Orientalist Lens of Olaf Caroe: A Critical Review of The Pathans A. D. 1957

Abstract

The writing of history consists of multiple perspectives with each perspective having its own role and significance attached to it. Orientalism by Edward Said helped academicians by providing them good enough lens to study more closely the literature produced by western scholars in colonial and post-colonial periods. This paper critically reviews one such orientalist work titled, The Pathans 500 BC- AD 1957 written by Olaf Caroe (1958). In its assessment, the proposed work here analyses Caroe’s scholarship and his subsequent engagement with how the orient objectified and presented Pashtun history, society, and its ethnicity. Similarly, the paper responds to the question of Occident reflection in Olaf Caroe text. Said’s theory of Orientalism thereby is incorporated to serve as the paper’s conceptual framework. Parallel secondary sources have been consulted in order to maintain the reliability of arguments presented

Keywords: Orientalism, Pashtun, Colonial Scholarship, Olaf Caroe