A WAR OF SUREMACY DECIPHERING PEACE AND SECURITY STRATAGEMS IN PAKISTANI AND INDIAN PRIME MINISTERS' DISCOURSES: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Back to Page Authors: Faiz-ur-Rehman Gill

---

Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, Dialectical Perspective, Ideological Stratagems,, Deciphering Covert Power and Ideology

---

Abstract: This rigorous research attempts comparative analysis of the South Asian leaders’ discourses and intends to decipher covert power and ideological stratagems underlying the selected speeches of Pakistani and Indian Prime Ministers--Nawaz Sharif and Narindera Modi. This study examines holistically the relationship between ‘text’ and elements of power and ideology reflected in their political discourses referring to supremacy, peace and security in the region. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) underpins this relation by identifying how is the text “positioned” or “positioning”? Whose interests are served by this positioning? The Faircloughian conjecture is assessed that advocates “ideologies embed in texts” and “texts are open to diverse interpretations” (Fairclough, 1995). The researcher employs Fairclough’s three dimensions model that divulges “orders of discourse are ideologically shaped by power relation in social institutions” and it “helps a good understanding of the existing reality” (Fairclough, 2015 p-51) and proceeds from endoxa (opinion) to praxis (action) to epitomize change in the existing reality. The study critiques the elements of power and ideology employed in discourses that give rise to supremacy, animosities or exercise succor in the awake of united regional responsibilities— maintenance of peace, prosperity and security—in the terrorism-shaken states, India and Pakistan. The linguistics analysis helps further in expounding expletive devices employed in the supremacy oriented political domain as “language persuades, prevails and provokes audience towards speakers’ pre-planned and stage-managed motifs and meanings” (Woods, 2006).

---