Nandita Sharma

Nandita Sharma will study how the concept of “colonialism” is largely defined by the idea of “foreign rule” and how this affects contemporary politics of “decolonisation.”

Our world of nation-states promised to “end colonialism” by replacing colonisers with national sovereigns. Yet, everywhere, discourses of colonialism continue to be popular (for example, in ideas of neocolonialism, demands for decolonisation, and anti-migrant politics portraying migrants as colonisers).

Sharma asks how the centering of the figure of the Foreign Ruler in understandings of colonialism contributes to this. She also examines how the emphasis on foreign rule obscures the global terrain of capitalism while legitimising views that native or national rulers will secure political independence.

Expanding the definition of colonialism as practices rather than the foreignness or nationness of the rulers may allow us to see many more instances of colonialism thus far ignored, both historically and today. This may also reveal connections between people divided between imperial metropoles and colonies, thereby helping to undo many of the racist, nationalist, and patriarchal divisions amongst people and helping to undo ruling relations.