Colonial status means an external ruling class, not mere dependence

Evidence

This analytic distinction rests upon the fundamental fact that the ruling class of a colony is located outside that colony, and the colonial state is the instrument of that externally based ruling class; with decolonization, this structural feature of the dominated formation no longer applies and rhe formation therefore ceases to be colonial, regardless of any other kind of dependence. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 855

Categorization

• DEFINE: Ahmad gives a materialist, structural definition of ‘colonial’ versus ‘post-colonial’ that rests on where the ruling class is located.
• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s research question: it frames postcoloniality as a structural-property concept, against which ‘strategic essentialism’ as an identity gesture would be materially evasive. — connects to: Coloniality is defined by where the ruling class sits, not by dependency — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 383
• SEED: Angle: ‘colonial / post-colonial’ as a periodization of rule versus as an identity label for cultural critics — the materially empty deployment.

Broader Connections

• Coloniality is defined by where the ruling class sits, not by dependency #corroborates (1.00) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 383