The Colour Volcano (An Old and Rare Book)

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The present book is the somewhat modified, published version of my dissertation submitted for the doctoral degree of Jadavpur University, Calcutta. Keeping in consideration various factors, the original work has been marginally abridged. A few additions have also been made in order to update the book as far as possible. Thus, for example, the stand of the non- aligned states on the apartheid issue as revealed at the Havana Summit held in 1979 has subsequently been incorporated.

In this work, in order to examine and explain the ramifications of racism as a structural phenomena in international relations, a study of the attitudes of some selected states on the apartheid question has been undertaken. The states whose attitudes are discussed are the two superpowers (the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.), the U.K., France, Australia, the non-aligned Afro-Asian states taken as a group, and India.

Comments made by authoritative persons of different states on the issue of racism in general, and apartheid in particular, have been numerous. To avoid the complications of looking into all these comments, I have relied mainly on those comments which have been made on the apartheid issue by the representatives of the states in question at the sessions of the U.N. General Assembly and its committees over the twenty year period, 1953-1973. While discussing the attitude of the non-aligned Afro-Asian states, however, I have referred to the declarations made and resolutions adopted by the non-aligned states at the non-aligned summit conferences. This is done in order to determine the stand adopted by these states as a group.

To gain a comprehensive view of the attitudes of the selected states on the question of racism, a survey of certain aspects of the domestic milieu of these states is undertaken. This has been necessary because of the existence of close linkages between domestic and international factors.

Racism today exists in one form or another in the domes- tic milieu of a number of states, including the U.S.A., U.K., Australia and South Africa. In South Africa and Australia white settlers came to inhabit non-white lands dominating over the original inhabitants, the black African tribes in the case of South Africa and the aborigines in the case of Australia. In the USA, too, the scene was largely similar, though here the importation of a sizeable number of Africans for the purpose of slavery added to the bulk of the victims of white oppression. U.K's imperialist expansions placed her at the dominating end in relation to her Afro-Asian colonies. In later years, non- white immigration to the white states, and the reactions provoked in those states by such non-white presence, further com- plicated racial problems. From the historical standpoint it may be said that racism emerged as an ideological weapon in the slave owning system for ensuring domination over the conquered tribes. Subsequently racist ideology made rapid head- way owing to colonial conquests and the introduction of slavery in the USA. Racial ideas were resorted to with the intention of finding an explanation and providing a justification for white dominance. Such racist ideas have survived to the present day, though having undergone various mutations over the years.

Initially, racism was rationalized along religious lines. The different racial varieties were viewed as the outcome of the separate 'thoughts of God. Also, the non-whites were not Christians, hence they were viewed as inferior to the whites who were Christians. The idea was propagated that to be a Christian meant being civilized, and it was the whites who were so civilized!

Subsequently, with the development of the scientific modes of thinking, religious explanations were felt to be inadequate for upholding racial discrimination. The necessity of finding justification of racialism in terms of science was increasingly felt. Consequently, pseudo-scientific theories were built up to establish the 'superiority' and 'inferiority' of the white and non-white races respectively.