Description
Several International Relations (IR) scholars have argued that the discipline is ripe for decolonial reimagining. However, there has been insufficient attention paid to the risk of the nation-state co-opting decoloniality to promote nativism and practice exclusion. In this article, I build on my previous work on the rise of right-wing hyper-nationalism in India and its co-option of decoloniality to legitimise the killing, excluding, silencing, ignoring, homogenising, civilising and educating of Muslims. I ask how we can build a mestizo decolonial approach to IR as an answer to the nativist emphasis on Hinduism and Hindutva as the “authentically” indigenous framework for comprehending India and South Asia. I argue that there is room for a relational and mestizo approach to decolonising South Asian IR and advancing the Global IR research programme. I show how decoloniality can help to globalise IR while remaining cognisant of the decolonial danger of succumbing to nativism and exclusion. The case of India offers lessons for the discipline on how we might approach decolonial discourses in a way that is mindful of the risks involved and embraces hybridity and relationality. I show the relevance of mestizaje and nepantla even halfway across the world from the Americas, underlining their significance to applying decolonial ideas and expanding Global IR debates in diverse cultural contexts.
