So, I had a conversation with my sisters husband about politics, he gifted me a book (the power of geography) , which he claimed to be leftist… because it merely mentioned colonialism. He framed that as anti-white racism and how we, the ‘whites’, should be proud of our ‘accomplishments’ and how it’s badass that ‘we’ conquered the entire world.
He then further went on to mention that after colonialism ‘ended’ the natives didn’t know how to do anything, because they kicked the smart whites out.
What the hell do I do about this nutjob? Is there any hope for him? Should I even try to convince him that he’s an absolutely moron?
I’m in a somewhat similar boat myself. The BIL is a bachelor in business administration and a pro-business crank. Recently he has started going in hindu nationalist tirades to impress my fascist parents. It is diabolical.
Sometimes I wish we had a cultural revolution so I could snitch on these people.
Hindutva could be framed as an inferiority complex towards white people turned inwards and against minorities to feel more superior, backed by an economic system justifying fascism. With so much to be proud of from India it is telling of a person’s lack of inner strength to prostrate before such a failure of an ideology.
Maybe have Vijay Prashad play on the TV (or loudspeaker!) in the background? :)
/edits for clarity and levity
Yeah. It screams a lot of the view that “the only thing that sucked about colonialism was that we were the ones colonised”. Anti-colonial education is very shit in India’s school curricula probably because of this reason. There seems to be no desire to see colonialism as fundamentally unjust and undesirable. There is zero solidarity with other colonized nations. There used to be friendship with USSR and China at some points in the past but with the plunge into neoliberalism those have been forgotten. On the other hand, Gandhi for one wanted Indians to fight for the British in the Boer War. Maybe there are other examples like that.
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” - LBJ
I feel the above has been universalised to some of the colonised.
And your penultimate statement reminded me of another book to add to my reading list: The Mahatma and the Ism by EMS