Shah, Alpa 
ORCID: 0000-0003-1233-6516
(2024)
When decolonisation is hijacked.
American Anthropologist.
ISSN 0002-7294
(In Press)
Abstract
This article asks how we should reconceptualise decolonisation when it is hijacked by authoritarian/fascist forces. It focuses on the Bhima Koregaon case in India in which 16 intellectuals/human rights defenders from across the country were imprisoned as alleged Maoist terrorists. It shows how, on the one hand, decolonisation is hijacked by the Hindu right and, on the other hand, colonial artefacts are resymbolised by the colonised to oppose oppression by native elites. It urges attention to the questions of who is mobilising the language of decolonisation and why. It argues that the most important anti-colonial intellectuals may not use the language of decolonisation and may not be in universities, but on the streets, with social movements, and in prison. It proposes contemporary decolonisation debates to centre processes of domination and oppression created by the state and global capital nexus, processes which are cultural, psychological, political and economic. These processes are shown to entrench casteist/racist hierarchies, work through indigenous elites and create internal differentiation within marginalised communities, eschewing unitary concept of indigenous ontology/cosmopolitics/worldviews. Calls for an emancipatory politics, such as that of decolonising anthropology or the university, would be well placed to centre these global processes and local nuances.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journ... |
| Additional Information: | © 2024 Wiley |
| Divisions: | Anthropology |
| Subjects: | G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology |
| Date Deposited: | 14 Jun 2024 11:36 |
| Last Modified: | 14 Sep 2024 09:50 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/123863 |
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