Breaking the Western Lens: Decolonial Imagination in Pankaj Mishra’s Run and Hide

Abstract

This paper reads Pankaj Mishra’s latest novel, Run and Hide (2022), as a decolonial novel that critiques Western modernity through the nourishment of life visions, which is negated by the ‘modern/colonial’ world order in post-liberalization India. The paper employs a decolonial theoretical framework to unravel the decolonial “praxis” of Mishra’s protagonist, Arun, as he embarks on his life journey but is profoundly nostalgic about his spiritual and cultural roots. He seeks to reclaim the “life visions” that coloniality has sought to negate, suggesting that decoloniality is not merely a theoretical framework but an active engagement with alternative ways of being and knowing. Arun’s life choices embody the rejection of the modernity that has been imposed upon him, particularly as he chooses to leave his ‘modern’ life in London and return to his roots in India. Situated within a nuanced critique of colonial legacies and global modernity, Mishra’s novel foregrounds the lived experiences of non-Western subjects as they navigate a fractured modern existence. Arun’s decolonial “practice and praxis” interrogates the imposition of Western rationality, secularism, and relentless economic progress upon societies marked by deep-rooted traditions and communal frameworks, situating Mishra’s novel within a broader critique of how modernity’s secular salvation myths mask enduring structures of psychic violence and self-estrangement. Ultimately, Run and Hide gestures towards the possibility of a decolonial “otherwise”: an alternative space where relationality, selfhood, and intimacy remain unscripted by the seductive but hollow promises of consumer capitalism.