Ambivalence in Paul Scott’s The Jewel in the Crown: A Postcolonial Interpretation

Abstract

Upon the close and thorough inspection of Paul Scott’s The Jewel in the Crown(1966),it is revealed that the postcolonial scholarship does not merely include the study of the colonized countries after its independence.It makes the sober interpretation of the impact of the colonialism on the native life from the very beginning of the colonial enterprise. The paper affirms the colonial relationship between the colonized and the colonizer to be in continuous fluctuation as they are never in complete opposition.This ambivalence has invoked various notions of the critics. It, for some, de-centers the authority of the colonialist in the long run whereas its impact is still debatable for many postcolonial thinkers. Colonialism begets nationalism which promises the emancipation of the majority of natives but ends in frustrating eliticism rooted in Western Universalism. This campaign of the representation of the national consciousness in the native literature is still incomplete. Therefore, to ensure the true independence of the colonies of Europe, the postcolonial critics and writers must attempt to retrieve the subaltern consciousness and identity in their work.As soon as this proletariats’ contribution gets prominence in the nationalist literature instead of native elites who very strategically align with the colonialist, the recovery of the missing nationalist spirit starts and hence the real nationalism.