Post-colonial Period Research Articles

Exhibiting Colonialism and Nationalism: The Case of Egyptian Museums and Its Cultural Heritage

Abstract: Egypt is one of four ancient civilizations acknowledged by the international community as having a time-honored historical legacy and a profound cultural heritage. However, from the 19th century onward, Egypt's cultural development trajectory underwent a significant shift due to the influence of Western colonial powers. Subsequently, with the uninterrupted progression of the nationalist movement, the trajectory of Egyptian history and culture, in addition to the conservation and investigation of cultural heritage, underwent yet another transformation. Museums, as crucial instruments for the conservation and exhibition of cultural heritage, have played a pivotal role in the history of Egyptian cultural research, bearing witness to the transformation in the preponderance of Egyptian historical narratives. This paper examines how historical narratives and cultural developments in Egypt were shaped under the influence of colonialism, with a particular focus on the profound impact of Orientalist theories and practices on the construction of museums about the study of historical and cultural heritage. In the post-colonial period, Egyptian museums have served as conduits for disseminating the country's rich cultural heritage and as instruments for enhancing Egyptian national identity. These institutions have played a pivotal role in the formation of national identity and the "decolonization" of the country's cultural heritage, largely due to their irreplaceable cultural space and their capacity to adapt to changing needs. As Egyptian museums have evolved, they have played a significant role in shaping national identity and contributing to the processes of decolonization and de-Westernization. Furthermore, they symbolize the prospective trajectory of Egyptian national identity within the context of globalization and the emergence of a more interconnected world.

African Indigenous education in the postcolonial period: A critical reflection

This article examines African Indigenous education in the precolonial period in Southern Africa, focusing on its key elements, characteristics, and educational significance within the broader context of the decolonial education discourse. By delving into primary forms and practices of Indigenous African education, we aim to shed light on how these systems contribute to understanding the educational landscape and the challenges faced in the wake of colonialism. Additionally, we explore the transformative role played by Indigenous education in Southern Africa in addressing the hegemonic influence of Western education during the postcolonial era. Drawing on existing literature and critical analysis, we critically reflect on the nature of a decolonial turn in African Indigenous education. The examination aims at contributing to the ongoing discourse on decolonising education and providing insights into the potential benefits of embracing Indigenous knowledge systems in contemporary African societies by recognising the importance of valuing diverse knowledge systems in fostering inclusive and relevant educational practices.

Indian Planning Commission and the Aftermath

The article discusses the context and the objectives of setting up a Planning Commission in a mixed economy framework that India had adopted in the post-colonial period. It also deals with its working, the method of framing a Five-Year Plan, the operation of a plan in the federal democratic system and its adaptation in the paradigm shift from a command economy to a market-driven system. The article further discusses both its contributions, as well as the various frailties that have crept into its functioning, and makes a case for restructuring and reforms. The article briefly indicates the shape of things to come after dismantling the Planning Commission in 2015 and replacing it with a new institution called the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, with new mandates. JEL Code: O29

PROTECTION OF FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN INDIA: A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

International investment agreements are the tools of international law by which two or more countries give reciprocal assurance for the protection of foreign investment in their countries. Long before there was no such regime of international property protection. In colonial time the foreign property was subject of the law of foreigner. At that time there was no certainty in international property regime. India had paid heavy price for the same. This paper tries to map out the whole journey of development of international property protection in India. In the first part paper tries to find out the international rule for the protection of foreign property in India. Unfortunately there was no such universal regime prevalent in any part of the world for the protection of foreign property. Second part deals with the development of International property protection in in post-colonial period. In this period newly independent colonies did not trust the foreigners due to its chequered history. Third part deals with the period after liberalization, privatisation and globalisation. In this period India had embraced the international investment law regime as an overall strategy of liberalization, privatisation and globalisation. In this period India had signed most of its International investment agreements. However, in this period India also faced with multiple investment claims by many foreign investors. In wake of these investment claims India had recently spelled out its new Model BIT and terminated its most of the International investment agreements. And finally concludes that there is some problem with the new Model BIT due to which Indian government still facing difficulty in inking new international investment agreements with the countries with whom India has had deep economic ties.

Maneuvering Colonial and Postcolonial Resistances with Poetry: A Comparative Study of Nazrul and Walcott

This article aims to place poems by Kazi Nazrul Islam of Bangla literature in a comparative study with those by the Caribbean poet Derek Walcott. Nazrul wrote when his country India was under British colonial rule and Walcott wrote when his Caribbean region was under British colonialism and in postcolonial period. The study becomes inevitable against a backdrop where comparative studies of Nazrul have been conducted with American and European authors who lack similar colonial backgrounds. Additionally, when Nazrul is compared with non-American and non-European authors, his Islamic identity, which transforms into his all-embracing humanity, is often omitted or sidelined. Thus, when poems by Nazrul and those by Walcott are in a comparative study, the two poets from two different marginalized nations exhibit conspicuous affinities in their poetic resistances. This is how this paper looks forward to doing a comparative study of the poems by Nazrul and those by Walcott by adopting the methods of Traditional Literary Criticism and a new comparative study as shaped by Zepetnek. The results which the study yields are that the poets maneuver identical poetic resistances by addressing the nation’s unity, revival of history, composition of unique literature, concern for the working-class people, and anti-colonial struggle. The results of the research may contribute to raising cultural awareness among marginalized nations about resisting aggression.

Separatyzmy w stosunkach międzynarodowych w Afryce

SEPARATISMS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN AFRICADespite the acceptance by African states of the principle of respect for post‑colonial borders (adopted at the Organisation of African Unity in 1964), the post-colonial period saw more than a dozen cases of separatist movements forming in Africa, seeking to create new states. In two cases, this resulted in a real change of borders – in 1993, Eritrea was created through secession from Ethiopia, and in 2011, the southern provinces of Sudan proclaimed the creation of South Sudan. Effectively, though without international legal recognition, there is Somaliland, which in 1991 proclaimed independence in the northern part of Somalia. In addition, separatist movements have occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Katanga and Kasai), Nigeria (Biafra), Tanzania (Zanzibar), Cameroon (Ambazonia), Angola (Cabinda), Senegal (Casamance), Mali (Azawad). Among the causes of each of Africa’s separatisms is a confluence of local factors of a political, ethnic or economic nature. Multi-ethnicity and multiculturalism (resulting from the artificial nature of borders), low levels of socioeconomic development and dysfunctional states generate contradictions, leading to disturbances in the stability of individual countries, and their manifestation sometimes becomes the aspirations of certain social groups to achieve – in the absence of states effectively performing their functions – political independence.

‘You never get a livelihood out of going to school’: the crisis of urban modernity and the education-employment nexus in Harare, Zimbabwe

The economic crisis and informalisation in Zimbabwe from the late 1990s had many consequences, including the unattainability of the early postcolonial modernist lifestyle and the collapse of the robust education-employment nexus and steady transition pathway from school to work for graduates in urban areas. Education in Zimbabwe played social mobility and social transformation and reproduction functions from colonial times and continued to have an inherent value to Zimbabweans in the postcolonial period. However, with the collapse of the education-employment nexus and structural changes in the opposition movement which offered a transition path from university into party politics until the late 2000s, many school and university graduates did not get to experience social mobility. Accompanied by the wider frustrating conditions, such as bad governance, corruption and economic decline, this resulted in young people reconsidering the social mobility function of education and challenging modernist premises about education. These premises had been reproduced at different levels from family to wider society, and young people started rethinking and challenging them through their narratives, considering curriculum changes to include entrepreneurship education, participation in the informal economy and protest movements, all of which challenge the postcolonial modernity framework.

A REPRESENTATION OF ZAINICHI AS SUBALTERNS IN MIN JIN LEE’S PACHINKO: POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES

This study aims to analyse the representation of Zainichi as Subalterns in Min Jin Lee's Pachinko. The subject of the subalterns is the Korean diaspora, who are struggling against oppression, marginalization, and discrimination in Japanese society. The researcher uses descriptive and qualitative research methods, while Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's subaltern theory has been applied to the selected text. The data will be taken from many aspects such as dialogues, depiction of the situation or event, characters, etc. This study analysed two problems: (1) How is the representation of Zainichi as Subalterns in Min Jin Lee's Pachinko? (2) How is the subaltern resisting the impact of subalternity in Min Jin Lee's Pachinko? First, the results of this study reveal that the form of discrimination and marginalization experienced by Zainichi are indicative of the existence of subalternity in Japan, which was represented in the Pachinko written by Min Jin Lee. Secondly, this research reveals that hybridity and ethical politics became Zainichi's way of speaking out as a form of resistance to subalternity. Moreover, the Korean diaspora and their descendants represented the subalterns in Pachinko. At the same time, women are considered inferior to men and people who have ideologies and beliefs that are different from Japanese ideology. This study is fascinating because subaltern issues exist long after the postcolonial period

The Transformation of Islamic Property and Evidentiary Law in Colonial-era Morocco: The Case of Shufʿa as Préemption

Abstract A cornerstone of French land policy in colonial Protectorate Morocco (1912–56) was to restrict jurisdiction of sharīʿa courts while maintaining sharīʿa-based property laws in French courts. This article examines the Islamic property concept of shufʿa (the right of “preemption” or “first-refusal” for co-owned land) as adjudicated in sharīʿa courts and French courts of colonial-era Morocco. Both jurisdictions claimed to uphold the provisions of shufʿa stipulated by the Mālikī legal school of Islamic law; however, the French courts used a codified version—le droit de préemption—while relying on property facts established by the new colonial institution of land registration (Fr., immatriculation foncière; Ar., taḥfīẓ ʿaqārī). By analyzing paradigmatic shufʿa disputes in each jurisdiction, the article argues that evidence and procedure are critical to understanding Islamic law’s encounter with the colonial state. Most importantly, French courts implemented a hybrid version of Islamic property law in which immatriculation supplanted Islamic legal modes of proof making. The French hybrid approach thus constituted a competing version of state sharīʿa that was mutually exclusive with the sharīʿa courts and persisted into the post-colonial period. This discussion more broadly seeks to center property, evidence, and judicial procedure in scholarly narratives concerning twentieth-century Islamic legal history.

From ‘village tanks’ to ‘evaporating pans’: Colonial and Post-colonial responses to ancient village tanks in Sri Lanka

Village tanks, prevalent since ancient times, were an integrated part of the irrigation system in Sri Lanka (‘Ceylon’ till 1972). It was under these village tanks that paddy cultivation took place, and they were a part of the socially, technologically, and ecologically cohesive way of village life. The colonial authorities, who tried to renovate that ancient system, perceived village tanks as technically inefficient due to excessive evaporation and uneconomical land use. However, for several reasons, that perception could not be materialized during their renovation works. During the post-colonial period, with the implementation of the land colonization schemes in the 1930’s and the multipurpose river valley development schemes in the 1960’s, the scenario took a different shape. The technically perceived inferiority of the village tanks was brought into the new water management policies and the engineering designs. As a result, many of the village tanks were demolished, and those lands were converted to the farmlands. Instead of water availabilities assured through village tanks, canal irrigation became prominent. The socio-technical bondage between the village tanks and the village communities was not considered, presenting a classic case study for the consequences of neglecting social component of the technology. This paper discusses the social, political, and technical implications of these moves and their influence on shaping the present irrigation setup in the island.

Myths of Zimbabwean urban nationalism: Narratives of modernity and exceptionalism in the economic crisis

AbstractZimbabwe has distinct urban nationalist myths stemming from the colonial period—urban modernity and economic exceptionalism. The modernity myth has been constructed from the colonial period and came to be associated with urban order, lifestyle and social mobility. The economic exceptionalism myth refers to Zimbabwe's past exceptional economic performance during the colonial and early postcolonial periods. However, the economic crisis and informalisation from the late 1990s have challenged these myths as neither previous practices of urban modernity nor the feeling of exceptional economic performance is attainable any more. In this context, people in the informal sector reimagine what these nationalist myths mean to them. In particular, they engage in debates about which economic practices are modern enough to be implemented in urban areas, especially in the city centre, and how to identify themselves make a claim to urban modernity. The memory of economic exceptionalism in the meantime acts as a reference point in discussions about future national development. All these translate into the question of legitimacy—of the informal economy and its practices and the government that failed to uphold the modernity and exceptionalism myths.

Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh (1954): A Curious Case of the First Biopic on the Indian Revolutionary Martyr

Immediately after India’s independence, the Indian revolutionary martyr Bhagat Singh became the focus of several competing biopic projects. A censorship controversy erupted around the making of the now-lost film Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh (1954), the first biopic on the martyr. It became a contentious site where the interests of the filmmakers, former revolutionary colleagues of Bhagat Singh and his family members, and various other stakeholders like public representatives, intersected with an almost disinterested state. Following Debashree Mukherjee’s (2019) methodological approach of considering film censorship ‘as a productive material site for the study of lost films’, this article enters into a microhistory of this controversy by utilising bureaucratic paperwork and filmic and nonfilmic paratextual material to compensate for the absent film element. By tracing the very first attempts which were made to mount a biopic on Bhagat Singh, I try to investigate personal and political motivations behind the race to make the first biopic on the revolutionary martyr. For this purpose, I employ Chris Moffat’s (2019) mobilisation of the metaphors of corpse, corpus and corps, which he productively uses to understand the politics behind the multifarious afterlives of Bhagat Singh and wrangle over his revolutionary inheritance in the post-colonial period, and make a case for the importance of the study of Bhagat Singh’s hitherto neglected biopics by arguing that the time of their making, their production contexts and attendant controversies afford us unique insights into what Moffat terms the politics of ‘India’s revolutionary inheritance’.

Postcolonialism in South Africa: Unraveling Historical Legacies and Contemporary Impacts

Abstract Critically observing and analyzing South Africa calls for the mentions of colonialism and postcolonialism. The African country was highly influenced throughout its history by western powers, those times having an important impact in today’s day and age. Frantz Fanon and Edward Said will be the main inspiration points of the study, their viewpoints helping us to understand the implications of colonialism and postcolonialism. Narrative building, stereotyping and power games will be added to the problematics of racial subjugation, psychological traumatization and the need for self-realization in order to frame the image of South Africa. These ideas will be complemented by the addition of critical theory, which will complement the paper by looking into the economic dimension of the colonial and postcolonial periods. This mash-up of ideas will try to serve as a framework that will better explain the situation in South Africa and how the discovered problems could or should be settled.

Large-scale Farms and the Rice Economy in Lau North-East Nigeria, 2005-2015

Entrepreneurship in agriculture or agribusiness is one activity that has survived different eras namely pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods in Africa and Nigeria in particular. But despite years of experiment on this path, development in the agricultural sector has remained stagnant or at an insignificant level of growth. Interestingly it has received little attention from scholars in the field of history partly because it was viewed as a domain for the economists and business managers. This paper therefore, examined the agribusiness or activities of large farms in the rice economy of Lau Local Government Area of Taraba State. Broadly two sources were relied upon: primary and secondary, and the multi-disciplinary method were also employed for complementary purposes. The paper was organized around themes, and the historical analytical tool was used in the analysis. The study revealed that the people are largely agrarian based, and the rice economy has huge potentials to feed the state and even the northeast region, but the peasant are largely exploited by the market forces thereby short changed. This is further compounded by government insignificant interest in the sector. Hence, the study posits that government support is critical in providing access to subsidize credit, investing in infrastructure, transport and farm input services like advisory services to reverse decades of neglect, and set the path to sustainable development.

Subjugation of Indian Women in Anita Nair's Ladies Coupe

Perhaps Anita Nair is a famous postmodern Indian English writer. She writes about the lives of women on streets in her latest book, Women car. The primary focus of this novel is to explore the oppression of Indian men in society through self-discovery. Women coupe here implies a segment saved for ladies within the prepare. In the within the synonyms post-colonial period, most of these books were about the freedom of women and their problems in Indian society. The prevalent nature of Indian society meant that men saw themselves as dominant and ranked second to women, surpassing them. Indian English fiction reflects society. The focus of this article is on women's ongoing emancipation and eventual discovery of themselves.

Removing a colonial anachronism - The decolonization of heritage in the 1970s Hong Kong

Abstract This article explores the decolonization of heritage politics in 1970s Hong Kong. It firstly revisits recent scholars’ work on Hong Kong heritage politics and the transformation of Hong Kong’s cultural identity. It shows how people’s perceptions of their colonial heritage and history in Hong Kong have changed since the 1970s. Secondly, it outlines the city’s cultural heritage policy framework after the 1967 Riots, inspired by the Cultural Revolution. It analyses how the colonial government intentionally rebranded the city’s colonial heritage as an anachronism to justify its new narrative of Hong Kong and its cultural identity in the 1970s. It also employs the demolition of the former Kowloon Railway Station building in the 1970s as a case study to discuss how the colonial government decolonized local colonial structures through its new cultural heritage policy approach after the Riots. Finally, by employing the case study of the demolished Central Star Ferry Pier in the 2000s, this article argues there was a change in people’s perceptions of the city’s colonial history in the early postcolonial period of Hong Kong. A more active notion of Hong Kong’s cultural identity is also being articulated in the uncertain future due to the city’s recent rapid political and social changes influenced by the mainland authority.

What Makes a Natural Harbor?

The Mundra Port on the Gulf of Kutch in western India is one of India's largest port projects today. This article takes the port-circulated narrative of the coast being a natural harbor as its starting point, to show how fresh water was central to official maritime projects until the early postcolonial period. Conserving mangroves and freshwater creeks was not antithetical to maritime ports but part of the same administrative project. Political and infrastructural shifts from the river to the tide naturalized the erasure of coastal fresh water and transformed the coast into a singularly tidal space, creating the conditions for the development of a large-scale, high-technology shipping port.

Reviewing Southern Africa’s Status as a Developmental Region through Governance and Development

This case study discusses how the democratic governance principles and norms impact development in the SADC, and how institutional and structural reforms require greater participation by society to address the governance challenges encountered in this subregion of Africa. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to examine and assess the relationship between SADC’s governance, democratic principles and norms, development plans and processes. A comparative analysis was conducted using SADC’s key democratic achievement connected to policies, processes, and remaining challenges. Subsequently, the key causes of SADC’s slow development on the African continent were explored, focusing on the failure to institutionalise liberal democratic governance consistently during postcolonial transition periods, speculating SADC’s slow development. The findings suggest that SADC is impacted by democratic principles, norms, and processes, such as local governance, civil society, and decentralisation of power. Bearing in mind Southern Africa’s economic frailty, elevated levels of civil unrest and poor service delivery, SADC authorities require a strong sub-regional governance strategy supported by robust national programmes to determine and overcome the factors hindering the institutionalisation of democratic principles in SADC, and promote strengthened institutional capacity. The unambiguous progression towards the consolidation of democracy, within the SADC, has impacted the governance and development successes of the region, resulting in democratic values and practices remaining shallowly rooted, and slow progress toward open and transparent governance.

Pre-contact and post-colonial ecological legacies shape Surinamese rainforests.

Disturbances in tropical forests can have long-lasting ecological impacts, but their manifestations (ecological legacies) in modern forests are uncertain. Many Amazonian forests bear the mark of past soil modifications, species enrichments, and fire events, but the trajectories of ecological legacies from the pre-contact or post-colonial period remain relatively unexplored. We assessed the fire and vegetation history from 15 soil cores ranging from 0 to 10 km from a post-colonial Surinamese archaeological site. We show that (1) fires occurred from 96 bc to recent times and induced significant vegetation change, (2) persistent ecological legacies from pre-contact and post-colonial fire and deforestation practices were mainly within 1 km of the archaeological site, and (3) palm enrichment of Attalea, Oenocarpus and Astrocaryum occurred within 0, 1, and 8 km of the archaeological site, respectively. Our results challenge the notion of spatially extensive and persistent ecological legacies. Instead, our data indicate that the persistence and extent of ecological legacies are dependent on their timing, frequency, type, and intensity. Examining the mechanisms and manifestations of ecological legacies is crucial in assessing forest resilience and Indigenous and local land rights in the highly threatened Amazonian forests.

Press charges: renegotiating free speech and citizenship in post-partition Delhi

ABSTRACT This article examines the conflict between press censorship and free speech in post-partition Delhi, focusing on the Urdu press. It demonstrates how conflicts over free speech became a focal point for the intersection of two fundamental tensions underlying postcolonial state formation—between civil liberties and the authoritarian legacy of colonial rule, and between a secular democracy and a religion-based partition. The article explores the Urdu refugee dailies that relocated from Lahore to Delhi amid the partition upheaval and emerged as significant media voicing refugees’ interests, often at the expense of Muslim residents. Their provocative writings simultaneously challenged the boundaries of free speech and advanced an exclusionary notion of citizenship based on blood-based descent (jus sanguinis). This narrow conception of citizenship, underlying the partition migrations themselves, challenged the secularist vision of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. In response, the Delhi administration took actions against the refugee papers, making them central to contemporary struggles over press censorship. By taking the state to court, refugee editors promoted citizens’ right to free speech, but simultaneously advanced a circumscribed notion of ethno-religious citizenship. Navigating this dual role, the article unveils the exclusions and contradictions that marked citizenship formation in the early postcolonial period.