Watchers of the Wall: Surveillance, Police Control, Oppression, and Resistance in Gilani’s The Lost Children of Paradise

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17923975

Abstract

This research employs Louis Althusser’s theory of state apparatuses and Michel Foucault’s theory of power and resistance as a theoretical framework to analyze the themes of power, surveillance, control, and resistance in Omar Gilani’s novel The Lost Children of Paradise. Althusser’s theory proposes that the ruling class, or those in authority, maintain control by disseminating ideologies that serve their interests through Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) and by exercising power through physical force via Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs). Although different in nature, these apparatuses operate together to reinforce state power and perpetuate dominant ideologies. Foucault’s theory of power and resistance further asserts that wherever power is exercised, forms of resistance inevitably emerge. This study employs qualitative and thematic methods of analysis to examine representations of power, oppression, and resistance within the selected text. The research aims to explore the role of the police and government as “watchers of the wall,” focusing on how they generate fear among civilians. It also examines how resistance emerges first at the individual level and later through collective action against state oppression and police control. Additionally, the study highlights the use of media and advanced technology by state forces and perpetrators to shape public narratives surrounding the lost children in the novel. It investigates the roles of key protagonists, Adil Khan and Officer Nawaz, in challenging the authority of police headquarters, and analyzes how the government, police, and criminal figures such as Gullu Shah and Adam maintain power over the citizens of the capital. The significance of the research lies in foregrounding how, despite the novel’s futuristic setting, similar apparatuses of power and comparable acts of resistance can be observed in contemporary Pakistan.

Keywords: surveillance, power, control, resistance, ideology, violence, oppression