Abstract
In this article, I have argued that the idea of creating a
“civilizational other” is pivotal to the project of colonization. Political
authority over the native cultures cannot be established unless Empires
create knowledge which declares them essentially superior to native cultures
and civilization. The arrival of the British in the subcontinent is no
exception to these hegemonic practices. Natives are made to believe that
their cultures, histories, folklores and mythologies are either of marginal
importance or need to be revised in terms of western epistemic demands.
This way of thought paves way for the reformatory and educational project
of the colonizer. The indigenous epistemic structures/narratives are revised
or obliterated as they cannot fulfill the modernist demands of progress and
enlightenment. My argument is that the erasure is primarily political and not
epistemic. I have surveyed the western idea of the construction of the self
and other and how in political terms, it becomes instrumental in establishing
the western hegemony over the Orient. Furthermore, I have focused on the
sub-continental epistemic response to explore the genesis of Muslim identity
which paved way for the creation of Pakistan.
Dr Khurshid Alam. (2019) OCCIDENTALISM, ORIENTALISM AND NATIONAL IDENTITY AN EPISTEMOLOGICAL SURVEY, Al-Hikmat: A Journal of Philosophy, Volume 39, Issue 1.
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