Pashtun Ethnic Chauvinism in Lillias Hamilton’s A Vizier’s Daughter: A Tale of the Hazara War

Abstract

A Vizier’s Daughter: A Tale of the Hazara War, a Victorian novel, set in the multiethnic state of Afghanistan, depicts ethnic chauvinism between the Pashtun and Hazara in the 1890s. The Pashtuns, the largest Sunni plurality, founded and consolidated Afghanistan, while, the Hazaras, a Shia minority, are considered migrants. Gul Begum, the Protagonist, including her people are suppressed and oppressed. Gul Begum is sold as servant from one Pashtun to another. The Pashtun ethnic chauvinistic perception is evident in the textual treatment of the novel. Retaining the fundamental precepts of Edward Said's Orientalism, this article employs the lens of internal orientalism. Qualitative method is used to analyze the ethnic chauvinism.  It is found that the Pashtun characters consider the Hazaras as inferior, subordinate, and migrants, though, the Hazaras reflect themselves free of all subordination and inferiority. Gul Begum suffers a lot due to the chauvinistic treatment by the Pashtun characters, considering her as sub-citizens. The article concludes that the ethnic-chauvinistic perception by the Pashtun towards the Hazara in the novel is manifested through, enslavement, suppression, and oppression.