POSTCOLONIAL IDENTITY AND RESISTANCE IN PAKISTANI ENGLISH NOVELS

Abstract

This research paper critically examines postcolonial identity formation and acts of resistance in Pakistani English fiction. Referring to key concepts from postcolonial intellectuals such as Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, and Frantz Fanon, the paper examines how Pakistani fiction writers have maneuvered the experience of individuals and groups in navigating socio-political landscapes of a postcolonial nation. The article critiques a line of major Pakistani English novels—Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice-Candy-Man, Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohammed Hanif's A Case of Exploding Mangoes, H.M. Naqvi's Home Boy, and others—to address how the topos of displacement, hybridity, cultural negotiation, and resistance appear as an issue of narrative and characterization. The paper revolves around the relevance of postcolonial Pakistani fiction as a reflection of the country's historical trauma but also as a site of contestation and subversion of inherited colonial ideology, religious extremism, political authoritarianism, and patriarchy. On the basis of comparative thematic analysis, the article discovers strands of resistance spoken through the lexicon of words, symbolic modes of representation, and the acts of characters. The article also discusses how the English language, till now a colonizing force, is inverted by Pakistani writers as a language of empowerment and critique of culture. The paper therefore adds to the larger discourses of postcolonial fiction by situating Pakistani English fiction in the international literary map, focusing on its role as a catalyst to shape hybrid identity and voice acts of resistance on multifaceted cultural topographies. The study further reaffirms the role of literature in the light of postcolonial changes.