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“Under Eastern Eyes”: Representation of the West in South Asian Travelogues

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“Under Eastern Eyes”: Representation of the West in South Asian Travelogues “UNDER EASTERN EYES”: REPRESENTATION OF THE WEST IN SOUTH ASIAN TRAVELOGUES By Supervisor Yasir Arafat Prof. Dr. Muhammad Safeer Awan 58-FLL/PHDENG/F11 Dean, Faculty of Languages, NUML DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD 2019 i Under Eastern Eyes: Representation of the West in South Asian Travelogues By Supervisor Yasir Arafat Prof. Dr. Muhammad Safeer Awan 58-FLL/PHDENG/F11 Dean, Faculty of English, NUML A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF PhD in English To DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD 2019 ii Dedication To my Father (late) And My Beloved Wife Without whose unflinching support it would have been impossible for me to accomplish my research iii Acceptance by the Viva Voce Committee Title of the thesis: “Under Eastern Eyes”: Representation of the West in South Asian Travelogues Name of student: Yasir Arafat Registration No: 58-FLL/PHDENG/F11 Accepted by the Department of English, Faculty of Languages & Literature, International Islamic University, Islamabad, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Doctoral degree in English with specialization in Literature. Viva Voce Committee ___________________________ Prof. Dr. Ayaz Afsar Dean Faculty of Languages & Literature ___________________________ Dr. Sheeraz Dasti Chairman Department of English ___________________________ External Examiner ___________________________ External Examiner ___________________________ Prof. Dr. Muhammad Safeer Awan Supervisor December, 2019 iv ABSTRACT Title: “Under Eastern Eyes”: Representation of the West in South Asian Travelogues. Representation, especially, of the colonized societies and cultures have been the subject of many studies particularly since the publication of Edward Said’s Orientalism which theorized that the West’s history of the East is, in fact, the history of representation. The present study deals with representation-in-reverse in post-colonialism with special reference to three South Asian Travelogues: Images of the West, Westward Bound and Seamless Boundaries by Munshi Itesamuddin, Mirza Abu Taleb and Lutfullaha Khan respectively. Written in the 18th and 19th centuries these texts function as eyewitnesses to the events that mark the advent, rise and culmination of colonialism in the sub-continent. The travelogues had been aimed at (re)presenting the West or the Occident to the natives of India by the Indian (Muslim) writers so that they could perceive and understand their cultural Others in the West. All these travelogue writers have carried out representation of the colonizers in their literary discourses and their accounts are deeply embedded in the particular socio-political, cultural, religious and literary traditions of their societies. Thus, the empire, in a way, not only writes back but challenges the claims of Eurocentricity and universalism as unearthed by Edward Said. In this research the issue of representation is explored, alongwith its differing connotations and multi- pronged interpretations and the travelogues have been analyzed in their light. The primary focus, in this dissertation, has been the discursive practices which the East adopted to write back to the West in its efforts to assert its own identity and blur the identity imposed by the West. The theoretical framework is based on Postcolonialism and further delimited to Occidentalism/Reverse-Orientalism. Research questions address the extent, nature and use of the discursive practices to represent the West as the Others of the East. As reverse Orientalists, these writers manifest the religious, cultural, racial, social, and geographical binaries existing between the two halves of the world in their travelogues. Unlike Orientalist discourse, there was no single grand and meta-narrative governing their interaction with their Others. This study may help the future researchers to investigate the phenomenon of Othering in the travelogue writing of different epochs not only about the West but different cultures across the globe. v DECLARATION I, Yasir Arafat Son of Muhammad Mehfooz Registration No.58-FLL/PHDENG/F11 Discipline English, PhD scholar at International Islamic University, Islamabad do hereby declare that the thesis “Under Eastern Eyes: Representation of the West in South Asian Travelogues” submitted by me in partial fulfillment of PhD Degree, is my original work, and has not been submitted or published earlier. I also solemnly declare that it shall not in future, be submitted by me for obtaining any other degree from this or any other university or institution. I also understand that if evidence of plagiarism is found in my thesis at any stage, even after the award of the degree, the work may be cancelled and the degree revoked. ____________________ Signatures of Deponent Dated: July, 2017 YASIR ARAFAT vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS All praise be to Allah Who blessed me with health and energy to carry out my research work. First of all, I owe the debt of gratitude to my parents whose love and extraordinary vision introduced me to the realm of light and knowledge. I am deeply indebted to my honorable teachers Dr. Ayaz Afsar, Dr. Muhammad Safeer Awan, Dr Hafiz Abid Masood, Dr. Naseem Akhtar Raja, and Dr. Mustafiz Alwi whose knowledge and inspiration during my coursework at International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) provided me the required intellectual impetus to step into the demanding realm of academic research. I have a deep and eternal sense of gratitude for my supervisor Prof. Dr. Muhammad Safeer Awan, Dean Faculty of Languages, National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Islamabad, Pakistan, who imparted me not only with his vast understanding of this subject but also helped me develop the basics of a fluent, coherent and well-knit write-up, leaving a lasting impression on me with his outstanding teaching strategies and research insights. I am also indebted to Dr. Humaira for her kind support. Gratitude is also due to my dearest friends Dr.Usman Ghanni, Dr. Malik Rashid Awan and Prof.Tahir Malik for their support and extraordinary efforts to encourage me for my academic, professional and intellectual uplift. Yasir Arafat vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page Nos. Acceptance by the Viva Voce Committee iv Abstract v Declaration vi Acknowledgements vii Table of Contents viii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 01 1.1 The Politics of Representation 11 1.2 Statement of the Problem 20 1.3 Research Questions 20 1.4 Theoretical Framework and Research Methodology 21 1.5 Research Rationale 24 1.6 Chapter Division 26 Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW- THE DEBATE BETWEEN ORIENTALISM AND OCCIDENTALISM (SECTION 1) 33 2.1 Occidentalism: a reaction to Orientalism? 33 2.2 The Oriental Other and Orientalism 38 2.3 Constructing Orientalism 47 2.4 India as Imagined in Orientalist Discourse 54 2.5 Orientalism: A Critique 57 2.6 Representation/Stereotyping and Orientalism 62 2.7 Occidentalism: A brief history and characteristics 67 2.8 India’s construction of the Western other 69 2.9 The Negative and the Positive Other 71 2.10 The Essential Ancientness of India 73 2.11 Orientalism and India 75 LITERATURE REVIEW - HISTORY AND ETHNOGRAPHY OF TRAVELOGUES OF THE EAST (SECTION 2) 78 2.12 The Muslim Travelers from the East; a critique 79 2.13 The Non-Muslim Travelers from the Orient 98 Chapter 3 REPRESENTATION OF THE WEST BY MUNSHI ITESAMUDDIN 121 3.1 Introduction and Background 121 3.2 The perceptions- enroute and later 127 3.3 The wonders of England 139 3.4 The Women- The Exotic Gaze and Eroticism 144 3.5 Debating the Theological Divide 153 Chapter 4 MIRZA ABU TALEB KHAN-THE PERSIAN PRINCE 170 4.1 Introduction and Background 170 4.2 Early Perceptions-Positive and Others 172 4.3 Khan-The Orient Writes Back 189 4.4 Perceptions of Women-How the West views the East and vice versa 195 4.5 The politics of religion and religious representation 202 viii 4.6 The Exotic/Erotic Gaze 206 Chapter 5 SEAMLESS BOUNDARIES BY LUTFULLAH KHAN 226 5.1 Introduction and Background 226 5.2 The cultural and religious Others 236 5.3 The Indianized perceptions of the Others 242 5.4 The Western vs. the Eastern Women 256 Chapter 6 CONCLUSION 272 REFERENCES 287 ix Chapter One Introduction This chapter deals with multiple issues including representation, Orientalism, Occidentalism/Orientalism-in-reverse and their relationship. It also highlights the framework, research methodology, statement of the problem, research rational and division of chapters. The present study is primarily concerned with the issue of representation that Edward Said terms as grandest of all narratives, but the focus and perspective are quite opposite to those of Said. As Said unearthed the discursive practices employed by the Occident to represent the Orient, this study is related to Occidentalism/Orientalism-in-reverse, which serves as a counter discourse and reverses the discursive practices exploited by the West to develop its cultural and textual view of Oriental Others. The three travel narratives that I have selected for this study are, Images of the West, Western Bound and Seamless Boundaries by Munshi Itesamuddin, Mirza Abu Taleb Khan and Lutfullah Khan respectively. They all belonged to the same Indo- Muslim tradition and received their education and training in the same literary sensibility that had marked the educated people of their class (Fisher, 2007, p. 160). Written in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they encapsulate both the advent and the rise of colonialism in India. The narratives all alike establish that if Orientalism had developed into Western ethnocentrism, the Eastern discourse had now developed a reverse form-that of asserting its own culture and traditions as inherently superior to the West. As a result, they have established the essentialist and reductionist mode of thinking especially in the areas of religio-cultural putative superiority 1 of the East. This way, two of the narrators – Taleb and Itesamuddin especially – have had detailed discussions with the Western representatives and they managed to uphold the cultural and religious superiority over their counterparts.
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