Colonial rule rested on anxious class struggle, not hegemonic confidence.

Evidence

In both cases, the debates did not underscore the hegemonic self-assuredness of a ruling class. Rather, here was a class wrestling over how best to secure its status in a lucrative and growing imperial economy and an increasingly powerful colonial apparatus. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 662

Categorization

• XREF: Directly challenges a static picture of colonial hegemony — supports the book’s overarching thesis about epistemic anxiety rather than colonial self-assurance.
• DEEPTHINKING: Inverts the assumption of confident colonial mastery — the colonizing class was itself anxious and self-doubting, which is central to the epistemic-anxiety frame this book develops.