Interpreting the Blind Man's Garden through a Post-Colonial Lens of Ideological Racism

Abstract

This research paper explores the novel The Blind Man's Garden through the lens of ideological racism, offering a critical analysis within the framework of post-colonialism. Written by Nadeem Aslam, the novel delves into the complex dynamics of power, identity, and the consequences of Western imperialism in the post-9/11 era. By examining the characters, plot, and themes, this paper aims to unravel the layers of ideological racism prevalent in the narrative and contextualize them within the broader spectrum of post-colonial literature. The term ‘colonialism’ is all about manipulation and oppression over the people of third world countries but post-colonialism, on the other hand is the ‘reaffirmation of colonialism’ through the narratives of colonized people. Now- a-days, post-colonialism is related to trans-nationalism which is all about diaspora and hybridity. This paper explains the same traces of hybridity and diasporic culture through the narration of different characters portrayed in the novel. Moreover, this paper also gives a clear glance of Nadeem Aslam’s novel The Blind Man’s Garden as the traces of colonialism and imperialism through the lens of ideological racism in the light of Post-Colonial theory as explained by Edward Said (1978) and Bhabha (1994). The Blind Man’s Garden, presents pain, loss and grief of Pakistani community which they suffer at the hands of colonizers after being colonized. The researcher has selected the above- mentioned text to find out the traces of post colonialism to show the basic cause of all the sufferings which Asian community had with them since long after the period of colonialism. For this purpose the researcher has used the qualitative approach to analyze the basic elements of post-colonial literature through the lens of ideological racism in the selected text. The findings of the study indicate that the selected novel exactly explains the perspectives of Post-Colonial theory with reference to ideological racism by highlighting the issues of otherness, third -space hybridity, diasporic feelings and marginality among the aboriginals portrayed in the novel.