ABSTRACT
This chapter offers ways of dispensing (with) post-colonialism. It addresses the complex and mutually supportive relationship between the Western academy and the discourse of post-colonialism. That the latter is deeply imbricated in the dominant culture, which it professes to resist, is by now well known. But to what extent does this ongoing process of co-optation, collusion or compromise pose a serious challenge to post-colonial academics in general and to Indian criticism in particular? What, furthermore, is the scope of dissent, of alternatives and of meaningful action? Given the unequal relationship between the West and the rest, the larger part of the lives, experiences and subjectivities of post-colonial people – as opposed to post-colonial theorists – will always remain outside post-colonial discourse. If so, ‘real’ post-colonialism may be defined as that which is external to and not contained in the discourse of post-colonialism. The question of post-colonialism in India is, thus, part of a broader, historical interaction between India and the West, especially our recent experience of colonialism and nationalism. In an unequal world, academic exchanges too are bound to be imbalanced. Examining this inequality, becoming aware of its various consequences, is the beginning of meaningful action. Yet for such action, one’s own affiliations, complicities and allegiances have to be examined and owned up. Our own brand of anti-colonialism, therefore, will emerge only after we accept our share of responsibility in the unfinished project of national and – if one can go that far – international reconstruction. An active, informed and biculturalism, with critical translation built into it, is perhaps the best way of facing our complex and often contradictory cultural imperatives.
