The Decolonization of the Imagination

Culture, Knowledge and Power

By Bhikhu C. Parekh

1995

First Published

3.25

Average Rating

256

Number of Pages

7H49M

Audio Length

This collection provides an overview of strategies towards cultural decolonization in a post-Cold War world and to explore options for a global cultural politics. Addressing itself to an audience in both the South and the North, the book's contributors explore the relations between power and culture, between domination and the imagination. Acknowledging that former colonizers and colonized have both been shaped by a colonial imaginary, they explore a variety of decolonization strategies. This perspective rejects Eurocentrism and other forms of Western ethnocentrism, as well as traditional Third World cultural nationalism as a form of resistance to imperialism. Instead, a new vision is offered that opens the way to polycentrism, a normalization of cultural pluralism, and a post-coloniality that accepts a transcendence of old North-South boundaries.

Avg Rating

3.25

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Author

Bhikhu C. Parekh

Author · 6 books

Bhikhu Chotalal Parekh is an eminent political theorist in Britain and an active member in the House of Lords. During his tenure, he has contributed immensely towards societal changes that were once a major cause of concern to Britain's culture in the early 70's. He was born in a small hamlet known as Amalsad in the state of Gujarat to a middle class family. He enrolled into Mumbai University to earn his degree and masters before Bhiku went on to pursue his studies from London School of Economics. He completed his Ph.D. in the year 1966. He has pioneered many concepts on multiculturalism, collective rights and responsibility and other socio-cultural issues that have influenced the governance in UK. Commonly addressed as Lord Bhiku, he has worked to bring about a noninterventionist and tolerant political view where people of different ethnicities could live in harmony. It was through his ideologies and his unrelenting dedication towards his work that he managed to bring a significant understanding of Indian culture on a global platform. During his lifetime, he has been conferred with a number of awards such as the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize, Distinguished Global Thinker Award, Padma Bhushan, etc. by many international forums.