Colonial diaspora

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A statue of Janey Tetary, an Indian indentured servant who died in an 1884 uprising in Suriname. Statue Janey Tetary 2.jpg
A statue of Janey Tetary, an Indian indentured servant who died in an 1884 uprising in Suriname.

A colonial diaspora is a group of people that live outside of their ancestral homeland because their ancestors migrated as part of a colonial-era practice. Depending on the source, the term refers to either people originating from the colonizing group or those whose ancestors were shifted under colonial pressure. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Colonial diasporas by origin

Europe

In ancient times, the Greek Empire established colonies around the Mediterranean and as far away as Northwestern South Asia. [6] [7]

During the colonial era that ended after World War 2, Europeans migrated around their global empires, with significant groups settling in the Western Hemisphere and Australasia. [8] [9]

South Asia

Over 1 million Indian people were taken as indentured servants to other parts of the world during the British Empire, primarily to the Caribbean and Southeast Africa. [10] [11] Because they had left South Asia before the establishment of the current independent nations of that region, they were often denied citizenship in South Asia, [12] and because they were also sometimes expelled or otherwise treated like non-citizens in their host countries, some of them or their families were forced to migrate twice. [13]

Postcolonial diasporas

Postcolonial diasporas are similar to colonial diasporas in that both groups often migrated in a way that addressed the global demand for labor. [14] [15] Postcolonial diasporas tend to split into those who have migrated as part of a "post-national" clique that has economic dealings with multiple countries, and those who have migrated out of a sense of exile. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonialism</span> Creation and maintenance of colonies by people from another area

Colonialism is a practice by which a one group of people, social construct, or nation state controls, directs, or imposes taxes or tribute on other people or areas, often by establishing colonies, generally for strategic and economic advancement of the colonizing group or construct. There is no clear definition of colonialism; definitions may vary depending on the use and context.

Colonization is a process of establishing control over targeted territories or peoples for the purpose of taxation, control, cultivation, often by establishing colonies and possibly by settling them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human migration</span> Movement of people for their benefit

Human migration is the movement of people from one place to another with intentions of settling, permanently or temporarily, at a new location.

Postcolonial literature is the literature by people from formerly colonized countries, originating from all continents except Antarctica. Postcolonial literature often addresses the problems and consequences of the decolonization of a country, especially questions relating to the political and cultural independence of formerly subjugated people, and themes such as racialism and colonialism. A range of literary theory has evolved around the subject. It addresses the role of literature in perpetuating and challenging what postcolonial critic Edward Said refers to as cultural imperialism.

A colonial mentality is the internalized attitude of ethnic or cultural inferiority felt by people as a result of colonization, i.e. them being colonized by another group. It corresponds with the belief that the cultural values of the colonizer are inherently superior to one's own. The term has been used by postcolonial scholars to discuss the transgenerational effects of colonialism present in former colonies following decolonization. It is commonly used as an operational concept for framing ideological domination in historical colonial experiences. In psychology colonial mentality has been used to explain instances of collective depression, anxiety, and other widespread mental health issues in populations that have experienced colonization.

Postcolonial feminism is a form of feminism that developed as a response to feminism focusing solely on the experiences of women in Western cultures and former colonies. Postcolonial feminism seeks to account for the way that racism and the long-lasting political, economic, and cultural effects of colonialism affect non-white, non-Western women in the postcolonial world. Postcolonial feminism originated in the 1980s as a critique of feminist theorists in developed countries pointing out the universalizing tendencies of mainstream feminist ideas and argues that women living in non-Western countries are misrepresented.

Burmese people or Myanma people are citizens or people from Myanmar (Burma), irrespective of their ethnic or religious background. Myanmar is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country. The Burmese government officially recognises 135 ethnic groups, who are grouped into eight 'national races,' namely the Bamar (Burmans), Shan, Karen, Rakhine (Arakanese), Mon, Kachin, Chin, and Kayah (Karenni). Many ethnic and ethnoreligious communities exist outside these defined groupings, such as the Burmese Chinese and Panthay, Burmese Indians, Anglo-Burmese, and Gurkhas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Analysis of Western European colonialism and colonization</span>

European colonialism and colonization is the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over other societies and territories, founding a colony, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. For example, colonial policies, such as the type of rule implemented, the nature of investments, and identity of the colonizers, are cited as impacting postcolonial states. Examination of the state-building process, economic development, and cultural norms and mores shows the direct and indirect consequences of colonialism on the postcolonial states.

Migrant literature, sometimes written by migrants themselves, tells stories of immigration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass migration</span> Large-scale migration of people

Mass migration refers to the migration of large groups of people from one geographical area to another. Mass migration is distinguished from individual or small-scale migration; and also from seasonal migration, which may occur on a regular basis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arif Dirlik</span> Turkish historian

Arif Dirlik was a Turkish-American historian who published on historiography and political ideology in modern China, as well as issues in modernity, globalization, and post-colonial criticism. Dirlik received a BSc in Electrical Engineering at Robert College, Istanbul in 1964 and a PhD in History at the University of Rochester in 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postcolonial international relations</span> Critical theory approach to international relations

Postcolonial international relations is a branch of scholarship that approaches the study of international relations (IR) using the critical lens of postcolonialism. This critique of IR theory suggests that mainstream IR scholarship does not adequately address the impacts of colonialism and imperialism on current day world politics. Despite using the language of post-, scholars of Postcolonial IR argue that the legacies of colonialism are ongoing, and that critiquing International Relations with this lens allows scholars to contextualize global events. By bridging postcolonialism and International Relations, scholars point to the process of globalization as a crucial point in both fields, due to the increases in global interactions and integration. Postcolonial IR focuses on the re-narrativization of global politics to create a balanced transnational understanding of colonial histories, and attempts to tie non-Western sources of thought into political praxis.

<i>The Empire Writes Back</i>

The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures is a 1989 non-fiction book on postcolonialism, penned by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back was the first major theoretical account of a wide range of postcolonial texts and their relationship with bigger issues of postcolonial culture, and is said to be one of the most significant and important works published in the field of postcolonialism. The writers debate on the relationships within postcolonial works, study the mighty forces acting on words in the postcolonial text, and prove how these texts constitute a radical critique of Eurocentric notions of language and literature. First released in 1989, this book had a second edition published in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Asian diaspora</span> Group of people

The South Asian diaspora, also known as the Desi diaspora, is the group of people whose ancestral origins lie in South Asia, but who live outside the region. There are about 40 million members of the diaspora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Settler colonialism</span> Form of colonialism seeking population replacement with settlers

Settler colonialism occurs when colonizers invade and occupy territory to permanently replace the existing society with the society of the colonizers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decoloniality</span> School of thought

Decoloniality is a school of thought that aims to delink from Eurocentric knowledge hierarchies and ways of being in the world in order to enable other forms of existence on Earth. It critiques the perceived universality of Western knowledge and the superiority of Western culture, including the systems and institutions that reinforce these perceptions. Decolonial perspectives understand colonialism as the basis for the everyday function of capitalist modernity and imperialism. Decoloniality emerged as part of a South America movement examining the role of the European colonization of the Americas in establishing Eurocentric modernity/coloniality according to Aníbal Quijano, who defined the term and reach. Decolonial theory and practice have recently been subject to increasing critique. For example, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò argued that it is analytically unsound, that "coloniality" is often conflated with "modernity", and that "decolonisation" becomes an impossible project of total emancipation. Jonatan Kurzwelly and Malin Wilckens, used the example of decolonisation of academic collections of human remains - which were collected during colonial times to support racist theories and give legitimacy to colonial oppression -, and showed how both contemporary scholarly methods and political practice perpetuate reified and essentialist notions of identities.

Human migration is the movement by people from one place to another, particularly different countries, with the intention of settling temporarily or permanently in the new location. It typically involves movements over long distances and from one country or region to another. The number of people involved in every wave of immigration differs depending on the specific circumstances.

Postcolonial theology is the application of postcolonial criticism to Christian theology. As is in postcolonial discourse, the term postcolonial is used without a hyphen, denoting an intellectual reaction against the colonial, instead of being merely sequential to it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asian diaspora</span>

The Asian diaspora is the diasporic group of people whose ancestral origins lie in Asia, but who live outside of the continent. There are several prominent groups within the Asian diaspora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western values (West)</span> The values underpinning Western civilization

Western values are a set of values strongly associated with the West which generally posit the importance of individual rights. They are often seen as related to Judeo-Christian values, and are generally associated with other sociopolitical aspects of the West, such as free-market capitalism and liberal democracy.

References

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