Alien Rule Research Articles

V.K .R.V. Rao, India's National II/come 1950 1980. All Analysis of Economic Growth and Change. Sage Publications India Pvt . Ltd., New Delhi, 1983, pp.xv + 208, Tables (text) 146 + (appendix) 6, Appendices, Index; Price (hardbound edition) Rupees (Indian) 125.00.

The history of Indian national income estimates goes back to 1876 when Dadabhai Naoroji made the first crude estimates for the year 1867-68. However, these estimates and most of the work that followed was tainted by the political biases of t he researchers. The main purpose of national income statisticians including Naoroji, uptil 1934, was to point out the stark poverty and sub-marginal conditions of an average Indian as a direct result of an alien rule. In 1934 V.K.R.V. Rao published "an Essay on India's National Income, 1925- 29", which IS widely regarded as the first authentic academic exercise into the estimation of the national income of India. In 1949 the Government of India, realizing the need for reliable estimates of national income for policy purposes appointed the National Income Committee under the chairmanship of Professor Mahalanobis. The Committee had two members, Professor Gadgil of the Gokhale Institute lt Poona and Professor Rao, the then head of the Delhi School of Economics. This Committee was responsible for putting the national accounts estimation of India on a modern footing.

Some Problems in Redefining European Expansion as a Historical Discipline: Taking Stock

If historians nowadays still talk of “colonial history” they do so because they are at a loss for an adequate term which would express the new quality this discipline has assumed in the course of decolonization. Rudolf von Albertini has edited a volume which presents a number of articles relevant to this problem. In his introduction he emphasizes the departure from the traditional view of overseas empire-building in which only the creative genius of European colonial powers was considered of historical interest — amidst a comparatively static scenery of exotic opacity. He draws attention to the ever growing shift towards a history of the peoples of the Third World which — whether of national or more regional orientation — shows an increasing concern for questions of social and economic history and draws on the latest findings of social and cultural anthropology, thus limiting Europe's role overseas in a decisive way. European worlddominance, once an epoch—making phenomenon, is reduced to a short—term period of alien rule over the majority of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Albertini takes account of this change, not only in the selection of the contributions to his volume, but its title reflects this change as well: it is a “new colonial history” that he presents, and Albertini gives us to understand that by this he is not concerned with the periodization of colonial history, but rather with the new approaches in this field since the end of the Second World War.

The psychology of colonialism: sex, age, and ideology in British India.

It is becoming more and more obvious that colonialism--as we have come to know it during the last two hundred years--cannot be identified with only economic gain and political power. In Manchuria, Japan consistently lost money, and for many years colonial Indochina, Algeria and Angola, instead of increasing the political power of France and Portugal, sapped it. This did not make Manchuria, Indochina, Algeria or Angola less important as colonies. Nor did it disprove the point that economic gain and political power are important motives in a colonial situation. It only showed that colonialism could be characterized by the search for economic and political advantage without concomitant real economic or political gains, and sometimes even with economic or political losses. This essay argues that the first differentia of colonialism is a state of mind in the colonizers and the colonized, a colonial consciousness which includes the sometimes unrealizable wish to make economic and political profits from the colonies, but other elements, too. The political economy of colonization is of course important, but the vulgarity and insanity of colonialism are principally expressed in the sphere of psychology. The following pages will explore some of these psychological contours of colonialism in the rulers and the ruled and try to define colonialism as a shared culture which may not always begin with the establishment of alien rule in a society and end with the departure of the alien rulers from the colony. The example I shall use will be that of India, where a colonial political economy began to operate seventy-five years before the full-blown ideology of British imperialism became dominant, and where thirty years after the formal ending of the raj, the ideology of colonialism is still triumphant in many sectors of life.

References Cited

References Cited

The Sudanese Mahdī: Frontier Fundmentalist

The Sudanese Mahdī has been pictured as a villain, as a hero, as a reactionary, as an anti-imperialist revolutionary, and in many other ways. The romance and excitement of the nineteenth-century Mahdiyya has inspired novels and movies, while the many faceted reality of the movement has caught the attention of a wide range of scholars in search of case studies of specific phenomena. In recent years the Mahdī has been used as an example of a ‘charismatic’ leader,1 the founder of a religionpolitical party in the ‘third world,’2 the leader of a millenarian revolt,3 an African rebel against alien rule,4 and a Semitic messiah in an African context. Many of these analyses are the constructive products of the changing situation in the world of contemporary historical studies. Each tends to reflect a broader analytical concern aroused by modern developments.

Collective Decolonisation and the U.N. Committee of 24

Decolonisation is the great revolution of the twentieth century. Since the opening of the first U.N. General Assembly in 1946, over one billion people inhabiting 76 new states – nearly one-third of the human race – have attained political independence as of 1974. But until the final demise of external domination is achieved, the tasks of decolonisation are not yet complete. There remain the intractable problems of Southern Africa, as well as a variety of small territories still under alien rule. Given recent indications of the politicisation of blacks in the white redoubt, as well as the independence of Mozambique and Angola, it is a particularly appropriate time to take stock of the decolonisation movement.

Science and Technology Museums in India

The sharply contrasting modes of agriculture shown in figure 1 epitomize a gulf: a gulf between what modern technology can do and the reality of what India is doing today. The contradiction that India is facing today is indubitable underdevelopment due to two centuries of alien rule and the genuine urge of the Indian nation to go ahead with rapid industrialization. This latter, to be sure, is a Herculean task.

Capitalism or Socialism: The Rational Choice

My subject is an examination of the alternative economic and social systems which are open to Third World countries. In order to keep this discussion within reasonable bounds I must make certain assumptions. It is important that these should be clear before I begin : for if the assumptions are not shared, then much of what I say will be irrelevant. Fortunately, my assumptions are not very controversial— at least within Africa.The Assumptions:My first assumption is that any discussion about the appropriate economic and social organisation must, for the time being at least, be conducted within each nation state, and the decision must be made exclusively by the people of that nation.Secondly, I take it to be axiomatic that all the peoples of the Third World desire to govern themselves, and want their countries to be completely independent of external control. This does not rule out the possibility of political or economic links between two or more countries; nor does it exclude a possible voluntary merger of sovereignties, provided that these things are agreed upon after discussions based on the equality of all participants.Thirdly, I shall assume that, to everyone in the Third World, the present degree of poverty, and the general lack of economic development, is completely unacceptable. We have to increase our production of wealth so that we may increase the level of our collective and individual consumption.My fourth and final assumption is that our struggles for independence were national struggles, involving the rights of all the inhabitants. We were not aiming to replace our alien rulers by local privileged elites, but to create societies which ensure human dignity and selfrespect for all.

Imperialist Rhetoric and Modern Historiography: The Case of Lower Burma before and after Conquest

One of the most prevalent and influential themes in the literature on European imperialism has been the dichotomy between conditions in an area threatened by European conquest prior to and following the imposition of colonial rule. Even writers who have disapproved of the extension of European control normally have had little favourable to say about indigenous rulers or the state of kingdoms about to be annexed. Historians have generally pictured the pre-colonial history of these areas as periods of decadence and corruption, of administrative breakdown and social chaos, and of economic stagnation and popular unrest. In contrast, most writers have viewed the early colonial era as a time of recovery and progress. In order to justify this view, they have attempted to show that the establishment of European rule brought peace and order, stable government, educational and legal reforms, public works projects and economic development. Most historians have implicitly assumed that the indigenous peoples accepted European overlords during the first decades after conquest because conditions were far better under alien rule than they had been under the traditional elites.

The Principle of Homeostasis Considered in Relation to Political Events in Iran in the 1960's

The dictionary definition of ‘homeostasis’ is: ‘the tendency of an organism to maintain a uniform and beneficial physiological stability within and between its parts; organic equilibrium’. As applied to a political organism, it denotes the tendency of that organism to ‘maintain as much of its former condition as is practically possible’, however determined the attempts to alter its shape. In a paper presented to the meeting of the Middle East Studies Association of North America in 1967. I suggested that the principle of homeostasis was inherent in the Persian polity.Iran's ancient civilization has produced social attitudes and deeply ingrained characteristics which do not admit of rapid change,except by means of the disruptive force of violent revolution. The 2,500-year tradition of the Persian monarchy, a tradition fostered and preserved under a succession of alien rulers — Arab, Turk, Mongol, Tatar and Afghan - has given to the Persian polity, and to Persian society, an organic stability which places Iran in a category completely apart from most other countries in the Middle East, and from the majority of the so-called 'emerging' and 'underdeveloped'nations in general. As E. G. Browne noted at the time of the Persian Constitutional Revolution in 1906, the chief characteristics of the Persians are: (i) the stability of the national type and (ii) the power of national recovery.

The United Nations and Decolonization: the Case of Southern Yemen

Since 1962 the United Nations, mainly through the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (Special Committee of 24), has attempted to effect political change in dependent territories in accordance with the principle of self-determination of peoples. While the organization usually demands that the inhabitants be given a chance to determine their political future and to choose their government, its primary objective has been somewhat more specific. Spurred on by the influx of new members that occurred around the start of the decade, most of them former colonies, the UN has pressured for the complete displacement of alien rule in dependent territories and has tended to accept whatever type of government emerges as long as it is indigenous, that is, not controlled by a colonial power or European settlers.

The Influence of Jurchen Rule on Chinese Political Institutions

AbstractThis paper is an attempt to assess the influences of the Jurchen Chin dynasty (1115–1234) on the Chinese political system, with emphasis on the bearing of alien rule on the establishment of a highly centralized despotism. The thesis is that the Jurchen solutions to the political problems arisen from the conquest situation seem to require measures of centralized control. During the initial phase of conquest, the political struggles between the bureaucrats and the aristocrats entailed the brutalization of the political process. Subsequently the need for centralized control led to wholesale sinicization. There are, however, several aspects of Jurchen rule in the formation of a centralized despotism: the establishment of a prototype of the provincial system, the abolition of important government councils, the monopoly of state affairs by a single administrative organization, the degradation of scholar-officials by inflicting corporal punishment, and the transformation of the censorate into an imperial instrument. The alien rules also adopted and modified the Chinese civil service examination system to stabilize their regime. The Chin, as a successor state of the Northern Sung, served as an important link in Chinese cultural and political developments, and transferred its institutions to later conquest dynasties.

The Influence of Jurchen Rule on Chinese Political Institutions

This paper is an attempt to assess the influences of the Jurchen Chin dynasty (1115–1234) on the Chinese political system, with emphasis on the bearing of alien rule on the establishment of a highly centralized despotism. The thesis is that the Jurchen solutions to the political problems arisen from the conquest situation seem to require measures of centralized control. During the initial phase of conquest, the political struggles between the bureaucrats and the aristocrats entailed the brutalization of the political process. Subsequently the need for centralized control led to wholesale sinicization. There are, however, several aspects of Jurchen rule in the formation of a centralized despotism: the establishment of a prototype of the provincial system, the abolition of important government councils, the monopoly of state affairs by a single administrative organization, the degradation of scholar-officials by inflicting corporal punishment, and the transformation of the censorate into an imperial instrument. The alien rules also adopted and modified the Chinese civil service examination system to stabilize their regime. The Chin, as a successor state of the Northern Sung, served as an important link in Chinese cultural and political developments, and transferred its institutions to later conquest dynasties.

Ethnic Composition of Provincial Leadership During the Ch'ing Dynasty

The ch'ing dynasty (1644–1911) was the last and most successful of the dynasties of alien rule in China. “The key to its success,” noted Professor Ping-ti Ho, “was the adoption by early Manchu rulers of a policy of systematic sinicization.” The integration of the Manchu ruling class with their Chinese subjects was most striking in staffing the bureaucracy. Unlike preceding alien dynasties, the Manchus over the course of 268 years of rule shared a good proportion of key offices with Chinese. The system of dual appointments of Manchus and Chinese operated in the capital, while Chinese dominated the local officialdom.

Recent acculturation between tribes in Papua‐New Guinea

the two groups were on different technological levels, while neglecting the rich opportunities for investigating what he called 'inter-tribal accultura tion'. Following a suggestion of Radin's, he pointed out that the latter process may be accelerated by the imposition of alien rule. As a particularly interesting situation to investigate in Melanesia, he suggested: 'the effect of the recruitment of natives as laborers on the plantations ... a situation which should provide a fruitful field for studying the results that obtain when men of different tribes are thrown together over considerable periods of time'.1 The problem is undoubtedly an interesting one, but it has yet to receive the attention it deserves. Probably every anthropologist working in the area has been made aware of the great increase in contacts between tribes since European settlement, but in publications the effects of these are men tioned only in passing. For example, in Social Change Hogbin notes that: 'now that peace has been established travel is easier, and goods and ideas can be freely exchanged',2 but says no more on that subject. Valentine, in his description of culture change in New Britain, mentions that when workers 'from many different tribal backgrounds' were brought together in Rabaul, 'cross-fertilization of native cultures accompanied acculturation in the direction of alien models',3 but does not expand on the theme. Until 1967, when Michel Panoff undertook a study of inter-tribal relations in the Jacquinot Bay region of New Britain for the New Guinea Research Unit, almost no attention had been paid to the effects of increased inter-tribal contact in Papua-New Guinea under European rule, except as a peripheral part of studies of towns. Even in these, the only aspects mentioned tend to

North Korea's New Offensive

LAST year both South and North Korea celebrated the twen tieth anniversary of their establishment as separate politi cal entities. Each had, at its inception, claimed the entire Korean nation as its legitimate domain, and each vowed to rid the other of the foreign power that was said to have created it. The year 1968 was also an anniversary of two other events. It was the 4300th anniversary of the legendary founding of the Korean nation, and the 1300th anniversary of the Silla Unifica tion in A.D. 668, when the nation was brought under a single, centralized political rule. The irony of commemorating concur rently two decades of cold-war division and thirteen centuries of unified nationhood under a highly centralized political system was not lost on the Korean people. The three dynasties which had ruled Korea during its thir teen-hundred years of unification had brought about one of the most completely homogeneous nations in the world. No minority ethnic groups are present within the borders of Korea, which for centuries have remained unchanged. Almost every other nation in the modern world is faced with problems of ethnic division ; in Korea, one national ethnic group has been divided between two r?gimes. The long historical period of unification also brought Korean linguistic and cultural unity. The minor distinc tions of speech from one region to another are not greater than the differences in English spoken in Texas and Maine. Unlike most of the emerging nations, there are no language barriers in Korea. Furthermore, there are no religious divisions of any significance. A large majority of the population belong to no organized religion ; systems of belief and ethics have been trans mitted almost exclusively through the family. Finally, until 1945 Koreans had been under a common political and social system throughout the peninsula for thirteen centuries. Forty years of alien rule by the Japanese aroused a zealous sense of nationalism in the Korean people. It was stimulated by Japan's efforts to wipe out the national language, to outlaw the teaching of Korean history and to impose discrimination against the Koreans in education and employment. Predictably, the Korean reaction was a fiery defense of the national heritage and

British India 1772-1947: A Survey of the Nature and Effects of Alien Rule

British India 1772-1947: A Survey of the Nature and Effects of Alien Rule

British India 1772–1947: A survey of the nature and effects of alien rule and The Foundations of Indian Federalism

British India 1772–1947: A survey of the nature and effects of alien rule and The Foundations of Indian Federalism

A Short History of Pakistan. Book Four: Alien Rule and the Rise of Muslim Nationalism.

A Short History of Pakistan. Book Four: Alien Rule and the Rise of Muslim Nationalism.

The Rise of Nationalism in Colonial Africa: The Case of Colonial Malawi

The years of colonial rule in Malawi (formerly Nyasaland) were characterised by the imposition of a political and social system whereby a superior European authority attempted to exercise its will over a territory already populated by Africans. This enforced colonial relationship determined the pattern of political change within the Protectorate, so that any variation in the fundamentals of the relationship was bound to have important repercussions on the total colonial situation. From the earliest years of British rule in Malawi, Africans sought to modify or alter the colonial relationship and it is this sort of African sentiment and activity in reaction to alien control and domination that has come to be regarded as manifestations of nationalism not only in colonial Malawi but also in the other ex-colonial territories of Africa. Thomas Hodgkin, for example, has lumped under the general rubric of ‘nationalism’ “any organisation or group that explicitly asserts the rights, claims and aspirations of a given African society (from the level of the language-group to that of ‘Pan-Africa’) in opposition to European authority, whatever its institutional form and objectives”. Others, however, although appreciating the deep roots of nationalism have tended to confine the use of the term to the post-1945 period with its emergence of nation-wide movements seeking self-government and independence. They have argued that to include every social movement of protest against alien rule as a part of nationalism obscures the political meaning of the concept, blurs the important distinctions that can be made among African responses to the colonial situation, and makes comparative analysis difficult.