Anti-colonialism in twentieth-century Scotland
Anti-colonialism in twentieth-century Scotland
Can we identify and pursue a distinctive Scottish idea, or set of ideas, about empire and colonialism? Was there a unique Scots mode of radical critique of empire? The answer to both questions, it is suggested, is a qualified ‘yes’ – but in unexpected and sometimes paradoxical ways. The chapter seeks to discover what – if anything – connects a very disparate set of discourses. These include arguments about Scotland, or the Highlands, or other regional or ‘subcultural’ identities within the country, as subjects to colonial oppression; ones about Scotland as partner in British imperialism; and the Scottish dimension of 20th-century discourses of anticolonialism and anti-imperialism. This last centres on a small number of especially influential thinkers, from R.B. Cunningham Grahame and Hugh MacDiarmid to Tom Nairn; but also attempt to evaluate the Scottish dimension of British leftwing critiques of empire, and ideas about Scotland itself as colonised and/or postcolonial. Emphasis is placed throughout on the sheer complexity of Scotland’s engagement with ideas of empire.
Keywords: Scotland, Empire, Anticolonialism, Socialism, Nationalism, Postcolonialism, Hugh MacDiarmid, R.B. Cunningham Grahame
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