Cancer cells attack and kill the body from within, and that analogy would be appropriate for the seditious groups that Arundhati Roy sympathizes with. I'm not sure how a country can colonize itself, which means establishing colonies within itself, which doesn't seem to make sense. A nation's colony by definiton can only be set up away from home.
Cancers cells arise within ..they are not outsiders as you rightly pointed out .
The analogy applies to all those elements which resemble outwardly but have single agenda to hoard all resources to itself at cost of others.
The wealthy groups , corporates which wish to grow at cost of poor can also be likened to cancer .
The essence of economical growth model is whether " Poor is eliminated or poverty.... "
Yes a country is not uniform homogenous institution .
Like body contains many organs with dissimilar functions and yet they work in harmony with each other instead of fighting against each other , nation too is conglomerate of many colonies ...one may call them interest groups , lobbies , states or whatever based on what level that analogy is applied and in what sense ....
It is possible that anomaly arising within one of the colonies can overtake rest and colonize whole system ....
This is why Cancer is so difficult to fight ..because it arises within and resembles self ....
I think the point that Mrs Roy is making is valid .
Off course I do not agree with her in entirety .
But I do feel there is much depth in her reference to " country colonizing itself " ....
You may be correct in saying that Country can set colony outside and hence the statement doesn't make sense ..but then one can imagine that country itself is a group of colonies at peace with each other ..working together ...one of them turned rebellious can take over the rest and colonize whole system by eliminating others ...
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