A Violence and Emancipation in Colonial Ideology

Using the insurrection by the Malayan Communist Party (1948–1960) as an example, this book argues that resorting to violence sped up the decolonisation of British Malaya by forcing its colonial administration to invent Malay nationalism and pursue ameliorative social policy among the Chinese diaspora community in a manner clearly derived from the Party’s platform. Yet this was not the same as giving the country economic emancipation from the expectations of neo-colonial rule.Violence and Emancipation in Colonial Ideology entertains no warm colonial memories of the cold war years. Confirming Price’s reputation as a plain-speaking critic of Empire apologia, this book asks how colonial ideology was considered to be beneath Europe, yet desperately needed by it. Using an Althusserian assumption, the book begs the question: if a late colonial state was subjective, then how did it claim a sufficiently objective mantle to rule and how did ideological techniques enable this?

“… A major contribution to the literature.” – Prof Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London “… [an] unparalleled command of both scholarly literature and primary sources…” – Prof Björn Ahl, Professor and Chair of Chinese Legal Culture at the University of Cologne

Rohan B. E. Price is a Lecturer at the School of Law and Justice, Southern Cross University, Australia..