chapter 36
...................................................................................................................................................MULTICULTURALISM
AND POST-COLONIAL
THEORY
...................................................................................................................................................paul gilroy
Most commentators on the political genealogy of post-colonialism have
emphasized that there is no single uniWed body of post-colonial theory
(Young 2003 ). The political and intellectual enterprises that combined to
create a platform for contemporary post-colonial critique are extremely
diverse. They involve a far longer history than scholastic memory can usually
appreciate and their impact has not, as much recent theorizing might suggest,
been conWned to the analysis of literature, art, and culture. The critical
commentary they articulate has been both explicitly political and theoretical.
It turns out to be as long and as varied as Europe’s colonial expansion which
was contested and debated even in its earliest manifestations (Todorov 1984 ;
Pagden 1982 ).
Post-colonial theory is built upon debates over the legitimacy of colonial
power that stretch back through complex theological and anthropological
arguments about the morality of European expansion and the consequent
ethical and political problems raised by conquest, violent administration, and