Uncles of the nation: avuncular masculinity in partition-era politics

Abstract

Nationalist imagery is often expressed through the metaphor of the family: the nation is mother or father; the nation’s people are its children. But ‘uncle’ figures are also often part of the familial metaphor of the nation. The uncle represents a trope of masculinity that is defined differently than the ‘father’. Uncles are ‘avuncular’ figures – they are warm, friendly and playful. In nationalist discourse, avuncular uncle figures soften or mask state authority. Read critically or satirically, uncles can also be seen as miserly and suspicious. This article examines three very different uncle figures in South Asian politics and culture: ‘Chachaji’ Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister; Uncle Sam, Pakistan’s purported Cold War ally; and Saadat Hasan Manto, Pakistani writer and interlocutor of Uncle Sam. In Indian public discourse, Nehru is venerated as an uncle, a brother to the nation’s father Mahatma Gandhi. But to his detractors, particularly those on the Hindu right, his avuncularism was a sign of impotence; he was the emblem of a mutilated nation. As Uncle Sam’s ‘nephew’, Manto interrogates Pakistan’s political and cultural relationship with the United States, exposing the disconnection between avuncular Americanism and the political realities of the newly formed Pakistani state.