Critical Discourse Analysis of the Representation of Christians in Urdu Novel

This study explores the changing relationship of communities in Colonial and Post-colonial Urdu Literature. It attempts to map out the communal space in the symbolic world of literature given to the Christians over a century by Urdu fiction writers. In colonial India, the missionary activities especially for female education evoked different responses among Urdu writers. It is interesting to note that female novelists are more accommodating and they presented a positive picture of female Christian characters as compared to the male writers who used female body, social and reformative activities and modern living styles of the Christian females for pleasure. But ironically sometimes presented them as iconic characters of social change. After independence the social position of Christians went through a major change in different parts of the subcontinent. The social space in the ideological Muslim state was very different and somewhat deteriorating for the Christians. Their representation also incorporated these changes. The characters chosen in fiction had a different social background now. This study will help us in understanding the broader communal representation of Christians by digging into the linguistic and intertextual strategies adopted by the Urdu fiction writers