To grow up Indian in America is to have a yellow star sewn to your chest that reads: yes, I am smart. From day one, stereotypes are attached to your name, to your skin, to your very existence, until all you can see yourself for is your star and the brown skin it is attached to.

In America, a country obsessed with the word diverse, people love to tell me that I am imagining my own oppression-that it is all in my head, that I’ve been reading too much depressing news online, and that I need to “touch some grass”. But I have a question for those people: why are you lying to me? And more importantly, to yourselves?

I know you can see the stitches that bind my body to that five-pointed polygon because you create labels for me and slurs for me. But since you can’t comprehend that I can see through your furtive glances and whispers, with nothing more than my eyes and my ears, I must go back a while.

Let us start with the millennium-long conquest, the legal murder, and the outright brutality of the system we know today as colonialism: a form of domination that involves the subjugation of one people to a foreign one (Kohn et. Reddy, 2024). In remembering this system, many people think of Great Britain which has invaded “about 90 percent of the world’s countries” (Estes, 2012). Or, perhaps, they think of Spain with its colonies in Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, and numerous other countries. Nevertheless, the history of colonialism extends beyond the European context, with one of its earliest examples found in the ancient Roman Empire.

The Heinous Rome and Its Beloved Legacy

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The attribution of imperialism to Ancient Rome is often debated, as the term itself only emerged in modern times, making comparisons between ancient and contemporary imperialism difficult. Yet colonialism, defined here as the subjugation of non-Roman peoples, was undeniably integral to Rome’s economy and expansion.

For starters, the state profited greatly from annexed provinces which were regularly required to pay tribute in cash or goods. For example, Macedonia yielded an annual revenue of 2.4 million sesterces in tribute to the Roman state with a significant portion going on to fund large-scale building projects among others; this financial exploitation highlights the complicity of the entire state’s population in its colonial enterprise.

Yet, this economic exploitation was secondary to the tangible aftermath of Rome’s brutality as it enslaved and objectified people from several places such as Thrace, Syria, and Gaul. In doing so, they instituted a class-based hierarchy that later influenced the British Empire which admired Rome for its power and established its own race-based hierarchy.

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Despite this, many historians and cultural enthusiasts, particularly those associated with the Dark Academia aesthetic, romanticize Rome’s literature and culture, presenting it as a symbol of grandeur rather than acknowledging its violent history. This selective romanticization continues today, as many refuse to recognize the suffering of slaves and those of the lower class under Roman dominion.

However, many of these same people readily acknowledge the racial oppression of the British Empire, likely because its legacy is more visible and linked directly to the socio-economic disadvantages faced by Black communities today. And so, Rome remains the “safe” empire for many to admire, untouched by the same critical lens (Morley, 2010).

I bring this up to show you those people you may admire, Plato, Augustine of Hippo, and Archimedes, were complicit in this system of depravity even though they were hailed as foundational to European philosophy. These thinkers actively supported the practice of slavery mainly as a natural part of the human hierarchy and accepted that some were born inferior to others , no matter what philosophical angle one tries to argue it from (BBC, 2014). Even religious figures like Prophet Muhammed and Aquinas, a well-known Christian theologian, were complicit in such a system of depravity. These individuals, despite their intellectual and moral influence globally, helped shape a world built on principles of power and oppression that modern society now seeks to challenge, albeit slowly.

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The Universal Nature of Colonialism

And so, the question is raised: where is colonialism? My answer: everywhere. In our shoes, in our hair, in our clothes, in our thoughts, everywhere.

What we now recognize as a more organized form of subjugation under colonialism, has roots in earlier, less organized forms of dominion, as can be seen in my own heritage, the Maratha Suraj kingdom. So it must be asked: should we broaden our understanding of colonialism to include these more subtle, pervasive forms of control?

Yes, we should, in fact, we must. We must acknowledge that the capability for violence and the corrupting nature of power that drives many to conquer and oppress are universal. Ultimately, coming to realize that the much of humanity’s foundations lie are built upon this encompassing colonialism that involves the consolidation of power through shiny badges of cultural pride that mask the running red and bullet holes beneath.

Colonial structures, whether French, Spanish, or even Indian, continue to shape people’s identities and lives today, dividing them with arbitrary borders. As argued in Power: A Radical Approach, these systems are eventually legitimized not only by your oppressors but eventually, by you. Take for example, the legacy of British colonial rule in India.

In contemporary Indian society, you can find hundreds of skin-whitening cream advertisements featuring famous Bollywood actresses and actors that prey on people's insecurities regarding the color of their skin. Perpetuating the belief: the whiter the better!

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The racial inferiority instilled by British colonial rule is now so ingrained that phrases like “Her skin is so dark” or “You should’ve been whiter” have become commonplace. This fixation on skin color reinforces a hierarchy where lighter skin is seen as superior, leaving those with darker skin feel inherently inferior—an issue many still refuse to acknowledge.

However, even before the obsession with skin color, colonial structures were already present within India itself, as seen in the Gupta and Vijayanagara Empires, where many were enslaved or forced into menial labor based on their caste which is rooted in the Hindu religion (Fatima et. Roy, 2024). The interplay of racial inferiority and class-based separation is deeply embedded in the Indian identity, and has gone on to shape generations, revealing the universal nature of one’s ability to subjugate.

Similarly, on the other side of the globe in America, you run into race becoming your defining factor, with no whitening creams being thrown in your face, but the advantage of being white apparent as your race becomes tied to stereotypes that you have no control of, whether that be a jail cell or the expectation of academic overachievement. Through British colonialism and under American nationalism, we, the people who are always the wrong color, became shoved into predefined boxes that many of us began to rely on as some strange form of self-preservation.

But the subjugation doesn't end there.

Economic class in American society plays a critical role in determining your worth and success, even when the few that often sit atop unimaginable wealth are privileged long before their "rags to riches" stories. Meanwhile, thousands of others sit in extreme poverty, lacking basic access to clean water and healthcare, wondering: what did I do wrong? Despite this economic system of subjugation differing from the caste system, it still imposes a hierarchy where those at the top hold power whether socially, economically, or politically.

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The Need For Decolonization

Colonialism is so deeply ingrained in global systems that it’s not only a force between nations but also within them. To truly confront its pervasive nature we must have a continuous conversation about decolonization, colonialism’s antagonism which, defined by me, is the process of freeing institutions, thoughts, and larger social systems from the lasting effects of colonialism.

And not just once, arbitrarily in a designated academic setting. We need to have this conversation every time whether it's specifically examining the elitism of academic institutions or casually discussing sports like tennis. Decolonization is about allowing all voices to be heard, especially those that have been silenced for centuries, instead of having one predominant narrative drown out the others.

The continuous integration of decolonization into all conversations will foster greater self-awareness for humanity as a whole. By forcing us to acknowledge the countless lives murdered, raped, and oppressed under colonial systems, such as those in the Roman Empire, and even earlier forms of human subjugation, we will begin to confront the ignorance that allowed these systems to thrive in the first place.

This process will enable us to face the truths of our history, language, and existence, and to recognize the deep-rooted foundations of hierarchy and power that continue to shape our world today.

No one can be a pacifist when they can pick up a gun—especially when that gun is pointed at those people with yellow stars on their chest, marking their "wrong" color, skin, gender, caste, class, or any other distinction society wishes to make between us and them. Decolonization is not some futuristic ideal, but rather a needed, urgent action to destroy the ongoing cycles of oppression that we as people allow to continue, often due to our inability to see our own role within them.

By ignoring decolonization at large, we allow ourselves to remain trapped in a system driven by greed and the horrible humanity that unites us all, while simultaneously erasing those people on the other side of the infinite, artificial divides that we have created, those people who have faced a destitution we are too willing to forcibly forget.