·
Why “Theory of Colonialism”?
o
Why now?
o What is the cognitive
puzzle that existing scholarship on Colonialism raise?
o Why is it
inadequate?
·
There are many “Cultures”
o But only one culture
(western culture) has produced descriptions of all others cultures
o Until recently these
descriptions were seen as true
o After the work of
Edward Said (Orientalism, 1978), these descriptions are seen as reflecting
imperial interests
o Examples:
§ The Sati Debate
·
Problem of Moral Principle
§ Debate on Secularism
·
Problem of Good vs. True doctrine
§ Sanskritisation and
Growth of Indian vernaculars
·
Problem of social vs. ritual order
·
Strategies of Post-colonial approaches to studying Colonialism
o Denying the veracity
of Western representations of non-western cultures at the object level
o Providing alternative
descriptions at the object level
·
Problems with the Postcolonial Strategy
o Trivializes the
Western Experience
o Looks at non-western
cultures in the terms defined by western intellectual traditions
·
Alternative Strategy
o To look at
Orientalism not as an “object-level” description of non-western cultures but as
the cognitive limit of western culture
o That is, Orientalism
as a key to western experiences of non-western cultures and therefore of itself
o Reducing western
descriptions of non-western cultures to a theory about Western culture
o
Delineating the “limit of intelligibility” of western theories
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