Reportage from the (Post-)Contact Zone: Polish Travellers to Decolonised India (1950–1980)

Abstract

The texts analysed in this chapter span the first three decades of India’s independence. Polish reporters document both the change that occurred in postcolonial India, and the lingering effects of foreign rule on society and culture of the Subcontinent. It is a former contact zone, a post-contact zone, where the former colonisers are absent but their presence can still be felt. Polish reporters visiting India in the 1950s and early 1960s, such as Witold Koehler, Jerzy Ros and Wiesław Górnicki often voice their critique of British colonialism, especially as (semi-official) representatives of a communist state, the Polish People’s Republic. In their accounts, they mention clubs allowing entry only to foreigners, the conflicts stirred by the colonial administration, lasting longer than the British rule, the greed of industrialists and the oppression of peasants. The reporters underline their anti-colonial viewpoint, but in many situations, they are trapped in the convention of colonial relations. Thus, the main question is whether reporters from socialist Poland can truly be anti-colonial, and, given their own dependence from the Soviet Union, can they be anti-imperialist?