"Many NGO activists and other well-intentioned people in the West believe that their support to separatism and other political movements of the Indian 'Aboriginals' is a bold move against oppressive intruders. In fact, most so-called liberation movements in India are gravely tainted by their origin as instruments of oppression by the latest intruder, the European coloniser: in order to weaken the national freedom movement, minorities were sought out or even created to serve as allies of the new rulers and keep the national movement down. ... The imaginary division of the Indians in 'natives' and 'invaders', though originally an innocent outgrowth of the then-fashionable race theories, was soon instrumentalized in the service of the same strategy of colonial control... Can we blame Hindus when they don't consider this nativist discourse all that innocent? The fact that Cortes used true history while the British used at best speculative history, is relatively immaterial: nurturing and exploiting a psychology of grievances against the real or imagined 'invaders' is what counted."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Elst, Koenraad (2002). Who is a Hindu?: Hindu revivalist views of Animism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and other offshoots of Hinduism.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Adivasi
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Adivasi
56 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Adivasi →
Related Quotes
"'In this country, groups which correspond closely to the anthropologists' conception of tribes have lived in long ass…"
"Prof. Béteille (...) contrasts the category of caste, slightly reinforced and rigidified under colonial rule but othe…"
"No very strict line can be drawn between Animists and low-class Hindus."
"...the wild jungle tribes in Central India, though the persons who profess the latter stoutly advance a claim to be c…"
"In the case of all other religions there is one main underlying difficulty, namely the difficulty of saying where Hin…"
"The classification 'Animist' has never been satisfactory and it would be much better if it were to disappear altogeth…"
"Fluctuations in the figures of earlier censuses show how much the proper classification of tribal religions has depen…"
"The Hinduism of the Central Provinces is largely tinctured by nature and animal worship... there are usually a number…"
"Again, the problem of determining how far the various religions of India are mutually exclusive and how far they over…"
"The dividing line between Hinduism and Animism is uncertain"