Colonial (Mis)representations of Sainthood: A Postcolonial Study of an Oriental Folktale

Abstract

The study questions the structuring and consolidation of an orientalized exotic cultural imaginary of an Oriental Punjabi saint. The research explores how the image of an Oriental saint has been exoticized to problematize the religious dispositions of Indian Punjab and label it a miracle-ridden society through the exoticization of saintly miracles. Exoticism, earlier, during the sixteenth century, meant “foreign” in a neutral way; however, with the expansion of the colonial empire and its agenda, it accommodated the discourse of difference by validating the dichotomies between the East and the West. The exotic cultural imaginary threatens the indigenous frames of reference because of its Eurocentricism. The research selects the folktale titled Jalali, The Blacksmith’s Daughter, As Sung By A Bard Of Ambala District, from Richard Carnac Temple’s book The Legends of the Panjab. Sir Richard Carnac Temple, a British colonial administrator, collected and translated this folktale under the pretext of anthologizing and preserving the folk narratives of the Punjab. The research seeks guidance from Edward Said’s critical reflections on Orientalism, questioning the selected writer's positional superiority and notion of strategy. The study is qualitative and uses textual analysis as the research method. It is anticipated that the present research can inspire various future research projects concerning the colonial representation of Punjabi folklore to surface the discourse of difference and to challenge the resultant exoticized mis/representations.