Journal of Iranian Social Studies

Alatas on Colonial and Autonomous Knowledge

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Syed Farid Alatas

National University of Singapore

https://doi.org/10.22034/jss.2023.1996350.1769
Abstract
he formative period of Alatas’ thought was that of colonialism, particularly in British Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies. While a student at the University of Amsterdam in the 1950s, he wrote his first piece on the problems of colonialism. Here, he divided the problems created by colonialism into three categories. The third category is the non-material, that is, the sociological, psychological and moral problems created by colonialism. Alatas believed that the greatest damage that colonialism brought about was in this third area and it was this problem that hampered the solution to many societal problems. It was also during this time that Alatas attached a great deal of importance to the nature of the elite in development. He suggested that the ruling elite which was nurtured in the colonial period lacked a well-integrated system of thought, having been unable to bring about a synthesis between their cultural heritage and Western thought. This chapter described Alatas’ decolonial perspective in terms of his theory, method and context.

Keywords

decolonization
Malaysia
Sociology of Knowledge
Autonomous Knowledge
Abaza, M. (2002) Debates on Islam and Knowledge in Malaysia and Egypt: Shifting Worlds, London: RoutledgeCurzon.
Academic Colonialism: a symposium on the influences which destroy intellectual independence (1968) Seminar 112
Alatas, S. F. (2003) “Academic Dependency and the Global Division of Labour in the Social Sciences”, Current Sociology, No. 51(6): 599-613.
Alatas, S. F. (2006) Alternative Discourses in Asian Social Science: Responses to Eurocentrism, New Delhi: Sage.
Alatas, S.H. (1955) “Some Fundamental Problems of Colonialism”, Eastern World, 9-10.
Alatas, S.H. (1955) “Karl Mannheim (1894 – 1947)”, Progressive Islam, No. 7-8(1): 4-5.
Alatas, S.H. (1969) “Academic Imperialism”, Lecture delivered to the History Society, University of Singapore, 26 September 1969.
Alatas, S.H. (1971) Thomas Stamford Raffles 1781-1826: schemer or reformer, Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
Alatas, S.H. (1972) “The Captive Mind in Development Studies’, International Social Science Journal, No. 34 (2): 9–25.
Alatas, S.H. (1974) “The Captive Mind and Creative Development”, International Social Science Journal, No. 36(4): 691–699.
Alatas, S.H. (1977) The Myth of the Lazy Native: A study of the image of the Malays, Filipinos and Javanese from the 16th to the 20th century and its function in the ideology of colonial capitalism, London: Frank Cass.
Alatas, S.H. (1979) “Towards an Asian social science tradition”, New Quest, No. 17: 265-269.
Alatas, S.H. (1981) “Social aspects of endogenous intellectual creativity: the problem of obstacles – guidelines for research”, in Intellectual creativity in endogenous culture, eds. A. Abdel-Malek & A. N. Pandeya, Tokyo: United Nations University.
Alatas, S.H. (2000) “Intellectual Imperialism: Definition, Traits, and Problems”, Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science, No. 28(2): 23-45.
Alatas, S.H. (2002) “The Development of an Autonomous Social Science Tradition in Asia: Problems and Prospects”, Asian Journal of Social Science, No.30(1): 150 – 157.
Alatas, S.H. (2006) “The Autonomous, the Universal and the Future of Sociology”, Current Sociology, No.54: 7–23.
Alatas, S. I. (2021) “Thoughts of the Late Syed Hussein Alatas”, Free Malaysia Today, January 7.
Alatas, M. (2010) The Life in the Writing - Syed Hussein Alatas: Author of The Myth of the Lazy Native, Shah Alam: Marshall Cavendish.
Alatas, M. (2017) “Four decades of a Malay myth”, The New Mandala January 23.
http://www.newmandala.org/four-decades-malay-myth/  [accessed August 2, 2018].
Alatas, Sh. M. (2020) “Applying Syed Hussein Alatas’s Ideas in Contemporary Malaysian Society”, Asian Journal of Social Science, 48: 319-338.
Altbach, Ph. G. (1975) “Literary Colonialism: Books in the Third World” , Harvard Educational Review, No.45: 226-236.
Altbach, Ph. G. (1977) “Servitude of the Mind? Education, Dependency, and Neocolonialism”, Teachers College Record, No. 79(2): 187-204.
Azhar I. (2002) “Orientalisme dalam pengajian Melayu” (“Orientalism in Malay Studies”), Persidangan Antarabangsa Bahasa, Sastera dan Kebudayaan Melayu ke-2, bertemakan “Ke arah bitara kesarjanaan Melayu”, Singapore, September 1-3.
Azhar, I. (2005) “Sociological Readings of Classical Malay Literature: Possible Contribution to the Sociology of Religion of Malays of South-East Asia,” in Kesusasteraan Tradisional Asia Tenggara (Traditional Southeast Asian Literature), eds. Zaiton Ajamain & Norazian Ahmad, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka, 416-436.
Azhar, I. (2007) “Contemporary Malay Studies: Diverging Visions, Competing Priorities and its Implications: A Critique”, Asian Journal of Social Science, No. 3(54-5): 657-680.
Azhar, I. (2010) “Orientalism, Ethno-Religious Exclusivism and Academicism in Malay Studies: The Challenges for the Emergence of an Autonomous Sociological Discourse.” Paper presented at the World Congress of Sociology, RC 35: Concept Formation in Asian Sociology, July 16, Gothenberg, Sweden.
Azhar, I. (2016) Menyanggah Belenggu Kerancuan Fikiran Masakini (Kuala Lumpur: SIRD,); Azhar Ibrahim, Historical Imagination and Cultural Responses to Colonialism and Nationalism: A Critical Malay(sian) Perspective (Kuala Lumpur: SIRD, 2017) [English version of Azhar Ibrahim, Menyanggah Belenggu].
Galtung, J. (1967) “Scientific Colonialism”, Transitions, No. 30: 11-15.
Garreau, F. H. (1985) “The Multinational Version of Social Science with Emphasis Upon the Discipline of Sociology”, Current Sociology, No. 33( 3): 1-169.
Garreau, F. H. (1988) “Another Type of Third World Dependency: The Social Sciences” , International Sociology, No. 3(2): 171-178.
Grosfoguel, R. (2013) “The Structure of Knowledge in Westernized Universities: Epistemic Racism/Sexism and the Four Genocides/Epistemicides of the Long 16th Century”, Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, No.11(1): 73-90. http://www.okcir.com/Articles%20XI%201/Grosfoguel.pdf
Ibn Khaldun (1958) The Muqaddimah, trans. Franz Rosenthal, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Maia, J. M. (2014) “History of Sociology and the Quest for Intellectual Autonomy in the Global South: The Cases of Alberto Guerreiro Ramos and Syed Hussein Alatas”, Current Sociology, No.62(7): 1097-1115.
Mannheim, K. (1936) Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Mannheim, K. (1986) Conservatism: A Contribution to the Sociology of Knowledge, London: Routledge.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1963) Manifesto of the Communist Party, Peking: Foreign Languages Press.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1970) The German Ideology, London: Lawrence & Wisehart.
Mignolo, W. (2014) “Spirit out of Bounds Returns to the East: The Closing of the Social Sciences and the Opening of Independent Thoughts”, Current Sociology, No. 62(4): 584-602.
Nery, J. (2012) “All the Honorable Men of the World”, Philippine Daily Inquirer, December 17, https://opinion.inquirer.net/42953/all-the-honorable-men-of-the-world#ixzz76PssIYlI.
Nery, J. (2011) Revolutionary Spirit: José Rizal in Southeast Asia, Singapore: ISEAS.
Noor Aisha, A. (2004) “Traditionalism and its Impact on the Administration of Justice: The Case of the Syariah Court of Singapore,” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, No. 5 (3): 415-432.
Noor Aisha, A. (2006), Colonial Image of Malay Adat Laws: A Critical Appraissal of Studies on Adat Law in the Malay Peninsula during the Colonial Era and Some Continuities, Leiden: Brill.
Noor Aisha, A. (2007) “Changing Roles, Unchanging Perceptions and Institutions: Traditionalism and its Impact on Women and Globalization in Muslim Societies in Asia”, The Muslim World, No.97: 479-507.
Noor Aisha, A. (2009) “The Dominant Pespective on Terrorism and Its Implicaton for Social Cohesion: The Case of Singapore”, The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, No. 27 (2): 109-128.
Noor Aisha, A. (2013) “Issues on Islam and the Muslims in Singapore Post-9/11: An Analysis of the Dominant Perspective”, in Encountering Islam: The Politics of Religious Identities in Southeast Asia, ed. Hui Yew-Foong, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Said, E. (1993) Culture and Imperialism, New York: Vintage.
Boaventura de Sousa Santos. (2014) Epistemologies of the South: Justice against Epistemicide (Oxford: Routledge, 2014), No.92, 153
Shaharuddin M. (1984) The concept of the hero in Malay society, Singapore: Eastern Universities Press.
Shaharuddin, M. (1989) Malay ideas on development: from feudal lord to capitalist, Singapore: Times Book International.
Shaharuddin, M. (1992) “Some theoretical problems concerning tradition and modernization among the Malays of Southeast Asia”, in Asian tradition and modernization: perspectives from Singapore, ed.Yong Mun Cheong, Singapore: Times Academic Press.
Sharifah, M. S. O. (1993) Myths and the Malay ruling class, Singapore: Times Academic Press.
Speier, H. (1937) Review of Ideology and Utopia, American Journal of Sociology, No.43 (1): 155-166.
Tham Seong, Ch. (1971) “Intellectual Colonization”, Suara Universiti, no. 2 (2): 39-40.
Journal of Iranian Social Studies
Volume 16, Issue 3
Autumn 2022
Pages 3-22

  • Receive Date 16 March 2023
  • First Publish Date 16 March 2023
  • Publish Date 23 October 2022

Home

Submit Manuscript

Reviewers

Contact Us