Accepting progress narratives embedded a colonial civilising logic inside human-rights discourse

Evidence

In arguing that human rights were prerequisites for civilisation, they accepted the directional account of progress that underpinned colonial civilising claims. … In doing so, they unwittingly prefigured the later repurposing of human rights; in a changed geopolitical context, the civilising mission of human rights would license coercive interventions to remake societies, subjectivities and economies in the interests of global capitalism. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 273

Categorization

• DEFINE: Spells out the conceptual identification between the anti-colonial’ progress account and the colonial’ civilising mission — defining how the two are structurally the same directional narrative.
• XREF: connects to: Key human rights drafters combined universalist rhetoric with colonial paternalism — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 269; Anti-colonial delegates reversed civilising logic, framing human rights as the route to progress — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 272; Human-rights language served to restrain postcolonial popular sovereignty — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 295 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Human-rights language served to restrain postcolonial popular sovereignty #expands (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 295
• Human rights rhetoric masks imperial assumptions that racialize colonized peoples #corroborates (0.82)
• The doctrine of progress makes colonialism appear natural rather than impositive #expands (0.80) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 217
• Anti-colonial rights advocates unwittingly armed later coercive interventions in global capitalism’s interests #corroborates (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 273
• Colonialist justifications recur largely unchanged in post-war development discourse #corroborates (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1590