Intersecting Experiences of Decolonization which Meet and Diverge simultaneously

Dr. Taymiya Zaman’s talk was interesting for a number of reasons, but if I could describe it in one word, I would say it was refreshing. It offered a radically different and unfamiliar lens with which one could view decolonization and the different possibilities which unravel in the aftermath of a decolonized city. It also shed light on the idea that decolonization is experienced differently in every context, of which no two are identical. Each context reveals particularities and nuances which colour the experience of decolonization and create an atmosphere which is conducive to different kinds of growth and change. For me, it revealed, above all, the different trajectories that are taken to overcome the experience of colonization and the effects that these trajectories impose on a particular space at a particular time.

A feature which immediately captured my attention was how Dr. Taymiya had made a conscious effort not to remove herself from her research while exploring the various ways in which colonization had managed to impact Mexico City. She was unapologetically present in her work, and her experiences had coloured and characterized her findings in unique ways. This made her work refreshing and authentic. She did not attempt to remove herself and her identity from the place she was looking at, or the people she was interacting with. Her work was a constant dialogue between her thought process and shifting perceptions, and the contrasting context she was in contact with. This allowed her to draw interesting parallels, while discovering strands of similar trajectories simultaneously.

Her candid admission of how tedious, and at times hopeless the process of figuring out which elements of colonization still impacted or affected Mexico City was mindful, honest and relatable. She spoke at length about how Pakistani’s and Muslims in South East Asia are accustomed to seeing themselves as the victims of colonization. However, this had not always been the case, and in the context of Mexico City, it was Muslims who had become a different kind of colonizing force. This force had inflicted upon the locals strikingly similar methods of violence and oppressive control. To be able to view history as a process which stretches way beyond our immediate memory of Muslims as the colonized, disenfranchised, oppressed peoples was a much-needed change in perspective for me while studying decolonization. This history is one in which the power dynamic is different from what is usually recalled in the context of colonization but is as important to remember. This history is also one of nuance and alternating balance regarding power.

However, Dr. Zaman also shed light on certain commonalities which she observed that were experienced by spaces which had experienced different shades and types of colonization. She talked about how colonization had the effect of confusing the idea of change with loss, since both occurred simultaneously during colonization, and in its aftermath. This hit close to home for me as many of the changes which took place as a result of colonization in Pakistan also simultaneously marked the loss of many things which I did not get to experience. These were customs, relationships, methods of organizing and conducting day to day life in the Subcontinent which feel to me to be a loss of a life that I could never experience. I am a product of colonization, and decolonization alike, and the loss I feel is characterized by the change I did not get to see.

Looking at colonization and decolonization through a comparative colonial historiographical lens appealed to me as it allowed me to realize how colonization has certain similar undertones, but nevertheless is a process like any other. One which is coloured by its own particularities, and is also predominantly defined the space and time which it exists in. Furthermore, it is a process which is still unravelling itself. It does not have a definitive end point. Dr. Zaman mentioned that Mexico City speaks of colonization as a distant memory which has had so long to settle into the landscape and psyche of the people, that it is something they have moved on from. I see this act of moving past events which have coloured Mexico City’s history and defined its character as part of the on-going and continuous process which takes place at all times in history. Afterall, if decolonization and its many meanings have taught me anything, it is that history, and all that it encapsulates within it, is an ever-changing, ever-evolving dynamic process which is always incomplete, and in some ways, always undone.