Development of the decolonial self
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Date
2024
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Publisher
UMT Lahore
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to study the images of death and the conceptual transformation of
Muslim self (Khudi) in the poetry of Mir Taqi Mir, Bahadur Shah Zafar and Allama Muhammad
Iqbal. Iqbal was a Muslim poet of the Indian subcontinent whose poetry uplifted and inspired the
minds of the 20th century. The primary concern of Iqbal was to alter the subaltern position of the
Muslim community in the Indian subcontinent. The consequences of this subaltern identity on
Muslim selfhood are reflected through the life of Mir and Zafar. The forced exile of these
Muslim subjects identifies a colonial binary between the natives and the foreign invaders. The
life of Mir, Zafar and Iqbal is a symbolic critique to the disciplining of Muslim selfhood by
colonial reformists. The focus on the re-empowering of the self-shows that Muslims were
reduced to a subordinate position in the political and social environment of the subcontinent. The
reimagination and evolution of the Muslim experience resulted in the concept of Khudi that in
turn influenced the decolonization of mind. Thus, the idea of death in Iqbal’s poetry serves to
free the Other from colonial ideology and moves beyond that of Mir and Zafar’s. The concept of
self will be examined through Jung's theory of psyche which he defines as an interplay between
the conscious and the unconscious mind. The study analyzes a selection of Mir, Zafar and Iqbal’s
translated verses.