VERBALIZATION OF CONCEPT OF “MOTHERLAND” IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article provides an overview of the verbalization of the concept of "Motherland" in the English language. The scope of this write-up is limited to the discussion on the perception and projection of "Motherland" for diasporas, with a special focus on the Pakistani diaspora settled in England. This has been done in several ways. Firstly, a content analysis of letters to the editor in the Pakistani press regarding Pakistan from 1997 to 2002 was undertaken. The lead author has written several papers on Pakistan and arranged by the British Council and other agencies. In these papers, there is sometimes mention of not only the content of the papers themselves but also the delegate's experience of interacting with the British agents and how they seemed to perceive the message being conveyed. This anecdotal evidence was used to frame perceptions of Pakistan in a European context. This provided the basis for the author's accumulation of experiences in "selling" Pakistan to an educated upper-middle-class bracket in European settings. These anecdotal experiences were then contrasted with the lead author's personal experiences in Pakistan. Drawing from classic grounded theory methodology, a comparison of these interactions served to highlight the range of experiences between Europe and Pakistan along several dimensions. Finally, the papers on Pakistan were reviewed in light of the perceptual contrasts and specific instances recounted. This served to better articulate the perceptual findings. The second method involved interviewing and participant observation with highly educated Pakistanis living abroad in a western country and Pakistanis living in Pakistan who have interacted with those living in Europe.