HORNS OF RELIGIOUS OTHERING: A POSTCOLONIAL STUDY OF NADEEMASLAM’SSEASON OF THE RAINBIRDS

Abstract

This study is a critical analysis of Season of The Rainbirds (1993) written by Nadeem Aslam. It is a postcolonial study of the said text. This study exhibits the relationship between the forces of power. The novel has a thick array of binaries which are in constant struggle against each other. The central point of this study is a concept taken from the subaltern study which is the binary of Us and Other. On the one side there are servants, teachers, and shopkeepers and on the other side there are bureaucrats, landlords and politicians. This study aims to explore the role of Maulana Hafeez to do the act of ‘Us and Others’. The world of Season of the Rainbirds is tumultuous and perturbed. The purpose of the study is to highlight the misuse of religion by the clerics and how do they spread hate among the general masses. It also aims to relocate the position of discourse which makes and unmakes the lives of the characters. Othering is a slogan of Postcolonial ideology; Religious Othering represents the continuity of the Postcolonial psyche in Pakistan. The insight for the data interpretation was taken from the postcolonial theory; Can the Subaltern Speak by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Postcolonial theory rightly delineates these