Nativism in anti-Colonial Theory: Situating anti-Colonial Theorisation in Sequential Modernities

Ishan Fouzdar, Shiv Nadar University

Right-wing co-option of decolonial theorisations has resulted in the latter being charged with nativism. Specifically in the case of India, scholars have argued that Walter Mignolo’s call for ‘delinking’ from colonial modernity created a window for the Hindu Right to reject and replace values of liberty, equality and fraternity with a supremacist nativist ethos derived from ancient Brahmanical Hindu scriptures. However, does rejecting colonial modernity inherently breed nativism? Taking a step back, I ask: what generates nativism in anti-colonial theorisations? I tackle this question in three moves. First, I place this question within the debate of deparochialising political theory/justice. The central concern of this debate was thus: should non-Western theorisation critically engage with the European Enlightenment or reject it in toto. Secondly, I move towards addressing this debate. Instead of an either/or approach, I make a case for contextualising the theoretical choice based on Sudipta Kaviraj’s conception of sequential modernity. Kaviraj’s conception enables one to examine the role that colonies played in shaping modernity. The choice between rejection and critical engagement, therefore, should be based on the colonial experience of colonised communities. Finally, by historically examining the anti-colonial discourse of the Indian freedom movement through reading key works of Rabindranath Tagore, BR Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru, I show that the Indian anti-colonial movement critically engaged with colonial modernity. Therefore, building from this experiential foundation, I argue that anti-colonial theorisations from India should critically engage with Enlightenment thought schools. Conversely, I show that when this context of modernity is ignored, and a delinking approach emerging out of the colonial context of Latin America is imposed on India, nativism creeps in. This explains Hindutva’s nativist co-option. Furthermore, it also enables one to think about theorisations from the Global South without romanticising and reinforcing the hierarchies of the South.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 153. Colonialism, Decolonization, and Racial Capitalism