Native Orientalists in Pakistan

Abstract:     
The Orientalist enterprise of Western writers has received a great deal of critical attention since the publication of Edward Said’s Orientalism in 1978. As Western academics have learned to bring more objectivity and empathy to their study of the Islamicate, a growing number of Muslim academics, novelists and journalists – in their home countries and the diaspora – have started looking at themselves through new Orientalist constructs that serve the interests of Western powers. This native Orientalism was a minor affair during the Cold War but it has grown dramatically since the launching of the West’s so-called global war against terror. This essay examines the manner in which native Orientalists in Pakistan – writing mostly in the English language – have been supporting America’s so-called global war against terror.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 17

Keywords: Native Orientalists, Native Informers, Native Informants, Neocolonialism, Edward Said, Dabashi, Pakistan, Newspapers, Global War Against Terror, Islam, Afghanistan, Taliban, Fanon, Cesaire, Brown Sahibs, British, Britain, United States

working papers series