Drawing on the case of India, where liberation from colonial domination was to be attained through the realisation of a socio-political order based on the principles of Hindu (and later also Islamic) economics, the project examines why colonial elites formulated their critique of the West, and British rule in particular, in economic terms and how they subsequently came to draw on these terms to forward their interests and socio-political projects. Further, it examines how Indian (re)visions of tradition articulated with existing western economic discourses to imagine post-colonial socio-political orders that critically engaged the norms of post-Enlightenment western “Modernity” and contributed to the reconstitution of supposedly ancient traditions. Finally, the project inquires as to the particular role of the religious in formulating post-colonial normative alternatives.
While the realisation of a socio-political order based on an explicitly Hindu political economy became largely irrelevant following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, the pursuit of a socio-political order based on an Islamic political economy, stirred increasing support, even beyond the Indian context. Since the fall of communism, Islamic economics has been presented as an alternative to capitalism and its principles put into practice by institutions both in the Muslim world and the West.
Ultimately this endeavour aims to attain a more nuanced understanding of the emergence and transformation of normative orders, as well as the processes through which particular notions of tradition are mobilised to question established colonial norms and formulate post-colonial alternatives. Finally, we hope to gain insight regarding the relationship between normative change and the emergence of post-colonial social formations and subjectivities.
