Decolonizing Methodologies (Hashim Ali)

Linda Tuhiwai Smith talks at length about the struggles of “native” intellectuals working in the Western academy.  She highlights their suspicious role in the academy particularly their lack of objectivity as perceived by white scholars. As a Pakistani graduate student intending to specialize in the cultural history of post-colonial Pakistan, I found Smith’s analysis very useful. Utilizing Smith’s indigenous optic, I asked the following questions: how has gender and sexuality in post-colonial Pakistan been conceptualized and represented in the Western academy? How has the work of Pakistani scholars been received in the last sixty years? The only limitation of this optic might be the lack of Pakistani scholars in the post-colonial context. In Smith’s view, writing in native language of the former colonies should be considered an anti-imperialist struggle. Regardless of their Western education and training, Smith is very optimistic about the role that native intellectuals can play as social researchers and critics as they have connection with their native families and cultures. She focuses on the role of native intellectuals in order to critique the notion of “cultural archive” which entails the hierarchies of knowledge systems in the West in which research methodology by native researchers is undervalued. My only concern with her position entails the assumptions and biases of native scholars; Smith might be too optimistic of academic rigor that native intellectuals would bring to their respective disciplines.