Scented Dust: A Postcolonial Perspective on Colonial India

Abstract

Malik Feroze Khan Noon’s novel Scented Dust provides a postcolonial perspective in retrieving India’s local history, indigenous traditions, and social norms during colonial times. By asserting the cultural distinctiveness of India, Noon has negated not only European perceptions of the East as a mysterious, exotic, superstitious, irrational, and barbaric place but also countered European purport of superiority and centrality. The novel unfolds the disparity between colonizers and the colonized regarding their social, political, and cultural affiliations. By revisiting the historical colonial encounters represented in the novel, this study showcases colonizers’ fallacious treatment of the natives as uncivilized and brings out the true colours of Indian culture and heritage. It has been found that the novelist has been able to distinctly provide a postcolonial perspective on colonial India by impartially documenting the colonial encounters between the Indians and the British.