MULTICULTURALISM, OTHERING AND POLITICS OF IDENTITY AND EXCLUSION: A POSTCOLONIAL READING OF THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST

Zeeshan Safdar

PhD Scholar, Department of English, IUB, Pakistan

Bushra Naz

Assistant Professor, Department of English, IUB, Pakistan

Abstract

In this article, I argue that The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid represents the polemics of multiculturalism and diversity with respect to the impact of dominant culture on the immigrant culture thus producing the imagination of the Other.The protagonist Changez struggles to preserve his identity in the United States of America reflecting a dominant western culture.  Being an immigrant, Changez fights for political, religious, national and cultural rights to save his identity. I will find out the conflict between dominant and immigrant cultures from the postcolonial perspective of colonizer and colonized, the issue of the diversity of cultures in multicultural country and the politics of exclusion. The present analysis focuses the dissimilarity of dominant and immigrant cultures in terms of the colonizer and the colonized identities and diversity encourages separateness or strengthens the stability in the form of the Other. Exploring the textual references of The Reluctant Fundamentalist in the theoretical context of Edward Said, Will Kymlica, Stevenson Vertovec, and Frantz Fanon, I will find out the polemics of multiculturalism and the concept of other in The Reluctant Fundamentalist by answering the research questions respectively as to how texts divulge conflict of cultures when two cultures, dominant and immigrant, clash?, whether diversity in terms of race, religion or culture adds to a country’s strength? In addition to whether multiculturalism is encouraging separateness and the politics of exclusion?

Key Words: Multiculturalism, dominant and immigrant cultures, Other, Diversity, Identity