UNCORRECTEDPROOF CHAPTER 14 Rethinking Postcolonial Identity: Caught in the Spiral of Violence Peter Heehs In the last two decades of the twentieth century, postcolonial studies 0 became a red-hot academic sub-discipline. Scholars of critical theory AQ1 1 explored the ins and outs of the “postcolonial condition,” a rather 2 vague term evoking a complex of political, economic, social, cultural, and 3 psychological factors that were said to characterize the common experi- 4 ence of people who lived in countries that had recently emerged from 5 colonial rule. This meant, in practice, people living in the former imperial 6 possessions of Britain, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, and one 7 or two other European powers. 1 Their empires broke up between the late 8 1940s and the early 1970s. The outcome was the birth of dozens of new 9 nations, most of which experienced considerable growing pains. 10 P. Heehs (B ) Pondicherry, India 1 Many of the countries in question were not colonies in the strict sense of the term, that is, countries that were home to a significant number of permanent settlers from expansive states, for example Australia, Algeria, and the Dutch Cape Colony. India was never a colony in this sense. A better term for its status while under British rule is “imperial possession.” © The Author(s) 2020 A. K. Giri (ed.), Cross-Fertilizing Roots and Routes, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7118-3_14 1 479352_1_En_14_Chapter  TYPESET DISK LE  CP Disp.:25/9/2020 02:44PM Pages: 13 Layout: Pal-HusSci-A5 Author Pro