I think once you see how much damage colonization did it’s easy to blame everything on that one evil. But that’s oversimplifying to an extreme extent.
For example, I really doubt the idea of class based karma (or karma based class perhaps) was a colonial introduction to India. I’m not disagreeing with you that modern capitalism is bad or saying that colonialism wasn’t damaging, those are both true, but it’s pretty damn patronizing to says “they couldn’t have had bad socioeconomic practices without us” Hell they had a literal caste system of worker exploitation long before we showed up.
It was not a colonial based introduction but it was institutionalized by colonists.
I’m glad that we agree modern capitalism is problematic and the history of colonialism (and the modern Western world) is predicated on evil, exploitative, inhumane and non-egalitarian principles.
I didn’t say that they couldn’t have bad socioeconomic practices without [the West]. I simply stated that a forced assimilation to a capitalist worldview has occurred globally (the alternative being destitution) and which has reinforced the idea that wealth is virtue.
If we’re going to have an honest reflection on caste, we first need to acknowledge that the West treated all colored peoples as low caste for hundreds of years (and it still does in many ways through neocolonialism). Inequality is inherent to modern Western capitalist dogma, just as it is in a rigid institutionalized (courtesy of colonial legacy) caste based system.
I think once you see how much damage colonization did it’s easy to blame everything on that one evil. But that’s oversimplifying to an extreme extent.
For example, I really doubt the idea of class based karma (or karma based class perhaps) was a colonial introduction to India. I’m not disagreeing with you that modern capitalism is bad or saying that colonialism wasn’t damaging, those are both true, but it’s pretty damn patronizing to says “they couldn’t have had bad socioeconomic practices without us” Hell they had a literal caste system of worker exploitation long before we showed up.
It was not a colonial based introduction but it was institutionalized by colonists.
I’m glad that we agree modern capitalism is problematic and the history of colonialism (and the modern Western world) is predicated on evil, exploitative, inhumane and non-egalitarian principles.
I didn’t say that they couldn’t have bad socioeconomic practices without [the West]. I simply stated that a forced assimilation to a capitalist worldview has occurred globally (the alternative being destitution) and which has reinforced the idea that wealth is virtue.
If we’re going to have an honest reflection on caste, we first need to acknowledge that the West treated all colored peoples as low caste for hundreds of years (and it still does in many ways through neocolonialism). Inequality is inherent to modern Western capitalist dogma, just as it is in a rigid institutionalized (courtesy of colonial legacy) caste based system.