Many of us have been schooled into believing that colonialism has ended. We are made to believe that this is the age of post-colonialism; post as in ‘after’ colonialism. It is true crude colonialism of the earlier centuries has ended. But as many have pointed out colonialism in new avatar continues into this present times. Here I would like to refer to the colonialism of the thought- categories and perception; the colonization of the ways we define the world and people around us and form opinions or views about them. Against this background I would like to look into three thought categories which greatly influence our understanding of the world around us and our practices in the contemporary times, namely, beauty, hygiene and wealth. I would like to argue how the understanding of these terms has been uprooted, by neo-colonialism, from the context, transformed and re-imposed to emasculate us in the hope that we would cultivate the art of critical reflection to deflect the insidious schemes of neo-colonialism.
Beauty: Edward Tuite Dalton in Tribal History of Eastern India, wrote: “
