I

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Internal Colonialism overseas colony, most major economies had

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to create internal colonies to sustain their
Dipanker Dey economic growth.

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The theoretical construct of the internal
Internal colonialism is a broadly defined term colonialism model has emerged from the
which captures the complexities of structural, theory of dependency that had been developed
political, and economic inequalities between in the post-World War II period. As per the
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regions within a nation-state. It also depicts theory, the “infrastructure of dependency,”
intranational exploitation of distinct cultural which was internal to the dependent country,
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groups. included industrial organization, patterns of

It is argued that capitalist expansion is the urbanization, and social classes. According to
root of colonialism and racial oppression. M. K. this notion, the two common examples of the
EC

Gandhi, the great Indian philosopher, could infrastructure of dependency were the patterns
rightly comprehend that the primary motive of dependent industrialization and the forma­
behind the invasion of India by the Europeans tion of clientele social classes. The characteris-
was to source raw materials to s­ustain their tics of the former included foreign domination
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economic growth. In reply to a query about of most dynamic sectors of industry, competitive
whether he would have liked to have the same advantage for foreign monopolistic corporations
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standard of living for India’s teeming millions over local firms, and introduction of advanced
as the British, he said, “Britain took half the capital-intensive technology without regard
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resources of the planet to achieve this pros- to resulting unemployment. The clientele
perity. How many planets will a country like classes included industrial bourgeoisie, state
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India require?”(Moolakhattu 2010). Gandhi bureaucracy, and the middle class when their
realized that human wants were insatiable and positions were tied to foreign interests. Thus,
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natural resources were scarce. His economic the infrastructure of dependency was the func­
philosophy of ahimsa (nonviolence and love) tional equivalent of a formal colonial apparatus
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stressed local decentralized community econ- (Wall 1978).

omies and economies of needs rather than Pablo Gonzalez-Casanova (1965) applied
wants. Unfortunately, Gandhi’s suggestions the theory of internal colonialism to explain
were discarded, and in the absence of a captive the condition of Indigenous people. He sought

The Encyclopedia of Political Thought, First Edition. Edited by Michael T. Gibbons.

© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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 2 internal colonialism

to distinguish internal colonialism from a class In recent years, when unrestrained global
structure, as colonialism was not only a rela- capital is aggravating the economic and social
tion of exploitation of workers by the owners of inequalities among various regions and ethnic
raw materials and their collaborators, but also a groups, the theory of internal colonialism is
relation of domination and exploitation of a increasingly being considered as an appro-
total population (with its classes, proprietors, priate tool to analyze such developments.
workers) by another population which also had The condition of India, which exhibits all the
distinct classes (proprietors and workers). features of an internal colony, is a case in
The concept of internal colonialism, how- point. The caste system still determines the

FS
ever, became more popular only during the US division of labor within the country and
civil rights movement in 1960s when analysts upper-caste Hindus dominate all sectors of
like Robert Blauner (1969) identified the black socioeconomic activities. Religious minorities
people of the United States with the exploited (Muslims) and Indigenous tribes are getting

O
masses of the third world, requiring political progressively more marginalized. Violent
and economic independence from the domi- clashes between the military and poor tribal

O
nance of the ruling whites. It was said that the people in their homeland in the forest of
white dominance was established by force to central India, which incidentally holds the

PR
secure the labor of colonized people for the maximum mining resources of the country,
least desirable jobs that the whites wanted to has become a daily phenomenon. A marked
avoid. Blauner argued that the models of race dichotomy between the forward and backward
relations then common in the USA failed to groups of states has been emerging. Accele­
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acknowledge and address the racial division of rated economic growth, with increased par-
labor. As struggles against racism in the USA ticipation by the private sector since the early
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were very much in line with the anticolonial eighties, has aggravated regional disparities of
struggle already under way in various countries India. If the existing trends in differential rate
of Africa and Asia, he adopted the language of of socioeconomic development continue, the
EC

colonialism and developed an analysis of how regional and ethnic disparities in the world’s
African Americans had come to constitute an largest democracy are bound to heighten the
internal colony within the USA. The colonial social tension beyond a manageable proportion
analogy portrayed blacks as a minority of a dif- in the near future.
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ferent kind: a permanent minority, an oppressed

people, a “colonized group” (Hicks 2004). SEE ALSO: Colonialism; Gandhi, Mohandas
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In the seventies Michael Hechter had popu- Karamchand (1869–1948); Hegemony; Nation
larized a sociological model of internal colo- and Nation-state; Racism
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nialism which emphasized ethnic factors to the

References
exclusion of considerations of class and sought
C

to explain the ethno-regional disparities Blauner, R. (1969) “Internal Colonialism and

throughout the peripheral, semiperipheral, Ghetto Revolt,” Social Problems, 16 (4), 393–408.
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and core regions of the world. In his book on González-Casanova, P. (1965) “Internal
internal colonialism in the “Celtic fringe,” Colonialism and National Development,” Studies
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in Comparative International Development, 1 (4),

Hechter argued that Britain’s Celtic fringe
27–37.
(Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) had been denied
Hechter, M. (1975) Internal Colonialism: the
full industrial development as a result of its Celtic Fringe in British National Development,
“cultural division of labor” within the United 1536–1966. Berkeley: University of California
Kingdom (Hechter 1975). Later Hechter’s Press.
model was criticized for its ahistorical approach Hicks, J. (2004) “On the Application of Theories of
with no firm material basis. ‘Internal Colonialism’ to Inuit Society.” Annual

0002106113.INDD 2 2/26/2014 7:08:13 AM

 internal colonialism 3

Conference of the Canadian Political Science Further Reading

Association, June, Winnipeg.
Blauner, R. (1972) Racial Oppression in America.
Moolakhattu, J. S. (2010) “Gandhi as a Human
New York: Harper & Row.
Ecologist,” Journal of Human Ecology, 29 (3),
Bodenheimer, S. J. (1971) “Dependency and
151–8.
Imperialism: The Roots of Latin American
Wall, D. (1978) “Internal Colony or Internal
Underdevelopment.” In K. T. Fann and
Periphery?” In H. Lewis, L. Johnson, and
D. Hodges (Eds.), Readings in US Imperialism.
D. Askins (Eds.), Colonialism in Modern
Boston, MA: Porter Sargent, pp. 155–81.
America: The Appalachian Case. Boone, NC:
Shih, C. F. (2010) “Academic Colonialism and the
Appalachian Consortium Press, 319–49.

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Struggle for Indigenous Knowledge Systems in
http://sonoma.edu/users/w/wallsd/pdf/
Taiwan,” Social Alternative, 29 (1), 44–7.
Internal-Colony.pdf (accessed May 20, 2011).

Abstract

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Internal colonialism is a broadly defined term which captures the complexities of structural,
political, and economic inequalities between regions within a nation-state. It also depicts intrana-

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tional exploitation of distinct cultural groups.

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Keywords: colonialism, Gandhism, globalization, internal colonialism
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