Since the beginning of time, the term "imperialism" has been employed in a variety of settings. Unfortunately, these situations have typically been passionate and unpleasant. Such perception can be due to the fact that imperialism, in its broadest sense, entails one superior society submitting to another culture in order to benefit from it and obtain advantages. For the purposes of geographical expansion, economic dominance, and political sway, imperialism entails the temporary exercise of power and control. The word has a lengthy and well-documented political history. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, European imperialism was quite active and played a vital role in disproving the idea of imperialism. Prior to its negative connotation, imperialism was widely used by most statesmen to declare their reach into other territories by preaching economic, political and social advancements to their subjects. Nonetheless, imperialism had several forms and was older than Europe. Significant forms include the Romans and the Mediterranean territory and Great Britain’s imperialism of Africa and free trade. Imperialism also has its positive impacts. Such include economic growth through exploitation of local resources, introduction of improved formal education, spread of indigenous languages, and improved healthcare. However, imperialism also has significant economic, political, social and psychological negative effects on both the rulers and their subjects. Negative impacts of imperialism include racial discrimination, destruction of local culture and religion, and destruction and loss of lives and property especially where extensive force is applied. Psychologically, as Connell, Nandy and Orwell observe, imperialism has profoundly damaging and devastating psychological impacts. This paper thus seeks to examine their arguments and the examples they offer to illustrate their arguments and furthermore find the most convincing argument and give an explanation for it.
R.W. Connell has popularized the hegemonic masculinity as a form of negative psychological imperialistic impact. Hegemonic masculinity is a field of gender studies that is included in the gender order theory as popularized by Connell in his book “Masculinities” (R.W. Connell, 2005). In his book, “What is Hegemonic Masculinity?” in Theory and Society, Mike Donaldson outlines hegemonic masculinity as a social configuration that allows for marginalized ways of being a man especially men’s dominance in society and justifies the subordination of women by men. Subsequently, R.W. Connell uses this to explain why men purposefully maintain dominance over women and other feminine roles in the society as a psychological impacts of imperialism. In his argument, hegemonic masculinity draws its nature from the cultural hegemony theory developed by Antonio Gramsci who was a Marxist theorist. In Cultural Hegemony, Gramsci analyzed the relationship between powers of the different social classes of a particular society. The foundations of Connell’s hegemonic masculinity theory was that of cultural origins that made manhood exclusively concerned with bread-winning and was differentiated internally from the pseudo-natural, tough, violent and contradictory.
Ashis Nandy, on the other hand, has extensively written about the psychological impacts of imperialism and colonization both to the ruler and those who are ruled over. In his book, “The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self after Colonialism”, Nandy argues that self-understanding can be drawn from an in-depth comprehension of the race, religion and social classes under imperialism. Subsequently, Nandy illustrates the example of the Gandhian Movement as a psychological attempt by Indians to push educated Indians in order to move up the political ladder and endeavor for independence in a non-violent mode.
Orwellian is nowadays used to describe authoritarian social practices. The term together with other neologisms were popularized by George Orwell who was a journalist, writer and critic of social injustice and authoritarianism. He was an adept democratic socialist. He is significantly remembered for his works during the imperialistic era. In his essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, G. Orwell initializes his opposition of imperialism and uses a Burmese elephant as a metaphor to illustrate the impacts of imperialism including psychological impacts.
In conclusion, despite George Orwell and Ashis Nandy having profound and significant arguments, R.W. Connell’s argument is the most convincing. Connell’s argument uses gender subordination and discrimination which is a psychological menace in the society up to date. Using hegemonic masculinity, Connell argues that men’s dominance over women is a devastating psychological result of imperialism. Hegemonic masculinity traces back to the Marxist era which was a rapidly imperialistic time and it draws its nature from the cultural hegemony theory developed by Antonio Gramsci who was a Marxist theorist. Cultural hegemony involved the study of the relationship between powers of the different social classes of a particular society. Initially, manhood was exclusively concerned with protection and bread-winning. However, due to the experiences of imperialism, manhood was differentiated internally and by society. Tough, violent, pseudo-natural and contradictory men became associated with economic, social and political power and dominance. Connell’s argument is thus the most convincing argument that imperialism has profound psychological impacts on the rulers and on those who they rule over.
Works Cited
R.W. Connell (2005). Masculinities. Second Edition. Berkeley, CA. University of California Press.
M. Donaldson (1993). What is Hegemonic Masculinity? in Theory and Society.
A. Nandy (1983). The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self after Colonialism. Delhi. Oxford University Press.
F. Rahman (2012). The Nature and Effects of Imperialism by Fazal Rahman, Ph.D. DandelionSalad. Imperialismandthethirdworld.wordpress.com
G. Orwell (1936). Shooting an Elephant and other Essays. London. Secker and Warburg.
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