India that is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution

by J. Sai Deepak

There is enough literature to suggest that at least until 1795, when Kant completed the manuscript of Toward Perpetual Peace at the age of 71, he consciously and openly believed in the hierarchy of races, and in particular, the superiority of the Whites over the non-Whites. In 1788, he was of the view that people from Africa and India lacked the drive to activity, and hence lacked the mental capacities to be self-motivated and successful in northern climates.33 To him, the Native Americans were weak, inert, incapable of any culture and occupied the lowest rung of the racial hierarchy. For someone who is credited with the formulation of a universalist moral theory, until the age of 71, Kant’s belief that the Whites represented the perfection of humanity was writ large in his writings. At the very least, it calls into question the views expressed by Kant during this period on a host of topics, such as equality and morality, when he published some of his most seminal works, such as the Critique of Pure Reason (1781).