Post-Independence Postcolonial Peripheral Permanence of Subalternity and Marginalization: Textual Analysis of Noor and British Graves

Abstract

The Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationalist narratives with regards to the events of 1971 are manifestations of victimization/praise of the self and the vilification of the other. This dichotomous discursive relationship leaves out the people who do not associate themselves with any of the national groups, especially after the independence that was gained from the colonial raj in the name of a homeland for the Muslims of the subcontinent. These marginalized people lack representation; hence, they always remain underneath the popular narrative. This research is an attempt to bring to surface the experiences of the marginalized people with reference to the events of 1971 in Sorraya Khan’s Noor and British Graves, a short story, by Hassan Manzar using a combination of postcolonial and Marxist theories.