In this article, C.L.R. James recalls his schooldays in the prime of English colonialism. The main focus of the article centers around the subculture that is cricket. Immersed in English culture, where a top education and being a student was the primary goal for all, James started to realize that the ideals he was taught was not the end all be all, when his chances of playing cricket was jeopardized and he started to take on, what Robert Kelley would consider, everyday forms of resistance to protest that. He point out how he was initially a studious child, who would not bend any form of rules, because that’s what he was taught in school, but he then begins to turn the other cheek and realizes that there is so much more to life than just school and that there were things to be passionate about. This is a great, yet, subtle example of hegemony and our compliance to be ruled almost blinds us sometimes from reality and the truth and those who realize are the ones to challenge authority and develop the tension between culture and subcultures as James does when it comes to cricket.
The article from M.K. Ghandi on the other hand takes a different approach on English colonialism in India. Ghandi, rather than taking on everyday acts of resistance, wants to flush out
western society completely and directly. He says that in order for India to regain self rule, swaraj,
they must abandon all westernized things that they have accommodated to, such as machines, and go
back to how they used to do things. Admittedly, Ghandi’s approach to regaining swaraj, is a bit
extreme. He says that when it comes to stopping the use of machines and needing things made by
machines, if they could do without it before they can do without it now. He also made a point about
how those who wish to participate in his movement are free to do so and those won’t don’t have to,
but all he’d need is a small group and others will surely follow which resonates with the last reading,
in regards to the Laotian community who came together to stand up to their government and improve
the conditions that they were subject to. This form of unionizing against a higher power, transcends
culture and is united by a collective determination to fight any form of oppression.
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