Blog 6: A Mughal Historian in Mexico City

Dr. Zaman’s talk expanded on the different ways your personal experiences, change how you approach the world. She explained the dilemma of an individual from a post-colonial country (South Asia) finding themselves in another post-colonial country (Mexico) but still feeling foreign and unfamiliar. As the country you are visiting, are dealing with their post-colonial state differently. The urge to control unfamiliar races and dictate how they should be feeling is always present within you, despite knowing the dislike of being controlled and judged very clearly. The conflict she explained was that in an individual person the colonizer and colonized existed together.

Accepting both fractions of yourself (the colonized and the colonizer) might be hypocritical but it’s vital to understand the confusion existing within you. Matters that bothered Dr. Zaman in Mexico could not be compartmentalized, sometimes she would support white people and other times she would support people of color. Language deeply affected her in a sense that the Mexicans readily accepted Spanish as their own, while South Asia still struggles with the idea of English as a representation of home. Her disdain towards a colonizers language being accepted in Mexico was just taken as an insignificant rant by a brown woman. Sacrificial traditions within the Mexican culture troubled her and made her feel compelled to accept her inner “white dude.” Knowing that these two very distinct personalities existed within her was the first step to understanding those around her. It also made her realise that her feelings towards colonialism weren’t universally shared.

Dr. Zaman’s confusion was manifested further when her historian instincts made her analyze situations in very specific ways. She also gave an example of her Mother’s Diary and how her interpretations were extremely different from what her own mother had thought. It ringed a very similar tune to our lecture on Enlightenment, Humanism and Universalism. Europe looked at the world with eyes clouded with the idea of rationality, which ultimately made colonialism possible. However, Europe isn’t guilty of this alone, it’s very human to try to blue print the differences and similarities of races in order to understand them. Dr. Zaman confessed that this was her approach to Mexico as well, she had all these preconceived notions that did not hold true. Similar, to how we interpret texts by dead people, they cannot argue with us so we casually imprint our biases while understanding the text.

Dr. Zaman’s appreciation for Bougainvillea’s and Marigold’s also highlighted the irony that the very things reminding her of home, were originally not from South Asia at all. Both flowers were brought by colonizers to the colonized world. Therefore, our feelings of home can be found in a mixture of different regions and that makes us whole. Also, there’s no one way a post-colonial country should be, similar to what Cesaire implied that there is no one way to be. A Mughal historian lands up in Mexico and realizes that even people who have faced the same level of oppression and control, cannot share the same sentiments towards their oppressor’s ways.