Revisiting Exile: A Case of Waziristan

This paper aims to analyse Cheegha: The Call from Waziristan, The Last Outpost by Ghulam Qadir with reference to the continuous war in Waziristan. Waziristan has been at the centre of the conflict since the arrival of the Russian invasion and then after the incident of 9/11. The USA launched drone strikes after the 9/11 incident to seek out the terrorists who are thought to have found a safe haven in Pakistan. The constant bombardment of drones has destroyed the customs and traditional folkways. This cultural genocide generated feelings of homelessness and alienation in the people of Waziristan which made them exiled to their land. The notion of exile has already been discussed in relation to the experience of migration or expulsion from the homeland. However, this paper appropriates the concept of exile to include the category of those people who have become exilic from within. It seeks to analyse the effects of continuous war via the projection of displaced feelings of the people of Waziristan. By integrating the theoretical perspective on exile developed by Avatar Brah, Bill Ashcroft, William Safran, Paul Gilroy, and Edward Said, and cultural genocide as theorised by Raphael Lemkin, Elisa Novice, and Lawrence Davidson, I attempt to highlight that the exiled are not necessarily migrants from another country but rather it is possible to be exiled within the boundaries of their homeland due to the loss of culture, folkways, and traditions. Key Terms: exile, Waziristan, cultural genocide, homeland.