Abstract

In his essay 'Unpacking My Library... Again,' Homi Bhabha suggests that the liberal ideal of toleration has been challenged by colonial and postcolonial interactions and exchanges. Bhabha suggests that just as the ideal of equality has been problematized by the operation of gender and class difference, so too cultural and racial difference has exposed the contradictions inherent within the concept and the practice of toleration. This paper elaborates the critiques of toleration and recognition. It suggests that toleration is not a benevolent gesture of generosity which unfortunately reaches a limit of applicability but a mechanism of Foucauldian pastoral care which enacts a 'civilizing mission' through the capture of paternalistic benevolence.