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Satyajit Ray’s The Chess Players and Postcolonial TheoryRefuting the Expanded Cultural Critique: The Construction of Wajid Ali Shah’s Alterity

Satyajit Ray’s The Chess Players and Postcolonial Theory: Refuting the Expanded Cultural... [Like the Bengali landlord in Jalsaghar, Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh, is an overinscribed figure in colonialist and nationalist historiography. He is the referent of all Lakhnavi tall tales. In main-stream postcolonial films, folk tales, and popular memory he is cited for the high achievement in Awadhi culture.1 At the same time the figure of Wajid Ali Shah appears in these cultural texts as a figure of contradiction, teetering between perfection and ludicrousness.2 He is acknowledged as the patron of indigenous arts and crafts, a ruler in whose reign these knowledges and innovations achieved unparalleled excellence. Simultaneously he is held responsible for causing the defeat of the Muslim dynastic nawabs of Awadh in his hedonistic pursuit of pleasure. Thus the Manichean perception of Wajid in the popular imagination contains elements of the colonialist as well as nationalist critique.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Satyajit Ray’s The Chess Players and Postcolonial TheoryRefuting the Expanded Cultural Critique: The Construction of Wajid Ali Shah’s Alterity

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Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2005
ISBN
978-1-349-52353-5
Pages
169 –198
DOI
10.1057/9780230509665_5
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Like the Bengali landlord in Jalsaghar, Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh, is an overinscribed figure in colonialist and nationalist historiography. He is the referent of all Lakhnavi tall tales. In main-stream postcolonial films, folk tales, and popular memory he is cited for the high achievement in Awadhi culture.1 At the same time the figure of Wajid Ali Shah appears in these cultural texts as a figure of contradiction, teetering between perfection and ludicrousness.2 He is acknowledged as the patron of indigenous arts and crafts, a ruler in whose reign these knowledges and innovations achieved unparalleled excellence. Simultaneously he is held responsible for causing the defeat of the Muslim dynastic nawabs of Awadh in his hedonistic pursuit of pleasure. Thus the Manichean perception of Wajid in the popular imagination contains elements of the colonialist as well as nationalist critique.]

Published: Sep 28, 2015

Keywords: Chess Player; East India Company; Cultural Resistance; Dance Sequence; Colonial Discourse

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