The Hindu
Sharada Prasad (eds), JN Memorial Fund, issued by the Indonesian Mission to the United March 24, 2001; Susan Shahin, 'Caste Is a
Delhi, 2000, Vol 27, pp 109, 566. Nations, New York." Word India Just Doesn't Want to Hear', Asi
5 Niall Ferguson, Empire: How Britain Made 20 Appadorai, Bandung, p 1. For the details and Times, April 25, 2001. See also my essa
the Modern World, Penguin, London, 2003. the proceedings of the Asian Relations 'Globalisation, Democratisation, and the
See in particular the 'Conclusion'. Conference held in Delhi in 1947 see Asian Evacuation of History' in Veronique Benei
6 Hardt and Negri, Empire; David Harvey, The Relations: Report of the Proceedings and and Jackie Assayag (eds), At Home in the
New Imperialism, Oxford University Press, Documentation of the First Asian Relations Diaspora: South Asian Scholars in the West,
New York and Oxford, 2003. Conference, New Delhi, March-April, 1947, Permanent Black, Delhi, 2003; Indiana
7 Gunner Myrdal, 'Foreword', to Richard introduced by D Gopal, Authorspress, Delhi, University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 2003,
Wright, The Colour Curtain: A Report on the 2003. pp 127-47.
Bandung Conference, The World Publishing 21 A Worldon the Move: A History of Colonialism 32 I should not be read as saying that de-
Company, Cleveland and New York, 1956, p 7. and Nationalism in Asia and North Africa territorialisation always and only helps
8 Ibid, p 71. This point is underlined in a review from the Turn of the Century to the Bandung subaltern groups or that the modernist idea of
of the book by Merze Tate of Howard University Conference, Djambaten, Amsterdam, 1956, the political was only for the elite. There are
in The Journal of Negro History, Vol 41, No 3, p 246. A review of this book in The Bulletin counter-examples for both propositions. For
July 1956, pp 263-65. Tate quotes the following of the School of Oriental and African Studies, a discussion on de-territorialisation, see Arjun
lines from Wright: "Bandung was the last call University of London, Vol 22, No 1/3, 1959, Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural
of Westernised Asians to the moral conscience pp 198-99 remarked: "The real value of this Aspects of Globalisation, The University of
of the West", p 265. book lies in the clear picture it will give to Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1996. On the
9 The Colour Curtain, p 82.. the Western students of the way Asian thinkers debates Beteille's and others' argument about
10 SWJN, second series, Vol 27, p 106. feel about 'colonialism'." tribal politics in India, see Bengt G Karlsson
11 Carlos P Romulos, The Meaning of Bandung, 22 Appadorai, Bandung, p 30. and Tanka B Subba (eds), The Politics of
The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel 23 Abdulgani, Bandung Connection, pp 46-48.Indigeneity in lIdia, RoutledgeLondon, 2005,
Hill, 1956, pp 11-12. This book was published 24 Select Documents, p 3. forthcoming) and my essay 'Politics Unlimited:
as the Weil Lectures on American Citizenship 25 The Global Adivasi and Debates about the
SWJN, Vol 28, 'Speech inaugurating the new
delivered at the University of North Carolina, Political' in the same volume.
building of the Punjab High Court, Chandigarh,
Chapel Hill. 33 Arjun Appadurai, Modernity At Large,
March 19, 1955', p 30; William Edgett Smith,
12 Roselan Abdulgani, The Bandung Connection: We Must Run While They Walk: A Portrait Chapter 2 dates contemporary globalisation
The Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung in of Africa's Julius Nyerere, Random House, from the 1970s. David Harvey, The Condition
1955, Gunung Agung, Singapore, 1981, p 26. New York, 1971. of Postmodernity, Blackwell, Oxford, 2000,
To be fair to Abdulgani, however, it needs to
26 Wright, The Colour Curtain, p 132. Emphasis Chapter 9 dates what he calls "flexible
be said that he also expressed much admiration added. Christopher Lee tells me of a accumulation" from the same period.
for Nehru's speech at closed meeting of the fictionalised film about Nasser, Nasser 56 in 34 See David Morley and Kuan-Hsing Chen (eds),
Political Committee of the conference on which Nasser, trying to gather support and Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogue and Cultural
April 22, 1955: "The influence of that speech expertise for nationalising the Suez, exhorts Studies, Routledge, London and New York,
was very great indeed. [Nehru] was a fighter, two engineers who question his judgment, by 1996, p 477; Alan Read (ed). The Fact of
well-on in years, his hair going white, his voice
saying "You are engineers, not poets." Personal Blackness Frantz Fanonz and Visual
strong, speaking in fluent English, without communication from ChristopherLee, May 20, Representation, Bay Press, Seattle, 1996.
pretence, full of idealism and valuable ideas. 2005. 35 See Simon During, 'Introduction', The Cultu
27 SWJN, H Y Sharada Prasad and A K
... I can never forget those moments. Everyone Studies Reader, Simon During (ed), 2n
present listened spellbound". Ibid, p 143.
Damodaran (eds), Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial
edition, Routledge, London and New Yor
Abdulgani also presented the following Fund, Delhi, 2001, Vol 29, p 67. 2000, pp 1-28.
evaluation of Nehru: "He was very wealthy, 28 Julius K Nyerere, Freedom and Unity, 36OUP,
Wright, The Colour Curtain, p 200.
but he lived simply full of discipline. Every London, 1967, lecture on 'Pomposity' on37July ChinuaAchebe's 1964 lecture on 'The African
morning, he did physical exercises, in the form Writer and the English Language' cited in
7, 1963 at a mass rally to celebrate the formation
of yoga. For a dozen minutes, he stood on his of his political party TANU (July 7, 1954), Ngugi wa Thiongo, Decolonising the Mind:
pp 223-24.
hand. with two feet in the air. In order to guard The Politics of Language in African Literature,
[sic] the easy coursing of blood in his veins.
29 This, roughly, was the argument of my essay James Curry, London, 1986, p 7.
'Postcoloniality and the Artifice of History:
And in this way to clear his thoughts, he said." 38 Ibid, pp 7-8.
Ibid. Who Speaks for 'Indian' Pasts?', firstpublished 39 Ibid, pp xii, xiv.
13 SWJN, second series, Ravinder Kumar and in H 1992 and then incorporated with 40 L6opold S6dar Senghor, Prose and Poetry,
Y Sharada Prasad (eds), Jawaharlal Nehru
modifications in my book Provincialising selected and translated by John Reed and Clive
Memorial Fund, Delhi, 2001, Vol 28, p 98.
Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Wake, OUP, London, 1965, pp 53-55: 1945
14 Ibid, p 99. Difference, Princeton University Press, essay on "assimilation" excerpted from Vues
15 Abdulgani, Bandung Connection, pp 115, 117. Princeton, New Jersey, 2000. For Heidegger's sur I'Afrique noire, ou Assimiler, non etre
See also John Kotelawala, An Asian Prime statement, see 'A Dialogue on Language' in assimilds.
Minister's Story, George G Harrap and Co, Martin Heidegger, On the Way to Language, 41 Ibid, p 59.
1956. trans Peter D Hertz, Harper and Row, New 42 In saying this, I exclude the field ofpostcolonial
16 Bandung Connection, p 119. It should be York, 1982, p 15. C6saire, Discourse, also studies for that field, as I have already said,
noted that Bandung conference was not to discusses the world in terms of its had its origins in the west. Postcolonial writers
make any "majority" decisions or raise divisive, "Europeanisation". from outside the west are absorbed in that
controversial issues. See SWJN, second series, 30 One of the best available discussions ofglobal
the field that still tilts towards the west. Nor
Vol 28, pp 97-98. relationship between colonial ruledoand
I mean to denigrate or deny the value of
17 A Appadorai, The Bandung Conference, The thethe
modernist practices of representation is in work in modern, non-western humanities
Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi, that emanates from countries like India, for
first chapter of Timothy Mitchell's Colonising
1955; reprinted from India Quarterly), p 29. Egypt, The University of California instance,
Press, for a wider audience. But voices
See also A W Stargardt, 'The Emergence of Berkeley, 1991, Chapter 1. from the world of non-western scholarship in
the Asian Systems of Power', Modern Asian 31 See, for example, Yogendra Yadav, 'Barna,
the humanities command much less global
Studies, Vol 23, No 3, 1989, pp 561-95. Jati, o Kancha Ilaiah: The Golden Stag [Mirage]
presence than voices from the social sciences
18 Romulos, Bandung, p 66. in India and elsewhere. The humanities one
of International Cooperation', Anandabajar
19 See Selected Documents of the Bandung Patrika, September 20, 2001; Naunidhi Kaur,
comes across in global forums today are much
Conference, Institute of Pacific Relations, New 'Caste and Race' in Frontline, 18 (13),more
June parochially western than the social
York, 1955, p 1. The Foreword of the book 23-July 6, 2001; Andre Beteille, 'Race sciences:
and that is my point. And that, I think,
says, "The texts have been reproduced from Caste', The Hindu, March 10, 2001; Ambrose
was the gap Senghor also was pointing to.

4818 Economic and Political Weekly November 12, 2005

This content downloaded from

154.59.124.153 on Mon, 12 Dec 2022 21:14:17 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms