Orientalism and its Relevance to Colonial Sources of South Asia: An Analysis
Abstract
This paper focuses on the discourse of Orientalism that was started with the book of Edward Said Orientalism. According to Orientalism the Europeans had no right to write a history of East because they observe East as others and they do not understand the true nature of Eastern culture. Therefore, according to Said, they distorted the history of Orient. Here this article specifically throws light on Orientalist discourse presented in British colonial sources on South Asia. For facilitating the understanding, discussion on indo-Orientalist sources are dichotomized; one group comprising sympathetic writers and the other consisting of writers who observed India with antipathy. This article will explore how Eurocentric colonial sources on India established stereotypes while at the same time brought overlooked past of this country to the pages of history. Because in the case of India these outsiders actually preserved of its history and brought ancient past into broad daylight. Although these writings of Europeans are not free from the Euro-centric approach still they had credit to preserve the past of India
Authors
Samia Khalid
Assistant Professor, Department of History, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan
Muhammad Fiaz Anwar
Assistant Professor, Department of Pakistan Studies, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan