Colonialism and Culture: A Comparative Study of Spanish Colonial Rule in America and British Colonial Rule in India

Abstract

The present study will be comparing the cultural implications of British colonial rule in India and Spanish colonial rule in America. It will be using Systems Theory and its relation to culture as its theoretical framework. For the present study the following variables have been selected: the institution of family, the institution of religion, the economic institution the political institution, and the educational institution. By pondering on Amos Rapoport, the concepts of hybridism and cultural identity in the ideas of Homi Bhabha, and Michael Hay's ideas of culture and form and Systems Theory and its relation to culture and also Cultural Imperialism as its theoretical framework, it tries to show the relationship between culture and colonialism. It will attempt to illustrate how the host country has accepted the new colonial culture and whether a synthesis of culture or cultural assimilation, or cultural disapproving and cultural genocide has taken place. Thus the historic and cultural backgrounds of the colonists and the indigenous culture and the relation between the colonized and the colonizer are realized.