Editing Colonial mentality (section)

==Colonial India==

[[File:British India (orthographic projection).svg|thumb|Territorial extent of [[British Raj|British India]]]]
During the period of [[Colonial India|European colonial rule in India]], Europeans in India typically regarded many aspects [[Culture of India|Indian culture]] with disdain and supported colonial rule as a beneficial "[[civilizing mission]]".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Falser|first=Michael|title=Cultural Heritage as Civilizing Mission |publisher=Cham: Springer|year=2015|isbn=978-3-319-13637-0|pages=8–9|language=en-gb|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-13638-7|series = Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context}}</ref> Colonial rule in India was framed as an act which was beneficial to the people of India, rather than a process of political and economic dominance by a small minority of foreigners.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fischer–Tiné|first=Harald|date=2016-07-26|title=Britain's other civilising mission|journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review|language=en|volume=42|issue=3|pages=295–338|doi=10.1177/001946460504200302|s2cid=148689880}}</ref>

Under colonial rule, many practices were outlawed, such as the practice of forcing widows to immolate themselves (known as [[Sati (practice)|sati]])<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mukta|first=Parita|title=The 'Civilizing Mission': The Regulation and Control of Mourning in Colonial India|journal=Feminist Review|volume=63|issue=1|pages=25–47|doi=10.1080/014177899339045|year=1999|s2cid=162234935}}</ref> with acts being deemed [[Idolatry|idolatrous]] being discouraged by [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]] [[Missionary|missionaries]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ganguly|first=Swagato|date=2017-01-02|title=Idolatry: concept and metaphor in colonial representations of India|journal=South Asian History and Culture|volume=8|issue=1|pages=19–91|doi=10.1080/19472498.2016.1260353|s2cid=152124939|issn=1947-2498}}</ref> the latter of which has been claimed by some scholars to have played a large role in the developments of the modern definition of [[History of Hinduism|Hinduism]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|title=Was Hinduism Invented?: Britons, Indians, and the Colonial Construction of Religion – Oxford Scholarship|last=Pennington|first=Brian K.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0195166552|language=en|doi=10.1093/0195166558.001.0001}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Bourgeois Hinduism, or the faith of the modern Vedantists: rare discourses from early Colonial Bengal|last=Hatch|first=Brian A.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2008|isbn=9780195326086|location=New York|oclc=191044640}}</ref> These claims base their assumptions on the lack of a unified Hindu identity prior to the period of colonial rule,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sarma|first=Deepak|date=2006-04-01|title=Hindu Leaders in North America?|journal=Teaching Theology & Religion|language=en|volume=9|issue=2|pages=115–120|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9647.2006.00272.x|issn=1467-9647}}</ref> and modern Hinduism's unprecedented outward focus on a [[Monotheism|monotheistic]] [[Vedanta]] worldview.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last=Bayly|first=C. A.|year=2010|journal=Modern Intellectual History|volume=7|issue=2|pages=275–295|doi=10.1017/s1479244310000077|issn=1479-2451|title=India, the Bhagavad Gita and the World|s2cid=143690300 }}</ref> These developments have been read as the result of colonial views which discouraged aspects of Indian religions which differed significantly from [[Christianity]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Yelle|first=Robert A.|date=2005-04-01|title=Christians and Missionaries in India: Cross-Cultural Communication since 1500. Edited by Eric Frykenberg (Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003) 419 pp. $39.00|journal=The Journal of Interdisciplinary History|volume=35|issue=4|pages=681–682|doi=10.1162/002219505323383059|s2cid=142257044|issn=0022-1953}}</ref> It has been noted that the prominence of the [[Bhagavad Gita]] as a primary religious text in Hindu discourse was a historical response to European criticisms of Indian culture.<ref name=":6" /> Europeans found that the Gita had more in common with their own Christian [[Bible]], leading to the denouncement of Hindu practices more distantly related to monotheistic world views; with some historians claiming that Indians began to characterize their faith as the equivalent of Christianity in belief (especially in terms of monotheism) and structure (in terms of providing an equivalent primary sacred text).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Longkumer|first=Arkotong|date=2017-04-03|title=The power of persuasion: Hindutva, Christianity, and the discourse of religion and culture in Northeast India|journal=Religion|volume=47|issue=2|pages=203–227|doi=10.1080/0048721x.2016.1256845|s2cid=151354081|issn=0048-721X|url=https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/28487092/Hindutva_Paper_Final_2_2016.pdf|hdl=20.500.11820/dd23cf50-aaa1-4120-b362-eee7028c3c8f|hdl-access=free}}</ref>
[[Hindu nationalism]] developed in the 19th century as an opposition to European ideological prominence; however, local Indian elites often aimed to make themselves and Indian society modern by "[[Westernization|emulating the West]]".<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|title=Hindu Nationalism : A Reader|last=Jaffrelot|first=Christophe.|date=2007|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691130972|location=Princeton, N.J.|pages=6–7|oclc=368365428}}</ref> This led to the emergence of what some have termed '[[neo-Hinduism]]':<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|last=Battaglia|first=Gino|date=2017-10-03|title=Neo-Hindu Fundamentalism Challenging the Secular and Pluralistic Indian State|journal=Religions|language=en|volume=8|issue=10|pages=216|doi=10.3390/rel8100216|doi-access=free}}</ref> consisting of reformist rhetoric transforming Hindu tradition from above, disguised as a revivalist call to return to the [[Historical Vedic religion|traditional practises of the faith]].<ref name=":7" /> Reflecting the same arguments made by Christian missionaries, who argued that the more superstitious elements of Hindu practice were responsible for corrupting the potential rational philosophy of the faith (i.e. the more Christian-like sentiments).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Hindu Nationalism : A reader|last=Jaffrelot|first=Christophe.|date=2007|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691130972|location=Princeton, N.J.|pages=7|oclc=368365428}}</ref> Moving the definitions of Hindu practice away from more overt idol worshiping, reemphasizing the concept of [[Brahman]] as a monotheistic divinity, and focusing more on the figure of [[Krishna]] in [[Vaishnavism]] due to his role as a messianic type figure (more inline with European beliefs) which makes him a suitable alternative to the Christian figure of [[Jesus in Christianity|Jesus Christ.]]<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Bourgeois Hinduism, or the faith of the modern Vedantists : rare discourses from early Colonial Bengal|last=Hatcher|first=Brian A.|date=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0195326086|location=New York|oclc=191044640}}</ref>

[[File:Kerala Raksha Yatra - BJP - 2011.jpg|left|thumb|[[Bharatiya Janata Party|BJP]] supporters marching in [[Kerala]]]]
The [[Bharatiya Janata Party]] (BJP), India's current ruling party, follows this tradition of nationalistic Hinduism ([[Hindutva]]), and promotes an Indian national identity infused with [[Neo-Vedanta|neo-Vedantic]] which has been claimed by some to have been influenced by a "colonial mentality".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Harriss|first=John|date=2015-10-02|title=Hindu Nationalism in Action: The Bharatiya Janata Party and Indian Politics|journal=South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies|volume=38|issue=4|pages=712–718|doi=10.1080/00856401.2015.1089826|s2cid=147615034|issn=0085-6401|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1230188|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Singh|first=Jan|year=2015|title=India's Right Turn|url=https://read-dukeupress-edu.proxy.library.carleton.ca/world-policy-journal|journal=World Policy Journal|volume=32 |issue=2|pages=93–103|doi=10.1177/0740277515591547|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Some critics have claimed that writer [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s portrayals of Indian characters in his works supported the view that colonized people were incapable of living without the help of [[Europe]]ans, describing these portrayals as [[Racism|racist]].<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/443889.stm | work=BBC News | title=Kipling comes under review | date=10 September 1999 | access-date=2010-04-30}}</ref> In his famous poem "[[The White Man's Burden]]", Kipling directly argues for this point by romanticizing the "[[civilising mission]]" in non-[[Western world|Western]] countries.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brantlinger|first=Patrick|year=2007|title=Kipling's "The White Man's Burden" and Its Afterlives|journal=English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920|volume=50|issue=2|pages=172–191|doi=10.1353/elt.2007.0017|s2cid=162945098|issn=1559-2715}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brantlinger|first=Patrick|year=2005|title=The Complexity of Kipling's Imperialist Politics|url=http://muse.jhu.edu.proxy.library.carleton.ca/article/366432/pdf|journal=English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920|volume=48 |issue=1|pages=88}}</ref> Jaway Syed has claimed that Kipling's poems idolizes [[Western world|Western culture]] as entirely rational and civilized, while treating non-white cultures as 'childlike' and 'demonic'.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Syed|first1=Jawad|last2=Ali|first2=Faiza|date=2011-03-01|title=The White Woman's Burden: from colonial civilisation to Third World development|journal=Third World Quarterly|volume=32|issue=2|pages=349–365|doi=10.1080/01436597.2011.560473|s2cid=145012248|issn=0143-6597}}</ref> Similar sentiments have been interpreted in Kipling's other works, such as his characterization of the [[Second Boer War]] as a "white man's war";<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Free|first=Melissa|year=2016|title=Fault Lines of Loyalty: Kipling's Boer War Conflict|jstor=10.2979/victorianstudies.58.2.12|journal=Victorian Studies|volume=58|issue=2|pages=314–323|doi=10.2979/victorianstudies.58.2.12|s2cid=148352835}}</ref> along with his presentation of 'whiteness' as a morally and culturally superior trait of the West.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mondal|first=Sharleen|year=2014|journal=Victorian Literature and Culture|volume=42|issue=4|pages=733–751|doi=10.1017/s1060150314000278|issn=1060-1503|title=Whiteness, Miscegenation, and Anti-Colonial Rebellion in Rudyard Kipling's the Man Who Would be King|s2cid=159629882 }}</ref> His portrayal of Indians in his ''[[The Jungle Book|Jungle Book]]'' stories have also been criticized by Jane Hotchkiss as examples of the [[Chauvinism|chauvinistic]] [[infantilization]] of colonized peoples in [[popular culture]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hotchkiss|first=Jane|year=2001|journal=Victorian Literature and Culture|volume=29|issue=2|pages=435–449|doi=10.1017/s1060150301002108|issn=1470-1553|title=The Jungle of Eden: Kipling, Wolf Boys, and the Colonial Imagination|s2cid=162409338 }}</ref> Some historians claim that Kipling's works have contributed towards the development of a colonial mentality in the ways that the colonized people in these fictional narratives are made submissive to and dependent on their white rulers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lee|first=Jonathan Rey|date=2012-11-01|title=When Lions Talk: Wittgenstein, Kipling, and the Language of Colonialism1|journal=Literature Compass|language=en|volume=9|issue=11|pages=884–893|doi=10.1111/j.1741-4113.2012.00916.x|issn=1741-4113}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=White skins/Black masks : representation and colonialism|last=Low|first=Gail Ching-Liang|date=1996|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0203359600|location=London|pages=1–10|oclc=54666707}}</ref>