When decolonization is hijacked

Shah, Alpa ORCID: 0000-0003-1233-6516 (2024) When decolonization is hijacked. American Anthropologist, 126 (4). pp. 553-566. ISSN 0002-7294

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Abstract

AbstractThis article asks how we should reconceptualize decolonization when it is hijacked by authoritarian/fascist forces. It focuses on the notorious Bhima Koregaon case in India in which 16 intellectuals/human rights defenders from across the country were imprisoned without trial as alleged terrorists. It shows how, on the one hand, decolonization is hijacked by the Hindu authoritarian regime and, on the other hand, colonial artifacts are resymbolized by the colonized to oppose oppression by native elites. It urges attention to the questions of who is mobilizing the language of decolonization and why. It argues that the most important anticolonial intellectuals may not use the language of decolonization and may not be in universities, but on the streets, with social movements, and in prison. It proposes that contemporary decolonization debates center processes of domination and oppression created by the state and global capital nexus, processes that are cultural, psychological, political, and economic. These processes are shown to entrench casteist/racist hierarchies, work through Indigenous elites, and create internal differentiation within marginalized communities, eschewing a unitary concept of indigenous ontology/cosmopolitics/worldviews. Calls for an emancipatory politics, such as that of decolonizing anthropology or the university, would be well placed to center these global processes and local nuances.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2024 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Anthropology
Subjects:	J Political Science H Social Sciences G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
Date Deposited:	21 Jan 2025 16:24
Last Modified:	21 Jan 2025 19:09
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/126991

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