Mimicry and Inferiority of Postcolonial Societies in V.S.Naipaul’s A Flag on the Island

Abstract

Abstract

The main focus of Naipaul’s writings has been on the human consequences of colonialism, which has been the novelist’s major preoccupation in his writings. The colonial experience, replete with the pain, distress and anguish has been bitter one for the colonized. It was during colonial rule in the West Indies that the darkest crimes against humanity ? genocide and slavery ? were heaped on hopeless victims. Colonialism was not confined to economic aspects but it affected every aspect of the lives of the colonized through the subtle process of cultural colonization. And this was done in a sustained and systematic manner. The education provided in the colonies and the myths spread by the colonizers fashioned the mindset of the colonized in such a way that they came to believe about their inferiority and accept the superiority of the colonizers. With the result they were drawn towards the colonizing culture and gradually out of their own cultural traditions. This paper is an attempt to highlight the mindset of the colonizers through the study of V.S. Naipaul’s A Flag on the Island.