British Colonial Research Articles

Mobilization of mission trips: The case of northbound Catholics in Hong Kong

China’s ‘reform and opening-up’ in 1978 offered new but uncertain opportunities for people in Hong Kong, then a British colony, to travel northward to mainland China. Many were to contribute to the country’s economic revival. Understudied was a group of Catholics who capitalized on the new situation to reconnect the Church on the mainland with the universal Catholic Church. What motivated these ‘northbound Catholics’ to repeatedly embark on such short-term mission trips? This article adopts the additive model of demand and supply developed by the social movement scholar Bert Klandermans to examine why and how these religious practitioners were recruited. Based on in-depth interviews and archival research, this article shows that identity, ideology, and instrumentality on both the demand and supply sides were essential during the process. The findings suggest that the study of religious actions could benefit from social movement studies.

Exploring the role of digital media in the intergenerational transmission of the Igbo language

English colonialism minoritised the Igbo language, but it was a low level of intergenerational transmission, among other fringe factors, that ultimately endangered it. Since the language has a scanty presence in the broadcast media, and it has totally lost the print media domain, any hope of revitalising it lies with the emerging new media networks. Using mixed methods, this study gauges the extent to which a new media organisation has encouraged the acquisition of the Igbo language and filled the gulf created by older Igbo generations’ loss of the crucial family, home, neighbourhood and community pathways to transmitting the language to the young people. Findings show that by publishing on new media sites, BBC News Igbo has created several viable agencies for the production and transmission of literacy and oracy in the Igbo language. Theoretically, the findings substantiate an expert hypothesis that although it is under-utilised for language revitalisation, the internet holds immense hope for the survival for endangered languages.

Colonial Catharsis: Romantic-Realism and the Imperial Gaze in Confessions of a Thug

This article is situated in the context of Victorian imaginations saturated with stories of crime and punishment and influenced by Romantic horror and terror aesthetics involving the sublime. The author delineates how the novel’s realism is affixed to an inherent romanticism and argues that the affect and effect of terror and horror resulting from colonial crimes exhibited in the novel allow readers to experience catharsis and to reassert their humanity through the imperial gaze. Additionally, readers may confirm the values of the ‘home’ nation and the justification of British colonisation through the trope of ‘bringing order out of chaos’.

Beyond the Demands of Integration: African Refugee Resettlement in Contemporary Multicultural Australia

This paper uses the example of negatively racialised refugees from the African continent to reiterate the racialised nature of migrant and refugee experiences in Australia. This is a context that remains deeply influenced by a violent history of British colonisation and racist migration laws, including the restrictive White Australia Policy (1901–1973). Drawing on the authors’ research and personal experiences of working with, and navigating, the Australian resettlement system this article examines the racialised violences inherent in expectations of ‘integration’ for (former) African refugees in a settler colonial country. This paper proffers a principle level re-imagining of refugee resettlement in Australia that challenges patriarchal white sovereignty. It proposes a meaningful consideration of resettlement practices that are community-led, localised, relational and that recognise the agency of refugees who settle in Australia. This paper disrupts dominant tropes of refugees as perpetually vulnerable and deficit, by centering the agency, needs and expectations of a good life as it is lived in community, rather than dictated by the state.

Cultural Hegemony: Colonial Obligation, Swadeshi Resistance and Globalization in India from the British to the Contemporary Era

The concept of ‘Cultural Hegemony’ by philosopher Antonio Gramsci is crucial to comprehending Western Colonial effect on India’s liberation struggle. British colonisation changed Indian society, morals and knowledge beyond its political and economic goals. The Crown aimed to control Indian social, cultural, political and economic perspectives through education, language, and Western philosophies. English education and Bengali “Babu culture” are tangible results of this process. However, some Indian leaders and thinkers blended Western ideals with Indian Culture to fight colonial power. The ‘Swadeshi’ movement promoted self-reliance, especially in textiles and resisted British cultural dominance. Globalisation in India in the 1990s affected India’s cultural identity with luxury Western brands and lifestyle, reinforcing new cultural hegemony. This study examines cultural hegemony in India from colonial control to post-independence and modern times, examining how resistance, adaptation and globalisation have shaped the Indian situation.

‘This starving island’: plenty, paucity, and providence on Norfolk Island, 1790

In 1790, five hundred British colonists were stranded for five months due to a shipwreck on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific Ocean with limited provisions. The colonists harvested in excess of 170,000 wild seabirds, Pterodroma solandri, which ensured their survival. While the colonists’ reliance on these ‘Providence petrels’ is well documented in ornithological and ecological studies, this study provides new data and analyses of the birds’ contribution to the colonists’ food security in this time of crisis. It assesses the petrels’ contribution to the colonists’ diet in quantitative and qualitative bases, and their social impact, across the tiered social strata. It critically examines chroniclers’ references to starvation despite the abundance of birds and their eggs, and reframes the colonists’ notions of deprivation on ‘this starving island’.

The Americanization of Nigerian English spelling and punctuation

AbstractSpelling is the most standardized level of language, and prescriptive spelling norms in former British colonies often advocate adherence to British spelling norms which differs from the local linguistic reality. Hence, recent research on the evolution of postcolonial Englishes and the Americanization of Englishes worldwide has questioned the appropriateness of such presumptions. This study presents a diachronic investigation of spelling variation and word‐level punctuation in written Nigerian English, using the Nigerian component of the International Corpus of English and the recently compiled Historical Corpus of Nigerian English. Results from frequency analyses and a multifactorial analysis not only highlight a strong preference for British norms but also indicate that American spelling patterns increasingly occurred in various registers of written Nigerian English in the late twentieth century. These findings suggest that the coexistence of British and American spelling norms is hardly a recent development in the evolution of Nigerian English.

Awakening ‘the Indian genius’: The epistemic aims of Indian liberatory education

This paper explores the goals of the twentieth century liberatory education movement in India. The movement comprises of anti-colonial freedom fighters who conducted small and large-scale educational experiments in resistance to the stultifying methods of British education. I argue that philosophers Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, and Aurobindo Ghose were ultimately concerned with epistemic reforms in education, rather than ideological reforms. In opposition to the narrow epistemic framework of British colonialism, which viewed the contributions of Indian civilization as overly whimsical, imaginative, and intellectually non-rigorous, these philosophers challenged the supremacy of rational faculties over emotional and artistic faculties. They crafted educational programs around the inclusion of alternative ways of knowing, for example, knowing through one’s body, one’s emotions, and deep investigation of one’s psyche. Ultimately, the three philosophers advocated an epistemic broadmindedness that demands a higher tolerance for uncertainty than classical positivism or veritism. Using theoretical frameworks from contemporary social epistemologists Catherine Elgin, Miranda Fricker, and José Medina, I argue that the Indian liberatory movement of education was a movement of epistemic resistance in the direction of epistemic justice. A key component of epistemic justice is the enhancement of epistemic agency for those that have been alienated from the knowledge production process.

Ex nihilo urbanization in Nigeria: Colonial legacies, privatization, and foreign actors

ABSTRACT Over the past 2 decades, Nigeria has become a hotspot for the creation of new cities, with a dozen currently underway. While new cities in Nigeria are promoted by their developers as necessary for addressing the urban challenges plaguing cities, including overcrowding, housing deficits, a lack of amenities, and poor transportation infrastructure, we suggest that new cities in Nigeria are products of neoliberal urban policies and that they prioritize luxury and exclusivity. The current new city boom in Nigeria tracks with the global proliferation of projects of similar scale and ambition, but our research highlights that building ex nihilo new cities has a long history in Nigeria dating back to British colonialism. This paper identifies 39 ex nihilo urban mega-developments carried out in Nigeria since the British colonial era and examines their strategic locations and rationales, the key actors involved, and the urban practices guiding their creation in three distinct eras—colonial, post-independence, and contemporary—in order to understand the continuities and differences in new city development over time.

Not Merely a Tourist Site: Jamaica Kincaid’s Evocation of Antigua in A Small Place

Jamaica Kincaid in her book A Small Place (1981) describes Antigua as a holiday destination. As she revisits her homeland after a long period, she adopts a postcolonial perspective in viewing the island’s contemporary socio-political system. Though the British colonizers and slave-traders have left, the colonial legacy persists with their heirs' continual arrival to the island as tourists. Meanwhile, Kincaid notes that the majority of Antiguans, who were descendants of former slaves, remain subjugated. The writer argues that the histories of slavery and colonialism are hindrances to Antigua’s formation of its identity as an independent and self-reliant state. This paper studies Kincaid’s narration from the perspective of a solo female traveller travelling back to her native land as a tourist. By doing so, it will examine the difficulties she confronts during her travel that affect her narrative. Spectrum, Volume 18, June 2023: 31-39

Cross-border Interrelationships in Rushdie, Ghosh, and Hosseini’s Novels: A Transnationalist Approach

This essay argues that the India-born expatriate writers Salman Rushdie and Amitav Ghosh, and the Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini have built fictional worlds consisting of people of diverse nations, races, colours, and religions in their respective novels Midnight’s Children (1981), The Glass Palace (2000), and The Kite Runner (2003), and many of these immigrant characters maintain sustainable connections with their countries of origin across borders. This study highlights the fact that British colonialism played a crucial role in large-scale movements of people, and many of the postcolonial countries are still struggling with myriad internal and external problems. As a result, countless people of these countries are eager to shift to economically advanced and politically stable countries. Yet, these same people are unable to disconnect from their original society and remain emotionally and psychologically moored to their roots. Drawing on the theoretical apparatus of transnationalism, this essay explores the reasons behind mobility outside one’s nation-state and the subsequent economic, political, and social impacts of transnational relationships ensuing from that. The study also examines how the characters adapt themselves to and whether they are permanently secured in a transnational space. Spectrum, Volume 18, June 2023: 40-48

Analysis of Sustainable Development Policies of Marampa Mining Ltd. and Understanding Their Effects on Society – Environment and Human Resources of Sierra Leone (West Africa)

Sierra Leone, a country situated on the western side of the African continent has its own enriched history of tribes, British colonization, slave trade, Ebola virus outbreak, blood diamonds and mining. This country was under civil war for twelve long years (1991 to 2002). Due to the political turbulence the economy of the country has also suffered largely. Most of the population is still depending upon traditional unorganized agriculture. Sierra Leone is extremely rich in minerals and natural resources. In recent decades, the mining industry has risen and is handsomely contributing to the country’s economy. Marampa Mines Ltd. is one of such organization that is extracting the iron ore from the Lunsar town of the Port Loko district of Sierra Leone. This study aims to shed light on the organization's activities in three key areas: social, environmental, and human resources. The concept of sustainable development serves as the foundation for this research, and the organization's actions are evaluated accordingly. Notably, this study is conducted independently, without influence from the state of Sierra Leone or the Gerald Group. While it is acknowledged that mining activities inevitably lead to degradation, it is the state's and capitalists' moral and legal responsibility to strike a balance between economic and environmental concerns. This study is one of the few to focus on Sierra Leone and is expected to inspire further research and investigation.

‘We are still British or American colony, we are still a colony, we are not free’: language ideologies, policies in education in Pakistan

ABSTRACT This study examines how Pakistan’s language-in-education policies, rooted in colonial legacies and shaped by neoliberal globalization, perpetuate linguistic hierarchies and social inequalities. Using Tollefson’s historical-structural lens, it explores the language ideologies of two NGOs, the Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (SPELT) and the Linguistic Association of Pakistan (LAP) suggest that how these organizations balance advocating for inclusivity with inadvertently reinforcing English dominance. The findings of the study indicate how policies that elevate English as a symbol of modernity and progress marginalize local languages, perpetuating colonial power dynamics and social stratification. The study highlights the need for critically re-evaluating language policies to address their role in maintaining socio-political hierarchies and to foster more equitable and context-sensitive educational frameworks.

Fiercely Independent, Tentatively National

Abstract Wildly popular in the 1960s and fondly remembered today as “Singapore's own Bond,” “Malaysia's own Bond,” and “Malay James Bond,” the Jefri Zain and Nora Zain films (1966–68) occupy a significant spot in film and cultural history. Yet very little has hitherto been written about these films. Particularly worth probing is how these films engaged with the global Bondmania and political zeitgeist of the tumultuous 1960s. It remains little known that many of these films were adapted contemporaneously from Hong Kong Mandarin James Bond films and that the Zain heroes were deeply embroiled in then–newly independent Singapore's national politics both on-screen and off-screen. Bringing this history to light unfolds a new, critical perspective on these popular icons. More importantly, through examining the films’ peculiar Britain–Hong Kong–Singapore/Malaysia adaptation route, this article illuminates the complex geopolitics that undergird James Bond film remakes set in former British colonies. It demonstrates that, in the case of Singapore and Malaysia, remaking James Bond films was both a consequence, and an assertion, of postcolonial independence. The films’ on-screen manifestations and off-screen motivations signify a particular expression of postcolonial independence—fiercely independent, tentatively national—that is specific to their extraordinary circumstantial conditions.

Jamaica in the 17th Century as Part of Oliver Cromwell’s Western Project

The history of Jamaica is a topic not quite developed in Bulgaria, almost unknown to the Bulgarian public. This article aims to trace the history of perhaps the most important English colony in the West Indies from its discovery until the English conquest as part of Oliver Cromwell’s Western project and its establishment as English stronghold in the Caribbean during the Protectorate and the reigns of kings Charles II and James II from the House of Stuart. Particular attention is paid to the establishment of institutions and the enforcement of laws and the relations with the metropolis.

The Colonial Discourse on the Bengali Middle-Class Meal in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

ABSTRACT This paper brings out the ways in which the British colonizers viewed and characterized the meal of the Bengali middle class in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through a study of European culinary texts from colonial India, the article will demonstrate the importance of Bengal in colonial discourse. In particular, it will show how and why the Bengali middle-class meal was marked as “filthy,” “unhealthy,” and “innutritious.” The colonial perspective about the meal of the colonized became more nuanced within imperial ideology over time. Especially with the enforcement of racial superiority after the Revolt of 1857, characterizing Bengali meal as “unhealthy” and “enfeebling” highlighted the supposed lack of masculinity among Bengalis.

On Feminicide and Empire: Law and the Killing of Women in British Colonial India

On Feminicide and Empire: Law and the Killing of Women in British Colonial India

Research on the Development Strategies of Hong Kong Identity Recognition

One significant development in China’s contemporary history is the repatriation of Hong Kong, which is of great significance in shaping national identity and community consciousness. Hong Kong used to be a British colony, under which it achieved modernization and great economic development. Therefore, the identity of the people before and after the return of Hong Kong has great research value. The identity of Hong Kong residents will be examined in this paper as the research object, through the literature research method, summarized the history of Hong Kong and its identity recognition, analyzed the changes in the social environment behind the return of Hong Kong, and examines academic study and scholarly investigations on Hong Kong people’s identity from Hong Kong’s return to the present. The results show that Hong Kong people have both regional identity and less significant national identity, which is particularly obvious among youth.Based on this, this article proposes three suggestions to enhance the identity recognition of Hong Kong’s youngsters.

The Subaltern Women Protagonists Depicted in Historical Sinhala Novels (With Special Focus on Women Authored Texts)

A unique feature inherent to contemporary Sinhala Women Novelists is their fascination with History. Consequently, a trend of writing historical novels based on the period of the Kandyan Kingdom and the British Colonial era has emerged. The mainstream women novelists of the new millennium focused mainly on subaltern women protagonists, the representatives of a voice-less class who live on the periphery of the nation-state. Hence, these texts conceptualise reality through the voice and experience of an underprivileged subaltern class and gender. Further, they operate within the paradigms of subaltern histories, privileging subaltern subjectivities that question and challenge the identities the elite ruling groups bestowed upon them. The woman Novelists Shrewdly reveal the hidden text of the nation in their oeuvre. Accordingly, these literary texts can be found in the context of subaltern histories. This research is intended to analyse the roles of women protagonists that give rise to issues concerning gender, social stratification, and cultural hegemony. How women Novelists were inspired and conditioned by historical and sociological sources for depicting convincing characters was examined, and an attempt was made to capture the continuing interaction among author, text and History. With a view to grasping the uniqueness of Sinhala women Novelists, creative dexterity in reconstructing the historical sources and perceiving the metamorphosis that has taken place, their Novels were compared with mainstream South Asian Women Authorised texts. It was revealed that interdisciplinary studies across customary subject divisions, including History and cultural anthropology, have a significant impact, influence and conditioning over the subaltern protagonists and their quest toward self-identity.

On metonymy and other forms of motivation for some Nigerian English expressions

Nigerian English (NE) gradually developed on the basis of British English (BE) in the wake of the British colonization of West Africa. Numerous expressions in both varieties have the same or closely similar forms but different meanings. Such differences are often motivated by the cognitive mechanism of metonymy. They involve two distinct paths of conceptualization and categories of usage: (i) expressions that do not function as metonymic sources in BE give rise to metonymies in NE; (i) the same metonymic sources in BE and in NE provide access to different extensions of the same targets in NE. Apart from conceptual metonymy, many instances of NE usage reflect two other motivating factors: the impact of the local socio-cultural experience and of the West African linguistic substratum. All three forms of motivation are often present within a single expression.