Colonial reform distinguished intolerable suffering from pain needed to realize humanity.

Evidence

Civilisation must, unfortunately, have its victims.” In the process of learning to be “fully human” only some kinds of suffering were seen as an affront to humanity, and their elimination sought. This was distinguished from suffering that was necessary to the process of realizing one’s humanity—that is, pain that was adequate to its end, not wasteful pain. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 538

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to readings on how moral categories classify pain — parallels discussions of ‘necessary suffering’ in development economics and just-war thinking.
• DEEPTHINKING: The move — some suffering is an affront to humanity, other suffering is humanity’s realization — is a dense colonial epistemology worth sitting with.