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Title ARTICULATING IMPERIALIST IDEOLOGY: THE GREAT GAMES IN THE SELECTED FICTION FROM SOUTH ASIA

Author(s) Amir Iqbal Abassi

Abstract South Asian novels, with the theme of war fought at Pak-Afghan borders or in Afghanistan, are generally regarded as a social realist fiction recording the pangs of human sufferings. However, their ideological construction that subscribes to the dominant imperialist ideology evades contest. The current study argues that the South Asian writers, writing on the wars fought at the North-West Frontier of Pakistan and in Afghanistan, facilitate imperialist ideology constructed during the Great Game. The current study, in the light of Kim and its embeddedness in the Old Great Game, examines the contemporary selected novels – The Wasted Vigil, The Shadow of the Crescent Moon and The Kite Runner for their commitment to the imperialist ideology shaped during the New Great Game, a deadly sport between the US and Russia to maintain their imperial hegemony in Afghanistan and Central Asia. Placing Kim in its historical context, the study explores the elements that strengthen the imperialist ideology practiced during the Old Great Game. This novel serves as a representative Orientalist text of the nineteenth century. During this age, imperialist ideology largely revolves around the Old Great Game, specifically, in the subcontinent. Guided by the concepts of theorists such as Edward Said (1995; 1993), Abdul Rehman JanMohamed (1985), Hamid Dabashi (2011), and Lisa Lau (2009), the research finds that the selected contemporary texts largely include the instances of practicing the dominant imperialist ideology constructed during the New Great Game, and the selected writers negotiate the local culture to enlarge their circle of readership in the West. Kipling, internalizing the imperial ideology of the inevitability of empire, portrays India as a passive country and suggests the empire to concentrate on the Great Game by controlling India as a ‘child’. Judging the local resistance through the lens of an imperialist and misrepresenting the Indian culture, Rudyard Kipling allies with the empire as a “native informer”. Similarly, the contemporary selected writers present to their readers an “episteme” framed by the IV imperialists. Incorporating the dominant imperialist ideology constructed during the New Great Game, Nadeem Aslam denigrates Afghan resistance as terrorism and religion as violence. His novel misinforms the readers about the Afghan culture by shaping the identity of the natives negatively. Similarly, Fatima Bhutto promotes the new imperialist ideology, “humanitarianism” and exploits the “Pashtunistan” narrative by aggravating the negative sentiments of the natives and suggesting non-conformity with the state. Her novel makes vulnerable the Pak-Afghan border, an important determiner in the New Great Game. Being a “native informer”, the writer exoticizes the local culture and foregrounds human rights violations to attract her readers. Like other novels under investigation, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner also practices imperialist ideology – America as savior, Russia as an ‘Evil Empire’, Taliban as a ‘danger’ to the world peace, inevitability of American presence in Afghanistan, etc. – and re-orientalizes the Orientals to inform both the “Empire” and the Western readers. The study concludes that the South Asian writers, covering the Cold War and the War on Terror, strengthen the hegemonic imperialist ideology through their texts. To meet the perceptions of their Anglo-phone readers, they (mis)represent the local culture; hence, “native informers”.

Type Thesis/Dissertation

Faculty Languages

Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2024-02-06

Subject PhD English Literature

Publisher PhD English (GS)

Contributor(s) Dr. M Safeer Awan

Format As per departmental guidelines

Identifier Dr. Muhammad Haseeb Nasir (PhD English Program Coordinator)

Source PhD

Relation PhD

Coverage

Rights