The Psychology Of Colonialism In The Intimate Enemy By Ashis Nandy

Ashis Nandy in his book “The intimate enemy” has tried to focus on the psychology of colonialism. I’ve observed that the book justifies its title very well as it sheds light on the fact that though Indians were protesting against colonial ideas as an enemy however, at the same time they were maintaining an intimacy with those colonial ideas.

The book stresses that the colonizers left an impact on the cognitive and physical levels of people as well and takes the idea of psychological resistance to colonialism seriously. According to Nandy’s own words – “the book is not mere a tale of history but it’s a cautionary tale that says that conventional anti-colonialism, too, could be an apologia for the colonization of minds.”

The book is divided

According to the book, British cultural in India was not politically dominant. Pg-5 of book mentions that under first two Governor Generals, British were living like an Indian and most of them were married to Indian women and they used to offer Pooja to Hindu goddesses.

Missionary activities were banned and Indian laws dominated in the courts and system of education in India. There was an instance where British army raised revenue from a temple. Moreover, the earlier East India Company was not intended to govern India but to make money and British authority used to be regarded as “faintly comical” in India by visitors from Britain.

According to the book, the colonialism has begun after the flowering of evangelical spirit in new generation of middle class British. These new generation of colonizers amalgamated political and cultural aspects with the colonialism. The Raj started thinking their rule as an agent of progress and mission while visualizing Indians as crypto-barbarian with a dire need of civilization. This resulted into a situation where Indians felt that their salvation lies in becoming more like the British, in amity or in

As I have mentioned in earlier paragraph, the book takes three concepts to describe the sexual orientation – Purustava, Naritva and Klimbatva. Pursatva was regarded as dominant , Naritva as dominated and Klimbatva as a taboo sexual orientation.

The book also draws our attention to other psychological aspects of different layer of society. The lower class were expected to show their manliness and sexual prowess. They were regarded as violent and virile. Nevertheless, the upper classes tend to affirm their masculinity by distancing themselves from sexual prowess, abstinence and self control.

The book beautifully explains the psychological impact on the minds of colonizers. The colonizers believed that colonial exploitation is incidental and is par to higher form of philosophy of life. They couldn’t rule a continent sized country by having moral cripples and hence to preserve a minimum of self-esteem they thought that whatever they are doing is directly related to the values and norms of their