post colonial studies

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Name: Gohil Beenaba s

paper: Caltural Studies

Roll no: 12

Email id: binagohil1995@gmail.com

subject: post colonial Studies

Submitted to: M K Bhavanagar University, Department of English

To understand post colonial studies we first have to understand the concept of colonialism and than we ternd to post colonialism. As we all konw that from 18^th century to 20^th century England rules over the world. They established their colonies in Asia, Africa and many of countries of the world. But after the second world war differst countries started rebel and get freedom , Indian is oe of them.and after that the oncept of post colonialism is came in front of world.

The field of Postcolonial Studies has been gaining prominence since the 1970s. Some would date its rise in the Western academy from the publication of Edward Said’s influential critique of Western constructions of the Orient in his 1978 book, Orientalism. The growing currency within the academy of the term “postcolonial” (sometimes hyphenated) was consolidated by the appearance in 1989 of The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. Since then, the use of cognate terms “Commonwealth” and “Third World” that were used to describe the literature of Europe’s former colonies has become rarer. Although there is considerable debate over the precise parameters of the field and the definition of the term “postcolonial,” in a very general sense, it is the study of the interactions between European nations and the societies they colonized in the modern period.

As a subject, post-colonial studies stands at the intersection of debates about race, colonialism, gender, politics and language. In the language of post-colonial studies, some words are new, whereas others are familiar and are charged with new significance.Explaining what post-colonialism actually is, where it is encountered and why it is crucial in forging new cultural identities, this clearly presented text provides essential information in understanding the issues that characterise the area.

1. Post-colonialism in general

1.1 Definition
Post-colonialism is an intellectual direction (sometimes also called an “era” or the “post-colonial theory”) that exists since around the middle of the 20^th century. It developed from and mainly refers to the time after colonialism. The post-colonial direction was created as colonial countries became independent. Nowadays, aspects of post-colonialism can be found not only in sciences concerning history, literature and politics, but also in approach to culture and identity of both the countries that were colonised and the former colonial powers.
1.2 Development
The term “decolonisation” seems to be of particular importance while talking about post-colonialism. In this case it means an intellectual process that persistently transfers the independence of former-colonial countries into people’s minds. The basic idea of this process is the deconstruction of old-fashioned perceptions and attitudes of power and oppression that were adopted during the time of colonialism.

A major aspect of post-colonialism is the rather violent-like, unbuffered contact or clash of cultures as an inevitable result of former colonial times; the relationship of the colonial power to the (formerly) colonised country, its population and culture and vice versa seems extremely ambiguous and contradictory.
This contradiction of two clashing cultures and the wide scale of problems resulting from it must be regarded as a major theme in post-colonialism: For centuries the colonial suppressor often had been forcing his civilised values on the natives.

2. The post-colonial experience in India
2.1 History of Indian colonialism
In the 16^th century, European powers began to conquer small outposts along the Indian coast. Portugal, the Netherlands and France ruled different regions in India before the “British East India Company” was founded in 1756.
The British colonialists managed to control most parts of India while ruling the key cities Calcutta, Madras and Bombay as the main British bases. However, there still remained a few independent regions (Kashmir among others) whose lords were loyal to the British Empire.In 1857, the first big rebellion took place in the north of India. The incident is also named “First war of Indian Independence”,This was the first time Indians rebelled in massive numbers against the presence and the rule of the British in South Asia. The rebellion failed and the British colonialists continued their rule.The non-violent resistance against British colonial rule, mainly initiated and organised by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, finally lead to independence in 1947.India became a member of the British Commonwealth after 1947.
Post colonanl theory:

1. Leadership
   
2. Subjectivity
   
3. nation and nationality
   
4. power
   
5. Race
   
6. Identity
   Post colonial Theorist
   

• Homi K. Bhabha
  
• Chinua Achebe

• David Brooks

• Amilcar Cabral

• Partha Chatterjee
  
• Frantz Fanon
  

• Hubert Harrison

• George Orwell
  

• Salman Rushdie

• Edward Said

• Gayatri Chakraborti Spivak
  

Bhabha's Nation and Narration (1990) is primarily an intervention into "essentialist" readings of nationality that attempt to define and naturalize Third World "nations" by means of the supposedly homogenous, innate, and historically continuous traditions that falsely define and ensure their subordinate status. Nations, in other words, are "narrative" constructions that arise from the "hybrid" interaction of contending cultural constituencies. In The Location of Culture, Bhabha extends his explanation of the "liminal" or "interstitial" category that occupies a space "between" competing cultural traditions, historical periods, and critical methodologies. Again utilizing a complex criteria of semiotics and psychoanalysis, Bhabha examines the "ambivalence of colonial rule" and suggests that it enables a capacity for resistance in the performative "mimicry" of the "English book."
The idea of having an empire is very important, and that is the central feature that I am interested in. All kinds of preparations are made for this idea within a culture and then, in turn and in time, imperialism acquires a kind of coherence, a set of experiences and a presence of ruler and ruled alike within the culture. The development of Said’s ideas about literature and art paralleled those of the field of post-colonial criticism as a whole. It began in anger – Frantz Fanon, Aime Cesaire, Malcolm X. And it has ended up in a rather different place, embraced in the very academic settings that once might have laughed at the very notion of a canonical body of, say, African Literature.
Postcolonial theory studies the power and the continued dominance of Western ways of knowing, of intellectual enquiry. The work of Edward Said in the book Orientalism conceptually addresses the oppressed subaltern man and woman, to explain how the Eurocentric perspective of Orientalism produced the foundations — and the justifications — for the domination of the Other, by means of colonialism.
Importance of Post Colonial Studies;
if we talk about relevence or impotancreof Post colonial studies than yes it is, because colonies are the past of many parts of world and of many countries. Though it is glorious past for England and other colonisers but not for those countries who are colonised. The Colonaised countries gave great fight for their freedom and for that they studied it. The other reason for studing the post colconialism is about inventions and new ideas like in this 20^th century ,in the post Colonial era mankind give their bet to world like indusrialism and technology etc.this may effect of post colonialism. It is not that on should stidies post colonialism for criticise , colonialism have their dark and bright side both like colonaisers give their best architecture to the colonised countries and also a new calture as well. So on the my side post colonial studies are as important as any other studies.
The reservations and debates, research in Postcolonial Studies has increasing alot because postcolonial critique allows for a wide-ranging investigation into power relations in various contexts. The formation of empire, the impact of colonization on postcolonial history, economy, science, and culture, the cultural productions of colonized societies, feminism and postcolonialism, agency for marginalized people, and the state of the postcolony in contemporary economic and cultural contexts, capitalism and the market, environmental concerns, and the relationship between aesthetics and politics in literature  are some of the more prominent topics in the field.

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