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Imperialism In Frantz Fanon's The Shadow Lines

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The term ‘decolonized’ is popular among activists of colour, yet is very loaded and hard to pin down. It has been used to free minds but it also has divided communities. The process of “decolonized’’ should not place colonization as the central point of our culture, nor should it romanticize our indigenous past .These trains of thought perpetuate the point of view of the dominant culture of today. Rather “decolonization’’ should be a process of changing a way we view the world. Frantz Fanon wrote- “Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land and from our mind as well.’’ The residue of colonization allows for the continued stratification of people. Rejecting labels, selfishness, egotism, a black and white binary discrimination judgements are, instead, traits of the decolonized. A decolonized mind defends culture by defending the root of who we are. A person with decolonized mind accepts their past, loves their present and creates their future, regardless of what stands in their way. The Shadow Lines is an attempt by Amitav Ghosh to show the Blurring of lines or …show more content…

The relationship between narrator 's grandmother and her animosity towards her sister 's granddaughter Ila emblematizes the conflict between nationalism and migrant cosmopolitanism, even as it makes visible the limits and failures of both these middle class women. The Shadow Lines is an extreme example of the tendency of crossing of frontiers -- especially those of nationality, culture and language. The novel focuses on nationalism, the shadow lines we draw between people and nations, which is both an absurd illusion and source of terrifying violence. The Shadow Lines sets out to uncover the confronted, fearful, suppressed memories in an attempt to unsettle the simplified seamless narrative of national

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