LITR 5731 Colonial-Postcolonial Literature UHCL research posts 2009

2nd Research Posts 2009

LITR 5731 Colonial-Postcolonial Literature

Tim Assel

Civil Disobedience: Forcing a Post-Colonial Dialogue

The practice of civil disobedience has had a substantial impact on many post-colonial societies. The term, ‘civil disobedience,’ was first attributed to Thoreau as a form of protest against the actions of the post-colonial, U.S. American government. Several post-colonial movements have employed Thoreau’s ideas to protest the abuses of a dominating people-group against a dominated people-group. Gandhi first applied civil disobedience to colonial injustice in South Africa. (Rosenwald 162) Later, Gandhi used civil disobedience in the peaceful liberation of India. Martin Luther King Jr. was influenced by Thoreau’s writing and employed civil disobedience in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and subsequent civil rights movement. (Rosenwald 161)

An important element of Thoreau’s concept is a desire to be a part of the current government and work to improve that government. (Rosenwald 160) For civil disobedience to work effectively, the practicing group must have a participatory role in political governance and must be actively striving to improve the government. Non-participation in government would be considered passivism or non-resistance, which would be different practices than civil disobedience. In colonial and post-colonial societies, civil disobedience has proven to be far more effective than non-participation.

An example of an effective use of civil disobedience is illustrated in the novel, Train to Pakistan. In this novel the cooperation of Hindu and Muslim political movements had allowed the colony of India to gain independence from the British government. However, as the novel illustrates, removal of a common enemy to ally against ushered the Hindu, Sikh and Muslim groups into violent massacres of each group as decolonized India was partitioned into Hindu and Muslim states.

Another necessity in employing civil disobedience is a civil government to demonstrate against. For example, in the slave colonies of Africa and the Americas the enslaved people were completely subjected to colonial authority. A civil protest by the enslaved people would have little effect because the colonial government would not consider slaves to have an active role in civil society. Most of the abolitionist movements involved the protest of the dominating group’s dissenters or the brutal uprising of the dominated group. An example of a brutal uprising would be the mau mau uprising mentioned in the movie, Simba. In this movie the dominated African natives rebel against the British settlers in protest of the injustices committed by the colonial government.

In the practice of civil disobedience, a marginalized people-group evokes the sympathy of the dominating group by pushing injustice to the forefront of public interest. As the dominating group becomes aware of the wrong existing in their society, they began to question the historical narratives of the dominating group. These historical narratives are usually on the perspectives and assumptions of the dominating group (Young 200) and are used to justify their dominance and prejudice. By challenging the dominating group’s moral justification, protestors suggest a counter-narrative to the dominating group’s historical narrative. These counter-narratives can be found in the works of post-colonial artists, writers and critics. Postcolonial works generally provide counter-narratives that are “concerned with experiences of exclusion, denigration, and resistance under systems of colonial control.” (Boehmer 340)

One post-colonial critic who worked against imperialist historical narratives was Gayatri Spivak. Spivak not only challenged narratives of the past, she also worked against the elements of imperialist narratives existing in contemporary society. (Young 200) These narratives are present in many countries and most all of these countries have difficulty in addressing post-colonial studies because of these latent imperialist narratives. For example, the U.S. would have difficulty addressing post-colonial studies in context with their occupation of foreign countries in the Middle East.

Thinking of civil disobedience as a way to form counter-narratives to Western colonial narratives brings civil disobedience into the dialogue of post-colonial studies. Civil disobedience and other forms of political protest rely on communication of political protests to broader populations of both the dominated and dominating groups of people. This is one reason why radio communication played an integral role in some liberation movements of the twentieth century.

One example of radio’s role in decolonization is described in Frantz Fanon’s novel, A Dying Colonialism, about the liberation movement in Algeria, a French colony in Northern Africa. Fanon claims that Algerian’s showed little interest in the radio broadcasts of the colonial authority because all broadcasts were biased to the historical narratives of the colonizers. Native Algerians did not begin buying radios until liberated Arab countries like Egypt began broadcasting radio with an Arab perspective. Arab-based radio broadcasts exposed the lies of the colonial authority and fueled the Algerian struggle for independence. (Fanon 74)

In conclusion, civil disobedience is a practical and effective application of non-violent political protest for a dominated group of people to employ against the dominating group. Civil disobedience has had a substantial impact in many post-colonial societies, but would not necessarily work in all situations. For civil disobedience to work, the dominated group must be subjects of a civil government and have a means of communicating the objectives and accomplishments of the movement to the broader population. Lastly, similar to how post-colonial studies create a dialogue with imperialist narratives in contemporary society, civil disobedience was applied in colonial societies to force a dialogue within the media of the time that would address the perspectives of the oppressed against the perspectives of the oppressor.

Works Cited

1. Rosenwald, Lawrence A., “The Theory, Practice, and Influence of Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience,” from A Historical Guide to Henry David Thoreau, Ed. Cain, William E., Oxford University Press, Oxford

3. Boehmer, Elleke, “Postcolonialism,” from Literary Theory and Criticism: an Oxford Guide, Ed. Waugh, Patricia, 2006 Oxford University Press, Oxford

4. Fanon, Frantz, A Dying Colonialism, 1967 Grove Press, New York