Colonialism

C. A. Bayly , Recovering Liberties: Indian Thought in the Age of Liberalism and Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).

The interpretation of liberalism as a project that not only masks, but enables, political domination has long held currency in South Asian historiography. Recently, the subject of liberalism and empire in both francophone and anglophone contexts has returned to discussions in broader imperial historiography. One especially pressing question that emerges from these approaches is how to analyze intellectuals of colonized countries, such as India, who themselves claimed liberal terminologies and pressed forth liberal arguments. Are they to be assessed by the same criteria as European liberals who argued for the rights of the individual, the free press, and individual property rights?

The 28-page open letter -- which uses classical religious references and covers 24 issues such as "the killing of innocents," "killing of emissaries," "jihad," "declaring people non-Muslim," "torture," and "the caliphate" -- is a result of deliberations by dozens of experts on Islamic law and offers a point-by-point deconstruction of any claimed religious justification for ISIS's brutal actions.

In its executive summary, the letter notes that Islam forbids the killing of innocent people, including diplomats, journalists and humanitarian aid workers. It also states that any jihad may only be defensive in nature with strict rules of conduct, that it is forbidden to harm religious minorities like Christians and Yazidis, and that it is forbidden to practice slavery, destroy religious shrines or deny the rights of women.

The letter's conclusion states:

"Islam is mercy and its attributes are merciful. The Prophet (peace be upon him), who was sent as a mercy for all the worlds, summarized a Muslim's dealings with others by saying: 'He who shows no mercy, will not be shown mercy;' and: 'Have mercy and you will be shown mercy.' But, as can be seen from everything mentioned, you have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder. As elucidated, this is a great wrong and an offence to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world. Reconsider all your actions; desist from them; repent from them; cease harming others and return to the religion of mercy."

To read the entire letter and initial list of signatories, go to: http://lettertobaghdadi.com/index.php

The Iroquois confederacy, one of the most influential Native American polities encountered by early European settlers, is commonly perceived as having plunged into steep decline in the late seventeenth century due to colonial encroachment into the Great Lakes region. Kurt Jordan challenges long-standing interpretations that depict the Iroquois as defeated, colonized peoples by demonstrating that an important nation of that confederacy, the Senecas, maintained an impressive political and economic autonomy and resisted colonialism with a high degree of success.

By combining archaeological data grounded in the material culture of the Seneca Townley-Read site with historical documents, Jordan answers larger questions about the Seneca's cultural sustainability and durability in an era of intense colonial pressures. He offers a detailed reconstruction of daily life in the Seneca community and demonstrates that they were extremely selective about which aspects of European material culture, plant and animal species, and lifeways they allowed into their territory.

In celebration of the fortieth anniversary of CODESRIA, an institution from the Global South devoted to taking responsibility for the production of social science knowledge, this article explores what it means to pursue such a task under the threat of colonial imposition at methodological and disciplinary levels, which, the author argues, carries dangers of disciplinary decadence marked by the fetishisation of method. The author offers alternatives through what he calls ‘a teleological suspension of disciplinarity, and raises the question not only of the decolonisation of knowledge but also norms.

This article describes the establishment of the Inquisition in Spanish America. It examines the characteristics of the colonial tribunals (Mexico, Lima, and Cartagena de Indias), the bureucratic structure of these institutions, the opportunities for social ascension they provided, the judicial procedures and repressive activity of the tribunals, and the political and economic changes that prompted the gradual decadence of the Spanish American Inquisition.

La Kabylie constitue une région très spéciale dans l'histoire de l'Algérie à la période coloniale, en tant que "le Berbère" (et surtout le Kabyle) fut perçu comme un individu démocrate, laïque, sédentaire et par conséquent plus assimilable que "l'Arabe". L'administration française y a renforcé des spécificités socio-économico-culturelles. Et contrairement à ce que disent nombre de textes sur le sujet, cette perception du Berbère a persisté bien au-delà du XIXe siècle, pour rester présente dans le discours des Français, mais surtout dans la perception que commencèrent à s'en faire les "Arabes" et enfin dans la manière qu'eurent de s'autopercevoir les "Berbères". Nous présentons dans ce travail de Master 1 en quoi l'administration française en Kabylie a nourri le "mythe kabyle", la définition qu'a eu la bibliographie de ce "mythe" depuis les années 1960 pour enfin introduire la perception du "Berbère" dans les discours kabyle, arabe et français.

Scottish people decide their political future according to their will. No doubt it is political civilization of UK due to which it agreed with the Parliament of Scotland for holding a referendum of the union versus secession. It is an important moment when UK also needs to consider its obligations for the political morality concerning its previous colonies.