The Contemporary Relevance of the Raj Politico-Religious Strategy and (Post)colonial Discourse in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Akbar's Dream"
Abstract
Applying Heidegger's under erasure to (post)colonialism denotes double understanding of the Raj politico-religious strategy as both colonial and/or postcolonial discourse in Tennyson's "Akbar's Dream". On one hand, the 'alien' British race poured into India to accomplish the uncompleted mission of Akbar. In this sense, Tennyson, the Empire's Poet Laureate draws Akbar as a replica of the British Raj for both shoulder the responsibility of setting right, as European Hamlets, an historical moment in which 'time is out of joint' when the temple of collective religions was divided 'stone from stone' by religious fanatics. As messianic figures, Akbar and the Raj, attempt to destroy and renounce a malignant, demonized, diabolized force, most often an evil-doing spirit, a spectre, a kind of religious-based ghost which risks coming back. On the other hand, what is actually accomplished is not a noble mission but an omission or consumption of the Orient which is not itself anymore. The Europeans create a mimic Orient which is built on the presumptions of their imperial white mythology to justify colonialism. On these contradictory discourses, the paper is structured seeking a better understanding of the lifelong relation between politics, religion and violence/resistance which contours the contemporary situation in many places of the world.
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