THE IDEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF IMPERIALISM (2)

Psychology of Imperialism:

Imperialism is nothing but using power & force, and ensuring their stability & continued use. Power creates a special type of psychology. There are two sides to this psychology. One side is related to the ruler and the other to the ruled. A special type of psychology is created in the ruled people (or nation). The ruler or the imperialistic power has a distinct ideology. Authors like Octave Mannoni, Frantz Fanon, and Albert Memmi have explained the psychology that gets created due to imperialism and neo-colonialism.

Structured Violence:

Structured Violence is deeply rooted in the psychology of Imperialism. The colonies are a ground to execute violence. Frantz Fanon unveiling this psychology of Imperial power describes colony as “a place where an experience of violence and upheaval is lived, where violence is built into structure and institutions. It is implemented by persons of flesh and bone, such as the soldier, the administrator, the police officer, and the native chief. It is sustained by an imaginary - that is, an interrelated set of signs that present themselves, in every instance, as an indisputable and undisputed meaning. The violence insinuates itself into the economy, domestic life, language, consciousness.”

Frantz argues that “spirit of violence” is omnipresent, exposing the very psychology of imperial power. The imperial regime uses all legitimized means to extend violence.

Control over difference of opinion:

This is a primary psychology of power, and imperialism is incomplete without this. Critics and those having difference of opinion on imperial policies are taken into control by a particular methodology, and are kept in it directly or indirectly. This is the primary and the strongest specialty of imperialistic psychology. On the other hand those interpreters and policy makers who can be useful in the accomplishment imperialistic ideas are given opportunities. The primary function of imperial psychology is to decrease the difference of opinion in the field of politics, and to prove criticism and conflicts (with imperialism) meaningless.

Humiliation of the conquered nation:

This is the second prominent psychology of political imperialism. The imperial powers think that it’s their political right to humiliate the conquered nation. Different methods of humiliation of the conquered nations are fundamental to imperialistic psychology. By this humiliation they want to justify their rule; and the “growth” of oppressed is not possible without imperial support and aid. Orientalism developed as a science of study for this political project only.

Greed and Power: Weapon of Imperialists

Imperialist forces have always used greed and power to fulfill their ambitions. Psychologies evolve due to greed and power. As a result of force and power, the fear is imbibed in the seized nation. When this feeling of fear and greed makes space into the minds of the enslaved nation, it serves as a milestone towards the triumph of imperialist forces. To develop this feeling of fear, the concept of “terrorism” came into existence. In this way the terrorism is a political issue that came into being through imperialist ideology. So, the objective of the imperialist forces is to devise various policies to pull common man into fear and greed. For imperialist objectives, the force is used unsparingly irrespective of whether that is against our own people or not. Under this condition, it can be said that the nation has become imperialist.

New social order

The clear ideology of political imperialism is to, in the society where they wish to rule, devise an order for achievement of political aims. Sometimes this order contains division of the countries or religions, or sometimes to form the different worlds for rich and for poor. New social order is devised under the light of political aims and the idea, of dipping the groups into themselves so deep that they don’t remember each other, is not forgotten. No link between rich and poor is maintained. So, new social order is originated from imperialist ideology, and its real objective is the fulfillment of political aims

Awareness and philosophical enslavement

The last type of imperialist ideology is very obvious and also interesting. Imperialist ideology tries to enslave the awareness and ideology of the nation or community being ruled. It is done so that they never reach their consciousness and never feel that they are being subdued by others.

The other aspect of imperialism is emergence of the idea that force is the only source of victory: by adopting their education, science, culture and political policy can the suppressed ones develop. By using every source, the imperialist forces try to inculcate this thought or idea into the suppressed nations.

Now let me draw your attention towards a very important point. Imperialist ideologies and imperialist psychology are the two basic things which give rise to imperialism. The roots of imperialist nature, imperialist policy, imperialist culture, imperialist methodologies and imperialist exploitation are hidden in aforesaid two things. The deeper understanding we have on the above said two points, the more powerfully can we oppose them. Next important thing is that, for teaching and propagating imperialist ideas and psychologies, all the possible sources are used; therefore our literature, our art and our media are spent for this establishment. In the next chapter when we analyze imperialism in India the above said two points come to fore. On this basis we can form a view that to wage a war against imperialism, deeper understanding of imperialist ideas and psychology is indispensable.