Dynamics of Counter-Hegemony against Ethno-Cultural Coercion in Atia Abawi’s The Secret Sky

Author(s) : Farkhanda Shahid Khan

Abstract:

This research is a contribution to a growing critical debate on the ethnocultural contest, and exercise of hegemonic coercive powers to constitute class stratification and marginalization of the weak. Since hegemony is the dominant class’s manipulation of social standards, principles, and perceptions, even then, it is not governmental control, but rather, domination over the ruled by their consent incorporated in them through “false consciousness”. The Secret Sky (2014) demonstrates cultural clashes in a community of diverse ethnicity – Pashtun and Hazara, where one dominant tribe through its hegemonic ideology imposes its values upon the others, thus suppressing and marginalizing their culture/s. The paper’s objective is to highlight the transformative efforts of the others, who resist, and undo the conservative power structures by constructing the Counter-Hegemonic Project and renewing the culture to save society from stagnation. This qualitative research uses Marx’s idea of class stratification, and social division into the bourgeois and proletariat, with Gramsci’s notion of Cultural Hegemony, and the Counter-Hegemonic Project, as a lens for textual analysis. The research concludes that conservative hegemonic power acts as a fence against intercultural mixing to leave society monolithic and oppressive, while, resistance under the actual dynamics of intellectuals brings evolution and moral leadership.
Key Words: Hegemony, Culture, Counter Hegemonic Project, Bourgeoisie, Proletariat