Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195144260
- eISBN:
- 9780199833931
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195144260.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
In Malaya and India, the British devised a system of indirect rule whereby they relied on local norms, social organizations, and indigenous institutions of authority such as landlords and sultans who ...
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In Malaya and India, the British devised a system of indirect rule whereby they relied on local norms, social organizations, and indigenous institutions of authority such as landlords and sultans who managed the daily lives of their subjects but were controlled by the British through treaties. Both the colonial states used patronage to rule, creating dependencies between local authorities and the colonial state, and also creating economic, legal, and social structures that, along with the patronage, divided the society vertically.Less
In Malaya and India, the British devised a system of indirect rule whereby they relied on local norms, social organizations, and indigenous institutions of authority such as landlords and sultans who managed the daily lives of their subjects but were controlled by the British through treaties. Both the colonial states used patronage to rule, creating dependencies between local authorities and the colonial state, and also creating economic, legal, and social structures that, along with the patronage, divided the society vertically.
R. D. Grillo
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294269
- eISBN:
- 9780191599378
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294263.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The colonial state represented a new type of polity, which emerged from the sixteenth century onwards. Colonial states, such as Spain, in the Americas, and Britain and France in Africa, differed ...
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The colonial state represented a new type of polity, which emerged from the sixteenth century onwards. Colonial states, such as Spain, in the Americas, and Britain and France in Africa, differed fundamentally from patrimonial polities that had little interest in ‘civilizing’ and transforming their subjects, even if they thought them ‘barbarian’. Although extraction remained a fundamental objective, colonial states also sought to transform societies and cultures. In fulfilling this ‘dual mandate’ they anticipated and, in certain respects, epitomized modernity, as did French colonial policies of assimilation, grounded in the ideals of the Revolution and the Enlightenment. At the same time, opposition to the theory and practice of assimilation led both France and Britain towards the creation or retrenchment of ‘difference’, institutionalizing tribal identity, and tribalism, in the political process through forms of indirect rule.Less
The colonial state represented a new type of polity, which emerged from the sixteenth century onwards. Colonial states, such as Spain, in the Americas, and Britain and France in Africa, differed fundamentally from patrimonial polities that had little interest in ‘civilizing’ and transforming their subjects, even if they thought them ‘barbarian’. Although extraction remained a fundamental objective, colonial states also sought to transform societies and cultures. In fulfilling this ‘dual mandate’ they anticipated and, in certain respects, epitomized modernity, as did French colonial policies of assimilation, grounded in the ideals of the Revolution and the Enlightenment. At the same time, opposition to the theory and practice of assimilation led both France and Britain towards the creation or retrenchment of ‘difference’, institutionalizing tribal identity, and tribalism, in the political process through forms of indirect rule.
MIGUEL BANDEIRA JERÓNIMO
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265246
- eISBN:
- 9780191754197
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265246.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This chapter examines the continuity and the resilience of slavery and other modes of forced or compulsory labour in the Portuguese colonial empire in Africa from the late nineteenth century. ...
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This chapter examines the continuity and the resilience of slavery and other modes of forced or compulsory labour in the Portuguese colonial empire in Africa from the late nineteenth century. Addressing the major transformations of the political and moral economy of the ‘new Brazil’, it demonstrates how longstanding racial ideologies were crucial to the formulation of the country's doctrine of a civilising mission and to the development of the successive native policies that governed colonial populations – especially the native labour policy that legalised forced labour until the 1960s.Less
This chapter examines the continuity and the resilience of slavery and other modes of forced or compulsory labour in the Portuguese colonial empire in Africa from the late nineteenth century. Addressing the major transformations of the political and moral economy of the ‘new Brazil’, it demonstrates how longstanding racial ideologies were crucial to the formulation of the country's doctrine of a civilising mission and to the development of the successive native policies that governed colonial populations – especially the native labour policy that legalised forced labour until the 1960s.
Diana S. Kim
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691172408
- eISBN:
- 9780691199696
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691172408.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This introductory chapter establishes the bureaucracy as a major player in the prohibition of opium in Southeast Asian colonial government. It argues that local administrators stationed in each ...
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This introductory chapter establishes the bureaucracy as a major player in the prohibition of opium in Southeast Asian colonial government. It argues that local administrators stationed in each colony are key to understanding when and how drug reforms were possible. Prohibition involved unraveling a state's deep-seated opium entanglements—a process enabled by a loss of confidence deep within the bureaucracy about the drug's contributions to colonial government. Local administrators played a pivotal role in constructing official problems, which internally eroded the legitimacy of opium's commercial life for European colonial states across Southeast Asia. From here, the chapter discusses the possible contributions such a study into bureaucracies and opium can make for scholarship, and also presents the method and sources underpinning this work.Less
This introductory chapter establishes the bureaucracy as a major player in the prohibition of opium in Southeast Asian colonial government. It argues that local administrators stationed in each colony are key to understanding when and how drug reforms were possible. Prohibition involved unraveling a state's deep-seated opium entanglements—a process enabled by a loss of confidence deep within the bureaucracy about the drug's contributions to colonial government. Local administrators played a pivotal role in constructing official problems, which internally eroded the legitimacy of opium's commercial life for European colonial states across Southeast Asia. From here, the chapter discusses the possible contributions such a study into bureaucracies and opium can make for scholarship, and also presents the method and sources underpinning this work.
Diana S. Kim
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691172408
- eISBN:
- 9780691199696
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691172408.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter presents the guiding concepts, theoretical claims, and analytical frameworks that guide the book. It shows how colonial states came to ban opium consumption, a once permissible vice that ...
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This chapter presents the guiding concepts, theoretical claims, and analytical frameworks that guide the book. It shows how colonial states came to ban opium consumption, a once permissible vice that they had taxed and justified collecting revenue from. The chapter reveals that the change was the product of longstanding tensions within the colonial bureaucracies. The everyday work of managing opium markets involved makeshift solutions to small problems that accumulated over time and escalated into large perceived challenges to the legitimacy of colonial governance. Local administrators played a key role in this process by constructing social, fiscal, and financial problems relating to opium, through their everyday work. The chapter lays out this argument in detail, while clarifying definitions of colonial vice, prohibition, and the state that the book uses throughout.Less
This chapter presents the guiding concepts, theoretical claims, and analytical frameworks that guide the book. It shows how colonial states came to ban opium consumption, a once permissible vice that they had taxed and justified collecting revenue from. The chapter reveals that the change was the product of longstanding tensions within the colonial bureaucracies. The everyday work of managing opium markets involved makeshift solutions to small problems that accumulated over time and escalated into large perceived challenges to the legitimacy of colonial governance. Local administrators played a key role in this process by constructing social, fiscal, and financial problems relating to opium, through their everyday work. The chapter lays out this argument in detail, while clarifying definitions of colonial vice, prohibition, and the state that the book uses throughout.
Sanjay Sharma
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195653861
- eISBN:
- 9780199081653
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195653861.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This book examines the lesser known aspects of the colonial state through the lens of the many famines and famine induced crimes which affected north India as it emerged from the ‘chaotic’ eighteenth ...
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This book examines the lesser known aspects of the colonial state through the lens of the many famines and famine induced crimes which affected north India as it emerged from the ‘chaotic’ eighteenth century. It situates the 1837-8 famine in the political, ideological and economic processes of the colonial state which, paradoxically, continued to advocate laissez faire even as it’s humanitarian and pragmatic concerns (including fears of disorder) resulted in a series of interventionist policies. In this it was aided by a growth in missionary activity, with institutions being created for ‘famine-orphans.’ The assumption of new responsibilities resulted in the expansion of the state’s infrastructure which helped it derive legitimacy by being perceived as the ultimate repository of philanthropy. By the 1880s, popular perception saw the responsibility for famine relief having shifted clearly to the colonial state. However, the author also argues that while the state was forced into actions mitigating the most disruptive aspects of famines, it did not feel obliged to address its real causes, i.e. the problems of structural mass poverty. By the end of the nineteenth century, this became a key element in the critique of colonialism by early Indian nationalists wanting freedom from colonial rule.Less
This book examines the lesser known aspects of the colonial state through the lens of the many famines and famine induced crimes which affected north India as it emerged from the ‘chaotic’ eighteenth century. It situates the 1837-8 famine in the political, ideological and economic processes of the colonial state which, paradoxically, continued to advocate laissez faire even as it’s humanitarian and pragmatic concerns (including fears of disorder) resulted in a series of interventionist policies. In this it was aided by a growth in missionary activity, with institutions being created for ‘famine-orphans.’ The assumption of new responsibilities resulted in the expansion of the state’s infrastructure which helped it derive legitimacy by being perceived as the ultimate repository of philanthropy. By the 1880s, popular perception saw the responsibility for famine relief having shifted clearly to the colonial state. However, the author also argues that while the state was forced into actions mitigating the most disruptive aspects of famines, it did not feel obliged to address its real causes, i.e. the problems of structural mass poverty. By the end of the nineteenth century, this became a key element in the critique of colonialism by early Indian nationalists wanting freedom from colonial rule.
Saurabh Mishra
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198070603
- eISBN:
- 9780199080007
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198070603.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The last few decades of the nineteenth century heralded a period of intense anti-British Muslim politics in the subcontinent, and Mecca was at the centre of real or perceived insurgent activities. ...
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The last few decades of the nineteenth century heralded a period of intense anti-British Muslim politics in the subcontinent, and Mecca was at the centre of real or perceived insurgent activities. Subjects such as the pilgrimage to Mecca were discussed extensively and debated intensely, but the veneer of inactivity (in terms of the status quo maintained with regard to actual policies) camouflaged the many seething apprehensions. A close watch was kept on the pilgrimage arrangements, and the situation within ‘Arabia’ in general, but this did not appear to lead to any concrete interventionist measures. As the politics of pan-Islamism intensified, the colonial state appeared almost to be in a state of semi-paralysis as far as deeply religious subjects were concerned. This chapter explores the dynamics of this inactivity and reveals the frenzy that caused this paralysis.Less
The last few decades of the nineteenth century heralded a period of intense anti-British Muslim politics in the subcontinent, and Mecca was at the centre of real or perceived insurgent activities. Subjects such as the pilgrimage to Mecca were discussed extensively and debated intensely, but the veneer of inactivity (in terms of the status quo maintained with regard to actual policies) camouflaged the many seething apprehensions. A close watch was kept on the pilgrimage arrangements, and the situation within ‘Arabia’ in general, but this did not appear to lead to any concrete interventionist measures. As the politics of pan-Islamism intensified, the colonial state appeared almost to be in a state of semi-paralysis as far as deeply religious subjects were concerned. This chapter explores the dynamics of this inactivity and reveals the frenzy that caused this paralysis.
Diana S. Kim
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691172408
- eISBN:
- 9780691199696
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691172408.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter traces the lasting legacies of the opium monopolies. It links the infrastructures they established for restricting opium's commercial life to the region's post-World War II illicit opium ...
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This chapter traces the lasting legacies of the opium monopolies. It links the infrastructures they established for restricting opium's commercial life to the region's post-World War II illicit opium economies and harshly punitive laws against drug trafficking. The chapter also utilizes a set of historical photographs to dwell on what alternative visions of state power and perspectives on vulnerability are rendered visible by better understanding the colonial history of opium prohibition. In addition, this chapter dwells on what has become invisible and taken for granted about the power of the state in the realm of opium and drug addiction. It concludes by addressing the analytical and normative implications to understanding the colonial administrative state in light of its fragilities and reinterpreting bureaucratic discretion as a creative act of problem solving.Less
This chapter traces the lasting legacies of the opium monopolies. It links the infrastructures they established for restricting opium's commercial life to the region's post-World War II illicit opium economies and harshly punitive laws against drug trafficking. The chapter also utilizes a set of historical photographs to dwell on what alternative visions of state power and perspectives on vulnerability are rendered visible by better understanding the colonial history of opium prohibition. In addition, this chapter dwells on what has become invisible and taken for granted about the power of the state in the realm of opium and drug addiction. It concludes by addressing the analytical and normative implications to understanding the colonial administrative state in light of its fragilities and reinterpreting bureaucratic discretion as a creative act of problem solving.
Ma Ngok
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622098107
- eISBN:
- 9789882207271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622098107.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Political History
While the colonial state's nature may be portrayed through contrasting images, the most common of these entails how Hong Kong is perceived as a minimalist laissez-faire state. Although there may have ...
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While the colonial state's nature may be portrayed through contrasting images, the most common of these entails how Hong Kong is perceived as a minimalist laissez-faire state. Although there may have been debates on whether the Hong Kong state was indeed non-interventionist, the political and social changes experienced since the 1980s have nonetheless proved the “minimalist state” description inadequate for studying the current situation in Hong Kong. This chapter provides a review of the state's contrasting images—the minimalist state and the interventionist state—and then discusses the various changes that initiated the changes to the state and Hong Kong's society relations. Both of these images are found to be state centered and have failed to account for the role of societal forces. As such, a corporatist image is also suggested.Less
While the colonial state's nature may be portrayed through contrasting images, the most common of these entails how Hong Kong is perceived as a minimalist laissez-faire state. Although there may have been debates on whether the Hong Kong state was indeed non-interventionist, the political and social changes experienced since the 1980s have nonetheless proved the “minimalist state” description inadequate for studying the current situation in Hong Kong. This chapter provides a review of the state's contrasting images—the minimalist state and the interventionist state—and then discusses the various changes that initiated the changes to the state and Hong Kong's society relations. Both of these images are found to be state centered and have failed to account for the role of societal forces. As such, a corporatist image is also suggested.
David French
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199587964
- eISBN:
- 9780191731365
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587964.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Military History
British colonies were not failed states, but they were sometimes fragile states. The Colonial civil service was tiny compared to the territory and the number of people that it governed. Colonial ...
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British colonies were not failed states, but they were sometimes fragile states. The Colonial civil service was tiny compared to the territory and the number of people that it governed. Colonial police forces were small, badly trained and under equipped, and their domestic intelligence services were frequently inadequate. In an emergency they could summon military help. But the number of soldiers that could be sent was itself limited, both by the strategic necessity of deploying most of the army in a conventional role elsewhere, by shortages of money that made it impossible to tap more than a small proportion of the potential military manpower of the colonies themselves, and by political constraints on deploying that manpower even when it had been raised.Less
British colonies were not failed states, but they were sometimes fragile states. The Colonial civil service was tiny compared to the territory and the number of people that it governed. Colonial police forces were small, badly trained and under equipped, and their domestic intelligence services were frequently inadequate. In an emergency they could summon military help. But the number of soldiers that could be sent was itself limited, both by the strategic necessity of deploying most of the army in a conventional role elsewhere, by shortages of money that made it impossible to tap more than a small proportion of the potential military manpower of the colonies themselves, and by political constraints on deploying that manpower even when it had been raised.
Michael Jennings
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719089671
- eISBN:
- 9781526104366
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719089671.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
Histories of colonial medicine in sub-Saharan Africa have tended to focus on the role of the colonial state in establishing and running health systems. Where voluntary agency roles have been ...
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Histories of colonial medicine in sub-Saharan Africa have tended to focus on the role of the colonial state in establishing and running health systems. Where voluntary agency roles have been considered, it has presented them as operating outside that system, independent and isolated. This chapter explores how voluntary (mission) sector health service providers interacted with the colonial state in creating a health system in Tanganyika characterised by its public-private hybridity. Mission health providers were formally made part of the country's health system, a process that led to the creation of a distinct ‘voluntary sector’ which continued to shape non-state action in social development and welfare after independence. The colonial state relied upon voluntary sector engagement to meet (however partially) its obligations in health care provision; and the missions saw their incorporation into the official health system as an opportunity to exercise greater power in helping to shape health policy and direction, as well as a means to ensure their primacy as non-state voluntary actors.Less
Histories of colonial medicine in sub-Saharan Africa have tended to focus on the role of the colonial state in establishing and running health systems. Where voluntary agency roles have been considered, it has presented them as operating outside that system, independent and isolated. This chapter explores how voluntary (mission) sector health service providers interacted with the colonial state in creating a health system in Tanganyika characterised by its public-private hybridity. Mission health providers were formally made part of the country's health system, a process that led to the creation of a distinct ‘voluntary sector’ which continued to shape non-state action in social development and welfare after independence. The colonial state relied upon voluntary sector engagement to meet (however partially) its obligations in health care provision; and the missions saw their incorporation into the official health system as an opportunity to exercise greater power in helping to shape health policy and direction, as well as a means to ensure their primacy as non-state voluntary actors.
C. A. Bayly
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198077466
- eISBN:
- 9780199081110
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077466.003.0023
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
This chapter discusses some aspects of urban society which provided a background to all these conflicts, specifically rapid population movement and poverty. It explains that relationship between ...
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This chapter discusses some aspects of urban society which provided a background to all these conflicts, specifically rapid population movement and poverty. It explains that relationship between political power, elite consumption, trade and the agrarian society established in the mid-eighteenth century had come under pressure by 1830 and this pressure originated in the incompatibility of the colonial state and the Indian successor regimes to the Mughal Empire. It argues that many conflicts between different social groups reflect the changing role of the state. The British had eroded the old forms of government and redistribution without replacing them with new system.Less
This chapter discusses some aspects of urban society which provided a background to all these conflicts, specifically rapid population movement and poverty. It explains that relationship between political power, elite consumption, trade and the agrarian society established in the mid-eighteenth century had come under pressure by 1830 and this pressure originated in the incompatibility of the colonial state and the Indian successor regimes to the Mughal Empire. It argues that many conflicts between different social groups reflect the changing role of the state. The British had eroded the old forms of government and redistribution without replacing them with new system.
Anindita Mukhopadhyay
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195680836
- eISBN:
- 9780199080700
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195680836.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This book investigates the deeper area of class antagonism between the privileged and underprivileged classes as they faced the colonial state and its different ideas of legality and sovereignty in ...
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This book investigates the deeper area of class antagonism between the privileged and underprivileged classes as they faced the colonial state and its different ideas of legality and sovereignty in colonial Bengal. It examines the ambiguity in the bhadralok — the educated middle class — response to courts and jails. The author argues that the discourse of superior ‘bhadralok’ ethics and morals was juxtaposed against the ‘chhotolok’ — who were devoid of such ethical values. This enabled the bhadralok to claim for themselves the position of the ‘aware’ legal subject as a class — a ‘good’ subject obedient to the dictates of the new rule of law, unlike the recalcitrant and ethically ill-equipped chhotolok. The author underlines the development of a new cultural language of morality that delineated the parameters of bhadralok public behaviour. As the ‘rule of law’ of the British government slid unobtrusively into the public domain, the criminal courts and the jails turned into public theatres of infamy — spaces that the ethically bound bhadralok dreaded occupying. The volume, thus, documents how the colonial legal and penal institutions streamlined the identities of some sections of the lower castes into ‘criminal caste’. It also examines the nature of colonial bureaucracy and highlights the social silence on gender and women's criminality.Less
This book investigates the deeper area of class antagonism between the privileged and underprivileged classes as they faced the colonial state and its different ideas of legality and sovereignty in colonial Bengal. It examines the ambiguity in the bhadralok — the educated middle class — response to courts and jails. The author argues that the discourse of superior ‘bhadralok’ ethics and morals was juxtaposed against the ‘chhotolok’ — who were devoid of such ethical values. This enabled the bhadralok to claim for themselves the position of the ‘aware’ legal subject as a class — a ‘good’ subject obedient to the dictates of the new rule of law, unlike the recalcitrant and ethically ill-equipped chhotolok. The author underlines the development of a new cultural language of morality that delineated the parameters of bhadralok public behaviour. As the ‘rule of law’ of the British government slid unobtrusively into the public domain, the criminal courts and the jails turned into public theatres of infamy — spaces that the ethically bound bhadralok dreaded occupying. The volume, thus, documents how the colonial legal and penal institutions streamlined the identities of some sections of the lower castes into ‘criminal caste’. It also examines the nature of colonial bureaucracy and highlights the social silence on gender and women's criminality.
Jeremy Krikler
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203803
- eISBN:
- 9780191675997
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203803.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This is a study of rural society and struggle in the Transvaal during the watershed period of the early 20th century. Though much has been written about the South African War and the ‘Reconstruction’ ...
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This is a study of rural society and struggle in the Transvaal during the watershed period of the early 20th century. Though much has been written about the South African War and the ‘Reconstruction’ period, this is the first analysis of their impact on the agrarian Transvaal. The book analyses the ‘Revolution from Above’ unleashed by British imperialism as it wrought changes of immense significance for the countryside. It explores the relationships between landowners and peasants, traces the struggle between them, and examines the agrarian changes attempted by the British after the war. The book aims to contribute to our understanding of the South African War and its aftermath. It also offers insights into peasant struggles, and into the nature of private property and the colonial state in the Transvaal.Less
This is a study of rural society and struggle in the Transvaal during the watershed period of the early 20th century. Though much has been written about the South African War and the ‘Reconstruction’ period, this is the first analysis of their impact on the agrarian Transvaal. The book analyses the ‘Revolution from Above’ unleashed by British imperialism as it wrought changes of immense significance for the countryside. It explores the relationships between landowners and peasants, traces the struggle between them, and examines the agrarian changes attempted by the British after the war. The book aims to contribute to our understanding of the South African War and its aftermath. It also offers insights into peasant struggles, and into the nature of private property and the colonial state in the Transvaal.
Eliza Wing-yee Lee
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789888083497
- eISBN:
- 9789882209107
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888083497.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines political organisation in Hong Kong from the point of view of local governance, and argues that the post-colonial government has continued to rely on structures and machinery ...
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This chapter examines political organisation in Hong Kong from the point of view of local governance, and argues that the post-colonial government has continued to rely on structures and machinery created by the colonial state for support and legitimacy. Her study of citizens' mobilisation in reaction to urban renewal plans in Wanchai is a case study of how a defensive concern group centring originally on compensation and relocation transformed itself into an activist body demanding, albeit without immediate success, a voice in urban planning.Less
This chapter examines political organisation in Hong Kong from the point of view of local governance, and argues that the post-colonial government has continued to rely on structures and machinery created by the colonial state for support and legitimacy. Her study of citizens' mobilisation in reaction to urban renewal plans in Wanchai is a case study of how a defensive concern group centring originally on compensation and relocation transformed itself into an activist body demanding, albeit without immediate success, a voice in urban planning.
Stephen Morton
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781846318498
- eISBN:
- 9781781380758
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846318498.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to demonstrate the important contribution of writing and literary fiction to understanding the relationship between colonialism, ...
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This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to demonstrate the important contribution of writing and literary fiction to understanding the relationship between colonialism, law and political violence in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Specifically, it assesses the multiple and conflicting ways in which literary and cultural texts have either contributed to and/or interrogated the necessity for emergency legislation across a range of different historical and political contexts. The chapter then examines one of the foundational critical texts on states of emergency: Benjamin's Eighth Thesis on the concept of history. It goes on to discuss the literature of empire — an important resource for understanding the legal and extra-legal nuances of colonial states of emergency. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to demonstrate the important contribution of writing and literary fiction to understanding the relationship between colonialism, law and political violence in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Specifically, it assesses the multiple and conflicting ways in which literary and cultural texts have either contributed to and/or interrogated the necessity for emergency legislation across a range of different historical and political contexts. The chapter then examines one of the foundational critical texts on states of emergency: Benjamin's Eighth Thesis on the concept of history. It goes on to discuss the literature of empire — an important resource for understanding the legal and extra-legal nuances of colonial states of emergency. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Michael Laffan
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691145303
- eISBN:
- 9781400839995
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691145303.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter shows how, with the rise of a national movement couched by some of the actors in terms of Islam, the advisors and their reformist fellow-travelers would be blamed and marginalized by a ...
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This chapter shows how, with the rise of a national movement couched by some of the actors in terms of Islam, the advisors and their reformist fellow-travelers would be blamed and marginalized by a reactionary colonial state, just in time for the Japanese occupation. The disastrous events of the Afdeeling B and its aftermath did not immediately destroy the relationship between the colonial advisors and the state, but they showed only too clearly that matters modern were not resolved. They also empowered forces whose ascent would result in the practical excommunication of the Office for Native Affairs from key decisions impacting the lives of Indonesians disabused of the promises of colonial tutelage. The campaigners of Sarekat Islam and related bodies would be forced to withdraw as well from a political field increasingly dominated by nationalist and communist agitators, who directed their rhetorical attacks at those they believed had engendered the pervasive backwardness of Indonesians.Less
This chapter shows how, with the rise of a national movement couched by some of the actors in terms of Islam, the advisors and their reformist fellow-travelers would be blamed and marginalized by a reactionary colonial state, just in time for the Japanese occupation. The disastrous events of the Afdeeling B and its aftermath did not immediately destroy the relationship between the colonial advisors and the state, but they showed only too clearly that matters modern were not resolved. They also empowered forces whose ascent would result in the practical excommunication of the Office for Native Affairs from key decisions impacting the lives of Indonesians disabused of the promises of colonial tutelage. The campaigners of Sarekat Islam and related bodies would be forced to withdraw as well from a political field increasingly dominated by nationalist and communist agitators, who directed their rhetorical attacks at those they believed had engendered the pervasive backwardness of Indonesians.
Diana S. Kim
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691172408
- eISBN:
- 9780691199696
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691172408.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter looks to Indochina in the 1920s, when the French colonial state was reporting comparably high shares of revenue from opium taxes to British Malaya. It identifies a very different set of ...
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This chapter looks to Indochina in the 1920s, when the French colonial state was reporting comparably high shares of revenue from opium taxes to British Malaya. It identifies a very different set of concerns animating local administrators who misreported official revenue numbers while struggling to manage an opium monopoly that ran itself into bankruptcy. The chapter traces a process through which a minor accounting measure in 1925, originally designed to allow emergency liquidity for purchasing foreign opium, became an entrenched mechanism for artificially balancing the budget, which slowly accumulated into a crisis of overdrawn accounts and unpaid debts that threatened the financial viability of colonial government. These were known as the cessions fictives. While at first a minor accounting practice within the legal boundaries of colonial administration, these cessions fictives were repeated in following years and became an entrenched mechanism for balancing the colony's budget.Less
This chapter looks to Indochina in the 1920s, when the French colonial state was reporting comparably high shares of revenue from opium taxes to British Malaya. It identifies a very different set of concerns animating local administrators who misreported official revenue numbers while struggling to manage an opium monopoly that ran itself into bankruptcy. The chapter traces a process through which a minor accounting measure in 1925, originally designed to allow emergency liquidity for purchasing foreign opium, became an entrenched mechanism for artificially balancing the budget, which slowly accumulated into a crisis of overdrawn accounts and unpaid debts that threatened the financial viability of colonial government. These were known as the cessions fictives. While at first a minor accounting practice within the legal boundaries of colonial administration, these cessions fictives were repeated in following years and became an entrenched mechanism for balancing the colony's budget.
Diana S. Kim
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691172408
- eISBN:
- 9780691199696
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691172408.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This concluding chapter reflects on the analytical and normative significance to this book's approach toward colonial bureaucracies and inner anxieties of the administrative state. Understanding this ...
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This concluding chapter reflects on the analytical and normative significance to this book's approach toward colonial bureaucracies and inner anxieties of the administrative state. Understanding this bureaucratic dynamic in the historical context of Southeast Asia provides a theoretical opportunity for scholars of colonialism and the modern state to rethink some basic assumptions about why and how rulers govern. The interrelated analytical and normative implications to this alternative understanding orients attention away from the loud hubris of power toward the quiet trepidations of those who govern. To begin by thinking along with welcome approaches to reconceptualizing the state in light of its complexity and “many hands, functions, and forms of power,” political scientists gain reason to assume less coherence behind motivations for bureaucratic projects that adjust and advance the state's fiscal reach. If there are context-specific regulatory histories and ambivalent administrative actors, then rationales for policies altering the scope of taxation and depth of social control must differ depending on how bureaucracies reflect on their own pasts and construct problems internally. It follows that retrospective assessments, ways of archiving official records, and interpretation by low-level administrators may define reasons that higher officials take for granted as imperatives for state action.Less
This concluding chapter reflects on the analytical and normative significance to this book's approach toward colonial bureaucracies and inner anxieties of the administrative state. Understanding this bureaucratic dynamic in the historical context of Southeast Asia provides a theoretical opportunity for scholars of colonialism and the modern state to rethink some basic assumptions about why and how rulers govern. The interrelated analytical and normative implications to this alternative understanding orients attention away from the loud hubris of power toward the quiet trepidations of those who govern. To begin by thinking along with welcome approaches to reconceptualizing the state in light of its complexity and “many hands, functions, and forms of power,” political scientists gain reason to assume less coherence behind motivations for bureaucratic projects that adjust and advance the state's fiscal reach. If there are context-specific regulatory histories and ambivalent administrative actors, then rationales for policies altering the scope of taxation and depth of social control must differ depending on how bureaucracies reflect on their own pasts and construct problems internally. It follows that retrospective assessments, ways of archiving official records, and interpretation by low-level administrators may define reasons that higher officials take for granted as imperatives for state action.
Ma Ngok
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622098107
- eISBN:
- 9789882207271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622098107.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Political History
Hong Kong's political landscape underwent a major change after the start of the political transition in 1984. Aside from how the Chinese government attempted to build its post-1997 ruling elites ...
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Hong Kong's political landscape underwent a major change after the start of the political transition in 1984. Aside from how the Chinese government attempted to build its post-1997 ruling elites corps through a united-front strategy, representatives and political groups utilized competitive elections to achieve public power because of gradual democratization. In response to such efforts, the business elites entered a conservative partnership with China's government so that their position would be retained. Socioeconomic changes have also initiated the less interventionist state's regulatory role, which resulted in the administrative state gaining several governmental or quasi-governmental bodies. The quasi-governmental bodies that resulted from the public sector reform created alternative decision-making loci. This chapter examines how these competing forces determined the post-colonial state.Less
Hong Kong's political landscape underwent a major change after the start of the political transition in 1984. Aside from how the Chinese government attempted to build its post-1997 ruling elites corps through a united-front strategy, representatives and political groups utilized competitive elections to achieve public power because of gradual democratization. In response to such efforts, the business elites entered a conservative partnership with China's government so that their position would be retained. Socioeconomic changes have also initiated the less interventionist state's regulatory role, which resulted in the administrative state gaining several governmental or quasi-governmental bodies. The quasi-governmental bodies that resulted from the public sector reform created alternative decision-making loci. This chapter examines how these competing forces determined the post-colonial state.
