Is the colonialism already over? In an attempt to find out the answer to this question, I have dedicated a significant portion of my life to research about colonialisation and decolonisation.
In particular, my research reveals that many territories and people across the globe are still colonized in one or another way. But, the only difference is that the contemporary colonisation processes have different faces than it was in the past. Today, many are colonised through the ‘soft powers’ such that colonialism operates in the name of social work and development. Most of my research centers around these themes.
Over the period, consistent with other decolonial scholars I have researched how in the name of social work and social development, country like Nepal – never colonized by force – is currently a victim of ongoing colonialism process. Detailed accounts of these are well documented and published under the titles – ‘Decolonised and Developmental Social Work: A Model from Nepal’ and in an upcoming book chapter ‘Poverty-free Fantasy: Aid Agencies, Neo-colonialism, and Neoliberalism in Nepal’ .
Similar to what Frantz Fanon argued in his seminal book, Black Skin, White Masks, I have written about the case of a colonised mind under the title ‘The Doctor, Development, and (Un)sociable Monkey: An Autoethnography of a Social Worker’; and in doing so, have argued what needs to be done for a free-colonised-mind.