Wounds of colonisation are still fresh
It is said that the Renaissance enriched the western civilisation and liberated it from the religious extremism of the Church
Generally, traditional historians accused Hitler and his Nazi Party of causing the Second World War, setting up the Concentration Camps, adopting racism, chauvinistic nationalism and Anti Semitisms leading to the holocaust. However, a group of historians who contradict and argue that the incident of holocaust extermination of the Jews, Gypsies and the Communists should not be treated in isolation but analysed with historical perspectives and should be examined in view of European imperialism and colonisation of Asian and African countries.
It is said that the Renaissance enriched the western civilisation and liberated it from the religious extremism of the Church. In fact we did not find the humanistic traces in the western civilisation on the contrary it involved brutalities and atrocities dealing with non-European nations, whose targets were the native Americans and the people of the Asian and African continents. No doubt, Western civilisations developed technologically comparing other nations but failed to create human feelings and emotions to treat others on the basis of humanity. In Spain the Christian powers, after defeating the Muslim Rulers, expelled both the Jews and the Muslims from the country using inhuman methods to Christianise Spain. In South and North American colonies, the European nation after dehumanising the native populations, massacred them to occupy their land and resources.
It is evident from history that wherever the European powers dominated the colonies politically and militarily, their main object was to annihilate the local population and expropriate the resources for their use. Belgium mistreated the people of Kango with such a brutal means that Joseph Conrad (d.1924) mirrored it in his novel Heart of Darkness. The German surpassed all brutal acts treating the colonised people of Namibia. The German colonial officials were notorious for their atrocities. It was well known that they flogged peasants and villagers in order to force them to work for colonial projects. Women were raped to satisfy their sexual desire. When the tribe of Herero revolted against the German domination, they completely exterminated the tribe. The same policy was adopted by the Boers and the British in South Africa and Rhodesia, where the African tribes were hunted and massacred in the name of civilisation.
Moreover, the slave trade depopulated the African continent which is known as the scramble of Africa. The Africans were hunted and captured like animals and shipped to America and the Caribbean Islands, where they were forced to work in great plantations without any reward for their labour.
The emergence of fascism in Europe was not a new phenomenon but a continuation of the psyche of European imperialism
The European imperialism claimed to colonise in the name of civilisation but the acts which were committed by the white nations represented distorted and degenerated values of civilisation. It contained no high moral values or traditions. It was full of hatred, prejudice and hostility to humanity. The image of European imperialist in the eye of colonised people was nothing but merciless, inhuman and monstrous.
Therefore, what Hitler and his Nazi party did in Europe was the result of the crimes which the Germans committed in their African colonies. The contempt of the German against the Slav people and the Jews reflected their attitude which they adopted in the African colonies. Hitler admitted that he was inspired the Americans who set up the Concentration Camps during the First World War where they kept Japanese as prisoners in the name of national security. He also appreciated the colonial policy of the British and especially their rule in India.
It shows that the colonisation and imperialism distorted Western civilisation from the very beginning and consequently it produced theories of racism and intolerance. Therefore, the technological development further degenerated the civilisation and polluted the European mind because it set aside all human feelings and emotions.
The emergence of fascism in Europe was not a new phenomenon but a continuation of the psyche of European imperialism. Consequently their own society became its victim and people of Europe suffered because of war and its destruction. Mussolini in Italy and Franco in Spain repeated the crimes which imperialism committed in its colonies. Europe experienced intellectual decline and failed to check the waves of racism and extremity of nationalism. Therefore the event of the holocaust did not occur in isolation. There were a large number of incidents of genocide, massacre and slaughter of innocent people by the hand of cruel and barbarous colonial officials of Europe. To the colonised people of Asia and Africa there were a large number of Hitlers and their racist parties which left them in devastation and dissolution. The wounds of colonialism still are fresh and in spite of independence, the colonised people enduring hardship of poverty and deprivation of fundamental rights.
History is written by the powerful and the victor to suit his prospective and his will, that is the way it has always been through out history.
The writer has correctly described the effects of colonialists on the colonies, which they left in devastation and dissolution." He also corrrectly stated that holocaust should not be seen as a distinct, extreme barbarity but simply as a continuation of the general scheme of things.
However, I disagree when he says "To the colonised people of Asia and Africa there were a large number of Hitlers and their racist parties which left them in devastation and dissolution." The words suggest that this era is over now.
The fact is that the era of Hitlers and their racist parties did not end with the indepenence of former colonies. Acually, we have developed our own Hitlers and racist parties whose acts resulted in the separation of our Eastern wing, and in the most shameful manner in which it took place. We also see it in the hounding of MQM, and the community it represents while sparing outfits that pose existential threat to Pakistan and are already reported to have killed 60,000 Pakistanis apart from doing over US $100 billion damage to country's economy. We also see it in hounding of Dr. Asim Hussain but sparing the fresh colonialists Sharif Brothers and Asif Zardari.
Karachi
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