FASCINATION WITH INDIA AND DISILLUSIONMENT WITH THE COLONIZER’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS IT: DUKE BOŽIDAR KARAĐORĐEVIĆ AND THE DECONSTRUCTION OF BRITISH IMPERIAL-COLONIALIST DISCOURSE IN THE TRAVELOGUE ENCHANTED INDIA
FASCINATION WITH INDIA AND DISILLUSIONMENT WITH THE COLONIZER’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS IT: DUKE BOŽIDAR KARAĐORĐEVIĆ AND THE DECONSTRUCTION OF BRITISH IMPERIAL-COLONIALIST DISCOURSE IN THE TRAVELOGUE ENCHANTED INDIA

Summary/Abstract: The author interprets the travelogue Enchanted India (1899) by Božidar Karađorđević in the context of his relationship with the colonial system of the British Empire and within the framework of the travel writer’s personal desire to establish a more humane order that the people and culture of India deserve. His efforts should thus be viewed not only in the context of anti-colonial or neo-colonial political positions but also in the context of contemporary ideas of post-colonialism and the possibility of establishing and questioning post-colonialist discourse. Duke Božidar exhibits an uncompromisingly critical attitude towards the colonizers’ attempts to keep the colonized people of India in complete subjugation and slavery. He also condemns with disdain the systemically organized mystifications, cover-ups, and lies that make the cruel colonialist system appear less dramatic than it actually is. He critiques the British colonialist system, performs a sharp deconstruction of colonialist discourse, openly advocates for a discourse of self-understanding, and even anticipates the specificities of post-colonial discourse. Duke Božidar’s position stems from Serbian political culture which has no understanding of attempts to conquer foreign territories and fully adapt them to the interests of the conquerors. Therefore, despite writing in French, Duke Božidar should be considered not only a Francophone but also a Serbian writer. His ties to Serbian culture and the political culture of his people are not limited merely to the question of familial roots and certain sympathies for the people, culture, and spirituality from which he originated: he remained a Serbian writer through his spirit of freedom, uncompromising fight for justice in international relations, and willingness to pay the price for the positions he advocated. Reading his travelogue Enchanted India, we intensely feel that this writer is a contemporary of his readers at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries.

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