Development experts and the post-colonial state

Abstract

A close link exists between the development experts and the post-colonial state. Development experts originated in the colonial bureaucracy and they were re-created within the post-colonial te as a new category to function in the field of development. The orientation of development policies and programmes designed by these experts closely link with aspiration of modernity. The ruling elites in the post-colonial state often think that their country is backward and underdeveloped and hence invite foreign aid and expertise to change that situation in line with western modernity. The national imagination that the post-colonial state expects to create is closely associated with this modernist stance. They think that ‘rural’ is always ‘backward’ and ‘poor’ and ‘urban’ is unquestionably ‘rich’. Thus their development vision is always oriented towards the achievement of the characteristic features that exist in the West. The case study presented in this article discusses the manner in which a group of development experts attempted to impose, this development vision into a local community under the legitimacy of the post-colonial state of Sri Lanka.