Los Antecedentes Del Imputado Y El Peligro De Obstaculización

O r i e n t a l s .have. of. t h e m selves. ... the . knowledge, of -the.

O r i e n t a l i s t , k n o w n n o w a d a y s as an 'area studies'

s p e c i alist, appears as rational, logical, scientific,

realistic and objective. The knowledge of the Orientals,

b y c o n t r a s t , o f t e n s e e m s i r r a t i o n a l , i l l o g i c a l ,

unscientific, unrealistic, and subjective. The knowledge

of the Orientalist is, therefore, privileged in relation to

that of the Orientals and it invariably places itself in a

r e l a t i o n s h i p of intellectual dominance over that of the

easterners. (Inden 1986:408)

In a more recent contribution, Dirks (1992) suggested that Orientalist constructions that represent the Orient as the naturally-determined world of religion and caste, effectively naturalize (and thereby legitimize) class, gender and race distinctions in Western society itself. Anthropologists, argued Dirks, have also been implicated in the process of c o n s t r u c t i n g c o l o n i z e d l a n d s as "a t h e a t e r for t h e E n l i g h t e n m e n t p r o j e c t " ( p . 6) and f a c i l i t a t i n g the m u l t i ­ faceted incursions of Western i m p e r i a l i s m .29 For Dirks, the

v e r y n o t i o n of c u l t u r e as the o b j e c t of study, as characteristic and defining of the Other, emerged from the heart of an Enlightenment project which was both produced in, and supported by, colonialism.

2^Dirks (1992) does not acknowledge that a number of anthropologists, such as Edmund Leach, actively resisted the appropriation of their data by the colonial authorities (see Grillo 1985).

I r o nically perhaps, these critiques of O r i e n t a l i s m have a t e n d e n c y to p e r p e t u a t e t h e v e r y e s s e n t i a l i s m t h a t characterises orientalist texts themselves. Moreover, they f r e q u e n t l y fail to a c k n o w l e d g e p r o c e s s e s of a c t i v e syncretization and r e s istance by 'Orientals' m a n y of w h o m e m p l o y e d 'Western' n o t i o n s of n a t i o n a l integrity, self- determination and culture to justify and defend their claims to independence. This said, critiques of O r i e n t a l i s m do p r o v i d e valuable insight into themes that m a y inform b oth h i s t o r i c a l a n d e t h n o g r a p h i c c o n s t r u c t i o n s of t h e subcontinent.

This chapter begins w ith a brief overview of the history of Pakistan. R a ther a m b i t i o u s l y perhaps, the first s e c t i o n scans several thousand years of history to identify some of the key events that have contributed to the emergence of a c o u n t r y c h a r a c t e r i s e d b y ethnic, s o c i a l and c u l t u r a l diversity -a country which today struggles to unite itself as a coherent nation-state. This review also reveals how geo- p o l i t i c a l l y and s o c i a l l y P a k i s t a n came to bear all the characteristics n e cessary to become caught w i t h i n the cast net of European Orientalism.

The next section of this chapter provides a more deta i l e d account of the h i s tory of the Northern Areas of Pakistan. Again, key events contributing to the present situation are described, but atte n t i o n is also given to textual sources themselves. Fictional, as well as non-fictional texts, are critically reviewed to explore how, in practice, the Northern Areas became a notable site of the B r i tish 'Enlightenment p r o j e c t '.

The c o n c l u d i n g s e c t i o n of this c h a p t e r e x a m i n e s h o w orientalist themes c o n t i n u e to echo t h r o u g h our l i t e r a r y heritage and contemporary media images, and how they continue to find expression in the w orld of R e a l p o l i t i k . But, it is argued. Orientalism has also generated a counter-discourse of O c c i d e n t a l i s m that has come to p l a y a part in the

c o n t e m p o r a r y w o r l d of p o l i t i c s a n d p o l e m i c a l exchanges, i n c l u d i n g t h o s e a s s o c i a t e d w i t h p o p u l a t i o n p l a n n i n g . N e v e r t h e l e s s , it is s u g g e s t e d t h a t o n g oing p r o c e s s e s of gl o b i l isation effectively challenge the essentialisms of the pa s t such that it becomes i ncreasingly meaningless to talk a b o u t "o r i e n t a l and o c c i d e n t a l c u l t u r e s as separ a t e , autonomous or independent cultural r e g i m e s " (Turner 1994:9).

F i n a l l y , it is a c k n o w l e d g e d t h a t w h i l e the p r e s e n t is