Nationalism as Anti-Americanism in Pakistani Political Cartoons

This paper explores the nature of anti-Americanism within Pakistan’s national imagination, arguing that it functions as a form of conservative resistance- a mode of dissent that outwardly critiques foreign intervention, particularly US dominance, while inwardly reinforcing nationalist narratives. Anti-Americanism is a central feature of Pakistan's national imagination. It is closely tied to narratives of victimhood and symbolic resistance to foreign dominance. Rather than being a radical break from state ideology, anti-Americanism reinforces national unity, deflects blame from domestic power structures, and performs sovereignty in the face of geopolitical dependency. Using content and metaphor analysis, and interviews with cartoonists, I qualitatively analyse political cartoons published in two national Pakistani newspapers in the six months following the 9/11 attacks. I demonstrate how editorial imagery’s critique of the US upholds national cohesion. Drawing on Benedict Anderson’s concept of imagined communities and L.H.M. Ling’s notion of postcolonial learning, the paper situates Pakistan’s ambivalent stance toward the US, simultaneously resistant and compliant, as an outcome of hybrid postcolonial subjectivity. Cartoons articulate collective identity through visual metaphors reliant on nationalist narratives, uniting the imagined community. They reflect Pakistan’s liminal positioning: dependent on the US yet aligned with narratives of global Muslim solidarity.