Ambivalence as a Cultural Imperative in Twilight in Delhi by Ahmed Ali

Abstract

In Post- Colonial Studies, the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized is beset by confusions produced as a result of a shared and yet a fractious history of contentious multiplicity. The ambivalent subject-position of the colonized subject is often ignored by the colonizers. Consequently, the colonial discourse circulates an ambivalently stereotypical image of the colonized subject. In the colonial Indian sub-continent, a similar irresolvable complexity features the nature of the relationship between the British and the Indians. Instead of reading Ambivalence as an after effect of colonial enterprise, the paper intends to establish that Ambivalence is present in the Indian Sub continent by default. It is rather one of the defining features of Indian culture. The indecisiveness, fluid identity, dual and amoebic nature of these people is read in this paper through an analysis of Twilight in Delhi by Ahmed Ali