February 26, 2005

• It's at moments like these that I feel like I really have to read the whole of Niall Ferguson, which is not relevent to my own research, just so I can tell people he is crap and prevent at least a little of the perpetuation of crap. Damn this extra work. People should just stop writing stupid books. Back to this article though - The questions that come out of this article for me (as with many things on colonialism, especially British), is how did colonial powers and colonists reconcile their own national myths of democracy and freedom with their actions in the colonies? I don't believe that white people, least of all the British, whom I study and am descended from, are inherently evil/oppressive/racist (but no one else is), and yet as a government and as individuals (military, settlers) were capable of very evil things elsewhere. One could say that the whole project of colonisation began as self-justified theft, of land and resources, and ultimately enslavement to a foreign power which restricted native rights and freedoms. At the same time as this is going on, as too many whiggish historians like to point out, Europe itself is "liberalising", talking about rights and freedoms. Granted, some of the travesties occurred in the name of freedom, especially freedom of markets (such as the extent of suffering in the late nineteenth century famines in India) - there ideology clashed with reality. I guess where I see where colonial studies should go is to try to understand not just what happened (though that is very important) and how it was resisted (which is the thrust of a lot of research, also very important), but also how, why - to try to understand how the colonial powers could come to this place, without simply dismissing them as evil. Racism may be part of it - I think in many ways racism is utilitarean, developing out of the desire to exploit/supress a group, and post-justifying it through their suposed inferiority. Other ways were self-deception as to the effect of their actions, both in individuals and between different parts of the empire. Ideological justifications ("We know we're right on X, if we just force them to listen, they'll realise how right we are") are also there; perhaps the most pernicious, as they could drag moral, trying to be altruistic people into doing things which may or may not have been the best. But still we come to the sheer brutality of events like the Mau Mau rebellion. Brutality on both sides - and I guess there we just face the reality of the brutality human beings are capable of inflicting on each other.
• Certainly one of the main points that I pondered on after reading this is how evidence like that presented here sits with the likes of Ferguson jb. Much of the reevaluation/revision of imperial history seems self-serving at best. Going to school in Britain in the 70s and 80s I felt we learned very little about the nature of our Empire and indeed seemed to have a national collective amnesia about it. Being from an Irish immigrant family helped make me aware of other narratives of the colonial past. I bought C.A. Bayly's 'The Birth of the Modern World 1780-1914' on my last trip back home, but have only dipped in to it so far. It looks like a rich read on the subject.

• I don't believe that white people, least of all the British, whom I study and am descended from, are inherently evil/oppressive/racist

  historically, there is no doubt whatsoever that the british were extremely racist.
• Oh definitely, roryk, right from the first days of colonisation in the 16th century. But is it inherent in English culture, more than others? I don't know - but I don't believe so. The point is that we are currently do a lot of talking, thinking, researching about the colonised, and a lot less about the colonisers, so that we don't really understand why they did what they did.
• we don't really understand why they did what they did Money and dominion explains quite a lot of it.
• Money - that definitely makes sense. Dominion - was it worth it? It cost a lot of money, after all.
• There was also that whole civilising mission thingy.