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Reflections on Migratory Discourses in the Age of Transnational Capital

Reflections on Migratory Discourses in the Age of Transnational Capital Writing these words in the early months of the Taiping Rebellion, Marx and Engels seemingly used the occasion to point out once more the necessary evil of colonialist and capitalist expansion into Asia. According to their much critiqued teleological narrative of progress from feudalism to socialism, the entry of commodity relations and missionary activity in China, as positions 0 1995by Duke University Press distasteful as they might seem to any progressive intellectual, are necessary evils that will hurtle Asiatic societies from their dark feudal ways into modernity, and precipitate those contradictions essential for the transition into socialism. But the fantasy which this narrative engenders in the above passage, by its self-conscious irony, not only deflates the magisterial security of Marx and Engels’s theoretical prognostications, but also slips in a number of implications about the importance of political and theoretical developments in Asia for western Marxists. T h e scenario of European reactionaries faced with the very political situation they sought to escape brings up a number of critical issues: O n the face of it, one might be tempted to argue that insofar as the dream of relentless retribution continues even in the twentieth century to find expression http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png positions asia critique Duke University Press

Reflections on Migratory Discourses in the Age of Transnational Capital

Mohan, Rajeswari
positions asia critique , Volume 3 (2) – Sep 1, 1995
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 1995 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1067-9847
eISSN
1527-8271
DOI
10.1215/10679847-3-2-644
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Writing these words in the early months of the Taiping Rebellion, Marx and Engels seemingly used the occasion to point out once more the necessary evil of colonialist and capitalist expansion into Asia. According to their much critiqued teleological narrative of progress from feudalism to socialism, the entry of commodity relations and missionary activity in China, as positions 0 1995by Duke University Press distasteful as they might seem to any progressive intellectual, are necessary evils that will hurtle Asiatic societies from their dark feudal ways into modernity, and precipitate those contradictions essential for the transition into socialism. But the fantasy which this narrative engenders in the above passage, by its self-conscious irony, not only deflates the magisterial security of Marx and Engels’s theoretical prognostications, but also slips in a number of implications about the importance of political and theoretical developments in Asia for western Marxists. T h e scenario of European reactionaries faced with the very political situation they sought to escape brings up a number of critical issues: O n the face of it, one might be tempted to argue that insofar as the dream of relentless retribution continues even in the twentieth century to find expression

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positions asia critique – Duke University Press

Published: Sep 1, 1995

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