Cultural Clash: A Postcolonial

Analysis of Tariq Rahman’s Charity

Aziz Ahmad
Tariq Khan

ABSTRACT

The present position paper explores to examine cultural

clash in Tariq Rahman’s short story “Charity” taken from
“The Legacy and Other Short Stories” (1989). Cultural
confrontation is one of the essential features of postcolonial
discourse that surfaces when two or more cultures happen
to live together. In a post-colonial environment, the clash
emerges when the social elites and upstarts impose their
appropriated exotic values on the impoverished indigenous
natives. That further aggravates the relationship between the
cultures and seeps down to the upcoming generations when
it goes without timely negotiation and reconciliation. That
intergenerational conflict causes irreparable damage to the
cultural roots and historical moorings of the participating
cultures. The storyline of the “Charity” resonates the
encounters between the East (Pakistani indigenous culture)
and West (Western-styled Pakistani elite culture) in the
sprawling street of Raja Bazaar, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. While
analysing the cultural clash and conflict, the paper employs
postcolonial theory as a conceptual framework and a reader-

 (Ph. D. Scholar), Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of

Malakand. E-mail: azizuom@yahoo.com
 Asssiatnt Professor, Department of English, University of Malakand.
Corresponding E-mail: tariqkhan1975@gmail.com
44 Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, Vol. XL, No. 2, 2019

response technique as a methodological tool. It is inferred

from the analysis of the text that socio-cultural fusion and
mutual coexistence are imminent, that ultimately leads to the
cultural collision in the post-colonial society. Though the plot
of the story had a promising start; however, the fluctuating
events led to the secession of the two converging cultures—
the dominant and the dominated—in the Pakistani post-
colonial setting and scenario.
Introduction
This study explores to examine cultural clash in Tariq
Rahman’s short story Charity taken from The Legacy and
Other Short Stories.1 The storyline consists of three principal
characters, Rabab, Bobby and a clerk, who represent two
different and diverse cultural segments. Those are the
western-styled elite culture of Pakistan juxtaposed with
Pakistani indigenous culture. Although, the study under
reference portrays various interpretations and renditions,
most notable of which are: socio-cultural issues Pakistanis
confront; the theme and motif of charity; and the cultural
hybridity. However, the present research converges on the
issue of cultural clash and conflict in the backdrop of
postcolonial discourse. The leading characters of Rabab and
Bobby identify themselves as a westernised Pakistani elites
because of their family upbringing and academic education
in the West. They are excited to see and explore ‘Pakistan’;
thus they, at first place, visit Raja bazaar (Rawalpindi’s
famous old street). The locale is a nexus of the Western and
Eastern cultures where the two encounter each other.
The existing research carries out the study of cultural clash
in the Charity through a postcolonial perspective by
employing a reader-response approach.

1 Tariq Rehman, The Legacy and Other Short Stories (New Delhi,
Commonwealth Publishers, 1989).
Cultural Clash: A Postcolonial Analysis 45

Research Question
 How and why the Westernised Pakistani elite culture
conflicts with the Pakistani indigenous culture in a post-
colonial milieu?
Theoretical Framework and Methodology
The term “postcolonialism” can generally be understood as
the multiple political, economic, cultural and philosophical
responses to colonialism from its inauguration to the present
day, and somewhat broad and sprawling in its scope”.2 The
postcolonial (critical and literary) texts probe to highlight the
nexus of the dominant and the dominated cultures; thus,
spotlighting the hegemonic ideology of the empowered class
and the socio-cultural rejoinder of the alleged “others”. The
class discrepancy and the associated characteristics with it
are reminiscent of the lingering colonial legacy even after the
departure of the colonial masters. That, subsequently, leads
to cultural collision and conflict between the said segments
of the postcolonial society. Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin
employ the term “post-colonial”, stating that all cultures are
influenced and shaped by the colonial apparatus and
process from the “moment of colonization to the present
day”.3 Postcolonialism marks the close of colonial regimes
(mostly) during the first half of the twentieth century,
resulting in giving away political and economic freedom to
the indigenous people. That, too, is the outcome of the
freedom movements prompted by the indigenous leaders to
emancipate the marginalised locals. Resultantly,
Postcolonial writings (as a discourse) emerges to rebut the
colonial monopoly, their henchmen in the guise of national
leaders and, consequently becomes the “voice” of the
impoverished subalterns. The latter (along with their cultural,
socioeconomic and geopolitical issues) has been central to
the postcolonial writings. Notable contributors to the

2 Jane Hiddlestone, Understanding Postcolonialism (Hoboken: Taylor and

Francis, 2014), 1.
3 Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back
(London: Routledge, 1989), 2.
46 Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, Vol. XL, No. 2, 2019

postcolonial discourse are Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon,

Ngugi Wa Thiango, Edward W. Said, Bill Ashcroft et al.,
Gayatri Spivak, Homi K. Bhabha, Aizaz Ahmad, to name a
few.
Postcolonialism/postcoloniality focuses on the holistic effects
of colonial residue on the indigenous cultures and societies
at large. The term, as initially used by historians after World
War II, such as ‘post-colonial state’, whereby ‘post-colonial’
has a chronological meaning and message, designating the
post-independence period. Nonetheless, from the late
1970s, the term has been employed by literary critics to
reflect on and discuss the various socio-cultural impacts of
colonisation. Although, the postcolonial discourse (as an
academic and research discipline) representing the
colonised surfaced in the late 1970s with the text such as
Said’s “Orientalism”, and led to the development of what
came to be called as “Colonialist Discourse Theory” in the
writings of Spivak and Bhabha. The term ‘post-colonial’ does
not explicitly appear in those pioneering texts to discuss the
power dynamics and hegemonic pursuits of colonialist
discourse to project the policy management in the “centre”
and the “peripheries”. According to Bressler, postcolonialism
“is an approach to literary analysis that concerns itself,
particularly with literature written in English in formerly
colonized countries”.4 It omits literature that embodies either
Britishers’ or American standpoints, instead converges on
writings from colonised cultures in Africa, South America,
Australia, New Zealand, and other societies that were ruled
by socio-cultural, political and philosophical doctrines of
Europe. Though there is a little agreement apropos the
proper substance, relevance and significance of postcolonial
discourse, as a critical creed, instead it has achieved a
number of renditions over a passage of time. Unlike
“deconstruction” and other recent theories and approaches
to textual/literary analyses, postcolonialism is an academic
discipline of which even its spelling imparts multiple

4 Ashcroft, Griffiths, Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back, 1.

Cultural Clash: A Postcolonial Analysis 47

substitutes, morphologically and pragmatically. The critics

are not concordant to whether the term should be used
hyphenated or not; that is, ‘post-colonial’ and ‘postcolonial’
have distinct connotations. The hyphenated ‘post-
colonialism’ indicates a chronological phase as is implied by
phrases like ‘after colonialism’, ‘after independence’, ‘after
the end of empire’ whereas, the term ‘postcolonialism’ refers
to the contours of society from the time of the colonisation to
date. As a historical period, post-colonialism stands for the
decolonising phase after World War II. Apparently, the
colonised seem to have achieved geopolitical independence,
yet the colonial remnants remain intact with nascent nation-
states. To Ashcroft, Griffith and Tiffin, “the semantic basis of
the term ‘post-colonialism’ might seem to suggest a concern
only with the national culture after the departure of the
imperial power”.5 Thus the independence is a matter of time
alone and does not concur characteristically with the spirit of
independence. In contrast, Mukherjee extrapolates:
Post-colonialism is not merely a chronological label referring to the
period after the demise of empires. It is ideologically an
emancipatory concept particularly for the students of literature
outside the Western world, because it makes us interrogate many
concepts of the study of literature that we were made to take for
granted, enabling us not only to read our own texts in our own
terms, but also to re-interpret some of the old canonical texts from
Europe from the perspective of our specific historical and
geographical location.5

Hence, post-colonialism/postcolonialism is evocative and

representative of the tyrannical traits of the colonialists and
the suppressed voices of the colonised in all walks of human
observations, interests and experiences. Either the latter or
both are necessarily focal to the postcolonial discourse.
The existing research pursues a qualitative approach to
investigate and examine Tariq Rahman’s short story, the
“Charity”. Methodologically, a Reader’s Response Technique
is employed to analyse the clash of two cultures, that is,

5 Meenakshi Mukherjee, The Perishable Empire: Essays on Indian Writing in

English (New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2010), 3-4.
48 Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, Vol. XL, No. 2, 2019

represented by the elite social class who identifies

themselves with Western lifestyle and, on the other hand, is
the local community of Pakistani people epitomised in the
character of a clerk. The paper studies the root cause(s) of
the two participating, yet opposing cultures.
Cultural Clash: A Postcolonial Feature
Cultural clash arises as a result of the interaction between
the contending cultures at a liminal space. The polemical
scenario is caused by the differences in social norms and
cultural mores in a specific spatio-temporal context. That
happens because of not correctly discerning each other’s
belief system, lifestyle, values and world views, that at times
leads to the worst confounded situation. In order to coexist
peacefully, they have to figure out commonalities between
them and to demonstrate tolerance and forbearance towards
each other. Or else, cultural collision is imminent and
unavoidable that further widens the gap between cultures. In
the current vein, Rogers and Steinfatt elucidate the import
and implication of cultural clash as “the conflict that occurs
between two or more cultures when they disagree about a
certain value”.6 In a community of settled immigrants, there
is a likelihood of cultural encounter, because the immigrant
already settled rarely allows the new entrants. Such cultural
skirmish leads to an intergenerational confrontation that in
effect, engages all the members of the divergent cultures.
That cultural scuffle aggravates between parents and their
offsprings when the latter does not meet the goals the former
have set for them.7 In such a case, the offsprings are taken
as defiantly disobedient because they express themselves
explicitly regardless of cultural mores and social norms.
Rogers and Steinfatt comment that cultural confrontation
escalates when continued for an extended period without
mediation or reconciliation, and causes severe damage to

6 Everett M Rogers and Thomas M Steinfatt, Intercultural Communication

(Enskede : TPB, 2004), 96.
7 Guoqi Xu, Strangers on the Western Front: Chinese Workers in the Great War
(Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2011).
Cultural Clash: A Postcolonial Analysis 49

the cultural coexistence.8 It is desirable, in a multicultural

context, to negotiate issues of mutual concern and come up
with a viable solution that serves the interests of all the
participating cultures.
Discussion and Analysis
The storyline sets out with an introduction of the two
principal characters, Bobby and Rabab. Being a narrator of
the story, Bobby presents himself and Rabab as
“Westernized elite of Pakistan”.9 Rabab’s father had been a
diplomatic emissary in Europe wherein he had academic
access to the Rugby, Harrow and Switzerland.
Rabab is anxious to see ‘Pakistan’ as she believes that the
real Pakistan is different from the sophisticated urban life
they live in. Nonetheless, the motive behind seeing
‘Pakistan’ is not to carefully observe its people and their
social issues but for recreation alone. As far her physical
appearance is concerned, Rabab has a “shapely body” and
is dressed in “hip-hugging jeans”, that is typical of the
western lifestyle; not knowing the sparse conditions of
people around who put on frayed clothes and live in an
austere environment.10 At the same time, she is insensitive,
too, about the underprivileged Pakistanis whom she would
encounter.
That is where the initial cultural collision takes place between
the two divergent cultures. Bobby describes them as ‘alien’
because of having never interacted with ordinary Pakistanis.
Even boarding a public bus that is bound for Raja bazaar,
Rawalpindi, is difficult for them as they had not experienced
travelling in such overcrowded transport. Mostly, it is
“students, workmen and women in the veil and old men” who
get to travel on such public transportation—that makes these
laymen “tired, angry and frustrated”.11 For Bobby and Rabab,

8 Rogers and Steinfatt, Intercultural Communication.

9 Tariq Rehman, Charity (New Delhi, Commonwealth Publishers, 1989), 20
10 Rehman, Charity, 20
11 Rehman, Charity, 21
50 Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, Vol. XL, No. 2, 2019

the very first encounter with locals is disparaging and repels

their curiosity to travel in such bizarre public transport where
people were pushing each other hard to accommodate
themselves in a packed bus. Experiencing that widens the
gap between the social elites and the populace, and creates
tediousness in mutual relationship. Another dissatisfying
scene is observed when they see segregated portions for
ladies and gents inside the bus that reminds them of the
gender-biased Pakistani society.
They, too, were troubled by the “unpleasant odour of human
perspiration and stale vegetables”, though such experiences
were shared in public places.12 Panels of the buses were
damaged, and at every bus stop, the “struggling brown
bodies” were conspicuously seen assaulting the passengers
already sitting inside.13 The schoolboys and schoolgirls were
gazing at the two with a wish to put on dresses they had
worn; even the girls were more keen to be “dressed like
Rabab”.14 The “struggling humanity” were looked down upon
by their fellow-beings and were abused verbally for their
misconduct at the public spaces.15 A ‘burqa’ clad woman
could not forego the commotion, desperately seeing the
spectacle, at which her husband battered her. Rabab
noticeably observes her large visible eyes, and she could not
get to know the reason of her face hiding. Thereby, the
public bus became a cultural hub symbolising the
behavioural pattern and lifestyle of the commoners and the
elite gentry as enthusiastic onlookers.
In Rawalpindi, they happened to see trailing tongas and
Japan made motorcars, to which Bobby retorted that the
cars “rushed arrogantly past the jogging tongas”.16 Bobby
reacted that “the twentieth century collided with the

12 Rehman, Charity, 21
13 Rehman, Charity, 21
14 Rehman, Charity, 21
15 Rehman, Charity, 22
16 Rehman, Charity, 22
Cultural Clash: A Postcolonial Analysis 51

medieval”.17 The remarks are pungently biting, and the

comparison is deridingly jeering; however, that is the
impression they get from the overall spectacle. The
discussion furthers between the two about the deplorable
state of the peasants and their living conditions. The analysis
portrays the class differences that, in effect, leads to a clash
between the contending cultures.Seeing beggars on the
bustling streets, the two started discussing the reasons
causing beggary. Rabab reveals herself to be uncharitable
and is of the view that “one must give for love. Charity is
given to those we pity, we despise or hate”.18 That, too,
reflects her aversion for the downtrodden and oppressed
class, which presumably aggravates the cultural clash
between the classes under reference. Derogation of the poor
and the reasons behind dismal poverty are the subjects
being discussed by the high-ups, not necessarily for solving
the issue but to claim their inherent right of being privileged.
Thus, the sanity is that the poor get more miserable in
comparison to the rich who get more affluent in a class-
oriented society, like Pakistan. The dominated has to work
hard as a ‘horse in a mil’ and is beset by the stringent
dominant class. Hence it is financial misappropriation in a
class-led environment, that in turn creates a gap between
cultures.
Bobby, as educated in the West, finds places in Pakistan
different while describing the restaurant as ‘dirty’, ‘dingy’,
and home to ‘vulgar poverty’.19 The people sitting there were
dubbed as “coarse brown faces’ who were staring at them
with ‘unbelievable eyes’ and got humiliated at their arrival in
there.20 That scene ostensibly portrays a cultural cleavage
between them and the ‘NATIVES’. Amid the commotion of
the people, Bobby expresses that “the word burnt my mind,
scorched my lips, [and] expressed itself in the contempt in

17 Rehman, Charity, 22
18 Rehman, Charity, 23
19 Rehman, Charity, 24
20 Rehman, Charity, 24
52 Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, Vol. XL, No. 2, 2019

my eyes”.21 Inside his mind, he feels an exclamation that

“these are my own people!”.22 They were gazing
‘unabashedly’ which made the two ‘restless’.23
In the meantime, Rabab happens to see the clerk, who is
described as “reedy” man wearing ‘shabby clothes’ and
having an ‘absurd look on his face’.24 He represents the
indigenous community, who is staring at Rabab as “his eyes
were full of naked longing as he devoured every inch of
Rabab’s voluptuous body. When his eyes met mine, he
pretended to look down. But oh, how brazen he was. As
soon as I looked away he started leering at Rabab, his
mouth drooling I bet”.25 Since extended segregation between
men and women turns the colonised society to be morally
abnormal; thus, it is considered to be usual to look intently at
women. That is said to be wanton by the elite group, and the
colonised are arguably inclined to sensuousness.In turn, the
association of baseness with and tagging the
underprivileged class to lasciviousness malign them
characteristically, whereas on the other hand labelling the
elites as ethically blameless.
Realising the clerk’s desire, Rabab approached to him and
agreed to spend some time with him at the cost of ‘hundred
chips’; not knowing his sensuous intentions. On their way to
his apartment, Bobby describes the roads as ‘crowded’.
we entered a slum where the sun could never have peeped even
once in a day. The air seemed to be petrified and stagnant. Then
we walked in narrow Street with lanes on both sides and gutters
running along. A mass of impoverished humanity seemed jailed
within those towering walls. Up above, the sky seemed dark and
remote and indifferent. Even God seemed to be far from these
wretched members of the globe. And the gutters stank and the
wives shouted with shrill in and bitter voices at numerous children.

21 Rehman, Charity, 24
22 Rehman, Charity, 24
23 Rehman, Charity, 24
24 Rehman, Charity, 24
25 Rehman, Charity, 24
Cultural Clash: A Postcolonial Analysis 53

And the children fought and cried and mongrels barked at each
other. It was the very house of squalor. It was the heart of
wretchedness. 26

The above quote explicitly describes the overpopulated

slums,their nasty inhabitants, along with the filth scatted
around. The ranting mothers, their quarrelling children, the
overspilling gutters and the foul smell that filled the smoggy
air of the slum typified the appaling condition of the
inhabitants. Noticeably, the slum had never seen a ray of
sunlight even once in years. Bobby and Rabab were cynical
of the locale and had disgusting feelings about the residents,
which she expresses as nasty and ‘filthy’.To great dismay,
the room of the clerk is called as a ‘dark little hole’, where he
dreamt of pretty girls while sleeping on the tainted pillow and
yellow-stained bedsheets.27 The room smelled of stale
vegetables. The abominable state of the slum is indicative of
the living conditions of the repressed class of society. Bobby
and Rabab as representative of the elite group abhorred the
entire community living therein.
Rabab takes out the sum of one hundred rupees, lights up
the expensive cigarette with burning hard cash given by the
clerk. Furthermore, she hurls the two crispy notes of a
hundred rupees on clerk’s face, saying that she is the
daughter of a minister and could instantly buy him and his
entire family. Such an abject humiliation causes a
deeprooted revulsion for Rabab and elitism (her class
belongs to) by and large. The class difference manist in such
happening paves the way for a despicable collision between
the high and low, the dominant and dominated.
Of her hip-hugging jeans in the clerk’s community is deemed
to be immoral; thus, she was taken as ‘prostitute’ and
promiscuous—the usual perception of the commoners about
the elites.28 The clerk, too, objects to the unseemly yet

26 Rehman, Charity, 24
27 Rehman, Charity, 24
28 Rehman, Charity, 25
54 Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, Vol. XL, No. 2, 2019

enticing dress of the Rabab. Later that night, after getting

back to their bungalow, Bobby saw her coming back in her
car from the clerk’s apartment. On inquiry, she told him of
her visiting the clerk’s apartment and spending some time
with him. However, her ‘dishevelled’ hair and the crestfallen
shirt was the telling tale of her visiting the clerk that night.29
That reveals the intention of her nocturnal visitation as to
quench the clerk’s covetousness for her.
Conclusion
Eventually, it is concluded from the foregoing discourse that
how two divergent cultures collide and creates an
environment of animosity. The Pakistani social elites (Robby
and Rabab) characterising the Western values system
juxtaposed to Pakistani indigenous community (represented
by the clerk) are at daggers drawn to each other. First,
commingling (promisingly) and then seceding (despicably)
from each other are typical to the relationships of the
coloniser and the colonised. Since the encounter is bitter
and the rapport is stark, therefore, the relationship is never
longlasting between the opposing cultural norms and social
mores. Now and then, during the development of the
storyline, the characters liaise for peaceful co-existence, but
all in vain because of the potential differences between the
said cultures. In a nutshell, the cultural collision is
impending, and the conflict is imminent; that is why it seems
a far cry to bridge up the disparity established over a
passage of time.

29 Rehman, Charity, 25