We are still Colonised !

By Prabalta Rijal

Colonism still exists, not just in the minds of the western colonisers who still consider themselves superior, like that guy on Fox new's, what's his name....oh yeah-- Bill O'Reily, but also in our own minds.

I don't want to point fingers at anyone but honestly, if an American media personnel can be so insensitive towards a UN delegate, what can we expect from a common American?  Mr. O'Reily's attitude towards other nations can be called a reflection on the way the American society thinks.

But is America a country full of shit heads like O'Reily, who without doing any background research on a dignitary like Sudarshan Subedi, insulted him?

I think not, however, I'm not here to insult anyone; I just want to talk about why I feel colonism still exists.

In the past colonies were formed geographically on the basis of who conquered who, and along with the western settlers came their culture,which influenced local cultures. In many places practice of native traditions was banned, local religions were termed as paganism or witch craft and voodooism and were made to look like evil practices.

 Especially in Africa and countries like Botswana or the then Bechualand Protectorate where the local population are very warm, kind ,gentle and hospitable, missionaries would introduce their culture and religion in the name of educating the local population.They introduced modern medicine,which was good in many ways because helped cure illnesses like malaria that traditional natural healers were unable to heal. Slowly the local population started trusting modern medicine and western medicine practitioners, while the local natural healers started going out of practice. Those who still practiced it were termed as ‘Witch-Doctors’, as if they were evil beings with demonic powers, when in reality they practiced naturopathy.  

These strategies worked as more and more missionaries converted local communities into Christianity. Over the years battles were fought and the colonisers left but what they left behind was far more deadly as they left behind their culture, religion, traditions, beliefs and languages.

So yes, colonism still exsits and this modern form of colonisation is cultural. Our identities and who we are is being snatched from us as we still openly follow western cultures and languages without paying any attention to our own.   Now you may argue that culture is dynamic, and it changes with time, I totally agree,but does that mean that we ignore the cultural practices, music and our mother toungue that makes us who we are?

Think about it in this manner, we all learn how to play the guitar and most of us love playing complex notes on the guitars because at schools we are taught how to play western instruments like the guitar,or the violin but not the sarangi? In fact how many of us know how to play the madal,sarangi or even the panche baja? Our ethnic music is at the verge of extinction because most of us are not interested in saving our own music and our ethnic musical instruments. Drums have taken over the madals and the violin has replaced the sarangi.

Our ethnic languages too face a similar fate as English takes over as the main form of communication in schools. Everybody in Kathmandu knows or at least understands English, but how many youngsters living here know our native languages like Newari and Tamang Bhasa? English is taught in schools, colleges  and even Montessori's but why are our native languages ignored?

Well we all know why, because after graduation knowing our Ethnic languages won’t land us a flashy job, but knowing English will, English apparently makes us more employable! Though English isn't the most widely spoken language it is the most influential language, a language spoken by the so called superior class in every society and it happens to be the most widely used official language worldwide.

The English language itself is a colonial residue that has affected our mind and the way we think, for instance, just the other day, I was with my students at Sigal and a few tourists greeted us with a really cheery namaste, while we replied with a hello!

It wasn't because we wanted to or intended to it was a reflex response, after giving it a bit of thought I regretted saying that, 'hello'. If in our own country we resort to using a colonial language instead of our own, when greeted in our own language, you can just imagine the kind of psychological domination we have inherited, even though we were never really colonised.

Another example is our fetish for fair skin, girls with fair skin are automatically considered beautiful as compared to those of us with dusky skin. Women across Asia spend thousands just to look fairer. Fairness creams are the most popularly used creams in Nepal, which ever store you go to you will find shelves filled with fairness creams. I have nothing against looking good, and I take ages to get ready but the one thing I do have a problem with is not being allowed to be comfortable in my own skin.

While I was growing up I had my mom fretting about my complexion and the things I was told to do to make me look fairer, still make me laugh.  Till I was sixteen I felt I needed to be fair. It was only after trying everything everyone said and failing at it, that I realised I needed to be comfortable in my own skin.

But this is our fault this is what we are forced to believe, that fair skin is beautiful. Was this what our scriptures say? Well not necessarily if we study old scriptures like the Mahabharata, we find that dusky skin was considered beautiful, Draupadi wasn't fair, nor was lord Krishna and they are considered to be the most beautiful people to have ever roamed this planet.

So, why today do we have this fetish for fair skin?  I will tell you why, when the British and other western colonisers came into this region for the first time they brought their racial biasness with them, anyone with fair skin was considered beautiful and influential.

This influenced the way people thought, more and more people wanted to look like their rulers, and the women wanted to look fairer than they were, this turned into a trend and later became a part of our culture in the Indian sub-continent and throughout Asia. This craze for fair skin has bolstered even more over the years and has crossed over to the men too, today its not just women, we have a range of fairness products for men too. Who sadly have joined the band wagon and are using fairness creams and products that will supposedly make them ‘Fair and Handsome’ , whatever happened to, “Tall Dark and Handsome”??? 

Okay fine, I agree if being fair makes you look good why not, but have you ever thought what this craze for fairer looking skin has done? It hasn’t enhanced your beauty it has just taken away your confidence in yourself and who you are, because in my opinion, you shouldn’t need make up or creams that make you look fairer to go out and face the world!

And anyways, if the western world has taken so many of our traditional practices like yoga,massage therapy ,meditation use of herbal tea to cure colds and oh yeah and a craze for tanned skin, back with them cant we atleast learn to be proud of who we are? Why can't we break free and be comfortable in our own skins?

Remember the problem is in our own minds, there are no colonies we live in a free world so its up to us to draw a line break free from things that make us feel inferior and practice our culture, languages, music and traditions’ with pride, because until we are comfortable with who we are we wont be able to give our children the identity and pride they deserve!

(This article wasnt written to hurt anyone,or to discriminate any race or culture and is only my view on how  western culture influences or lives, I also know that I have left out alot of facts and theories by experts on cultural colonisation but it was only because the article was getting way too long, so be prepared to read some more on this issue and till next time, ciao... :))