Marxism and the Orient: A Reading of Marx‪.‬

This paper argues that theoretical divergences in the realm of knowledge hardly make a difference in understandings of the Orient when an Orientalist problematic constituting, among other things, a sharp dichotomy separating the Orient from the Occident as a different and an inert other is observed as an epistemological truism. In this context, the theoretical background and ideological anchoring of scholars dealing with the Orient does not really matter. It is this permanent epistemological dichotomy that is the font of Orientalism, and it affects alike whoever drinks deep from it. This argument is substantiated by an evaluation of Karl Marx's understanding of Asiatic society and British colonialism. The paper shows that Marx, who had developed a unique and universal theory of knowledge in the form of 'historical materialism' and, accordingly, differed from others in his analysis of Western capitalism, has followed the well-established Orientalist problematic in his analysis of non-Western societies, and, in so doing, further contributed to the discourse of Orientalism. Introduction