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ANALYSIS OF V.S. NAIPAULS AMONG THE BELIEVERS: AN

ISLAMIC JOURNEY

PAKISTAN: THE SALT HILLS OF A DREAM

Travel writing is a genre that has, as its focus, accounts of real or imaginary places. The genre

encompasses a number of styles that may range from the documentary to the evocative, from

literary to journalistic.

Dissayanake and Wickramagamage point out three types of travel writings:

Information-Oriented Travel WritingThis category of travel writing tends to be more scientific and objective. It focuses on

geographic, mineralogical, botanical, agricultural, economic, ecological and ethnographic

details. The authorial voice is minimised in this category.

Experiential Travel Writing

This type deals with the emotional sentiment and involvement of the writer. The writer goesinto highly personal and emotional displays and the main focus is on the authorial voice.

Intellectual-Analytic Travel WritingThis category is the most subjective of the travel modes and most controversial. In this type

authorial voice is much focused than the presentation or documentation of information. The

travel writing is replete with the writers own views and in -depth analysis. V.S. Naipauls

writings fall into this category because Naipauls views intervene in the writing and, also,

include intellectual and social comments and analysis.

Naipauls Among the Believers is an ultimate travel/fiction journey in which his travel

narrative feels like fiction at many places. Naipauls travel writings have three formal

aspects: Naipaulian assumptions, his narrative authority and particular travel writing

strategies. The first aspect Naipaulian assumptions is an ordered plan that leads to the

eventual text: a Naipaulian assumption, actual travel and note-taking, return to Centre and

pondering, re-assessments of original assumption, outlining, re-organization, re-thinking, re-invention of his travel experience, actual writing. Thus it implies that his travel writings are

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not based on objectivity but is determined by dominant ideology and worldview. And he

presents only a critical selection of reality that goes with his own assumptions.

The second aspect is Naipauls narrative authority which he uses to convince his readers of

his views and perspectives. He uses this authority to give his narratives an air of objectivity.

For convincing the readers of his objectivity and faithful portrayal he uses the techniques of

giving an eye-witness experience, employing analytical skills and offering readable and

pleasing narrative.

The third aspect is Naipauls particular travel writing strategies which are journalistic

techniques, detailed ethnographic reporting, historical perspectives and style,

autobiographical features and philosophy inquiry. InAmong the Believers Naipaul has used

both the historical perspective and ethnographic reporting. In ethnographic reporting, Naipaul

includes descriptions and observations of landscape, topography and people.

In Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey, Naipaul focuses on Islamic fundamentalism

which affects the political, social and creative life of these people. He misrepresented the

Islamic religion because of his own prejudices against Islam. His writing portrays the

comparison of Western prejudices against alternative cultural, religious and political

ideologies offered by Islamic fundamentalism.

The second section ofAmong the Believers is based on Naipauls travels to Pakistan. This

section starts with an epigraph from Shakespeares The Tempest. It foregrounds the theme of

the whole section as Gonzalo announced his way of administrating a country. Gonzalo

declared that his rule would be free from any kind of bounds and limits, thus contradicting his

own kingship. The purpose of Naipaul to use this extract, in the beginning of travel section of

Pakistan, is to show Pakistan having no rules and regulations for its proper administration.

The concept that travel writing is not an innocent activity is completely fulfilled byNaipauls

Among the Believers. He has misrepresented religion, history, people, places and landscapes

of Pakistan. His detailed and analytical observations and inclusion of specific details of

names, dates and signs produced an air of authenticity which compelled the readers to believe

him even if he is creating false illusion or twisting the reality.

The history of Islam and Pakistan is manipulated by Naipaul in a number of ways. He

disregarded the established history and presented the history in completely different version.

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In the first chapter of section 2, he rejected the history of Pakistan as known by Pakistanis.

He rejected the religious basis of Pakistan and declared that formation of Pakistan is

completely secular as he wrote secular ambitions of Mr. Jinnah. And in a satirical tone he

commented that the secular basis of Pakistan is turned into founded as the land of the pure;

it was to be the first truly Islamic state since the days of the Prophet and his close

companions. He has also regarded the Muslim politicians who struggled for Pakistan as

selfish and self-centred as they preferred not to carry out elections and as a result political

life didnt develop in the new state; institutions and administrations remained as they were in

British days. Whereas on the other hand in the Pakistani version these politicians are real

heroes who sacrificed for their country and worked devotedly for its establishment. In a

chapter Killing History Naipaul has not only manipulated the history of Pakistan but he has

also transformed the Islamic history. The chapters title is very ironic as in his opinion

Pakistani textbooks are killing history but in reality he has killed the real history for fulfilling

his evil designs. He is describing the history of Sindh which he ironically termed as a

pleasant story of conquest. After the invasion of Sind by Arabs, they distributed the booty of

Debal according to Arab practices. With these descriptions he called this conquest not to

spread Islam but to gain material wealth. He calls the conquest of Sindh as The massacre

and 6,000 men were massacred on this occasion, some say 16,000He is misrepresenting the

Muslims caliph and history as well that after the invasion in Sindh Hijaj bin Yousaf gave

order to kill the warrior class and make them hostages /prisoners. As in the text: My distinct

orders are that all those who are fighting men should be assassinated and their sons and

daughters imprisoned and retained as hostages.

Naipauls portrayal of religion is very negative because in his views Islam is overshadowing

the intellectual and logical faculties of Muslims. And in return muslims vision is blurred and

they cannot envision the reality of the facts. For instance when a maulana talked about

Islamic government he said that such a government should abolish interest from the banks.

And Naipaul thought of him as illogical who does not have the least idea that how banks

would run its financial affairs. He was satirical of the view that only following Islamic

banking system would solve all the problems, having a blinded faith in Islam. The writer is,

also, critical of the muslims treatment of Islam which is used as only commodity as General

Zia went to perform Hajj and on return he would bring Saudi loan of 100 million dollars. In

the chapter Hyderabad Boogie-Woogie the tone of Naipaul in the depiction of Islam is very

satirical as he commented that Islam had taken over the holy places of Buddhists and Hindus

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but it cannot get rid of the mystical and ascetic values of those religions. The shrines of saints

became a place for people to observe ascetics. The tradition of giving food to poor people at

shrines and the writers visit to kitchen remind him ofNorth Indian painting where these

cooking scenes recur. The writer, also, talked about the blurred vision of muslims who

blindly follow their religion and have not the least idea of their destination. As the men at

shrine, the man in blue and the boy in brown were unable to give a logical reason for their

stay at shrine. According to the writer it seemed that the boy was happier in his former life

than his life at shrine and also the man in blues dialogues are repeated with different

sequence. His repeated dialogues with different sequence show his bored life and his lack of

direction in life. Naipaul depicted the force of Islam as blinding the senses of thinking and

rationality and binding man into chains of illusion. He presented the Muslim caliphs having

only the sexual desires as Dahirs two daughters were sent to his harem. Thus portraying

islam in negative light.

Naipaul has given detailed portrayal of people in his travel writing. His detached

representation of people tends to make them mere objects and not humans. His

characterization is a caricaturing rather than a portrayal, a misrepresentation rather than a

representation. His misrepresentations of people are reflection of his biased approach against

muslims. He gave detailed physical description of the people, talked about every minutedetail. He has also given them voices to speak for themselves but even with such liberties;

they are portrayed as having limited thinking, far too emotional and having no definite reason

to defend their own decisions. The taxi driver looked thuggish and spoilt and he declared,

being himself a Muslim, Muslim people are bad. They lie too much. In Karachi

Phantasmagoria the duality of muslims is clearly shown when a characterKhalid Ishaq said

that, ourpeople emotionally reject the West. Materially; we may be dependent on the West.

It implies that on one hand West is rejected but for material strength only West is called for

help. Thus, stating that Muslims give importance to Islam but when there is a question of

worldly affairs religion is subsided. The muslims are criticised for being non punctual having

no care for time as quoted, in Pakistan the standard unit of stated delay was half an hour;

three hours meant not that day. Naipaul is also very much concerned about the hygienic

status of Pakistanis. He mentioned the unhygienic state of people in the following words, it

was a land of dust and sand and dry nostrils and nose picking; and the peasant woman who

rubbed her hand on the rail before touching her young sons, mouths with her hand. At

another instance he depicted the unhygienic conditions in Pakistan when at shrine, where

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mentally disturbed people were cured, number of flies were sitting there showing the filth of

that very place. Thus,Naipauls negative depiction ofpeople and hygienic conditions places

Pakistan in the category of filthy, dirty and insecure place.

Naipauls description of places is very bleak and filthy which depicts the Pakistans

environment and surrounding as having negativity and an air of ignorance in it. The places

depicted by Naipaul are dusty and giving the feel of antiquity even in twentieth century. The

maulanas room was dusty and environment was gloomy which became gloomier by weak

electric bulb. Even he described old commercial Karachi in these words, hot air was grey

and brown with smoke. The shrine of Quaid-e-Azam is also negatively portrayed as having

big dome and a minaret like a church spire, thus, giving an impression that there is no

originality in Pakistan. The depiction of places in Hyderabad is not very different from

Karachi as Naipaul depicted these places in terms of black bazaar, dusty, the desert, the

life, the boredom. The shrine of a saint is depicted like a medieval town having paved lanes

and many people were for taking message inside and for bringing back the reply.

Thus in the five chapters of section 2 Pakistan Naipaul has misrepresented Islamic history,

criticised the essence of Islam, mocked the foundations of Pakistan, gives the negative

portrayal of Muslims as unhygienic, liars, judgemental on the bases of their biases and

sadistic as he portrayed the fight of a bear and four dogs as the only entertainment of the

villagers. His depiction of places is, also, very filthy, bleak and disappointed. He represented

all the places as dusty, gloomy and unorganized.