In The Great Khan's Tent Two Year Anniversary Special Episode 1

In the Great Khan’s Tent

Welcome to the 2nd year anniversary of the In The Great Khan’s Tent Podcast!

It has been 2 glorious and wonderful years providing you with educational, informative, and entertaining content on this podcast! I would like to thank all of our listeners, supporters, and well wishers for coming along on this journey with us so far and hope that you will continue to do so as we move forward!

To celebrate our journey so far, I am giving our listeners an opportunity to contribute to this podcast! I have planned three episodes in celebration of our 2nd year anniversary and you could help decide what you want to listen to on our two remaining episodes! So let me know, either through our email, our social media accounts, or leave a comment wherever you listen to let me know what you’d like to hear!

In this episode, much like the episode in our 1st year anniversary, we open a new fount of entertainment, educational, and informative content by stepping foot into South Asian literature beginning with Urdu classical short stories, translated of course into English for a wider audience approach.

“The Thal Desert”, written by an eminent Pakistani Urdu poet and journalist Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi (November 20th 1910 – July 10th 2006), is set during the period of British colonial rule, known as British India, in the region which would eventually become known today as Pakistan.

The story itself is concerned with technological improvements that the colonial British had brought for their own reasons, in this case the Railroad and the Canal System. The clear apprehension that the villagers felt about the railroad is not something that is new or uncommon throughout human history and such reactions can still be found in parts of today’s world especially in areas we would consider “educated” or “secular”. The fear of the new and unknown always plays a part in the human psyche.

As we continue with this story, we learn that the village, as much as they try to adopt to this technological improvement, there is a strong string of hesitation present, even though in some cases, like the construction of the railroad or the canal there were material benefits reaped by the workers who went from this village.

The story itself does not concern the British colonial rule at all; indeed, the only British colonial characters present are unnamed, fleeting, and distant although they are implicitly present throughout the lives of the villagers.

As you listen, consider the question of why these improvements had to be made and what effect did they had in continuing the solidification of colonial rule.

Stay tuned for the next episode as we continue our 2nd year anniversary celebrations!