Decolonizing development: A historical sociological perspective

1. Decolonizing development: A historical sociological perspective Dr. anishadatta Department of sociology @ King’s Areas: critical social theory, comparative and historical sociology, political and economic sociology

2. Why should we care for this topic? • What has jenny (19 and Canadian) got to do with this topic • Isn’t development to do with some fur flung country in Africa • Did & Does a country like canada also develop? • Development & Decolonization - How are they related?

3. Let us recognize this • Discussions about colonialism, imperialism, class oppression, wealth-income gap, racism, violence may become uncomfortable • Sociology talks about these thorny issues not to make us uncomfortable but to: • Make us aware/deepen our understanding/make us true global citizens with civic & social awareness • At universities – it’s is a privilege - we congregate here to read, write and learn how to think, to deepen our thinking, to discuss, and share our thoughts, to learn from other’s thoughts… • I often try to navigate contentious issues by carrying out over-explanation…hope you’ll find this method useful too in how you discuss contentious issues.

4. We live in an interconnected world Consuming the Amazon • Greenpeace traced lifestyle connection between chicken nuggets and soy grown in the Brazilian Amazon – the problem of long supply chain & commodity chain • Their campaign provoked McDonald’s and global soy traders to commit not to buy soy from newly deforested rainforest areas • Is this interconnection something new? No! • Started in the 1600s & 1700s – the era of early capitalism and colonialism

5. The past in present – the colonial era • Modern colonialism is the history of a small numbers of people dominating and exploiting large masses of people, in which the latter are often separated by the markers of geography, language, ethnicity, and religion. In the previous three centuries, a number of Western European countries played a pivotal role in justifying their colonial domination with the rationale of ‘west civilizing the rest’. • Actually, capital accumulation and profit maximization have a big role to play in motivating conquest and colonization • At the cultural level: The rationale was supported by the colonial discourse, which often constructed the object (the Orient, Arabs, Asians, and Africans) for examination, developmentand control.

6. What is development? • Emerged during the colonial era • 19th Century European elites saw development as something specifically European – The Enlightenment and the idea of a linear progress • Later - perceived as a universal necessity • ‘Development as social engineering’ framed European colonization of Africa, Americas & Asia – to improve them • The civilizing mission & the “white man’s burden” – the rationale, which was propagated

7. The colonial discourse

8. Misrepresenting Non-Europe & Europe • Perceived social-psychological advantage of Europeans built around non-European stereotypes – a relational concept –Why? • Cultural comparison through the lens of European standards – private property, Christianity, technology, economic & political organizations • Devalued ‘other’ cultures (both simple and complex) and social systems • Assumptions of ‘backwardness’ based on European idea of land as private and alienable • Aborigines did not “work” the land • Africans as “static” and only “occupying” land Cultural & philosophical roots: John Locke – ‘land not used is waste’ Jeremy Bentham – Men should control & utilize nature

9. Two major forms • Colonies of settlement - Often eliminated indigenous people • Examples: Spanish destruction of Aztec and Inca civilizations in the Americas • Colonies of rule - Colonial administrators reorganize existing societies & cultures by imposing new inequalities to facilitate their economic & political interests • creation of local landlords (zamindars) to rule parts of India • Confiscation of personal and common land for cash cropping – check the next slide – the colonial economy, cash crop & plantation, impoverishment & migration • Elevation of ethnic differences (e.g., Rwanda)

11. The Deeper Impact - Spiritual Lives Compromised • Development through commercialization & economic growth - seen as a universal human destiny • Ecologically degrading extractive processes and conditions compromised non-European spiritual lives • Land, water, animals, fish, minerals, food – now seen as ‘Resource’ - commodified- converted into economic categories • [A resource is a source or supply from which benefit is produced] • Colonized country’s exiting scientific, cultural, ecological, and moral achievements were ignored • Post-colonial African saying: “When the white man came he had the Bible and we had the land. When the white man left, we had the Bible and he had the land.”

12. The Colonial Division of Labor • Colonies forced to produce and extract raw materials and primary commodity unavailable in Europe – sugar, tobacco, rubber, indigo & cotton • These primary commodities fueled European manufacturing sector in the days of early industrialization (1700,1800, early 1900 AD) • This colonial division of labor transformed social and environmental relationships • Established unequal ecological exchange in whichcolonies exported sustainability

13. Disruption of Economies, Cultures and Ecologies • Colonialism converted Mixed farming systems to specialized export monocultures - the plantation (cash crop) economy • Best farming lands lost to specialized commercial plantations • Created a commercial food economy - Destroyed food security, leading to hunger, famine, mass migration and social unrest • India 1890-1940: the growth of cash crop production grew by 85%; local food crop production fell by 7%; population grew by 40% - a shift that spread hunger, famine and social unrest European development realized through “underdeveloping” colonial economies and cultures

14. What you can take away… • The concept of development emerged during colonial era – the historical context • Colonialism (a socio-economic & political system) disorganized & reorganized non-European societies • Reconstructed labor systems toward specialized, ecologically degrading, export production • Damaged colonial subjects’ social psychology – internalization of a sense of ‘backwardness’

15. Do we need to re-think & decolonize development? • North America: 6% of world adult population and 34% of household wealth • Europe and Asia-Pacific countries also have disproportionate wealth • Share of wealth of Africans, & other lower-income countries lesser than their population share • Standardizing development measures reinforces belief of a high correlation between Gross National product and social wellbeing

16. What happened in the post second world war period –for further reading leaving a nation’s economy and people to the mercies of the ‘free market’ i.e. to the dominant international financial players interested only in short term profits, is the equivalent of leaving the free fox to guard the free henhouse. (susan George) John Perkins was an economic hit man …Further reading