EP07 - Colonialism and Class Relations ft. Imran Ali and Bridget O'Laughlin

Introduction to Political Economy

Regardless of what explains unprecedented economic growth in the West, the question remains why the rest of the world did not then catch up. One thing that is easy to underestimate, given how little we are taught about it, is how our “underdeveloped” present is shaped by the colonial past. Colonialism shaped, changed and in some cases implanted new class relations. But there were different colonizers and they did not encounter societies as blank slates. What did pre-colonial political economies look like? How did different colonizers react to different societies? And what kinds of struggles and accommodations shaped new colonial political economies?

I spoke to Dr. Imran Ali and Dr. Bridget O'Laughlin and made a mash up. Dr. Imran Ali is author of The Punjab Under Imperialism, 1885-1947 and Dr. Bridget O'Laughlin is author of, among many other articles and pieces, "Proletarianisation, Agency and Changing Rural Livelihoods: Forced Labour and Resistance in Colonial Mozambique."

Music by Zobu.