Just attended this event. I thought I’d share my notes on Twitter, if it can start a conversation. I haven’t read the book #InsurgentEmpire, but I guess it will be of interest to anyone interested in the topics of empire, anticolonisation, migrations, social movements…
@thariel and @PriyamvadaGopal mention they met in 2003 during a march against war in Irak. Hundreds of thousands of people were out on the streets, several times, but government still proceeded with that war.
In that aspect, one could argue the marches failed, but dissent still does matter in the long run: it inspires, it echoes…
It allows for some principles to stay topical, to stay articulate in the mainstream, to have a presence.
It allows for some principles to stay topical, to stay articulate in the mainstream, to have a presence.
#InsurgentEmpire talks about British dissent against empire, across the empire. Not pretending it led to the end of colonisation on its own but stating its importance in the process.
Historians at large probably tend to underestimate the value, the importance and the influence of dissent. Politicians would also tend to understate its importance for pretty obvious reasons, along with whitewashing history.
Today, whenever people protest, they’ve got a whole backstory of dissent, and today’s uprising events will also serve as a backbone for future dissent.
We’ve got a whole genealogy of anti-war and anticolonisation movements across the world we can look back on.
We’ve got a whole genealogy of anti-war and anticolonisation movements across the world we can look back on.
Freedom was never a gift of those who enslaved and those who colonised. Decolonisation was never a self-correcting British triumph.
There was dissidence and insurgencies against colonisation in India and across the colonial empire. The premise of #InsurgentEmpire is how come so little dissidence in mainland Britain was documented.
There were voices rising up against the mainstream in Britain. But this wasn’t home-grown: it was influenced by witnessing in one form or another anti-colonial movements across the world.
@NadineElEnany refers to Wilfrid Blunt, a travelling white British poet mentioned in #InsurgentEmpire who turned into an anticolonial writer.
The type of entitled character, who used to have most possible privileges without acknowledging it, with the time and money to run shoulders with Egypt’s leaders etc.
His transition to a supporter of anticolonisation is documented, as well as his pessimism about his contemporaneous state of affairs, and his lucidity about the whole storytelling, mythology and ideology around the empire.
#InsurgentEmpire is an invaluable to start a conversation, for example to counter someone who would say slave owners shouldn’t be judged with today’s eyes.
@NadineElEnany also mentions the invitation to start building an archive of social movements of dissent as a counter-narrative to mainstream, right-wing, whitewashing storytelling against any form of protest.
She tells a teenage memory of being blamed for not wearing a poppy while on reception duty, while having a fuzzy notion of the hypocrisy of it back then.
This kind of stories of school resistance is also a source of inspiration and as such could be part of an archive of dissent.
This kind of stories of school resistance is also a source of inspiration and as such could be part of an archive of dissent.
@DJLdistraction appreciates the scholarly communities and conversations that form online (on Twitter in particular).
Focusing on violence, he mentions the racism of the shifting British imperial views on violence and its reliance on masculinity: how some peoples are at times deemed too effeminate, and at other times too violent and animalistic.
There’s a masculine affirming aspect to gentlemanliness as well.
He mentions deflecting faults into other colonial powers within this gentlemanly discourse:
“We Britons weren’t as bad as the French”
“We Britons didn’t commit atrocities such as those the Belgians did in Congo”
“We Britons weren’t as bad as the French”
“We Britons didn’t commit atrocities such as those the Belgians did in Congo”
He also rises the question of who gets to be memorialised.
Gandhi gets memorialised as the legitimate, commendable role model. We make films about Gandhi. And he becomes the figurehead of non-violence and lukewarm uprisings, even though he was a lot more nuanced.
Gandhi gets memorialised as the legitimate, commendable role model. We make films about Gandhi. And he becomes the figurehead of non-violence and lukewarm uprisings, even though he was a lot more nuanced.
This is not only convenient as a way to deligitimise more agitated movements: it’s also linked to the idea freedom is given away to grown up former subjects, and credit is due to the colonial power in fine.
@PriyamvadaGopal steps in to mention the rejection of human rights by the BJP today in Jammu and Kashmir can also be understood as a western colonial import.
Awino Okech’s turn. She links anticolonisation movements in India to those in Africa.
She tells about the influence of university on dissent, as a place to articulate/formalise demands for social progress.
As an example of dissent feeding itself in a virtuous circle, she tells a story of a black student protest by a police station in Cape Town.
When the police started to threaten to use violence, white students stepped in and formed a cordon around the black students, indeed preventing the threats to be put to execution.
It’s important to remind people of the legacies, as a way to inspire to take the step, and to understand and elaborate on various strategies.
Archiving dissent has a sense in reminding what resistance means.
What it means to challenge far right movements. White supremacist movements. Nationalist movements.
What it means to challenge far right movements. White supremacist movements. Nationalist movements.
It can also be linked to other types of research and not only anticolonialism. Gender studies, feminist movements, queer movements, working to challenge far right movements.
Question time.
@PriyamvadaGopal talks about the refusal in Jamaica for freed slave to sell their labour power for a wage. They wanted instead to farm their own piece of land. The resistance movements most often are not fully theorised but more of a sum of individual demands.
It’s also articulating notions of freedom, and the scope of it. The western notion of freedom was often self-serving and limited.
Other question.
Decolonisation can be a notion taken hold of by nationalists as a way to promote some form of homogeneity on a territory.
Decolonisation can be a notion taken hold of by nationalists as a way to promote some form of homogeneity on a territory.
@PriyamvadaGopal isn’t keen to use “decolonialism” because it infers a pure state of pre-colonisation people could or even should aspire to get back to (danger with this notion in India today)
As of today, those in power in India aren’t anticolonialist. They don’t promote freedom, equality or human rights. When Britain left, freedom want restored, the power was handed over to Indian elite, to the upper caste.
Got a bit carried away and lost in taking notes on the Q&A session.
There’s also the central question today of truth vs. lies, the fact that today’s policies rely on lie, and the necessity and the duty to put the truth back to the centre, to fight for the truth again.
Creating an archive has got to be about campaigning on history and factuality to be recorded and promoted, and for history to be taught in the way it has to be taught.
Our job is to push back against the hegemony and to promote dissent.
Ok now a couple questions from me:
How do you fight for truth? how do you make this more than taking a vow/wishful thinking?
Is the archive of the factual history of dissent more than an informal pledge? Is it an actual project being worked on? If yes, it’s the very first time I hear about it: how do we promote it?
About the access to this kind of talks: speakers did seem to assume the audience was fully made of scholars and of students. That’s good for planting seeds, but how do you water the seeds then?
How do you get educated on this or find this kind of space for reflection/education if you’re not aware of this talk happening? If you don’t live in London? If you don’t live in the UK? If you don’t speak English?
Is there no responsibility for scholars to go to the people if the people don’t go to them? Politicians turn their back on experts, but the general public doesn’t. Experts just aren’t within reach.
Flood TV and the radio? Get involved in politics? Infiltrate far right parties (with the risk of mitigating our own positions and convictions)? Start a YouTube channel? Start partnerships with Lowkey and Akala? Politicise Beyoncé?
That’s all folks. Happy to discuss.
