Essential Books on Colonisation and Decolonisation

Colonization reshaped political authority, economies, cultures, identities, borders, labour systems and the production of knowledge. Decolonization therefore cannot be understood only as the formal end of imperial rule. It also involves continuing debates over memory, identity, representation, inequality and power.

This revised reading list brings together history, political thought, memoir, social criticism and selected literary works from India, Africa, Palestine, South America, the wider Latin American region and the United States, alongside other regions shaped by colonial and imperial systems. The books have been grouped thematically, with each title linked to its Goodreads page.

Colonialism, Empire and Decolonisation: Direct Studies

Colonialism in Culture, Identity and Public Life

  1. Beyond A Boundary - C.L.R. James
  2. Coolie Lines - Praveen Kumar Jha

The British Empire, Colonial India, Independence and Partition

Indenture, Slavery and Colonial Labour Systems

  5. Smoke and Ashes: A Writer's Journey through Opium's Hidden Histories - Amitav Ghosh
  6. The Cost of Sugar - Cynthia McLeod

Africa: Colonisation, Resistance and Postcolonial Society

  11. A Grain of Wheat - Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
  12. Petals of Blood - Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
  13. Wizard of the Crow - Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
  14. God's Bits of Wood - Ousmane Sembène
  16. Nervous Conditions - Tsitsi Dangarembga
  17. Efuru - Flora Nwapa
  18. The House of Hunger - Dambudzo Marechera
  20. The Pillar of Salt - Albert Memmi
  21. Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee
  23. Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography - Mark Mathabane
  24. Long Walk to Freedom - Nelson Mandela
  31. The House at Sugar Beach - Helene Cooper
  38. The Shadow of the Sun - Ryszard Kapuściński
Decolonial and Postcolonial Thought
  1. The Wretched of the Earth - Frantz Fanon
  2. Black Skin, White Masks - Frantz Fanon
  4. Out of Place - Edward W. Said
  7. Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Paulo Freire

South America and the Wider Latin American Colonial Experience

United States: Indigenous Dispossession and Genocide

Palestine, Displacement and Settler Colonialism

  4. Palestine - Joe Sacco
  5. Footnotes in Gaza - Joe Sacco
  6. Gate of the Sun - Elias Khoury
  7. Mornings in Jenin - Susan Abulhawa
  12. Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom - Norman G. Finkelstein
  14. Eyes in Gaza - Mads Gilbert

No single list can fully represent the historical, intellectual and cultural landscape of colonialism and decolonization. These works nevertheless offer multiple entry points into the machinery of conquest and extraction, the experiences of enslaved and displaced communities, anti-colonial resistance, postcolonial state formation and the continuing influence of empire on contemporary institutions and identities. The collection can be read geographically, historically or thematically. Read together, the books show that colonialism did not operate in a single uniform manner and that its consequences continue to be debated across regions and disciplines.

Comments

Post a Comment

What are people reading?

My Childhood and Bambi

Image
I started this post to write about ideas, and abruptly, the mood changed. I was lost in the illusory display of childhood days. Imagination wove the reality of our lives daily and archived it as memories. I, too, have my share of memories. I had a pencil box with the cover of the Bambi movie imprinted on it. It always comes before my eyes whenever I think about my life. A sense of surrealism has taken over my imagination. When I was 3, my father lived in the Oak Park area at Mallital. I have faint memories of the school where I did my LKG education. Its name was St. John’s, established in 1844 , and it is located near Mallital. I visualize large images of Jesus on the church glass windows, the LKG class on the first floor, and the UKG class on the ground floor. I also remember myself struggling with alphabets. I have good memories of Buck Preparatory School, Nanital. I have completed my UKG from this school. The school was converted into hotel in 1994. Googled about the founder and go...
Read more

Kanpur Coaching Gurus

Image
Memories of coaching days at Kanpur are inseparable from me. I have done a separate post on Kanpur coaching mandi only. The most remembered image of my coaching days was the advertisement of Ankush Bhatia by Pran classes, and it was pasted on each wall of Kanpur. His photo was spread at distant corners of the city, showing All India Rank 51. Never seen any local marketing campaign like this. Sometimes, I recall the rush of students from one coaching center to another for seat capture, xerox copying of assignments, and 'out-of-course' study material. The JEE course was never completed on time in the Kanpur coaching mandi. At the end of March, the mad rush to complete the course began with various test series taking place simultaneously. I could not forget that pressure till now. I will never forgive Anish, Pankaj, and Vishnoi sir for combining their individual treats into 1 party for JEE-qualified students. For information on the pre-2000 AD days of coaching mandi, check this l...
Read more

Lyrics of Title Song from Bharat Ek Khoj

सृष्टी से पहले सत्य नहीं था, असत्य भी नहीं अंतरिक्ष भी नहीं, आकाश भीं नहीं था छिपा था क्या कहाँ, किसने देखा था उस पल तो अगम, अटल जल भी कहाँ था सृष्टी का कौन हैं कर्ता कर्ता हैं यह वा अकर्ता ऊंचे आसमान में रहता सदा अध्यक्ष बना रहता वोहीं सच मुच में जानता. या नहीं भी जानता हैं किसी को नहीं पता नहीं पता नहीं है पता, नहीं है पता........... वोह था हिरान्य गर्भ सृष्टी से पहले विद्यमान वोही तो सारे भूत जात का स्वामी महान जो है अस्तित्वमाना धरती आसमान धारण कर ऐसे किस देवता कि उपासना करे हम अवि देकर जिस के बल पर तेजोमय है अम्बर पृथ्वी हरी भरी स्थापित स्थिर स्वर्ग ओर सूरज भी स्थिर ऐसे किस देवता कि उपासना करे हम अवि देकर गर्भ में अपने अग्नी धारण कर पैदा कर्व्यपा था जल इधर उधर नीचे ऊपर जगह चुके वो का एकमेव प्रान बंकर ऐसे किस देवता कि उपासना करे हम अवि देकर ॐ ! सृष्टी निर्माता स्वर्ग रचायता पूर्वज रख्सा कर सत्य धर्मं पलक अतुल जल नियामक रक्षा कर फैली हैं दिशाएं बहु जैसी उसकी सब में सब पर ऐसी ही देवता कि उपासना करे हम अवि देकर ऐसी ही देवता कि उपासना करे हम अवि देकर......
Read more

The 400 Blows

Image
This is mine 400th post on the 'Sparsh'. It’s an eve of expression and celebration for me. I have a long journey of “unlearning" prejudices to gain insight of human nature. Also, the explosion of the blog phenomenon has exposed youths like me to a multitude of opinions. I had read, written and discussed about social, economic, and political opinions of importance and enjoyed sharing views on cinema. I read several bloggers but follow ritually for new updates on these blogs : Nimmy , Nimmy2 , Indianhomemaker , Rashmi Bansal , Atanu Dey , Devinder Sharma , TheSouthAsianIdea , Prof Abi , Sameer Bhat, anindianmuslim , Winds From The East , Calamur Harini , Vikram V Garg , Diptakirti , aPocRyPHaL , Anu , The Rational Fool , Nita , The Religious Policeman , kufr , Roshmi , Jaya , Santosh Desai ,  joie de vivre and Rajjo ; I read and like works of these Public Figures : Osho , Nadeem F. Paracha , Bill Maher , Christopher Hitchens , Dr. B. R. Ambedkar , P. Sainath , N...
Read more

The Necessity of Blasphemy - 3

“Those who cannot attack the thought, instead attack the thinker.” (Paul Valery 1871-1945) A true questioning spirit is always introspective in nature, not accusatory. Verified doubt is scientific and it lays the foundation for merit-based trust. The advantage of a questioning spirit is that it is the opposite of an inquisition. Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against errors and dogma. Voice of reason asks for the justification of each a religious doctrine that is proclaimed as true without proof. This creates a conflict in the society as people wants to be in their comfort zones of tradition. It is falsehood alone which needs the support of religion. Truth can stand by itself. The Judeo-Christian tradition began with the Hebrews but the goal was to extend the "faith" to the entire world over time. Judeo-Christian tradition has taken civilization back many years when scientific records and journals were destroyed in the name of being blasphemous. C...
Read more