a) Patterns of anti-colonial struggles
Anti-colonial
movements are
theatres of nationalism and discourses of nationality. The presence of a
colonial regime assists within the formulation and articulation of a discourse
regarding an imagined collective community because it provides the indigenous
population with an ‘other’ to juxtapose itself against. With national
self-consciousness awakened, anti-colonialism is born because the colonised
people become cognisant of their political and economic exploitation by a
celebration considered exterior to their collective community. This was the
precise trajectory of the 20th century anti-colonial movements within the
colonised southern Mediterranean, specifically in Egypt.
Throughout the 20th
century, the colonised peoples of the Nile Valley began to imagine themselves
as a consolidated collective and attempted to forge for themselves a sovereign
state within specific territorial boundaries. However, the anti-colonial struggle within the land
of the Nile wasn't a singular endeavour, but rather a protracted process which
evolved over time to recreate the national ideology fuelling the movement and
correspondingly the way during which the sovereign Egypt would relate to the
Arab world.
The Egyptian anti-colonial movement against British are often
observed in two distinct stages, both of which utilised unique historically-based
national identities, disseminated them through popular culture and produced
states which might accompany the Arab world in divergent manners. The
anti-colonial movement of the primary half the century had a distinctively
Egyptian national ideology shaped by the pharaonic Egyptian past, producing a
nominally independent nation-state indifferent to the larger Arab region. In
juxtaposition, the post-WWII anti-colonial movement employed Arabic nationalism
to define Egyptian identity, generating an independent state deeply involved
within the affairs of the post-colonial Arab world.
1919 anti-colonial movement
If British had hoped that by stationing their troops in Egypt
in response to the Orabi Revolt of 1882 they might effectively control the
native Egyptian population and cripple the emergence of any nationalist
movement, then the policy by all measures backfired. before the revolt, British
had occupied the executive and political offices of Egypt, essentially pulling
the strings from behind the scenes, but the presence of their soldiers on the
streets of Cairo and Alexandria was a daily physical reminder that Egyptians
were nation subjugated by a far off entity.
Moreover, the conversion of the Nile Valley into a British
military base forced the native inhabitants into the sphere of European
military conflict, an edge from which Egyptians could only stand to lose.
because the Ottomans enlisted to fight on the side of the Central Powers in
1914, British immediately declared Egypt a protectorate and therefore the
horrors of war ensued on the Nile Valley. As forced conscription, requisitions,
wartime inflation and law restrictions diminished the standard of lifetime of
all Egyptians, the indigenous population became assertive in their demand for
independence.
Although the Egyptians wished for no part within the war,
they nevertheless supported the war effort of the Allies with the understanding
that Egypt would be recognised as an independent state following the war, a
promise Britain was making to several of its colonised subjects.
In the year 1917 alone, the budget of the Egyptian
protectorate included three million pounds sterling for the Allied war effort
and 1,000,000 and 2 hundred thousand Egyptian men to protect the transportation
networks of the Allies. Egyptian assistance had been crucial within the
campaign against the Ottomans within the Hejaz, the Senussi in Sudan and within
the defence of the Suez Canal . With the conclusion of the war, British
couldn't deny the contribution of the Egyptians to the Allied victory, but
refused to satisfy its obligations of providing the Egyptians with an
independent state.
Egypt’s relations with the Arab world 1922-1933
Born out of pharaonic nationalism, the Egyptian state, which
gained nominal independence in 1922, would naturally be barren of any affinity
for its Arab neighbours. The Egyptian anti-colonial movement was rigorously
using the Wilsonian Moment and therefore the principle of national
self-determination to climb out of its own colonised abyss, but it had been not
particularly curious about assisting the similar ambitions of its neighbours.
Egyptian national discourse disconnected the state
from the Arab world and dismantled the solidarity between Egyptians and
colonised Arabs, enabling Egypt to reject any involve anti-colonial support
from peoples once considered a part of an equivalent civilisation.
Libyans were amongst the primary Arab peoples to suffer from
this Egyptian attitude. within the early 1920s, Libyan political activists who
had been resisting Italian colonialism had made Egypt an area of political
refuge and a base from which to strategise against colonial rule. However,
following an invitation from the Italian authorities in January 1924 that Egypt
to not provide a secure haven for the individuals resisting imperialism, the
nominally independent Egyptian government declared that the Libyan political
refugees had to go away .
Egypt had sided with an imperialist European power over their
Arab siblings, who were involved within the same anti-colonial and
anti-imperialist struggle because the Egyptians.
This siding with a colonial power over its Arab victims
wasn't limited only to the Italians and Libya, but extended to the case of the
French and Syria. Throughout the Syrian revolt of the mid-1920s, Egyptian
newspapers had been continuously relaying the events and Egyptian poets had
offered their pens in support of the rebellion, but beyond meagre humanitarian
financial assistance, the Egyptian authorities refused to politically aid the
Syrians in realising independence. Rejecting the request for diplomatic
support, Prime Minister Zaghloul affirmed that Egypt could offer nothing to the
Syrians, claiming that “if you add a zero to a zero the result are going to be
zero.”
b) Gandhian perspective of the modern State
In Gandhi’s assessment, the state (Western type) was the
symbol of violence in concentrated form. so as to make sure allegiance from the
citizens the state (which means its authority) applies coercion or violent
measures mercilessly.
Once he said “the individual features a soul but the state
may be a soulless machine, the stale can never be weaned faraway from violence
to which it owes its existence”. In other words, Gandhi treated both state and
violence or coercion synonymous. He further says that there's a state but not
violence or coercion in any form can't be imagined.
He gathered experience in South Africa that more and more
power to the state meant more and more violence or greater amount of coercion.
within the name of the upkeep of law and order the South Africa’s white
government acquired enormous power and this led to the ruthless administration,
exploitation and curtailment of individuals’ liberty.
He once said that a political organisation supported violence
would never receive his approval. Rather, he's always scared of such an
organisation. What he felt about the Western state system is sort of explicit
during a comment which he made, “I think of a rise within the power of the
state with greatest fear, because although while apparently doing good by
minimising exploitation, it does the best harm to mankind by destroying individuality
which is at the basis of progress”.
From the above analysis it's absolutely clear that Gandhi
rejected the state of Western model on the bottom that it represented violence
or coercion. Now the question is why did he oppose violence so much? the
fashionable state, consistent with Gandhi, was close to destroy
individuality—that individual freedom and spontaneous urge to figure .
Secondly, the individualism is that the root explanation for
progress. Gandhi believed that nothing might be done by applying coercion.
Again, the individual can't be forced to try to to any work against his will or
spontaneous desire. to place it in other words, consistent with Gandhi the
progress of the society are often achieved through the functions which the
individuals perform willingly.
Here Gandhi appears to us as an excellent individualist
philosopher. the 2 great utilitarian philosophers—Bentham (1748-1832) and J. S.
Mill (1806-1872)—wanted to place curb upon the activities of the state to
reinforce the quantum of freedom of the individuals. The state, prescribed by
Bentham and Mill, is named limited state. Both Bentham and J. S. Mill didn't
approve coercion for demanding allegiance from the individual’s.
But Gandhi appears to us as more aggressive. Under any
circumstances the individual’s freedom can't be sacrificed. Gandhi’s love for
individual’s freedom ranks him with the good anarchist philosophers (we shall
discuss his anarchism later on). The central idea is that to Gandhi state is an
undesirable political organisation due to its close reference to violence.
Gandhi wasn't interested in the least in build up a
comprehensive and well-argued political orientation . He was a mass leader,
philosopher and insurgent . On various issues and situations he expressed
opinions which constitute certain aspects of political orientation and state
sovereignty is such a theory. In Western political thought, state sovereignty
may be a much talked theory and enormous number of students and philosophers
has addressed this idea . Bodin and Hobbes are chief among them.
In general terms, sovereignty means the supreme coercive
power of the state. we've already mentioned that Gandhi strongly objected to
the present power because supreme coercive power usurps individual’s liberty
during a ruthless way. Sovereignty receives allegiance by force. Such an
influence of the state, it's needless to mention , cannot get approval of
Gandhi. The Zulu “rebellion” of South Africa moved his mind and thought
immensely.
The South African government released a reign of terror and
torture upon the innocent people of Zulu and therefore the state authority
exercised sovereign power. it had been unimaginable to Gandhi that a so-called
civilised government might be such a lot cruel, such a lot soulless. So he
concluded that sovereignty was nothing but the appliance of coercive power by
that state and hence such an influence could never constitute the idea of a
non-violent state organisation.
In the Western political thought sovereignty has two
forms—monastic theory of sovereignty and pluralist theory of sovereignty.
Though the latter form insists upon giving more freedom and autonomy to
individuals and organisation, ultimately the state will have freedom and
authority to use coercive power. Naturally even the pluralist approach of
sovereignty did not impress Gandhi. To conclude, both sorts of sovereignty did
not create a favourable impact upon the mind of Gandhi.
“Gandhi was a fanatical advocate not of traditional state
sovereignty but of popular sovereignty strongly advocated by one among the
agreement theoreticians.” J. J. Rousseau (1712-1778). Rousseau wanted to
introduce popular sovereignty of the Greek city-state in his home state. within
the scheme of Rousseau’s popular sovereignty the citizens had the chance to
assemble in open places periodically and to participate within the sort of
functions of state. Gandhi contemplated an equivalent sort of popular
sovereignty for India.
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