COLONIALITY AND WESTERN MENTALITY: A STUDY OF CHURCHILL’S THE STORY OF THE MALAKAND FIELD FORCE

Abstract

Winston Churchill’s The Story of the Malakand Field Force written during his campaign in the Malakand region as a military officer and journalist is essential for understanding how language perpetuates colonial ideas and Western attitudes toward the East. Despite extensive postcolonial scholarship, there remains a gap in focused textual analyses of Churchill’s work that explore how his portrayals of the Pashtun tribes reinforce stereotypes about the East and support colonial power dynamics. The research textually examines The Story of the Malakand Field Force to uncover how Churchill’s language reflects colonial attitudes and cultural dominance, using Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism as a framework. Through a qualitative approach involving close reading and purposive sampling, the study analyzes how the text portrays the Pashtun tribes and reinforces stereotypes. The findings show how Churchill’s work contributes to colonial thinking and shapes Western views of the East, adding to the discussion on colonial literature and contemporary understandings of colonialism.