Imperialism and Orientalism: A Historical Analysis - Essay Example

?Imperialism and Orientalism: A Historical Analysis From the ancient civilizations, since the postcolonial era, the world has witnessed rise and the fall of many mighty empires. The human race is quite familiar with the term Imperialism. The term is not just associated with establishing ultimate political power in the conquered land. It includes the social, economical and cultural aspects too. When a particular power holds its control on a particular land and people, a cultural exchange takes place between the empire and native people. Initially the objectives of the imperialism are to control the region and its people, to impose the culture, religion and way of life on the conquered people. The cultural exchange process cannot be a one way process. The people are compelled to follow and accept the rules of the emperors, simultaneously; the conquerors also get familiar with the foreign culture of the conquered land and absorb it spontaneously and try to understand the original culture of the land. This is the base of the research paper, which throws light on imperialism and orientalism. During post-colonial era, lot of debate had taken place on orientalism. Edward Said discussed the topic which became an argumentative topic among the historians. According to him, the Westerners always have a very biased approach about Orients. On the contrary, the scholars like John Mackenzie opine that Western artists have approached the Orient at various moments with perfectly honorable intention and genuine respect. The focus of the research paper is to find out the facts related to orientalism. Whether Mackenzie’s opinion is practical and whether Said seems to be hasty while commenting on the Western prejudiced approach on Orientalism, which has basically emerged out of imperialism. The scope of the research is to study colonialism, and post-colonialism Western approach towards oriental culture. Instead of arguing negative side of imperialism, if we see towards the phenomenon positively, we will be able to get the answers of many questions pertained to our research. Key words: Imperialism, Empire, Orientalism, colonial and post colonial oriental culture. Significance of Empire: To understand the significance of empire, it is necessary to know first what is the empire and how is the concept taken by people in different context and different situations. As stated by Dominic Lieven, the term 'Empire' is highly polemical. Sometimes it is used to praise and sometimes to condemn. For example, after World War II and in post colonial period, Soviet Union denounced its Western Enemies by calling them Imperialists. The Westerns also used to respond Soviet Union by calling it Empire. The imperialism or establishment of Empires has been prevalent in the human history since ancient time to post colonial period. The imperialism has been the transitional phase for the territories and their existing culture, especially when the empire is established by foreign people. With the emergence of imperialism, the society has experienced some or other cultural, social and political transitions and old systems were replaced by the new systems. For example one of the mightiest empires in the history of world Maurya Empire gave the administrative policies, strategic planning through the shrewd prime minister of Emperor Chandragupt, Chanakya. His book Chanakya Niti written before thousands of years ago is still applicable in today’s political and economic system. Greek Empire is the pioneer of our present day society and Roman Empire further shaped it. The catholic and Muslim empires spread Christianity and Islam in all over the world and now they have occupied one –third of world’s population. British Empire gave half of the world the parliamentary democracy system. The American Empire after World War II dominated the world economically. Though United S is not an Empire in conventional sense, it is regarded as an empire. This is an empire that fits in the definition of Hobson: the novelty of recent imperialism regarded as a policy consists chiefly in its adoption by several nations. (Hobson 2006) USA has been controlling the world economy and their currency, their language is dominating the international trade and communication. The US Empire is being threatened now a day by China which will probably be the world leader in near future along with India. The concept orientalism started emerging on the onset of colonialism. The term is closely associated with imperialism. The process of imperialism or empire building (in case of European countries) started in early 15th century. Spain and Portugal were the pioneers in the process of building empires outside of Europe. Since the fall of Rome, there has been no empire based in Europe which extends outside the continent. This situation changes abruptly in the 16th century, when Spain and Portugal become the pioneers in a new era of colonization.(History of Portuguese Empire) Exploring new and unknown lands was the trend of European countries. They wanted to establish their colonies for trade. They were very much eager to possess gold, silk and spices. They started trading with Africa between 1450 and 1750. Their major target then was India. In course of time, they arrived in India, established themselves. They took complete advantage of political anarchy in India and played strategic moves to conquer the entire Indian subcontinent. Thus the Western imperialism primarily Great Britain, France, Portugal and Holland were the major empires. While doing trade initially they spread their ultimate authority and converted the lands in Asia, Africa into the European colonies. Consequently they spread their own culture, religion, language and way of life in their colonies. The consequences of imperialism were basically on the economic, political, social and cultural edifice of the land which had long been established in those nations. Motives for imperial expansion: The primary three motives can be mentioned behind the imperial expansion; Gold God and Glory. The three Gs have played a crucial role in the establishment of imperialism in modern history. Economic motive was on the top of their priority. The thirst for power and ultimate authority has led to the expansion of Geographical territories of the country. Since ancient times for various purposes the invasions on the other land has taken place. Economic Factors: For British, imperialism means accumulating maximum economic gain and stability. According to J.A. Hobson, Economy was the major factor behind imperialism of European nations. The West expanded in order to trade raw materials, establish foreign markets for their manufactured goods, and provide additional sources for investment capital. (Destiny Gordon (2011) The maximum use of resources of the colonies: Africa and Asia were the ideal continent full of natural resources. The European nations wanted full control on the raw material from the lands. Further cheaper labor could easily be available and thus they could increase the profit margin. So they started establishing colonies there. Cultural Factors: The cultural system and political system was all together different in the oriental (East) world from that of Occident (West) world. The empire came in contact with the cultural aspects, which they felt mysterious and interesting. At the same time the people from the conquered land also were influenced by the new culture and way of life of their emperors brought with them and thus the orientalism started taking place. According to some scholars the orientalism of West is very much prejudiced and biased. The colonial mindset of the Empires was not really ready to accept the culture as rich and competitive to their culture. The orientalism defined by the West according to Said is merely to justify West’s dominance. Edward Said, a famous personality in History of Orientalism has created a lot of fuss and it became controversial. Said’s views about orientalism were challenged by his critics with evidences. While defining the term imperialism, Edward Said explains, As I shall be using the term Imperialism means the practice, the theory, and the attitude of a dominating metropolitan ruling a distant territory; colonialism, which is almost always a consequence of imperialism, is the implanting of the settlement on distance territories. Edward Said explains Western people’s view developed through their imperial mindset. Western people always viewed that they belonged to a refine race and so it was their duty to civilize the uncivilized people. For them the people from their colonies were always uncivilized, barbarians, irrational and unable to run their government. Western people called themselves as Occident and to the other world especially, Middle East, Asia and Africa as Orient. Orientalism according to Said is very much close to imperialism especially in case of British, French, and later American “involvement in the Orient.” He also opined that the Western people used to depict the picture of the Orients as barbarous, lazy and passive. There was much debate on Said's thoughts. To reside in the Orient is to live the privileged life, not of an ordinary citizen, but of a representative European whose empire (French or British) contains the Orient in its military, economic, and above all, cultural arms. The scholars like John Mackenzie and Barbara Bush refuted Said's opinion. Barbara throws light on the presentation of Africa especially in children’s comics. ‘Africa also remained the adventure setting for children’s comics and African characters were highly popular. She further points out that in the pre -1914 era, popular comics replete with ‘image of the happy, singing darky, the clown, the grave or sentimental brute.’ She also points out the children’s literature consisted of the schoolboy heroes as ‘tolerant and protective of simple… naive (and loyal) African chums.’ (Barbara Bush 2002) Barbara Bush also explains the work and approach of Lugard. He declared that taxation emancipates natives from indolence. He further promoted collective and individual responsibility, enhanced self-respect, stimulated industry and provided native rulers a scope for their energies, and pride and progress in their countries. This resulted into the pushing of each community a step further up the ladder of progress. Taxation buffered Africans from murdering traders and general lawlessness. According to John Mackenzie, Said is wrong in commenting of Western people by calling them less tolerant, arrogant about the existence of oriental culture. He says that the Occident always tried to honor the oriental culture. Irwin in his book 'For Lust of Knowing : The Orientalism' argues Said used the term Orientalism in a very restrictive sense as referring those who travelled in, studied or wrote about the Arab world, while the term should be extended to include Persia, India, Indonesia, and the Far East. (p. 256) he (Said) excluded consideration of North Africa, west of Egypt; I cannot guess why he excluded North Africa. (Robert Irwin2007) When I watched the movie Slumdog Millionaire, my first reaction was like, no.... this is not real India. Real India is not the country of just slum dwellers, and beggars that has constantly been highlighted. Why has yet no one taken glorious Indian history and mythology as a theme in Hollywood movies like Egypt or Arab? Why the middle class educated class is not reflected in the film and why the dark side of India is promoted in the Western World? Why are the great people, scholars, thinkers of India not promoted in the West world? But still I am very much hopeful about Western approach which every time everywhere is not negative, biased and with superiority complex. Had the occident not been sensible and open minded towards the culture of the Orient, they would not have tried to explore the cultural factors and exposed the culturally rich things of the oriental land. Some examples are as follows: 1. The discovery of around 2000 years old Ajanta Ellora Caves in India 2. Discovery of mummies and pyramids of ancient Egypt 3. Excavation of Indus civilization 4. Translations of world classics and valuable ancient books such as Arabian Nights, and scriptures like Bhagvad Gita by Charles Wilkins in 1785, and Vedas by Max Muller Orient culture is glorified in some of the post colonial English movies. The Oriental movies such as The Mummy (1932), Cleopatra (1934& 1963), Valley of the Kings (1954), Land of Pharaohs (1955) and so on. Conclusion: The Western people were really curious to know the Oriental culture. They were the people who first exposed these cultures to the entire world. They must be credited for it. It is the fact that no orient came forward to promote their cultural aspects and make them familiar to the world. It was Western who did it. The contribution of Occident in exploring the Orient culture is undoubtedly very crucial. I think this is the major advantage of imperialism that the alien cultures were explored and it made the Europeans as well as the Orients more matured and well knowledgeable. The approach of Occident towards Orients is not either completely good or completely bad. It is on the other had mixed and subjective. Westerners still sometimes have the colonial mindset, which does not allow them to think of Eastern culture with unbiased mind. Yet the superiority complex is there in them while judging the Eastern culture. According to me Said was not completely wrong when he blamed the Westerns for their approach towards the Orient art and culture. But at the same time Said should have studied another side of the coin also. The Westerners took efforts to promote the orient culture through literature, movies, art and architecture of the Orientals. If the British and French hand not established their colonies and imperialism in Asia and Africa, the world would have yet been away from the valuable cultural aspects of the Orients. In that case the Imperialism must be credited Sources: 1. Bush Barbara, (2002)“Imperialism, Race and Resistance: Africa and Britain, 1919 -1945, Published by Routledge p. 33 2. Dominic Lieven (2000) “Empire: The Russian Empires and Its Rivals.” Yale Univeristy Press taken from the website: http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/lieven-empire.html 3. Gordon Destiny (November 30, 2011) Were Economic Factors Primarily Responsible for British Imperialism, DCCC History Club Magazine 4. History of the Portuguese Empire from the website: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?historyid=ab48 5. Hobson “Imperialism: A Study” ,published by Cosimo P.8 6. John Mackenzie (1995) “Orientalism: History, Theory, and the Arts” Published by Manchester University Press. 7. Khalid Haroon (1994) 'An Introduction to Edward Said's Orientalism, Vitage Publishing. 8. Orientalist Structures and Restructures by Edward Said 9. Richard Netton (2013), 'Orientalism Revisited: Art, Land and Voyage, Routledge 10. Robert Irwin, 'For the lust of knowing: The Orientalists and Their Enemies, London Penguin Books p.6 Read More