The Othering of Pakistan

Abstract

Abstract This chapter presents an understanding of social reality subjectively, showing how the different labels are produced and attached to both Pakistan and Pakistanis. The chapter questions the ideological representation of the colonial subject as primitive and deviant and the inextricable link between imperial power and representation. Three common tropes or intelligence grids are examined that Pakistanis fell into within the Western Security discourse: ‘juvenile’, ‘dangerous’, and ‘manipulative’. This form of Othering allow Pakistanis to be thought of as predatory, threatening, wicked, and incomprehensible. It is argued that these are similar Orientalist and racist assumptions and underpinnings that are rooted in history and have been narrated over and over again and are used to malign an already marginalized and silenced community.