#subaltern studies

Recovering Reparative Readings of Postcolonialism and Marxism -- Rahul Rao

The [socialist] response [to culturalism] was always this: yes there are cultural differences, but underneath those cultural differences are universal aspirations that all human beings have for certain material necessities, for self-determination, for self-realization, and this is why one opposes capitalism wherever it is. Otherwise, why oppose capitalism when it's imposed on Hindus? Maybe Hindus dig being dominated; maybe it's in them. Maybe that's why they have a caste system--the caste system is an internal urge on the part of Hindus to just grin and bear it, to be dominated. Maybe that's what they like. Maybe Muslim women like being dominated, maybe that's what they're into. Why do you impose your notions of feminism on them? And indeed the response to the rise of feminism in post-war India from the right was always to call them 'Western'. 'These are Western ideas, Western feminists.' What's Western about them? 'Indian women don't think this way. They like their place in society, they accept the Hindu mores.' The left had a response to this, which is: nonsense! The reason why: wherever there's oppression there's resistance. The reason why is that history is the history of class struggle...Why is there resistance? It's because regardless of whether you're brown or white, Hindu or Muslim, Christian or not, you have certain aspirations and certain needs. Postcolonial Theory is the first self-proclaimed radical theory to deny it, this universality of needs. Once you deny that, you cannot have a response to Samuel Huntington.  You can concoct one, you can pretend it's one, but you can't have it. ... What's the basis for labor solidarity across cultures? What's the basis for internationalism if it's not this substratum of common needs and aspirations that people have? It is the bedrock of all progressive politics. And if you, under the banner of rejecting universalism, also reject this universality that binds us, our 'common humanity', as the left used to say, you won't have much to stand on when the ultra-nationalists show up at your door...you won't have much to resist them, not intellectually anyway.