The Colonial Signs of International Relations

198 Pages·2012·5.399 MB·English

by  Himadeep Muppidi

.J._
HIMADEEP MUPPIDI
The Colonial Signs of
International Relations
~
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York
cup.columbia.edu
© Himadeep Muppidi, 2012
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Muppidi, Himadeep.
The colonial signs of international relations I Himadeep Muppidi.
p.cm. .
Includes bibliosraphical' references and index.
ISBN: 978-0·2.'.H-70122-8 (cloth: alk. paper)'
978-0-231-80108-9 (e-book)
1. International re.la tions.• 2. I.m perialil,m. I. Title.,
JZ1242.M85 2012
325' .3-dc23
2011047475
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and
durable acid-free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled
content.
Printed in India
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time
of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is
responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the
manuscript was prepared.
For
Ishika and Dhruv
Crises in World Politics
(Centre of International Studies, University of Cambridge)
TARAK BARKAWI • JAMES MAYALL• BRENDAN SIMMS
editors
GERARD PRUNIER
Darfur: the Ambiguous Genocide
MARK ETHERINGTON
Revolt on the Tigris
FAISAL DEVJI
Landscapes of the Jihad
AHMED HASHIM
Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Iraq
ERIC HERRING & GLEN RANGWALA
Iraq in Fragments: the Occupation and its Legacy
STEVE TATHAM
Losing Arab Hearts and Minds
WILLIAM MALEY
Rescuing Afghanistan
IAIN KING AND WHIT MASON
Peace at any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo
CARNE ROSS
Independent Diplomat
FAISAL DEVJI
The Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam
and Global Politics
JOHN BEW, MARTYN FRAMPTON & INIGO GURRUCHAGA
Talking to Terrorists: Making Peace in Northern Ireland and the
Basque Country
HANS KUNDNANI
Utopia or Auschwitz: Germany's 1968 Generation
and the Holocaust
AMRITA NARLIKAR
New Powers: How to Become One and How to Manage Them
HIMADEEP MUPPIDI
The Colonial Signs of International Relations
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1. Shame and Rage 11
2. Numb and Number 27
3. Propriety and Atrocity 71
4. Zoological Relations 87
5. Humanitarianism and its Violences
(with Bud Duvall) 117
6. Postcoloniality and International Political Economy 127
7. Cognition and Complicity 149
Conclusion 161
Notes 165
Bibliography 181
Index 189
Vll
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This text has been a long time in the making and has passed
through the hands of friends, colleagues, students, teachers and
family. Their touch has, in molding its meanings or honing its
texture, improved it considerably. Memory ·being fickle and my
record-keeping poor, my apologies in advance if I have failed to
explicitly acknowledge all those who have helped. I am solely
responsible, however, .for all the flaws that remain in the text.
In writing this book, I have been fortunate enough to be part
of a learning community nurtured in/by a number of places.
This community sustains me intellectually and socio-emotion
ally. Although too large to name here, some aspects of this
community are condensed around institutions. At Vassar Col
lege, I am happy to have the ft;iendship and profound engage
ment of Andy Bush, Andy Davison, Khadija El-Alaoui, Luke
Harris, Katie Hite, Bill Hoynes, Joe Nevins and superbly
thoughtful colleagues in the Department of Political Science as
well as the programs in International Studies and Asian Stud
ies. I am also lucky to have the opportunity to learn constantly,
in class and outside, from deeply thoughtful and intensely ide
alistic Vassar students. Particularly noteworthy in recent years
are those who have created and su&tained "The Village" at
Vassar and beyond. Villages, by their very nature, resist nam
ing but from within that warmly hospitable space Jason Var
gas, Kelly Tan, Thomas Facchine, Tulio Zille and Quy.nh Ph~m
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
read, re-read, adda-ed, raised questions, commented or criti
cized various issues developed in these chapters. I am thankful
for their friendship and their generously critical spirit.
In the time that this manuscript has taken to emerge into
print, earlier versions of two chapters ("Shame and Rage" and
"Zoological Relations") have appeared in Interrogating Impe
rialism edited by Naeem Inayatullah and Robin Riley (Pal
grave-Macmillan, UK, 2006) and Europe and its Boundaries
edited by Andrew Davison and Himadeep Muppidi (Lexington
Press, US, 2009) respectively. Parts of this book have also been
presented and discussed at various venues over the years
including the "Bud Fest" in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Inter
national Relations Colloquium at the University of Minnesota,
Temple University, Jawaharlal Nehru University (]NU) and the
Annual Conventions of the International Studies Association.
I would like to thank the editors and publishers of the two
edited books as well as the discussants and participants in the
various fora for their suggestions, perceptive readings, advice
and criticisms. Specific. thanks are owed to Bud Duvall, Alex
Wendt, Roxanne Doty, Michael Barnett, Tarak Barkawi,
Rhona Liebel, Janice Bially Mattern, Priya Joshi, Orfeo Fiore
tos, Latha Varadarajan, Shampa Biswas, Arjun Chowdhury,
Mark Hoffman and David Pak Leon.
Bud Duvall remains an inspiring icon for me in many ways.
His sharp analyses and insightful readings have always been a
pleasure to receive and/or observe and learn from. I am thor
oughly in his debt for many rich1'- layered conversations over
the years and very specifically for his generous willingness
to allow our co-authored piece on humanitarianism (part of a
larger co-authored critique of Humanitarianism) to be inclu
ded here.
Tarak Barkawi was kind enough to rescue the manuscript
from•cold storage at a University Press and resuscitate,it for the
x
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
series he edits at Hurst. I am grateful to him and to Michael
Dwyer for their relatively quick turn-around of this manu
script. Tarak, Michael and David Blaney also reviewed the
manuscript and suggested changes (including, among others,
doubling the size of the original manuscript!) that, while
increasing the time required for revisions, also improved it
considerably. David Blaney has, for a long time, been an excel
lent interlocutor in a number of ways and one of the few joys
of a Minnesota winter is getting to a warm cup of coffee and a
heated conversation with David on Grand Avenue. I am also
deeply appreciative of Jonathan de Peyer's careful reading and
meticulous editing of the manuscript as it was being prepared
for publication.
Janice Bially Mattern proposed the book for discussion at
the ISA-North East's Annual Book Circle. A very formidable
group, including Janice, Linda Bishai, Robin Riley, Rose
Shinko, Peter Mandaville and Naeem Inayatullah dissected the
book in ways that were inspiring, provocative and immensely
useful for further revision. I have also been fortunate to receive
advice, criticism and suggestions for further improvement on
various chapters from Jenny Edkins, Cynthia Enloe, Poornima
Paidipaty, Kiran Pervez and Naren Kumarakulasingam as well
as those who reviewed this manuscript as external reviewers of
my tenure file at Vassar. Many thanks to you all!
In India, over the years, I have learnt from a continuing and
intensely critical engagement with Rajesh Rajagopalan,
Gaddam Dharmendra, Udita Chandra, Kashyap Kumar,
Manoj Mitta, Bala Venkatesh Varma, Rajeswari Pillai Rajago
palan, B.S. Chimni, C.S.R. Murthy, and Siddharth Malla
varapu. The prospect of meeting them turns chaotic Del.l.'li into
an appealing haven. Biju Mathew, Sangeeta Kamat, Rama
Mantena, Kavita Dada, Velcheru Narayana Rao, Sundeep
Muppidi, Anant Maringanti, Amar Muppidi, K. Srinivas
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Reddy, Anjaha Sinha, Ladan Affi and Vinod Menon are part of
a larger, vibrant community that informs, invigorates and crit
icizes me regularly. I am deeply appreciative of that privilege.
Naeem Inayatullah set me on the path of an alternative
International Relations (IR) through a number oi conversa
tions and continually inspires me to push intellectual-emo
tional boundaries within and without. Nothing gives me
greater pleasure than snagging every opportunity to engage
him at the ISA or anywhere else I can get to embrace him. I am
not sure what really happens in these encounters but the out
come is almost always an enhancement of my own thinking
being in IR and the world! Directly and indirectly, this text is
a tribute to his brilliant capacity to ignite subaltern othernesses
within our selves.
Chris Chekuri and Quynh Phc}m are the two souls I talk to
endlessly. It is one of the exquisite pleasures of academic life
that these conversations constitute work and play. Co-authors
in thought as well as in writing, they inspire me to continu
ously explore, engage ahd re-articulate the world in new and
innovative ways.
My dispersed but techno-s6cially knit family continues to
sustain me in many ways. 1 regret that my father, who passed
away in December 2009, did not live to see this hook in print.
But he opened my mind first to the world of international rela
tions and his adventurous and ,bold spirit continues ,to bless
and guide me as I fumble around fascinated and bewildered by
its intricacies! My mother's intelligence, calm strength and
fiery resoluteness have always inspired me to think deeper
about the multiple sources of social power in our seemingly
singular world. I am forever indebted to both of them for
teaching me, primarily through the force of example, what liV"
ing a dignified and meaningfol life entails. As rhy children
Ishika and Dhruv ask me about international relations,J,hope
xii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
this book tells them what it is but should not be. As to what it
ought to be, I believe they as well as Kruthin, Siri, Keerthi,
Saif, Gabriel, Yamina and Leo, will be in a far better position
to script that.
Xlll