RESISTANCE TO COLONIALISM IN N-WFP: A CASE STUDY OF KHUDAI KHIDMATGAR MOVEMENT

Abstract

History of the world, since the beginning of the 16th century until the twentieth century, is arguably a "story" of European expansion in 'pursuit of captive sources of wealth'.1 Thus, throughout the period most of the non-European world, including Asia, Africa, and Latin America, came under European colonial control. During the period 1815 to 1914, European control of the world expanded from 35% of the earth's surface to 85%.2 By 1944, the population that was colonized by the Great Britain only, numbered 414,713,000.3 Different scholars, depending on their frames of reference, variously define this phenomenon of expansion and domination. For Leela Gandhi, it means "historical process whereby the West attempts systematically to cancel or negate the cultural difference and value of the non- West."4 Ania Loomba says that colonialism is the "conquest and control of other people's land and goods".5 In fact, the "real" motive of colonialism was economic in nature. Initially, the colonies provided huge quantities of raw material for European industries. The colonies were looted and their resources plundered. Their trade was monopolized, and exports from the colonies far surfaced the imports to the colonies.