Beyond Ritualism: Impact and Implications of Ḥajj on the Society of Pakistan

Ḥajj―an annual Islamic congregation―is a supreme manifestation of Faith (Imān) in which muslims assemble to pronounce explicitly their subservience and loyalty to Almighty Allah alone. Besides freeing themselves from the squalor of Shirk, Muslims satiate their souls with the feelings of ‘Faith’ and ‘Unity.’ This fact is purely accomplished when the Muslims shed off their outer difference by donning the dress of unity (Iḥrām). Ḥajj is a perfect blend between ‘Creator’ and ‘creature’, ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ on the one hand and an enduring and invaluable expression physically, socially, and materially on the other. From this pragmatic Institution, Pakistan―one of the premier countries of the Islamic world―can derive unprecedented benefits politically, socially, and economically. One of the important objectives of the paper is to describe the significance of Ḥajj to the people of Pakistan. In so doing, the paper examines and explores, objectively and analytically, the institution of Ḥajj and its implications on the Muslim world, particularly Pakistan. The first section of the paper, “Ḥajj―At a Glance”, presents meaning and historical background of Ḥajj. The second section “Revitalizing the Ḥajj”, besides presenting the revitalization of the Institution by the final Messenger (peace be upon him) also gives an overview of some of the very important rituals to be realized (during Ḥajj). The subsequent sections, “Socio-Economic Dimension of Ḥajj” and “Ḥajj―Implications and Impact on the Society of Pakistan”, describe respectively the socio-economic impact and leverage of the Ḥajj on the Muslim world in general and on Pakistan in particular. The study is followed by “Conclusion” wherein it has been argued that the Ḥajj can bring an immense transformation and positivity in a country if its sweetness is sought in all earnestness.

Postcolonial Discourse theory and appropriation: an analysis of Bapsi Sidwa and Arundhati Roy's Fictions

The deployment of English language and its discursive practices entailed the emergence of appropriated English and its counter discursive practices. The postcolonial creative English writers in the invaded and partly in settler colonies nativitized the colonial language in the context of their multi- linguistic,multi-ethnic,multi-culturalandmulti-racialcolonizedexperiences.However,this dissertation is an attempt to focus on the dismantling and appropriating strategies inducted by Bapsi Sidhwa and Arundhati Roy in their narratives in the perspective of the geo-political and socio-linguistics settings of Pakistan and India. Both the novelists’ innovative linguistic and textual practices demonstrated in their texts denote the deconstruction and decolonization of the colonial language and its discursive practices. The induction of their appropriating strategies also implies the deconstruction of the western dominant ideologies as well as the indigenous hegemonic normative practices in the context of their complex colonized experiences. Likewise, both these creative English writers installed the subverting and appropriating strategies like neologism, transliteration, untranslated words, code-switching, code- mixing, translation equivalents and glossing on the linguistic and grammatical format of their mother tongues to foreground the lexico- semantic richness repertoire of their indigenous languages and the lived socio-cultural and geo-political concrete realities. In addition, these novelists employed the linguistic and textual practices to shoulder the weight of their hybridized experiences as the Standard English language and its norms were inadequate to address the hybridity, split identity, multiplicity of languages and variant culture in terms of the non-western settings of Pakistan and India. Consequently, their induction of appropriating textual strategies in their texts; demonstrated the alterity, resistance and difference from the privileged centre of epistemological and ontological norms. Accordingly, the dissertation in the postcolonial discourse theory and appropriation perspective attempts to investigate that the authenticity and purity of Standard English language is unsound and unrealistic. It also demonstrates that the purity of the western culture is based on myth and transcendentalism. The study explores as well that all language is marginalized and hybridized and all culture is intrinsically syncretic. It also substantiates that the nativitizing strategies inducted by Sidhwa and Roy in their texts de-hegemonized the Standard English and its coded referentilaity. Hence, their appropriating linguistic and textual strategies demonstrated in their narratives are also authentic and realistic as these incorporated and carried the ‘lived experiences’ and ‘message event’ rather than to some presumptive fixed referentilaity. Linguistically, the western purists may label Pakistani and Indian appropriated English and its counter discursive practices as mistakes, vernacular, atavistic and primitive but politically these variant englishes have de-marginalized and decolonized the linguistic and cultural hegemony of the metropolitan centre. The study motivates that appropriation of the colonial language is an accessible and trustworthy alternative instrument for the postcolonial creative English writers of Pakistan and India in terms of irreducible and irrevocable cultural syncreticism and linguistic hybridization.