Appropriating Colonial Practices: A Postcolonial ...

ELF Annual Research Journal 16 (2014) 223-242

Appropriating Colonial Practices: A Postcolonial Study of Mueenuddin’s Saleema Shamaila Dodhy ∗ ABSTRACT: This study intends to explore how identities of natives become hybrids during the process of colonization and in certain cases effect the life-style of the inhabitants of that region. An attempt has been made to analyze the perspective of a Pakistani writer who presents a point of view of the ‘Other’—the unprivileged section of the society which has always been silenced or kept in background. It is the idea of granting those marginalized people a center stage and a chance to tell their story so as to keep them at par with their ‘sahib’ counterparts which has made the short-story enjoy an exclusive place. Striking resemblance of this ‘sahib’ with the archetypal colonizer is also traced out. The paper also offers a theoretical framework based on post-colonial studies for understanding the current research and for guiding future exploration.

Keywords: Colonizer, other, hybridity, Pakistan, identity

Introduction Daniyal Mueenuddin is half-Pakistani and half-American, who spent his early childhood in Pakistan, boyhood in the United States where he attended Dartmouth and Yale. Talking about himself, Mueenuddin says, "In both cases, either in the West or in Pakistan, people always view me as being somebody slightly from the outside," he continues "And I think I view myself as being from the outside. And that is something that can be aggravating and painful but also liberating and fun"(Neary, 2009, para. 3). He enjoys his experience of having dual nationality as he says, “There is no balancing my sense of identity. I’m always rolling back and forth along the spectrum, from Pakistan to America, depending on what I’m doing and where,” he continues “I believe that this fluid identity is useful to me as a writer, because I’m always looking at myself and my surroundings from outside” (Trachtenberg, 2009, para.7).

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Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Punjab, Lahore..

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Literature Review Reddy (2009) while appreciating Mueenuddin’s work compares his work to that of Chekhov, Turgenev, Faulkner and R.K. Narayan. She calls him a writer “who is not only a first-rate craftsman of words, but is equally comfortable in writing about a fading feudal aristocracy as about a class of characters that has been largely absent in English language fiction in the subcontinent: cooks, servants, electricians, hangers-on and thieves” (para. 3) Dirda (2009) pronounces that Daniyal Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms, Other Wonders is the first widely read book by a Pakistani author. The eight connected short stories reveal that Harounis are gradually selling off their inherited lands to “pay for business losses and Eurotrash lifestyle” (para. 1). Sofer (2009) evaluates that woman in the stories of Mueenuddin use sex to prey on men. In this patriarchal, hierarchical society sex is their sharpest weapon. Analyzing both upper and lower classes she says, “Women in the lower classes sleep their way up only to be kicked back down, while those in the upper classes use their feminine influence to maneuver their husbands into ever-growing circles of power, until age corrodes their authority” (para. 4). Rosenberg (2009) compares Mueenuddin to an American short-story writer John Steinbeck for both of them empathize with the labor class in their respective countries. For an American reader the stories present a comparison between “the perceived social structure of this country and the depicted structure of Pakistan … The notion of the American Dream, the idea that one can make what he wants of himself in this country, exists in the negative space of the collection for an American audience, not so much as either a confirmation of its validity or as a condemnation of its falsehood, but as a concept worthy of our consideration” (Cline, n.d. para. 9). Trachtenberg (2009) and Tabasum (2013) observe that the stories are set in Pakistan in “the 1970s, '80s and '90s, offer readers a look inside a culture that is in the headlines. It is the voice of Pakistan from within Pakistan, a fresh perspective rival publishers say should give the book an edge. Mr. Mueenuddin doesn't research his books. Rather, he says, they are mostly based on personal experience” (para. 10). Hadley (2014) and Jajja, (2013) deliberate that the crumbling aristocratic feudal class is replaced by a new class of industrialists in the decade of 80’s.

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Research Methodology The methodological approach used in this study is diagnostic, investigative and analytical. The study analyzes the text from post-colonial perspective.This research aims to adopt qualitative approach for data collection. Secondary sources like reviews, articles and critical books on Mueenuddin’s fiction and theoretical framework are incorporated in the discussion. The research design adopted for this purpose is hermeneutic and interpretive because it is believed by the social scientists that researchers need to devote their attention to the interpretation of the meanings of social actions (Weber, 1949; Ricoeur, 1976; Gadamer, 1977; Dilthey, 1989). Post-colonial Critique Post-colonialism emerges as an interdisciplinary set of political and academic reactions to the consequences of European colonialism and imperialism. Said’s book Orientalism is considered to have pioneered the field. Said (1978) explores representations of imagined entity “the Orient” by scholars and colonial administrators. These representations are rooted in a discourse which perceives “the Occident” as a progressive, civilized entity in opposition to backward, barbaric “Orient” and facilitates the colonial and imperial domination of other cultures. Said (1978) writes: Taking the late eighteenth century as a very roughly defined starting point Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient-dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient. (p. 3) Orientalism is a hegemonic cultural phenomenon that promotes ideas of European superiority over Oriental exoticism, a right to dominate over others. It supports the self-ascribed cultural superiority of the West, and so allows Europeans to name, describe, define, and thereby control, nonEuropeans and their existence. Said (1978) believes that cultural representations generate binary relation of us-and-them. They are social constructs, which are mutually

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constitutive and cannot exist independent of each other, because each exists on account of and for the other. Orientalism thus conflates and reduces the non-Western world into the homogeneous cultural entity known as "the East". Therefore, European scholars consider the Oriental World as inferior and backward, irrational and wild as opposed to Western Europe as superior and progressive, rational and civil—the opposite of the Oriental Other. In The Postcolonial Reader Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin (1995) demonstrate that post-colonialism today recapitulates active and ongoing debates on assorted range of issues including the very definition of the term itself. For example the division between those who see the post-colonial as the historical period following the end of European colonialism and the rise of independent states the authors argue: “ it is best used to designate the totality of practices, in all their rich diversity, which characterize the societies of the post-colonial world from the moment of colonization to the present day, since colonialism does not cease with the mere fact of political independence and continues in a neo-colonial mode to be active in many societies”(p. xix). Post-colonial literature reconsiders the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized, “the changed and the changer, the One and the other, with these roles being continuously traded between the two sides” (Kambysellis, 1997, p. 1). Post-colonialism has emerged as a counterdiscourse in the face of the process of marginalization which colonialism carried out against the culture and the people of those supposedly backward countries. Postcolonial texts are characterized by desire to challenge European notions of power by giving voice to the marginalized, misrepresented and silenced other. No writer can work in isolation from previous texts. William Shakespeare re-wrote histories; Marlowe (1604) re-produced The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus in his own way which was already present as Faust in German literature. However rewriting has recently acquired a specific meaning, it no longer means referring to previous texts but more specifically it challenges previous versions of history. Re-writing has become a way of writing-back in an attempt to contest the authority of the canon of English literature. It is an act of “re-placing the text” (Ashcroft et al., 1995, p. 78), of looking back and seeing with fresh approach, of entering an old text from a

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new perception. It is idea of granting those marginalized people center stage and an opportunity to tell the story from their perspective because they have been misrepresented and ignored. The act of postcolonial rewriting is related to postcolonial reading of English literary works. Said’s (1997) Culture and Imperialism complicates the imbalance between the margin and the center. He promotes the idea of contrapuntal reading which suggests giving voice to what is either silent or marginalized to the periphery. Postcolonial rewritings are built on postcolonial rereading of European texts; a kind of re-evaluation from a post-colonial angle. Rewriting is not an act of mimicry but a kind of liberation. The writer re-establishes a conscious, deliberate relationship with the original text in order to draw attention to what is not said, or deliberately overlooked, or left blank. He seeks to undermine, dismantle, and subvert the authority of the canonical text. He re-enters the canonical text with the intention of adapting, appropriating and revising what is seen unacceptable to the colonized. Thus, postcolonial re-writing involves a kind of interaction, a dialogue between texts, discourses, cultures, and ideologies. Said (1994) and other scholars as Spivak (1996) base their analysis on Gramsci’s (1971) theoretical framework who was first to introduce the idea of subaltern and hegemony. Gramsci holds “subalternity is a condition marked by the absence of a will or project on the part of a social group to achieve an integral organic critical self-consciousness” (as cited in San Juan, 1998, p. 95). For Gramsci subaltern is a class “lacking in or deprived of historical force” (as cited in Spivak, 1996, p. 203). Spivak states “the subaltern has been redefined to encompass all subordinated populations oppressed by colonial/postcolonial regimes in various (economic, racial, sexist), to which the supplement of resistance acts as a contrapuntal chord” (1996, 203). Thus subalterity is associated with epithets such as simple, inorganic, passive, and derivative. These terms are studied under the umbrella of the opposite term of hegemony which connotes the qualities of being organic, unitary, original, and active. (Muñoz-Larrondo, 2008).

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Data Analysis and interpretation

Hegemonic Practices of the Privileged Post-colonialism suggests the end of colonialism by giving indigenous people power, political and cultural freedom, and right of self-determination. Although the claim of the colonizer was to emancipate the oppressed and to enlighten the uncultured and uncivilized nations of the world yet “no one can doubt that the desire for profitable trade, plunder and enrichment was the primary force that led to the establishment of imperial culture…” (Tudd, 1996, p.3). Thus colonialism was a rewarding commercial operation bringing wealth, raw material and cheap human resource to Western nations through exploitation. After a hard struggle for independence Pakistan and India were granted independence in 1947. Sovereignty made them the masters of their own destinies. But I contend through the analysis of Mueenuddin’s short story “Saleema” that Pakistan is still in a sorry state of subjection. The whitesahibs are replaced by brown-sahibs, who have employed same strategies of domination which were earlier on used by the white-skinned colonizers. The people of the affluent section of the society enjoy luxurious life style while the deprived section remains penniless. Parajape (1996)states, “The best way to begin interrogating post colonialism is not by pretending that we are the masters of our own academic destinies but by admitting, how colonized we still are”(p. 43). Instead of decolonizing themselves, the rich are appropriating colonial practices in the post-colonial state. The colonizers, when came to the subcontinent introduced their language, system of education and culture to the sub-continent. They considered the East to be inferior to the West just as when they landed the continent of Africa they considered it a dark continent inhabited by savages and primitives. A binary division was constructed associating darkness, mystery, moral laxity and sexual degeneracy with the Orient thus considering the West to be superior to the rest of the world. Said (1978) defines “Orientalism” as “Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient” (p. 3). De Souza (1996) says: The relation between colonizers and colonized had a Manichean structure where the former were ‘the exemplary’ ones and the latter ‘the evil’ ones: all the positive qualities

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were characteristics of the white man as opposed to the evil qualities that were represented by the black one. In this context, the colonial society provided a strong relation between the self and the other: the white man needed the black one to be assured of his own existence, his superiority, whereas the latter could only see himself as inferior through the presence of the former. (p. 29) The same type of domination and sense of superiority are to be found in the prosperous section of Pakistan. Mueenuddin’s world is the world of landlords who are enjoying well-provided and well-stocked lives since the last six decades. They live in palatial residences, spend their summers in Europe, study in foreign universities and get their annual medical check-ups and treatment from the best hospitals of the world. They have paralyzed the class to which Saleema belongs by hammering their ideology and superiority in their consciousness. They justify their supremacy for they represent reason, sophistication, talent, and intelligence, while the underprivileged class is uneducated, irrational, uncultured and wild. These Pakistanis enjoy mimicking the role of a colonizer. However it is not only with Pakistan but … all post-colonial societies are still subject in one way or another to overt or subtle forms of neo-colonial domination, and independence has not solved this problem. The development of elites within independent societies, often buttressed by neo-colonial institutions; the development of internal divisions based on racial, linguistic or religious discriminations; the continuing unequal treatment of indigenous peoples in settler/invader societies—all these testify to the fact that post-colonialism is a continuing process of resistance and reconstruction. (Ashcroft et al, 1995, p. 2) The short story opens on a portrayal of a poverty-ridden family which has migrated from India to Pakistan, reaching a Hindu village after travelling for four days and three nights. Saleema is unfortunate to be born in a house of man who has become a heroin addict so the mother has to please

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people to feed her children. When Saleema is hardly fourteen, she becomes a “play thing of a small landowner’s son” (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 19). The writer uses the phrasal verb “plucked her off” to suggest that she is being treated as a valueless commodity that is taken away by the son of a landowner as if she has no will of her own. From Kotla Sardar, she is forcibly taken away to Lahore where she has to cook chapattis for the high-ups. She keeps people around her happy to receive favors from them. Having no secular or religious education, she knows nothing about right or wrong. This is one of the reasons of her becoming “unscrupulous” (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 19). Her voiceless existence represents women locked up within the confines of a conservative society. This conformist society restricts her selfenhancement and makes her dependent on her father, husband or those male-partners who seek temporary pleasure from her. Her plight and passive resistance against the suppressive authority of men alienate and isolate her to the margin because “she is not looking for just protection and sex, but a deeper intimacy” (Ray, 2010, p. 92). Saleema’s perpetual struggle and suffering against the dominant power leads her to a state where she finally surrenders. She is reduced to a pathetic state of a helpless addict who dies a miserable death. It is a society where women are not allowed recognition as individuals, where they exist and are defined in relation to men to whom they belong. Pakistani society is patriarchal because men enjoy a privileged position while women have to undergo a harsh treatment which is justified in the name of cultural values and religion. It arouses hatred among the working class against the rich. The poor are being treated by the rich like the marginalized were treated in a colony. No one reacts on Saleema’s death; no voice is raised in her support. This reflects impotence of marginalized people who are surviving at the periphery in their own country. Saleema represents what Spivak (1996) calls, subalterns— who are not allowed to speak. In discussing the silence of subaltern as female: “It is not so much subaltern women did not speak, but rather others did not know how to listen, how to enter into a transaction between speaker and listener” (McLeod, 2010, p. 195). Subaltern cannot speak because their speech cannot be properly interpreted. She emphasizes that the silence of female as

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subaltern is a result of a failure of interpretation and not the failure of articulation. Saleema, as a character, represents that section of Pakistani community which is being treated like colonized in a colonized-state. The privileged section is enjoying hegemonic practices, while the under-privileged section of the society is being treated as the other. It is the center from where the domination and subversion springs towards the other. The dominated are being treated in the way in which women are dealt within a patriarchal society. McLeod (2010) while comparing patriarchal societies to colonialism says: The term ‘patriarchy’ refers to those systems—political, material and imaginative—which invest power in men and marginalize women. Like colonialism, patriarchy manifests itself both in concrete ways (such as disqualifying women from voting) and at the level of imagination. It asserts certain representational systems that create an order of the world presented to individuals as ‘normal’ and ‘true’. Also like colonialism, patriarchy exists in the midst of resistance to its authority”. (pp.173-4) It is a hard reality that those in the privileged positions have “great houses” surrounded by “gardens” in the “heart of old British Lahore”, farm house has “ornate wooden door, set in the wall, and into a lush garden that stretched away and became lost among banyans and rosewood trees and open lawns” (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 29). They are living in “societies drained of their essence, cultures trampled underfoot, institution undermined, lands confiscated, religion smashed, magnificent artistic creations destroyed and the extraordinary possibilities wiped out” (Cesaire, 1972, p. 21-2) On the other hand, when Saleema reaches village, she finds that the “village had become a collecting pool for the sewage from the city, the water black” (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 42). The urbanites are disposing-off their sewage water not towards uninhabited land but towards villages where people are residing. The description of the house of Saleema’s mother stands in sharp contrast to the place where she has been serving, “The walled compound did not have a door, just a dirty burlap cloth made of two gunnysacks sewn together” (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 42). Those in the privileged position in the

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social hierarchy have continued to rob the ‘subject’ of their voice since generations. In fact they have reduced them from subjects to ‘objects’ that can be moved and placed wherever and whenever the authoritarian wants.As Said (1993) says, “What animates such appeals is not only disagreement about what happened in the past, but uncertainty about whether the past really is past, over and concluded, or whether it continues, albeit in different forms, perhaps” (p. 3). It is this modest class which has become almost voiceless because they do not have education and language to voice their rights.

Language and Colonialism Colonialism deals with the destruction of language, history and culture of a particular place. The colonized become victims and try to resist and fight against to withstand imperial defacement. Just as the West enjoys power position and wants to sustain it similarly the elites of Pakistan enjoy power and want to uphold it. The landlords and landladies have stopped going to mosques and have joined Gymkhana Clubs left vacant by the British. The poor are still struggling to hold back their culture by using ‘Hookah’ (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 23) and ‘charpoy’ (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 42) but the rich have swept away their culture by changing their life-styles. They have appropriated themselves by having ‘bathtubs’ (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 29) in their washrooms and ‘Mercedes’ (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 22) in their garages. According to Fanon (1963) the new elite that assumed political office was manufactured in the laboratory of the European elite. They learn to act English but do not look English nor are they accepted. Language is a tool used by colonial powers for cultural domination. It imprisons the human mind. Foucault (1980) argues “Those who hold language hold power … Language not only constructs and colors our experience of the world, it can also be used to marginalize, to constrain, or to enable” (qtd.in Young, 1998, 17). It is through language and literature colonizers inculcated the idea of their superiority. In an interview to Eyou, Ngugi (1985) says: Language is a carrier of a people’s culture, culture is a carrier of a people’s values; values are the basis of a people’s selfdefinition— the basis of their consciousness. And when you

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are destroying a people’s language, you are destroying that very important aspect of their heritage… you are in fact destroying that which helps them to be themselves … that which embodies their collective memory as a people. (p. 157) Though language is used as a medium of oppression but it can also be used to restore one’s identity by restoring one’s voice. Many post-colonial writers adopt various literary strategies to express their resistance such as writing history from the point of view of the silenced other or by reconsidering early versions of history written by representatives of colonial rule. They have been using traditional forms and native languages which were devalued for it was believed that they are inferior.

Abrogation and Appropriation The daughter of K.K. Harouni is shown as “haughty and proud” (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 22). She is never shown as talking to servants of the house. When she goes to the farm-house, it is told by the narrator that an attendant is made to accompany her who puts her toiletries in her bathroom and washes her dirty clothes but servants never dare to talk to the one enjoying dominant position in the society. She upholds a different look from the other. She wears saris instead of traditional “shalwar-kameez” to maintain distance between them and her class. Sarwat, who lives in Karachi, when comes on her father’s funeral is also shown in sari wearing “gold bracelets” (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 49) which poor can only aspire for but can never imagine to materialize their wish to wear them. The lower class of whom Saleema is the representative is resisting foreign culture through ‘Abrogation’ while Sarwat who is the representative of upper class is ‘Appropriating’ the imperial power because these people want to occupy the privileged position left vacant by the Whites. The educational system of Pakistan is still following the same system of Urdu-medium schools and English-medium schools. The syllabus in most of the institutions is still more or less the same which was left by the British Raj. The syllabus taught in the schools and colleges is creating a mindset of subservience. Altbach (1995) in “Education and Neocolonialism” writes:

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In most cases, for example, Indian, Pakistan, Burma, and Singapore, the educational system expanded quantitatively, but did not alter much in terms of curriculum, orientation, or administration. In a number of countries, notably in formerly British Africa, higher education remained firmly rooted to its English curriculum and orientation, and in the immediate post independence years, expanded very slowly indeed. (p. 454)

Socio-economic Realities Analyzing the economic condition of post-colonial states Marxist thinkers have realized that the nature of exploitation has not stopped, it has changed. During colonization, raw material was extracted and indentured labor was transported from the periphery to the center. On leaving the colony, the British Imperialists restructured the economic system in such a way that the so-called independent state has to depend on the loans from International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The discursive economic policies are implemented within the country at micro-level. The salaries of private servants are kept so low that they can never come out of the ferocious cycle of poverty in which they are born. Saleema, with a host of other servants, has been serving K.K. Harouni whom they consider their “lord” (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 30) for the last many years. The drivers, Rafiq and Hasan, have served for more than fifty years but when they are fired they are given paltry sum of ten thousand rupees. With this amount, they can neither start their business on a short scale nor buy a piece of land to build a house of their own. On macro-level, colonialism has produced economic imbalance which was necessary for the growth, development and progress of European states while on micro-level economic imbalance is created by the upper-class to maintain the status quo. Harouni, a wealthy and well-connected man, goes “to attend a meeting of the board of governors of the State Bank” (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 36). He enjoys an eminent position in the society but he has never thought or done anything substantial for the well-being of the working class of the society. Although he is not a cruel feudal lord as we come across in Durrani’s (1996) My Feudal Lord, but he is shown as a self-indulgent man who holds sumptuous parties

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at farm houses, long hunting trips, and foreign excursions. Ahmed (1995) asserts, “postcolonial is simply a polite way of saying not white, or not Europe-but-inside-Europe” (p. 30) The power dynamics which were used by the colonizers and now is being employed by people like K. K. Harouni. It is depicted in the following lines “K. K. Harouni flew to Rawalpindi, to attend a meeting of the board of governors of the State Bank—one of the few positions he still held, a sinecure—the real policy was decided elsewhere, Harouni and other eminences unknowingly acting to camouflage self-serving deals and manipulations” (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 36). These people are enjoying power positions. They are rich landlords who are not seriously concerned in revamping the old colonial policies and legacies. They just go to attend the meetings without probing into the matter that who are the ones involved in ‘deals’ and who are holding the strings behind the scene. As Foucault (1980) says, “Power is a network of multiple but unequal points or nodes, and it does not exist without simultaneous resistance; that is, power and resistance; are co-constitutive” (qtd. in Perry & Purcell-Gates). The construct of hegemony describes the systems of power relationships where dominating groups exercise power over others. The hegemonic power structures involve political, economic, cultural, educational and other systems of the country. The condition of rural health is portrayed when Saleema goes to village to deliver her child. “The old midwife from the village, with filthy hands and a greedy heart, brought the baby into the world, a tiny little boy” (Mueenuddin, 2009, p. 43). The midwife is the only medical help for the whole village. She has learnt this skill through practice not by any education or by training. Filthy hands and greedy heart are the main possessions of this medical person. There is no concept of sterilization or medication. The lack of facilities in rural areas of Pakistan result in spread of communicable and non-communicable diseases and rise in mortality-rate. Women are so subservient that they cannot do anything for their welfare rather they have to yield to the demands of their men-folk and have to go through a number of pregnancies. Poor medical and educational facilities force a person to leave villages and migrate to cities. This has resulted in making the problems of big cities bigger than ever before.

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Hybridity Scholars negate the concept of post-colonialism as a separate theoretical framework because they believe that the impact of colonial rule can still be seen quite obviously in the inhabitants of the colonized nations. Young (2003) suggests that the post-colonial theory involves “a conceptual reorientation towards the perspectives of knowledge, as well as needs, developed […] by the subaltern, that is, subordinated classes and peoples” (p. 6). It deals with film, literature, philosophy that resist with the legacy of imperialism. Colonial rule has influenced the life and life-style of the people of Sub-continent too. The educated class has adapted new ways for social mobility, while the deprived class stuck to their traditional values. Ali (1940) in Twilight in Delhi comments: A hybrid culture which had nothing in it of the past was forcing itself upon Hindustan a Hodge-podge of Indian and Western way … the richness of life had been looted and despoiled by the foreigners and vulgarity and cheapness had taken its place. That relation which existed between the society and its poets and members was destroyed, perhaps the environment had changed. Society had moved forward and the people had been left behind in the race of life. New modes had forced themselves upon India …. (p. 251) I too find post-colonial theory quite relevant to unpack the issues of Pakistani community both belonging to upper and lower strata of the society. It sheds light on new identities of natives who have become hybrids as the process of colonization in certain cases impacts the psyche of inhabitants of these regions (Bhabha, 1994; Chow, 1997). Sub-Continent remained under the colonial rule for about hundred years, hence it has been viewed by the Western world through imperial gaze that portrays them in a certain manner which creates a sense of ‘Othering’ for the inhabitants of these regions (Said, 1978; Young, 2003). Bhabha (1994) defines hybridity as a third space in order to explain the postionality of the individual. He says: It is significant that the productive capacities of this Third space have a colonial and postcolonial provenance. For a willingness to descend into that alien territory… may open the way to conceptualizing an international culture, based not

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on exoticism of multiculturalism of the diversity of cultures, but on the inscription and articulation of culture’s hybridity. (pp. 37-8) For some this in-between position is painful, contradictory and conflicting but people like Harouni enjoy this in-between position as it takes them closer to the dominant group of the global community. Hybridity exists because this section of the society has accepted the culture of the colonizer as monolithic and homogenous. There is minimum resistance on the part of people like Harouni; instead he and his family struggle to imitate the colonizer. Though hybridity was imposed by the colonizer upon the colonized but now after independence it has become a source of pride for the ones who mimicked them. This in-betweeness could have been a mean of resistance, but they have assimilated it, they are losing their individuality and identity. They should realize that they have made a huge compromise in order to follow the dictates of a colonizer, in giving up their authenticity and identity as ‘cultural value’. Loomba (1998) states that hybridity is characteristic of inner life, “it could exist anywhere” as a “curiously universal and homogeneous [being]” (p. 178). They rely on colonizer to construct the self and they have recognized that their space is not equal so they cannot fight back on equal footing. They should fight for their identity. They should realize that in their homeland they are living in a state of diaspora, a country though their own yet not theirs because of the preconditioned definitions imposed by the colonizer.

Diasporic Existence It is in this context I contend that the elite in Pakistan are living in a state of diaspora. They remain aliens. They never become a part of collective community. They are living in a state of vacuum where many voices are resonated. The word diaspora originates from the Greek word, διασπορά, which suggests ‘scattering, dispersion’. Now it is associated with dispersion of people, language, or culture that was formerly concentrated in one place. The Oxford English Dictionary (1989) traces the etymology of the word 'Diaspora' back to its Greek root and to its appearance in the Old Testament.

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The Dictionary commences with the Judaic History, mentioning only two types of dispersal: The Jews living dispersed among the gentiles after the captivity and The Jewish Christians residing outside Palestine. The dispersal signifies the location of a fluid human autonomous space involving a complex set of negotiation, exchange between nostalgia, desire for the homeland, the making of a new home, alternating power-relationships between the minority and majority, being spoke-persons of minority rights and their people back at home and significantly transacting with a new unknown geographical space. I find that the élites of Pakistani society are in a state of diaspora because they are divided between the East and the West. They have been dispersed from the original 'centre' to ‘peripheral' foreign regions. They fail to retain a collective memory, vision or myth about their original homeland, its history and achievements. They have not fully realized their identity, so they feel partly alienated and partly offended from it. It is like living outside of one’s own place in a foreign land that does not accept them as real participants; they experience life rich in opportunities yet full of contradictions. They fail to regard their ancestral homeland as their true, ideal home; as a place they would prefer only to be buried with their relatives in their ancestral graveyards. Conclusion On the basis of above analysis and interpretation of Mueenuddin’s Saleema, I insist resisting appropriation. It should be contested to pursue selfdefinition. Pakistanis should struggle to establish their national identity which is the identity of an individual as well as a sense of belonging to the state and to the nation, a feeling which one shares with a group of people. National identity is not an inborn trait instead it results when people share daily lives, nation's history, national consciousness, blood ties, religion, cuisine and other cultural traits. These identity markers are fluid not fixed, varying from time to time. Identity is always a process of becoming by virtue of location in social, material, temporal and spatial contexts (Edensor, 2002). The fluidity of identity does not mean that there is no coherence; rather this has to be continually reproduced to ensure fixity.

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The colonized nation has learnt to be the subaltern of the colonizer. Once muted and speechless voice of margins should now assume an ideological position and present a counter-discourse. What Pakistanis need is critical self-analysis and a dispassionate voice to study the past and plan the future. They should forget their old wounds and a feeling of being alienated. They should experience a sense of belonging to their ideology and their own culture. Ideology gives strength and homogeneity to its nationhood. It reinforces the fragmented factions in a society and brings them closer to each other on a common platform. It impels their adherents to follow mutual plans of action for the accomplishment of their objectives. Ideology offers an understanding of the past, and validation of the present and a vision of the future.

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