HYBRID IDENTITIES AS POLITICAL RESISTANCE: DECONSTRUCTING EAST–WEST DICHOTOMIES

Abstract

Hybrid identities have emerged as a powerful form of political resistance in postcolonial societies, challenging rigid East–West binaries that have historically structured global power relations. Drawing on postcolonial theory, cultural studies, and South Asian intellectual traditions, this article examines hybridity as a dynamic process through which marginalized subjects negotiate, reinterpret, and subvert dominant cultural narratives. Focusing on the Pakistani context, the study argues that hybrid identities do not signify cultural loss or confusion but instead represent strategic forms of agency that contest colonial epistemologies and nationalist essentialism. By deconstructing East–West dichotomies, hybrid subjectivities create alternative spaces of belonging that disrupt hegemonic representations of culture, modernity, and tradition. The article demonstrates how hybridity operates across literature, language, politics, and everyday practices, functioning as both a site of tension and a resource for resistance. Ultimately, the study reframes hybridity as a critical tool for understanding contemporary political struggles in an increasingly interconnected yet unequal world.