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Colonization is the assertion of one nation's sovereignty over another, impacting both the colonizer and the colonized. One reason for colonialism is economic incentive, as imperial states may need more resources to sustain their growth. Another reason is military incentives, with national security being a priority during the peak of colonization. Nations raced to acquire resources of all kinds to demonstrate their strength and power.
One of the final reasons for imperialism mentioned is the social incentives associated. In the realm of colonization, imperialists asserted their efforts to introduce modernity or "civilization" to the indigenous populations through political strategies, missionaries, educators, and more.
Colonial modernity is described as the colonizers' approach of implementing reforms in pre-colonial India, Algeria, and Egypt by combining rational thinking, European liberalism, capitalism, and technology in order to modernize traditional and perceived primitive societies.
I argue that despite the colonizer's purported goals of bringing freedom, equality, and rational thought to their South Asian and Middle Eastern colonies, colonial modernity actually exploited differences in age, gender, race, caste, class, and tradition.
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The colonizers established new social, political, and economic hierarchies that clashed with the pre-existing traditional socio-cultural structure of order.
The cases I will use to support this claim in South Asia are British India’s issue of the land-tenure system that established a new class hierarchy of landowner and tenant and the British handling of the controversial Hindu religious tradition of Sati that classified women as a weaker gender in comparison to the Hindu men. In regards to the Middle East, I will first use the issue of the Egyptian Islamic school of learning that in comparison to the static, uniform and disciplined European education system was labelled as barbaric and ineffective due to its traditional cultural focus on repetition and movement.
Additionally, I will discuss the Israeli belief that Yemeni Jews are skilled laborers because of their calm and agreeable demeanor, as well as the changes in gender roles in French Algeria. Exploring these examples will provide insight into the impact of imperialism on those who were colonized.
According to Kaushik Ghosh, the British aimed to impose colonial modernity on their Indian subjects by disrupting the autonomy of hill polities through conquests, a well-organized colonial army, and manipulating loyalties among hill chiefs. This effort led to the rapid transformation of hill societies through unfamiliar land tenure systems. Ultimately, the British's goal was to divide the diverse mountain people of India in order to weaken their unity and resistance against colonial rule and the imposition of "modernity."
Ghosh states in his article that the land-tenure system implemented had the intended effect of slowly degrading the pre-existing social structure and traditional economic system established by the chiefdoms, making way for capitalism. This system created a market for the sale and purchase of land, leading to the integration of more aspects of capitalism into colonial subjects of India, such as rent-seeking and profit-maximization.
The land tenure system resulted in the emergence of a new class hierarchy, with wealthy landlords and impoverished tenant farmers. Landlords were able to steadily increase their profits under this new system, leading their tenant farmers into complete dependency and, ultimately, poverty as they struggled to repay their substantial debts.
The British created a new social, political, and economic hierarchy among the hill people in India that conflicted with their traditional structure. This allowed the colonizers to exploit class differences and prevent resistance to colonization. Religion, traditions, and gender were also used by the British to promote colonial modernity in India. One example is the Hindu practice of widows committing ritualistic suicide by joining their deceased husbands on funeral pyres, which sparked controversy.
The British regarded Sati and Hinduism favorably, particularly valuing the older religious scriptures and male Brahmin pundits. They believed it was their duty to reintroduce true Hinduism to Indians as part of their "civilizing mission". Lata Mani suggests that the British felt they were reviving an ancient tradition disrupted by Islamic influence over preceding centuries. The British officials often portrayed women who practiced Sati as either pitiful victims or courageous heroines, focusing on the authenticity of cultural traditions.
The former were depicted as oppressed, controlled, and forced; the latter courageously stepping into the fiery inferno without regard for their own well-being. The passage from Lata Mani’s article illustrates that women were viewed as fragile beings in need of civilizing influence and protection from the oppressive behavior of Hindu men. Despite this perception, the British ultimately permitted the practice of Sati to persist after being swayed by careful consultation and interpretation of religious texts by Brahmin scholars.
By analyzing the Sati issue, I have demonstrated how the British manipulated gender differences and Hindu traditions to create a new socio-political hierarchy that prioritized Hindu religious customs and scriptures over gender equality and women's rights. The first case study discussed involves the contrasting educational methods in the Middle East, where the Islamic schools in Egypt emphasized noise and activity, while the European system based on the Lancaster model focused on silence, obedience, discipline, and stability.
The Lancaster model, which was widely embraced as the education standard in Europe, emphasized Victorian values like silence and stillness in the classroom, as well as a uniform structure and discipline in classes. In contrast, Islamic religious schools employed what some considered "barbaric" methods of learning the Quran, with numerous students on the floor chanting scriptures while rocking back and forth to aid understanding.
In Timothy Mitchell's publication, the British are portrayed as students without direction, moving aimlessly from one professor to another and from one text to another. They struggle to understand the passages that their masters comment on in a language they do not understand, ultimately becoming confused and confounded. Mitchell critiques the traditional system of learning for encouraging memorization without promoting true comprehension.
The British policy of labeling the Egyptian religious system of education as barbaric and unenlightened, with its emphasis on static and silent comprehension, uniform obedience and discipline, and subsequent reforms to modernize it, supports the argument that British attempts to bring modernity to Egypt involved exploiting differences in education traditions. This colonization resulted in the establishment of new social hierarchies that clashed with the pre-existing traditional socio-cultural structure of order.
Israel labeled its immigrant labor force of Yemenite Jews as "Natural Workers" because they accepted low-paying jobs without complaint. However, later, Israel enacted harsher laws against the Yemenite Jews based on the belief that they were a superior race and class, with Israelis being seen as "Idealistic workers" and Yemenite Jews as "Natural workers".
The Israeli argument is that idealistic individuals are better suited for city life, while Yemenite Jews are seen as natural workers due to their docility and strong work ethic. Shafir's article defines a natural worker as someone who is capable of hard work, can live in harsh conditions, is obedient, does not question authority, and is satisfied with little.
This supports my argument that the colonizer, represented by Israel, exploited racial and class differences between Yemenite Jews and Israeli Jews in their efforts to bring modernity. The colonizers positioned Yemenite Jews as second-class citizens by establishing new social hierarchies that conflicted with the pre-existing traditional socio-cultural order. This was evident in their employment of Palestinian Arabs to fulfill labor needs. Another example that bolsters my claim is the examination of gender roles and equality in French Algeria.
France, as the colonizer, attempted to bring gender equality by exploiting the differences in gender roles between Algerian and French men and women. The colonizers established new social hierarchies that clashed with the traditional structure of Algerian society, where men and women followed strict Islamic laws on interactions.
The exploitation of various human differences - including age, gender, race, caste, class, and tradition - formed the foundation of colonial modernity. This exploitation was carried out through the establishment of new social, political, and economic hierarchies by the colonizers. These hierarchies often clashed with the pre-colonial traditional socio-cultural structure. By examining case studies from South Asia and the Middle East, we gain crucial insights into the colonization and decolonization process. This process extends beyond just economic exploitation and military domination to also include the oppression and exploitation of the oppressed individuals' mind and body.
Impact of Colonial Modernity on Social Hierarchies. (2016, Oct 07). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/purpose-of-colonization-and-colonial-modernity-essay
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