The Creative Advance Must Be Defended: Miscegenation, Metaphysics, and Race War in Jan Smuts’s Vision of the League of Nations

This paper argues that the idea of global peace in early twentieth-century liberal international order was sutured together by the threat of race war. This understanding of racial peace was institutionalized in the League of Nations mandate system through its philosophical architect: Jan Smuts. I argue that the League figured in Smuts’s thought as the culmination of the creative advance of the universe: white internationalist unification and settler colonialism was the cosmological destiny of humanity that enabled a racial peace. In Smuts’s imaginary, the twin prospect of race war and miscegenation serves as the dark underside that both necessitates and threatens to undo this project. By reframing the problem of race war through his metaphysics, Smuts resolves the challenge posed by race war by institutionalizing indirect rule and segregation as a project of pacification that ensured that settlement and the creative advance of the cosmos could proceed.

Communalizing Colonial Policies and Postcolonial Ethnic Warfare: A Multimethod Analysis of the British Empire

In this article, we reorient the literature on colonialism and ethnic violence by exploring how different types of communalizing colonial policy (CCP) affected postcolonial patterns of ethnic warfare. We hypothesize that CCPs have limited or mixed effects when they simply recognize or empower communities but that they promote ethnic warfare when explicitly favoring some communities over others, especially when this discrimination affects the power of communities. To test these hypotheses, we combine a statistical analysis of the British Empire with a focused case study of Myanmar. We find that two relatively non-discriminatory CCPs—the use of communal census categories and high levels of indirect rule—had limited or mixed effects on postcolonial ethnic warfare. Unequal communal representation in the legislature and security forces and a mixed use of indirect rule, on the other hand, are three highly discriminatory CCPs, and we provide evidence that they increased the odds of postcolonial ethnic warfare.

Indirect Subjects

In Indirect Subjects, Matthew H. Brown analyzes the content of the prolific Nigerian film industry's mostly direct-to-video movies alongside local practices of production and circulation to show how screen media play spatial roles in global power relations. Scrutinizing the deep structural and aesthetic relationship between Nollywood, as the industry is known, and Nigerian state television, Brown tracks how several Nollywood films, in ways similar to both state television programs and colonial cinema productions, invite local spectators to experience liberal capitalism not only as a form of exploitation but as a set of expectations about the future. This mode of address, which Brown refers to as “periliberalism,” sustains global power imbalances by locating viewers within liberalism but distancing them from its processes and benefits. Locating the wellspring of this hypocrisy in the British Empire's practice of indirect rule, Brown contends that culture industries like Nollywood can sustain capitalism by isolating ordinary African people, whose labor and consumption fuel it, from its exclusive privileges.

A Death in the Family: Property, Inheritance, and Belonging in Late Colonial Asante

An inheritance dispute heard before one of the chiefs’ courts established in Asante under indirect rule illustrates the multivalent, dynamic character of social institutions at a time of economic and political transition. Litigated in 1951, the dispute raised questions about the meaning of ‘family’ and ‘belonging’, and their significance for people's access to wealth and their obligations to one another. Played out against a backdrop of potentially far-reaching social and political change in Ghana and beyond, cases such as this one suggest that terms such as ‘belonging’ and ‘family’ are best understood as labels for complex social processes, rather than facts that determine people's social identities and entitlements.

BRITISH COLONIALISM AND THE INDIRECT RULE: A HIERARCHICAL ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE TO CONTROL THE UNRULY TRIBES

Purpose: This paper intends to focus on elaborating on British colonialism and the types of indirect rule. The main purpose of the paper is to dig deep into the matter of how the British controlled the tribal societies and how far they were successful in controlling the tribal people. Indirect rule was designed to serve the interests of the British, whereas the tribes were left independent to deal with their internal affairs. It gives a detailed description of the British policy of controlling the tribes and answering the question of why the British opted for the indirect form of rule. Method: The research work is qualitative and descriptive in which the already available information and facts about the contents are critically analyzed. Secondary sources such as books, research papers, journals, and online internet materials have been used to collect data related to this topic. The research work is analytical where qualitative techniques have been applied to investigate the major research question. The technique involves exploring different ideas and hypotheses related to ruling different colonies by the imperial administrators. Main Findings: This study highlights that an indirect form of rule was the best strategy of the British colonial masters to control the unruly tribes. The hierarchical administrative structure which the British devised to control different areas of the world better served their interests where they rely on very few of their officers who controlled and administered the tribes. Another significant finding of the study is that the socio-political and economic underdevelopment in the post-colonial setup is because of the indirect form of rule which the British adopted during the colonization of the tribal regions. Application of the Study: This study provides guidelines for further research to contemplate the links between indirect rule and the socio-political and economic underdevelopment in the post-colonial tribal areas of the world in general and in the erstwhile FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) of Pakistan in particular. The Originality of the Study: The study elaborates the concept of colonialism and the indirect rule of the British colonial masters and further explains how the British served their interests. It also linked the colonial legacies that continued in the tribal areas, which hampered their progress and development.