Represented Communities: Fiji and World Decolonization (review)

The strengths of this book lie principally in the authors' efforts to combine different strands of critical analysis about nationalism and decolonization in the postwar period with an account of key political develop-ments—both historical and contemporary—in the troubled state of Fiji. More specifically, Kelly and Kaplan subject Anderson's notion of "imagined communities" and his assumptions about the nation-state and its modernity to a highly productive examination. ¹ Their critique also involves a journey through some postwar anthropological thinking about identity and representation, on the one hand, and national and international political institutions and American power, on the other. Institutional factors are all too often ignored in anthropological studies; the authors' attention to them gives much greater depth to their study.

One of the best aspects of the critique revolves around the issue of how exactly communities come to be "represented." Through a general discussion of identity politics in the context of decolonization, nationalism, and the role of the United Nations in promoting the nation-state project in the postwar period, as well as analysis of the specific case of Fiji, Kelly and Kaplan expose many of the highly conservative, and frequently self-serving, elements involved in the construction of particular representations of community. They are wary of indigenist claims, especially when they are invoked to exclude "other" communities from the realm of political legitimacy.

This highly instrumental aspect of identity politics is well illustrated in the case of Fiji, where indigenist claims—always couched in terms of "rights"—have been deployed for decades against the aspirations of Indo-Fijians. These privileges received support and encouragement from colonial administrators throughout the era of British colonial rule. Most nonelite Fijians, however, have seen few, if any, benefits as a result of the political subordination of Indo-Fijians, even though it has been justified as a measure aimed at enhancing indigenous Fijian "development." In light of these considerations, Kelly and Kaplan are right to stress the role of power and will over memory and identity.

The book is structured around a collection of six essays, versions of which have been published (or are forthcoming) elsewhere. The authors have made a clear effort to maintain continuity throughout, although sometimes the flow of analysis is not altogether coherent. Non-anthropologists might find some of the language impenetrable. Experts on nationalism from the fields of politics and international relations, as well as historical sociology, may find some of the argument unsatisfactory, even sketchy, on the grounds that the authors show insufficient engagement with much relevant literature. Given the extent to which the authors stress the disjunction between "nature" and "culture," closer attention to recent work in constructivist theory would have added further depth to the analysis. Also missing are a few highly relevant works about Fiji. Nonetheless, the book as a whole provides a worthwhile and thought-provoking critique that students of nationalism, decolonization/postcolonialism—as well as Fiji specialists—should welcome.