From the Colonial Enterprise to Enterprise Systems: Parallels between Colonization and Globalization

Let us consider the first part of this thought in the context of information and communication technologies (ICTs). That there is a craze is hardly worth disputing. But why the craze? Who has it? How is it manifested? What are its consequences? These are seemingly innocuous questions, but in exploring them we expose a worldwide system of power, wealth, deprivation, progress, and stagnation that bears an uncanny resemblance to the colonial world to which Gandhi objected. That he saw the craze for technology as implicated in colonial “unfreedom” is telling; as he says, “Today, machinery merely helps a few to ride on the backs of millions. The impetus behind it all is not the philanthropy to save labor, but greed. It is against this constitution of things that I am fighting with all my might” (1997: 307). That he separates the technology from the craze for it is indicative of his nuanced understanding of how the manner of its creation and deployment is inherently political. His statement points also to the diffuse and widespread nature of the technological project as we know it, implying that it is an obsession that is hardly easy to overcome. Yet, he offers too, with the second part of his thought, the hope that ends other than those that have been hitherto pursued can be imagined.