The colonial system is a specific form of communication between different cultures and societies. In this article, I analyze the influence of Western colonialism on Indian society.
I pay particular attention to the emergence of a new Indian colonial elite and to the development of its political and social thought. The elite held views about inequality in society which were absolutely novel in Indian thought. Their ideas about inequality in the larger framework of the colonial system also evolved during the colonial age. On the one hand, such development could be explained by the encounter of traditional Indian thought with European social, political and legal conceptions.
But on the other, this new Indian line of thought originated from different and very often contradictory tendencies.
