August 30th 2022 marked one year since the formal withdrawal of US military forces  from the ‘War on Terror’ theatre of Afghanistan, an event that re-centered questions about imperialism in the 21st century. Our special issue for summer 2022 examines imperialism from the vantage point of South Asia. We seek to understand the current form of imperialism(s) in the region, in the context of the American withdrawal as well as discourses around “global China” and Russian expansionism. We also ask how the Left in South Asia must confront imperialism ideologically and politically, especially in the face of resurgent authoritarianisms across the region, many of which seek to mobilize popular anti-Western sentiment in the name of opposing imperialism.

We begin with an in-depth interview with Priyamvada Gopal, renowned scholar on race, colonialism and imperialism. Gopal traces the authoritarianisms currently sweeping the region to a state structure inherited from colonialism as well as ongoing collaborations between these regimes and imperialisms, old and emergent. We also discuss the politics of anti-imperialism and ‘decolonization’, with Gopal emphasising that our anti-imperialist politics must be waged in both material and ideological terms. Against certain fashionable trends, she argues that anti-imperialist activists in the global South should consider concepts like freedom, emancipation and universalism – concepts that inspired past anti-colonial movements – as part of their own tradition, not simply European inventions. In particular, she excoriates a dated, campist anti-imperialist politics which boils down to a simplistic anti-Westernism and fails to confront the regional and international interests of various imperialisms that now exist in our multi-polar world. An anti-imperialist politics must, she maintains, be both internationalist and attentive to local contextual configurations of power. 

Afghanistan occupies a crucial place in the issue. Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale reflect on one year of Taliban governance in Afghanistan following the US withdrawal, while Nivi Manchanda highlights Western tendencies to overlook the country’s decimation at the hands of various imperial powers – a state of affairs she calls “colonial amnesia”. Together, these authors push beyond simplistic portrayals of Afghanistan and the Taliban, challenging both outright defence or condemnation of the latter to analyse, instead, how the Taliban regime realigned and reproduced relations between classes, ethnicities, and genders within Afghanistan. They also seek to build  a conversation among progressive forces across South Asia to respond to the political situation in Afghanistan and chart a renewed pro-people, anti-imperialist politics today. 

Several articles point to the relationship between imperialism and perhaps the biggest crisis and challenge of our times: climate change. Nafis H. takes this head on -- he shows how Bangladesh stands at the frontier of climate catastrophe, owing not just to its geography and ecology but also its entanglement within a developmentalist logic pushed further by rivalries between two global powers, China and India. To ensure its survival amidst the escalating climate crisis, Bangladesh must, Nafis argues, confront its position within competing imperialist agendas, old and new.

A key focus of the issue is to examine how global powers beyond the United States, especially China and India, are shaping South Asia and whether these new forces might be conceptualised and resisted as imperialist. Aasim Sajjad Akhtar puts forward a forceful case that China is no longer a peripheral economy in the capitalist world-system as it has developed exploitative relations with many Asian and African countries, including Pakistan, the focus of his piece. Pointing to the ecological devastation, labour exploitation and population displacements rife in Chinese investment projects in Pakistan, Akhtar argues that China is emerging as an imperialistic actor alongside the United States. Hashim Bin Rashid’s comparative study of the economic crises in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, also points to China, alongside the IMF and other private lenders, as entangling both countries in a debt trap, one that constitutes a form of financial imperialism. Finally, in an essay examining the long history of imperialist intervention in Nepal, Shambhu Katel discusses the role of India and related debates amongst Nepal’s Maoists over which imperialism, American or Indian, is now their key opponent. 

The overriding goal of the issue is to discuss and debate the complexities of building a Left anti-imperialist politics within South Asian contexts today, while learning from the ideological and political lessons of our past. Here, Nafisa Tanjeem urges us to recognize and dismantle inherent hierarchies in the transnational labour solidarity movement in order to meaningfully challenge supply chain capitalism.

Lastly, we host an extensive panel discussion with leaders from three major leftist parties in Pakistan, a country that has served as the battleground for multiple historical and ongoing imperial projects. Taking a historical perspective over the last 20 years – starting from the US War on Terror through to the present day – we ask how different sections of the Pakistani Left have approached the question of imperialism and how this has guided their politics on the ground. More importantly, we ask how their analyses and insights from past experiences shape their vision of a robust Left anti-imperialist politics of the future – one that forcefully confronts rival imperialist agendas, a sharpening ecological crisis, an economy strangled by international debt, a parasitic ruling elite and military-industrial complex historically enmeshed within US imperial interests, and a resurgence of right-wing populism feeding off shallow anti-Western posturing.

We recognize that there remain many more facets to imperialism in South Asia to discuss, understand, and challenge – a task Jamhoor remains committed to. We hope you enjoy reading this special issue and look forward to your feedback.

In solidarity,

Jamhoor

Cover Art by K Gopika Babu.

Issue VII: Imperialism in South Asia