{"id":258313,"date":"2023-09-01T20:34:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T15:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=258313"},"modified":"2023-09-01T20:34:24","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T15:04:24","slug":"pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-the-current-talk-of-decolonisation-is-about-an-exclusionary-political-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-the-current-talk-of-decolonisation-is-about-an-exclusionary-political-agenda\/","title":{"rendered":"Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The current talk of decolonisation is about an exclusionary political agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cPratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The current talk of decolonisation is about an exclusionary political agenda\u201d <\/strong>published in the \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d <\/strong>on 1st September 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Polity<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– The article explains the decolonisation concept being prompted by the current Indian establishment and issues related to it.<\/p>\n

What are some facts about the decolonization project?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It calls for revamping the education system, revising laws, reinterpreting history, reimagining public spaces, rediscovering Indic culture, and even questioning the relevance of the Constitution. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It represents a loosely connected intellectual movement,<\/strong> often discussed in prominent and widely circulated books like J Sai Deepak’s “India that is Bharat”.<\/p>\n

This perspective shapes intellectual discussions<\/strong>, particularly in various vernacular languages, with Hindi playing a prominent role.<\/p>\n

It increasingly provides the framework for making significant policy changes<\/strong>. It is seen most recently in the debate surrounding the Criminal Law Code.<\/p>\n

The decolonization project had two main objectives: to safeguard India’s political self-determination and promote its economic development. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It aimed to establish an international system<\/strong> that would prevent global power imbalances<\/strong> from making India vulnerable in the future.<\/p>\n

The core strength of the “decolonial” project lies in its promise to decolonize the mind<\/strong>. It correctly recognizes that colonialism primarily operated through intellectual domination of the colonized population<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The emotional appeal<\/strong> of this argument centers on the language issue<\/strong>. For instance, the act of renaming laws is a symbolic gesture<\/strong> indicating that English should not be the sole language of the future.<\/p>\n

What are issues with the decolonisation project?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It is often driven by hidden intellectual and political agendas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It relies on an oversimplified binary narrative<\/strong>. It pitts the West against the Indic world<\/strong> as two entities locked in confrontation. It disregards the fact that Western modernity<\/strong> can also be seen as a reaction against its own history.<\/p>\n

It also overlooks the fact that the evolution of Indian thought is characterized by profound transformations.<\/strong> It enabled Indian thought to challenge conventional beliefs. <\/strong>Indian thought has its own form of modernity. <\/strong><\/p>\n

There is an element of narcissism<\/strong> in this discourse. For example, Ambika Dutt Sharma raises the issue that despite advocating for pluralism,<\/strong> the Indian tradition did not engage more deeply with other intellectual traditions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indian society was inherently self-reliant and self-complete.<\/strong> It never required external engagement <\/strong>or definition from an “Other.” This claim is marked by an overwhelming sense of self-assuredness and complacency.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another issue is the language used to discuss bloodlines and identity in intellectual discourse. Indian intellectual tradition<\/strong> is determined by its origin or lineage.<\/p>\n

There is also a political dimension<\/strong> to the current decolonial project. It tends to explain everything through conspiracy theories.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a lack of self-awareness<\/strong> regarding why previous calls to “decolonize” and establish “Indian” versions<\/strong> of science, sociology, or political science often resulted in products that were neither truly Indian nor authentic representations of those disciplines. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Islam and Christianity <\/strong>are explicit targets of this decolonial project. It is because the project is explicitly framed as having its own enduring imperial ambitions.<\/p>\n

The only condition under which Muslims are deemed acceptable is if they acknowledge the primacy of “Indic”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a discomfort with discussions of social and injustice within the decolonial project.<\/p>\n

The decolonial project is highly cautious when it comes to examining Indian history from the perspective of social justice <\/strong>and addressing the forms of oppression t<\/strong>hat exist within our society.<\/p>\n

It might reluctantly admit the significance of addressing caste and gender issues<\/strong>. But, its ultimate objective is to downplay these concerns<\/strong> under the guise of upholding the idea of an inherently “self-complete” tradition. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Its primary drive is to construct a history and intellectual discourse<\/strong> that avoids causing any discomfort, especially among the privileged class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cPratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The current talk of decolonisation is about an exclusionary political agenda\u201d published in the \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d on 1st September 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Polity News– The article explains the decolonisation concept being prompted by the current Indian establishment and issues related to it.… Continue reading Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The current talk of decolonisation is about an exclusionary political agenda<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500,225],"class_list":["post-258313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","tag-polity","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":4,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1698160992},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}