Abstract

The current research explores the concept of survivance in The Heirs of Columbus by Vizenor (1991) and in Shadows of Pomegranate Tree (2014) by Ali. The selected novels were analyzed through the qualitative content analysis technique under the concepts of the theoretical framework of anarchism. The analysis shows that the Moors in The Shadows of Pomegranate Tree and the Red Indians in The Heirs of Columbus have always survived through anarchist survivance (survival through resistance) when they were expropriated of their lands, properties and culture by the Euro-American colonizers. The analysis shows that Moors and Red Indians in the late fifteen century as depicted in the novel had survived through resistance for securing their unique civilizations against foreign oppression. The dispossession of their properties was openly resisted in spite of the acceptance of other types of dispossessions. The protagonists Zuhayr-al-fahl and Stone Columbus at the end of both novels symbolize the concept of survivance as a tactic through continued struggle against colonial encroachment. It was concluded that the cruelties of the colonizers were resisted by the colonized people with an anarchist concept and spirit of survivance.

Key Words

Survival, Resistance, Moors, Red Indians, Anarchism

Introduction

The current study explores the concept of survivance in The Heirs of Columbus by Vizenor (1994) and in Shadows of Pomegranate Tree (2014) by Ali. The selected novels were analyzed through the qualitative content analysis technique under the concepts of the theoretical framework of anarchism. Vizenor (2008) "is most often credited with expanding the concept of survivance" (Close, 2010; Stanton, 2020, p.01). Survivance is "an active sense of presence over historical absence, deracination and oblivion" (Vizenor, 2009, p.1) survivance the crossbreed term is named after the "last wild Indian" survivor Ishi (the last known Native American Survivor of Yahi tribe). The rest of Ishi's family was killed in the California Genocide in the 19th century (Heizer, Heizer & Kroeber, 1979). ‘Ishi’ stands for all Indian tribes, literally meaning ‘one of the people’ (Vizenor, 1992, p. 226) and being a representation of Survivance. Survivance is a combination of two words "Survival and Resistance" (Stanton, 2020, p.01). "Survivance, thus, renders survival as a continuous process- it is dedicated not to how one survived but how one is surviving" (Wieskamp & Smith, 2020, p.11). Survivance also refers to the continuous struggle of Indigenous communities "which combines survival, endurance, and resistance to assert Native presence over historical absence and perceived oblivion, creates a space in which communities are disproportionately affected by violence can simultaneously practice collective coping methods while also challenging dominant discourses" (Wieskamo & Smith, 2020). It also means to think, re-imagine and act on behalf of Indigenous Communities (Sabzalian, 2019). It is a concept of survival and resistance to future-oriented survival of Indigenous communities both oppressed and dispossessed classes are in their resistance against the colonizers. 

The strategies for survivance can be learned from Anarchists and both survival and resistance can be found in Anarchism. Anarchism as a theory and ideology believes that order can be brought to the world only if power and authority whether in abstract or concrete form is to are abolished completely through revolutionary reactions which are believed to make the world a better place to live in by focusing on "the politics of refusal" (Pickerill, 2017). Anarchism as a socio-economic and political philosophy rejects all hegemonic hierarchies. The ideas of Anarchism are achieved through social movements both violent and non-violent depending on the situation (Marshall, 2010; Williams, 2018). "The aim and desire of Anarchism are to create a peaceful society, citizenship, collective identity, and collective politics by challenging hegemonic laws and norms through resistance" (Pickerill, 2017, pp. 3) by demanding individual freedom from hierarchical societal oppression exerted by monarchs, rulers, dictators, plutocrats, capitalists and industrialists (Pickerill, 2017; Williams, 2018). When the voices of the voiceless are not heard, they would have to act for themselves by using an iron fist against the political ironmen (Spivak & Riach, 2016). There has been conclusive evidence that Muslims and Indians have always survived violence. They have invented new strategies to survive the culture of death (Colonization).




Purpose of the Study 

Colonial power has always been resisted through different strategies by the colonized ones. There are many scholars who believe that the colonial process is still going on leaving cultural hybridity, ambivalence and cultural and linguistic space by setting stereotypes of the colonizers. The various themes of political violence, social and moral depravation, economic exploitation of Muslim properties, lands and forced conversions by the power structure in both novels have been compared (Awan & Fatima, 2019, p.76). The study analyzed the Survivance of Zuhayr Alfahal in The Pomegranate Tree by explaining that survivance can save the exploitation of the colonized people. The protagonist deployed various strategies of survivance. Similarly, Columbus too uses the same strategies in the Heirs of Columbus. The analysis was done in light of Vizenor's concept of Survivance (2008). This research has put forward the issue of the ongoing process of Survivance on behalf of the colonized people under anarchists' principles. The current study has endeavoured to offer remedial measures via Survivance and anarchist principles against the colonizers. The research has explored the economic, political, social, cultural and religious themes of exploitation, expropriation and dispossession through the lens of survivance. The standpoints of the colonized people as a response to the colonizers' violent strategies and atrocities and as resistive tactics depicted in both novels were analyzed. Survivance was best used for the general good of society, especially for those people whose voices were not heard. So, as a result, any dispossessed class could use Survivance. Once the colonized people combined the concept of Survivance with political Anarchism had defeated the corrupt political powers. Consequently, with Survivance and Anarchism the oppressed people had made a standard living for themselves in times of political turmoil and civil war. This paper has relegated the colonized people to the position of anarchists who were always on the offensive in times of trouble, as opposed to the stereotypical submissive position mentioned in the colonial discourses. People can survive in times of political predicaments if they resist by adopting the strategies of survivance combined with anarchist principles. 

Literature Review

Anarchism has two aspects; the 'end' and the 'means'. The 'end' of anarchists is 'anarchy' while the "Means" they demand is "a society without corrupt government and the capitalist wage system" (Rooum, 2016). The goal of anarchism is a society where every human being will have free access to the means of life and a society where everyone will enjoy his life to the fullest which is a delightful idea. Anarchy from the Greek word anarchia means the absence of government. It is against any coercive institution which threatens individual choices. On the other hand, anarchism believes in a society which is free from all forms of oppression. It challenges the oppression of fraudulent police, corrupt governments, patriarchy, matriarchy, slavery, capitalism, the wages system of landlords, the army and corrupt states etc. Anarchist scholars argued that in many cases coercions of a different kind may be inevitable but it did not mean that the government institutions and family relationships may culminate in corruption. What anarchists want is a society which would not arise from a "social contract" but from the expansion of individual choices due to social instincts. Consequently, anarchism would strive for a society which could broaden individual choices to the maximum range possible. Anarchists never believe that a society without loopholes is possible but they at the same time assure everyone that such a society is feasible having an ethical answer to its practicability and worth striving for (Parson, 1887). The meaning of anarchy, according to anarchists is to oppose coercion, violence, and corruption of any kind and "The heart of anarchism is its opposition to the government. Not just a particular Government, but the government as an institution." (Rooum, 2016, p. 69). Anarchism as a moral philosophy is the rejection of the state, and its organs of power such as the military, police and other institutional frameworks (Esenwein, 2004). From an economic standpoint, anarchism became an anti-capitalist movement; socialism or communism opposed the exploitation of production, creativity and labour of the working class and once people are controlled economically, the authority and government also take control of them culturally and spiritually. , the dictum of anarchism has been adapted "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs"; this dictum was mixed up with the idea of distributing all the wealth and sources of production equally, including the unproductive ones (Kropotkin, 2011). The monarchy survived for 5,000 years and culminated in civilization. It took two more centuries for when the monarchy to be changed into a democracy. The only difference between the two forms of government was that in a monarchy people took the oath of allegiance to the absolute ruler while in a democracy people took the oath of allegiance to rulers chosen by the majority. In both cases, people surrendered their power to rulers. Anarchists wanted people to keep their power to themselves and were thus against the perversion of democracy. In a democracy, political parties always strived to take power from one another instead of focusing on social work (Rooum, 2018). Anarchists called themselves Social Libertarians and believed that there must be social equality and the demand for freedom, not the hollow promises of the rulers to improve society (Kaplan, 2005; Rooum, 2018). The anti-religious anarchists popularized the anarchist slogan "Neither God nor Master". They thought that human tyrants were trying to make slavery tolerant and enslave people by frightening people of the tyrant in heaven, thus justifying their wrong-doings (Williams, 2018). The pessimist anarchists (frustrated ones) are disillusioned by the slow change because there could be occasional speedy change but overall society is in frictional force against rapid change; while the optimist anarchists (the hopeful ones) hope that though the change is slow but consistent and would finally meet its end (Hurrell, 1998). Anarchists are against oppression of any kind. They are against nuclear weapons and thus they support nuclear disarmament. Similarly, they are against all atrocities either at the individual or at the state level (Woodcock, 2018), which is why favour all kinds of non-violent tactics to pressurized authorities to reconsider their laws while keeping in view the choices of individuals to have a better life (Kinna, 2012).

History is to give a true account of a particular nation’s culture, true identity and way of life but Euro-Americans did the opposite. The Native Americans' account of history is actually a true account of history which we find in fictional narratives while the Euro-Americans' account of history is not fictive. Christopher Columbus, on the one hand, is a Euro-American hero as he discovered America in 1492 but this historical fact is biased towards Native Americans. As a result, in The Heirs of Columbus, a fictional Stone Columbus claims to be the decedent of the historical Christopher Columbus. Stone claims that Christopher was a Native American; explaining that he did not discover America but rather he returned to his birthplace (Tahreem, Hashmi & Mushtaq, 2017). Euro-Americans in 1992 were in search of American heroes. They thought that the Genoan cartographer and admiral (Christopher Columbus) would be a good option. The Statue of Liberty in America and the Statue of Columbus in Barcelona, Spain were erected to celebrate him as an American hero. But, Mestizos or Metis, the colonized Native Americans voiced their resistance in opposition to the large-scale decimation of Native populations since 1492. Vizenor joined the resistance and helped in the dehistorization of the colonizers' narratives in The Heirs of Columbus by making Columbus the hero of Native colonized Americans instead of the colonizers' hero in 1492. In the novel, time and again the protagonist Stone Columbus claims on Carp Radio broadcasting that Christopher Columbus is Mayan or Native American (Hardin, 1998). Strategies of opposition play a vital role in Vizenor's The Heirs of Columbus. Vizenor has turned the tragedy of Christopher Columbus into a comedy. Through the mouthpiece of Stone, in the novel, it is depicted that Columbus was a cross-blood Mayan and not a colonizer. This way of subverting the historical account of colonizers by the native colonized native is called 'opposition play' or 'transatlantic trickstering' (Liang, 2003).

Vizenor concept of survivance talks about tribal resistance to their survival, identity and ethnicity via Bakhtin's dialogism. Dialogism helps in finding out the difference between the historical discourse of colonizers and mythical accounts of heirs like Stone Columbus, Binn Columbus, Felipa Flowers and Miigis etc. Dialogical examination of the text helps in finding out the truth inside the fictional history of Vizenor while falsehood inside the historical accounts of the colonizers (Rashid & Kharal, 2019). Russo (2017) argues that Vizenor applied a code-switching technique and multi-voiced narrative to archive linguistic transmutation in The Heirs of Columbus. Therefore, no other cited works have shed light on the dialogic content; or the socio-political perspectives behind The Heirs of Columbus. The cruel methods of oppression used by colonizers have forced conversions to Christianity, degrading tribal customs, and the establishment of reservations in the undesirable parts of America for natives (Mielke, 2018). There is not a single instance in previous studies done about natives that focus on explaining all the dialogic aspects of sexuality and language games present in Vizenor's The Heirs (Lush, 2012). This research aims to enlighten the readers with the dialogic aspects of The Heirs of Columbus. This study will provide the socio-political background of Native American history that has motivated Vizenor to write the Native Americans' gloomy narrative. 

Similarly, Ali (1992) in his novel talks about fanatical Christians who cruelly overran the rich Islamic civilization in 15th-century Spain. In the novel, the author portrays the life of the aristocratic family Banu-Hudayl whose tolerant way of life is devoured by Christian totalitarianism. As a result, the reader feels that Western culture always depicted their Euro-centric idea of historical dominance as more advanced (Wikander, 2013), which has been challenged and rewritten from the colonizers' perspective. In Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree (1992), Ali has done a good job to present Christians as intolerant and uncivilized themselves. But he has not been so much successful in presenting the Muslims as more civilized. There are gaps and contradictions in the text of the novel and those needed to be deconstructed. It is reasoned that instead of giving due focus to the intellectual properties of Muslims; Ali talked about sexuality which created a gap in the text (Malik, Sadia & Akram, 2014). The author cannot be blamed totally for presenting the secular side of Muslim civilization. Ali has tried to challenge the illusionary notion of Western culture about Muslim civilization as intolerant. Islam has always been tolerant, pluralistic and intellectually rich (Ali, Pervez, & Malik, 2014). Marxist analysis of Ali's novel showed that the Christians confiscated the land and properties of the Muslims because their agenda was to overpower Islamic civilization but Islam was tolerant and there was no reason for the Christians to force them out of their lands. The Christians were following capitalist aspirations to grab more; so, this notion again gives insufficient answers to the class of civilizations (Malik & Baby, 2013). This study tries to fill the gap of exploring the concept of survivance via the theory of anarchism by analyzing the selected novels. 

Methodology

The questions in the present study were about the people, events, ethnographies, histories, cultures, socio-economic, political, and religious setups (Neuman, 2014) of the Red Indians and Moors. The study used a bounded case-study design to explore people, events and real-life settings in a bounded time, space and location (Creswell, 2007). The data was collected from primary sources (the textual analysis of the selected novels) after utilizing secondary sources. The qualitative content analysis helped in categorizing and analyzing the concepts, themes, and communications within the texts. It also established the relationship between various concepts and themes and made inferences from the texts (Vaismoradi, Turunen & Bondas, 2013) for developing hypotheses (Azungah, 2018) and moving towards specific goals (Bryman, 2016). The theoretical framework of anarchism (opposing government in all its forms) helped in analyzing in consumption of the filth of the powerful filthy rich who try to seize the property, government and establishment, industries, factories, and politics to work for their own benefits rather than for their fellow human beings at large. Anarchism is against all authoritarian institutions. Anarchism stands for all that plethora of different political economic theories which are anti-authoritarian, anti-government, anti-state, anti-religion, anti-capitalism, anti-nationalism, anti-property, anti-industries, anti-feudalism, anti-patriarchy, anti-matriarchy, anti-power, anti-exploitation, anti-cruelty and unjust societies and anything including language power which suppresses men and women alike (Rooum, 2016, p.08). The analytical concept of survivance (Vizenor, 2009), branched out from this theoretical framework (Kumar, 2019) providing the foundation for the analysis in the present study and making it reliable and valid. Survivance was first introduced by Vizenor in his notable work Manifest Manners published in 1994 (Close, 2010), discovering new expressions in order to tackle the narratives of “Indianness”. challenging systems of symbols, culture and race. Its recurring association can be found to range from terrorism to revenge and is mostly concerned with land seizure and violence against the act (Close, 2010). Survivance gives voice to the indigenous people; protects their tradition, knowledge and culture. It also addresses the historical trauma (colonization) of the indigenous community and offers healing through social impact games of resistance. Survivance also evoke social awareness and promotes social change through social impact games both physically resisting the dominant culture and also orally tackling the intergenerational traumas through storytelling. The purpose of survivance is rejuvenating, regenerating and restoring indigenous people, and their mental, emotional and spiritual balance and well-being. It is a tool through which indigenous people reconsider and reflects on their experience of colonization which continues still today (LaPensée, 2014). It is "an active sense of presence, the continuance of native stories, not a mere reaction, or a survivable name. Native Survivance stories are renunciations of dominance, tragedy, and victimry' (LaPensée, 2014, p.vii). Survivance can be physical, mental, intellectual, political, social, economic, cultural and religious. Survivance can be found in native stories, traditions, customs, songs and remembrance. In Survivance literature, the irony is the vital mode of expression for Native Survivance. Thus, Survivance is not a theory or ideology, rather, Survivance is an active "practice" or "tactic" through which dominance, tragedy and victimization of the oppressed are renounced (Vizenor, 2009). The stories of Native Americans should not be rejected and considered myths but they challenge the very false assumptions and expectations of the colonizers (Justice, 2018). The mythical stories of the Natives are the elongation or extension of the possible and not the impossible fantasies (Stratton, 2019). The Western historical trauma can only be understood through Vizenor’s concept of Survivance that historical trauma is a narrative of dominance. So, tackling historical trauma is desirable for the recovery of Native people. The historical trauma which came in the wake of colonialism can be cured only through Survivance stories (Lea, 2018). Historical trauma accounts for post-traumatic stress disorder not only in the current population but also in the oppressed generations to come in the wake of colonization. It affects the progeny not on an individual, and personal level but also on a societal and institutional level (Wieskamp & Smith, 2020) reporting physical oppression and sexual abuse of the colonized students (Eigenbrod, 2012). Survivance is not mere resistance and survival, it is in the Native American sense, an allusion to the self-representation of Native Americans against oppression, subjugation, distortion and their cultural erasure on behalf of the White colonizers' hegemony (Greenwood, 2009). Rhetorical sovereignty refers to the power of Indigenous people's intellectual independence. The Native students resist and do not comply with the imperialism of the Euro-American teachers (Watanabe, 2014) to re-imagine themselves, their pedagogies, scholarship, and discipline in relation to a long and sordid history of American imperialism (Powell, 2008).

Data Analysis

The character of Zuhayr Alfahl in Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree and Stone Columbus in The Heirs of Columbus symbolize resistance against the colonial power (of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella) through anarchist tactics of survivance. The American Dream of “Manifest Destiny” was invented and colonization was unavoidable even four and half centuries later. An act of survivance on behalf of the Native Americans was a subversion of European historical facts, done through tribal stories. These stories are important and have been transferred from generation to generation through oral tradition being more authentic than the written European history which came centuries later representing the true voice and the tribal perspective about their lost glory and past. Stone Columbus says, "Columbus (the supposed founder of the American Continent) is always on the move in our stories” (p.11). Another ‘act of Survivance’ against exploitation can be seen in the novel when Grandmother Truman narrates the experiences of her grandson Stone Columbus as a child. He faced death when introduced into a new school (culture, knowledge) and how he was resurrected when he survived in that school while resisting their culture. Thus, "Stone, as usual, never followed instructions…" (p.14), while he was in the public boarding school on the reservation. Unlike Stone, “The others remembered the government school in silence.” (p.14) referring to the fact that not all tribal children were lucky to be not subsumed and victimized by the dominant culture. And so, those children "were dead, covered with dust and coal soot" (p.15) which means that the tribal students were victimized by the colonizers. The students in boarding schools always resisted the colonizers either through open opposition or sometimes through 'protocols of concealment (Rubis & Theriault, 2019). Their resistance was not always physical but sometimes abstract in the form of imagination. Memphis (Daughter to Stone) argues in the novel that what one can hear on the outside is different from what is seen in someone. So, imagination was another 'act of Survivance’, Memphis says, “When imagination dies, we become lonesome slaves to our bodies, prisoners to our sounds, species and culture.” (p.16). Imagination established tribal people to develop new strategies of survivance and tackle European historical, political, cultural and religious imperialism. The tribal people became old dogs who were applying new strategies of Survivance (p.17). It was the same image of the Euro-American from the Old World which created Christopher Columbus as their hero to justify their colonialism challenged by Survivance and oral tribal stories. The adventurer was a cross-blood Mayan of Jewish descent. He did not discover the New World, rather he returned to it. The New World was not at all new. It was old but it was presented as new by the European cartographers, archaeologists, geographers, seafarers and travellers and Christians to annex more and more land for the Roman Catholic Church, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the Monarchs of Spain. It was the queen herself who sponsored Christopher Columbus to the New World to secure more land for them and the Pope of Rome. However, the Island on which Columbus first set foot had already been explored by merchants from Portugal (Lord & Burke, 1991).

The novel also introduces readers to Augustus Le Plongeon; a "dedicated archaeologist, who believed that the Maya founded World civilization, and the hand talkers carried the bear (codex or manuscript) signature of survivance, their stories in the blood to the Old World…The bear codex revealed that the bear signature of survivance…was the measure of civilization and the power of resurrections" (p.25). The tribal communities always remembered the stories of survivance in their blood and thus resisted the colonizers through anarchist strategies. The anarchist strategies were used against the colonizers either through direct action or indirect action. The direct action demanded the anarchist spirit of open revolution which leaders like Crazy Horse, Black Elk and others did. But the indirect action was performed by the tribal students both male and female through refusals and concealment (Rubis & Theriault, 2019). Once Columbus was granted permission, his dream for wealth and the Monarch's dream of imperialism materialized, "A proud sensitive man who knew that his project would open fresh paths to wealth and for the advancement of Christ's Kingdom" (p. 33). The superiority complex, victimization, and exploitation of the colonizers are clear from Christopher Columbus' journal "No sooner had we concluded the formalities of taking possession of the Island than people began to come to the beach, all naked as their mother bore them" (pp. 36-37). The Native American people had long survived through resistance. Their resistance had always been against the colonial power with its laws for land allotment hoaxes, "the baronage was a colonial land allotment hoax…" (p.79). The victorious language was forced upon the colonized Indians in America and Muslims in Spain, which was resisted, one of the heirs of Columbus says “The languages we understand are games. Language can be a prison. Trickster’s stories liberate the mind in language games” (p.82). The tribal stories and tactics of survivance help the tribal people to stand against imperialism and colonialism. The atrocities being committed by colonizers were resisted in the novel by all the heirs. Everyone plays his/her part in surviving via Survivance. It is the survival of tribal people through resistance (Rubis & Theriault, 2019). The resistance can be physical or mental, concrete or abstract, peaceful or violent, social or political, academic or religious. That is why, Stone Columbus, who is the protagonist of the novel decides to have a place of their own, where their fellow brothers, women and children get healed from the colonial burden. So, Stone Columbus declares to all his tribal and non-tribal listeners that each and every person is allowed to come and join the Heirs of Christopher Columbus in a new nation. New Nation is formed at "Point Roberts which is situated in the Strait of Georgia between Washington, and Vancouver Island, Canada" (p.119). 

Another kind of resistance for the tribes in the novel is to never believe in what the Euro-American colonizers had said about them. Stone Columbus says “Yes, but we never believe anything the government has ever said about the tribes, least of all the information about the heirs and our nation" (p.176). The tribal people say that their survival is in unity among themselves and opposition against the colonizers, "We heal with opposition, we are held together with the opposition, not separation” (p.176). In the epilogue of the novel, The Heirs of Columbus, Gerald Vizenor quotes President Joaquin Balaguer, "The people need shoes but they also need a tie" (p.189) and the same tie became dangerous because "The tie to the great explorer and his search for gold has been a curse rather than a source of material salvation" (p. 189). Christopher Columbus is remembered in the tribal stories, as not to wound but to heal. Tribal people always in their stories turn the tragedy of his discovery and its subsequent oppression of tribal people and the gold rush into comedy. All traumas are changed into comedy through humour by the tribal scholars. Gerald Vizenor says in the epilogue "Columbus is resented by the poor, not least because in many Latin American countries his name is synonymous with the import of measles, typhus, yellow fever, and smallpox" (p. 189). Since President Ronald Reagan praised Columbus as a "dreamer, a man of vision and courage, a man filled with hope for the future,…put all together and you might say that Columbus was the inventor of the American Dream" (p. 189). Whatever horrible the facts may be, the survival of the tribal people is presented in their resistance and survival. Survivance is achieved through political anarchism and by turning the tragedy of Columbus into something comic. In the epilogue Stone says, "Columbus arises in tribal stories that heal with humour the world he wounded, he is loathed, but he is not a separation in tribal consciousness. The Admiral of the Ocean Sea, a trickster turned in his own stories five centuries later” (p.185).

Similarly, the setting of the novel Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree is Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). The novel features the 'Last Muslim Tribal Kingdom of Spain called Gharnata or Granada. Gharnata was home to the last tribe of Muslims known as Banu-Hudayl. The novel features how the family of Banu-Hudayl was destroyed, their great libraries were burned; one hundred ninety-five in number. Those Muslims who scholarly saved the remnant of their dying culture were questioned, tortured and killed by the Inquisition. All this destruction was administered by Francisco de Cisneros de Ximenes; the prince of the Church. Ximenes was bent on destroying the culture of Banu-Hudayl in 1499. Ximenes says in the novel that whatever the commands are, it is within the authority of the crown (p.2). It was believed by the administrator that, "Ximenes de Cisneros had always believed that the heathen (Muslims) could only be eliminated as a force if their culture was completely erased by the systematic destruction of all their books. Oral traditions would survive for a while, till the inquisition plucked away the offending tongues" (p.3). The violence was intended to be used against the Moors, so, anarchists like al-Ma’ari and Zuhayr were convinced that the only way to their survival was resistance. 

Violence seemed the only way to exploit the Muslims. Anarchists such as Vernon Richards (Rooum, 2016) were of the view that violence was used by anarchists only to counter colonial power. Anarchists were aware that violence will engender more violence while freedom will engender more freedom. Freedom can even lead to a free and peaceful society. Violence was not a principal for anarchists but it was a tactic and revolutionary necessity. Violence must be used to impose the ideas or will of a group on the government (Rooum, 2016, p.49).

Zuhayr-al-Fahal, the protagonist, in the novel, gets into a scuffle with a Christian soldier upon being provoked. The result of Zahayr's resistance leaves him stabbed with a knife. When Zuhayr is brought to his home, his sister Hind is Angry with his father for not retaliating. Hind says to her, "Nothing will be left of us except fragrant memories" (p.16). Rebuffed by his daughter, Hind, Umar bin Abdullah, thinks about the fall of Granada in 1492. He thinks that the fault was in their blood because they were carrying Muslim blood that's why the Christians were bent on spilling their blood because in it they carried a resistive element, “The fault… It is in our blood” (p.21).

After the Reconquest of Spain in 1492, it was promised the Banu-Hudayl tribe would be allowed to practice its religion, “They will be allowed to teach and speak Arabic. They will also be allowed to celebrate their festivals” (p.20). Umar bin Abdullah remembers just eight years later in (1499), the terms of the surrender. He thinks they were dumb, believing in the fine words of the Castilian Rulers and their Cardinal. Umar bin Abdullah tells his wife Zubayda that barbarians have also sacked Baghdad and burned libraries but, “The inquisition goes one step further. Not content with burning ideas, they burn those who supply them” (p.26). The masses cannot always be successful but anarchism teaches them their value as human beings. It also gives them the strength to stand for themselves and value the creativity of their work, encouraging solidarity and mutual aid. Anarchism teaches them to fight against anti-social forces such as the church, the state, the wage system, murders, victimization by the police and bureaucracy and an unending list of exploitations by monarchs. 

Unlike the Christian Monarchs, the Muslim rule in Spain was more peaceful (Awan & Fatima, 2019). But those people who converted to Christianity whether Muslims or Jews were never accepted by the Inquisition. The Conversos or Marranos were looked down upon. They were not considered equal to other Christians. Thus, cardinal Ximenes says to the Count and Mayor of Tendilla; Don Inigo, who is also the Captain General from the Mendoza family that any newly convert Christian whose father was a Muslim or a Jew will never be trusted by the Church. (p.68). Umar openly challenges Don Inigo's words that he and his family would never swear allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church. Umar says that they would resist until death. Don Inigo replies that he predicted, "there will be resistance…(but we will) ultimately defeat you" (p.73). The rulers' mindset that "the only right choice as he/ she believes is his or hers (p.53) is resisted politically by physically by the father Umar and the son Zuhayr physically to the extent that they say, “The choices are simple. Convert be killed, or die with our swords in our hands.” (p.76) ….We must prepare an insurrection." (p.76). The new methods of resistance are discovered unlike the false conversion of Jews and other groups when Musa (a character in the story) announces, "Why should not we imitate them? … We will learn new methods of resistance. Here in our heads" (p.78). Even the political resistance in the form of false conversion of the older ones was denied by youngsters like Umar and it is believed about him that “ he will rather die than live like a slave under the Christian Crown and Church. Since the colonizers have destroyed his culture, it is easy for him to die than to live. He will happily accept death, but will never bow before the colonizers and the Church (p.86). Anarchists want to obliterate artificial law, which supports warfare and throwing atomic bombs on people's houses. Giving people the opportunity to freely cooperate and through mutual aid is less dangerous than the laws which support violence of any kind. Anarchists believe that if people become free from political bondage, they will be capable of harmonious development via mutual aid. The majority has more self-restraint than the ruling minority who makes artificial laws to save their interests and power. Natural order shall be ensured through mutual cooperation and not via artificial laws (Kropotkin, 2011). The oppressed communities should keep their faith, hope, and courage despite hardships (Sabzalian, 2019), through concealed methods of survivance by adopting the old ones with the new ones. "The Moors were once a nomadic culture; the ancient leaders were cross-bloods and generous to the hand talkers from the New World. The Moors bear the signature of survivance and remember the stories of blue puppets in the storm. The centres of their culture, wealth, and splendour were Toledo, Granada, and Seville" (p.34). Thus, Vizenor alludes to the fact that like the Native Americans, the Muslims and Jews have also adopted the strategies of Survivance in their blood and had always resisted the colonizers through covert or overt Survivance. History glorifies the stories of the victors. The victors always exaggerate their victories while undermining the history, culture, language and identity of the defeated. It was this victimization to which Vizenor (2008) answered back. Vizenor did not answer the colonizer's victimization from the position of a victim. He rather challenged the narratives of the colonizers through his fiction which was an act of survivance in itself (Manzoor, Malghani & Mazher, 2019). To challenge the narrative of the dominant culture, Vizenor has created his own myths and stereotypes to resist the colonizers actively (Hillers, 2005). Culture and language are connected. Once the native people were defeated, the indigenous language was banned in boarding schools. The native children were forced to speak the language of colonizers and at once were stopped from speaking their mother tongues. Language, on one hand, promoted the outlook of the victors, on the other hand, it also undermined the language, culture, identity, history and even living of Native Americans. Through the spirit of survival and resistance, the Native Americans, and Moors survived both in the Old World and in the New World. If acts of survivance were combined with propaganda by deed, then the subjugated, the oppressed, the colonized and the dispossessed could live a decent life without any fear of victimization (Linse, 1982).

Conclusion

The study analyzed the concept of survivance in the selected novels. The survivance coupled with anarchist principles such as propaganda by deed was used by the protagonist Zuhayr-al-Fahl and protagonist Stone Columbus in Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree and in The Heirs of Columbus, as historic fiction respectively; that's why they survived the colonial period. The methods of resistance against the colonizers were presented as the best examples of survivance backed up by the theory of anarchism. They proved to be the best tactics in adverse times such as in the year 1492 when coercion and oppression became the cry of the day. The study showed how the same colonized people in the face of colonizers' predicament invented new strategies, methods and tactics of survival. Usually, the colonized people are portrayed as submissive, barbarians by the dominant culture, but this research has portrayed the colonized people from a new perspective e.g., those who struggled, opposed, competed against and resisted the colonizers. The victimization was resisted physically, socially, politically, culturally and economically by colonized nations with anarchist will and spirit who had the guts to take a clear stance in the face of any adversity. The analysis shows that the colonized people especially the Moors in Spain and the Indigenous people in America in the late fifteen century were never uncivilized as usually portrayed by Western historians. The West has usually portrayed the Indigenous people as people without civilization, to justify their own colonial agenda for amassing more and more properties and wealth. No religion in the world will ever ask for violence. Religions are concerned with spiritual nourishment. But if the religious and cultural practices of the colonized people are banned, they strongly resist survivance strategies as a protest to record against the atrocities of the colonized power. The colonizers unluckily will never be successful in their nefarious aspirations. 

References

• Ali, S., Pervez, N., & Malik, W. H. (2014). The secular side of Islam: A case study of Tariq Ali’s Islam Quintet. Journal of Culture, Society and Development, 3, 61- 68.
• Ali, T. (2014). Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree. Lahore: ILQA Publications.
• Awan, T., & Fatima, S. (2019). Twilight in Delhi and Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree: A Comparative, Postcolonial Discourse. Academic Research Journal, 10(2), 74-82.
• Azungah, T. (2018). Qualitative research: deductive and inductive approaches to data analysis. Qualitative Research Journal, 18(4), 383– 400.
• Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods (4th ed.). New York (NY): Oxford university press.
• Vizenor, G. (2008). Survivance : narratives of Native presence. University of Nebraska Press eBooks.
• Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among the five approaches. (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
• Eigenbrod, R. (2013). “For the child taken, for the parent left behind”: Residential School Narratives as Acts of “Survivance.” English Studies in Canada, 38(3–4), 277– 297.
• Esenwein, G. (2004). Anarchism. The New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. New York: Scribners.
• Greenwood, D. (2009). Place, survivance, and White remembrance: a decolonizing challenge to rural education in mobile modernity. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 24(10), 1– 6.
• Hardin, M. (1998). The Trickster of History: The Heirs of Columbus and the dehistoricization of Narrative. MELUS, 23(4), 25-45.
• Heizer, R. H., Heizer, R. F., & Kroeber, T. (Eds.). (1979). Ishi, the last Yahi: A documentary history. University of California Press.
• Hurrell, A. (1998). Society and anarchy in the 1990s. In B. A. Roberson (Ed.) International society and the development of international relations theory, (pp.17-42). New York, A & C Black.
• Kaplan, A. (2005). The anarchy of empire in the making of US culture (1sted.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Kinna, R. (2012). Anarchism: a beginner's guide (3rd ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster.
• Kropotkin, P. (2011). Mutual aid: A factor of evolution (3rd ed.).Neeland Media LLC.
• Kumar, R. (2019). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners (3rd ed.). London, Los Angeles, New Delhi: Sage Publications Limited.
• LaPensée, E. (2014). Survivance among Social Impact Games. The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association, 8(13), 43-60.
• Linse, U. (1982). ‘Propaganda by Deed’ and ‘Direct Action’: Two Concepts of Anarchist Violence. Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 201– 229.
• Lord, L., & Burke, S. (1991). America before Columbus. US News and World Report, 8, 22-37.
• Lush, R. M. (2012). Turning tricks: Sexuality and trickster language in Vizenor’s the heirs of Columbus. Studies in American Indian Literatures, 24(2), 1–16.
• Malik., W., H., Sadia., B., Akram, M. (2014). A deconstruction of Tariq Ali’s shadows of the pomegranate tree. European Scientific Journal, 10(26), 312-326
• Marshall, P. (2010). Demanding the impossible: A history of anarchism (1st ed.). Oakland, CA: PM Press.
• Mielke, L. L. (2018). Native American presence. In M. Elbert (Ed.) Hawthorne in context (pp.46-56). Cambridge University Press.
• Neuman, L. W. (2014). Social research methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (7th ed.). United States (US): Pearson Education Limited.
• Pickerill, J. (2017). What are we fighting for? Ideological posturing and anarchist geographies. Dialogues in Human Geography, 7(3), 251– 256.
• Rashid. G., & Kharal. A. A. (2019). Reader response theory and dialogic analysis of Gerald Vizenor’s the heirs of Columbus. International Journal of Linguistics, 9(4), 399-407.
• Rooum, D. (2016). What is anarchism? An introduction (2nded.). Oakland: PM Press.
• Russo, B. V. (2017). Deconstructing the master’s house with his own tools: Code-Switching and double-voiced discourse as agency in Gerald Vizenor’s heirs of Columbus. Studies in American Indian Literatures, 29(4), 58–75
• Rubis, J. M., & Theriault, N. (2019). Concealing protocols: Conservation, Indigenous survivance, and the dilemmas of visibility. Social & Cultural Geography, 21(7), 1-23.
• Sabzalian, L. (2019). Indigenous children’s survivance in public schools (1st ed.). New York, NY, Routledge.
• Spivak, G. C., & Riach, G. (2016). Can the subaltern speak? (p. 254). London: Macat International Limited.
• Stratton, B. J. (2019). Transnational Narratives of Conflict and Empire, the Literary Art of Survivance in the Fiction of Gerald Vizenor. Transmotion, 5(1), 11- 32.
• Tahreem, S., Hashmi, F. A., & Mushtaq, K. (2017). Lying with Truth: A Fictionalized Confrontation with History. NUML Journal of Critical Inquiry, 15(2), 134-150.
• Vaismoradi, M., Turunen, H., & Bondas, T. (2013). Content analysis and thematic analysis: Implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study. Nursing & health sciences, 15(3), 398-405.
• Vizenor, G. (1991). The Heirs of Columbus. Middletown, USA: Wesleyan University Press.
• Vizenor, G. (1992). Manifest Manners: The Long Gaze of Christopher Columbus. Boundary 2, 19(3), 223-235.
• Vizenor, G. (2008). Survivance: Narratives of Native presence (1st ed.). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
• Vizenor, G. (2009). Native liberty: Natural reason and cultural Survivance (1st ed.). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
• Watanabe, S. (2014). Critical Storying: Power through Survivance and Rhetorical Sovereignty. Counterpoints, 449, 153- 170.
• Wieskamp, V. N., & Smith, C. (2020). “What to do when you’re raped”: Indigenous women critiquing and coping through a rhetoric of survivance. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 106(1), 72-94.
• Wikander, R. (2013). Challenging Eurocentric notions of history and culture in Tariq Ali's shadows of the pomegranate tree (Unpublished Bachelor’s Thesis.). Lund University, Sweden.
• Williams, D. M. (2018). Contemporary anarchist and anarchistic movements. Sociology compass, 12(6), 1- 17.
• Woodcock, G. (2018). Anarchism: a history of libertarian ideas and movements (3rd ed.). Pickle Partners Publishing.