Historical Consciousness Among the Converted Peoples in V. S. Naipaul's Islamic Writings

Abstract

V. S. Naipaul's travel books and other commentaries about the non-Arab converts of Islam are characterized by his trademark sensitivity to colonialism. In these controversial works, Naipaul equates Islamic expansion in Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran and Malaysia to Arab imperialism. While Naipaul does not condone the militaristic origins of Islamic expansionism in history, his principal critique is cultural, concerning how non-Arab converts voluntarily turn away from their pre-Islamic histories, sacred sites, cultures, and traditions in favour of their Arabian counterparts. Beneath the surface of their apparent religiosity, however, Naipaul sees a traumatic historical experience, principally due to the tension between the universalist message of Islam and its Arabian origins. Arguably, the converted peoples cope with their injured national pride by a religious zeal to overwhelm the Arabs, who are their conquerors and the givers of their religion.