Narrating the known and the unknown: Orientalism and mimicry in the travel writings of Sake Dean Mahomet and Mahipatram Rupram Nilkanth

This paper emphasizes upon the ideological function of travel narratives and
scrutinizes the contribution of 19th century Indian travel writing to the colonial
discourse. By analysing and comparing the travel narratives originating from the
writers of the West, a certain discourse can be identified which idealises the
hegemony of the West over the colonial nations. This phenomenon has been studied
in Edward Said’s ‘Orientalism’ in detail which says that such narratives reinforce
Western hegemony over the colonies which help colonisers to further justify their role
in their colonies. Remarkably, in the 19th century, Indian writers such as Mahipatram
Nilkanth and Dean Mahomet in their travel narratives mimicked the writers of the
West and idealize colonisers’ cultures instead of advocating for their own cultures.
For studying this phenomenon, this paper analyses the travel narratives of these
Indian writers from the perspective of Homi Bhabha’s theory of ‘mimicry’, Edward
Said’s theory of ‘orientalism’ and Mary Louis Pratt’s theory of ‘contact zones’ and
attempts to draw out conclusions have been made.