“A Poor Haji in Search of the Picturesque”or an Imperial Scribe: Fanny Parks’ Wanderings of a Pilgrim

Abstract

Through a close reading of Fanny Parks’ Wanderings of a Pilgrim, this paper seeks to expose the imperialist underpinnings of her travel journal, purportedly presenting an objective picture of India. To achieve this end, the main focus will be on an exploration of the rhetorical strategies and Orientalist tropes deployed by the author to script the Indian milieu in need of British benign tutelage. Unearthing the colonial ideology and Othering strategies informing this travel narrative not only casts doubt on the author’s claim of experiential authority stemming from eye-witness accounts, but unravels the text’s subtle endorsement of the British colonial presence and intervention in India.

Key words: Orientalist Tropes; Representation; Othering; Travel Writing; Fanny Parks; Zenana