The idea of England as a land of superiority or a perfect utopia has been heralded in the psyche of the Indians and this is an exercise taught by the West to remain superior in the eyes of Indians. This utopian idea of England clashes due to an actual encounter or ocular impressions of the Indians. This p aper focuses on the resistance to the dominant centre and to create a counter – discursive strategy that has enabled the Indian writers to fight back in the form of writing back to the Empire. Writing back to the West was important in order to redefine the image of India and also to unravel the larger – than – life idea of England. Dean Mahomed is one of those writers who focuses on this, and through his writing , he showcases this. Dean Mahomed is the first Indian writer in English. His The Travels of Dean Mahomed was published in Cork in 1794 and gives an account of an Indian immigrant about the imperial metropolis. He was born in Patna, India in 1759 and his family served in the Mughal imperial court. Both his father and older brother served within the Ben gal army of the East India Company. From his life and background, it may be inferred that Dean Mahomed deals with two supposedly oppositional worlds – the Orient and the Occident with poise and subtlety. He travelled extensively in India and observed the c ulture of the eighteenth century colonial India. He went to Ireland in 1784 and married an Anglo – Irish woman and settled there. He emigrated from Ireland to London, in 1807 and settled in England in 1814. Page 132  Labyrinth: ISSN 0976-0814 (Vol.10 - No.4, October 2019) In the West, the concept of shampooing came into widespread usage through Dean Mahomed. When he moved to London early in the nineteenth century , he not only practised ‘oriental’ massage, but also initiated a name for the shampoo (‘champi’ in Hindi). This shows the example of transculturation, by means o f which he debunked the coloni ser’s language and employed an Indian (Hindi) word instead of using the English word. Dean Mahomed carved a successful niche for himself in London. He dealt in Indian, therapeutic form of massage called ‘shampooing’ (champi), that made him popular as Sake Dean Mahomet, the Shampoo Surgeon. Through this concept of shampooing, Dean Mahomed left a lasting legacy . Thereby , he published Shampooing, or, Benefits Resulting from the Use of Indian Medicated Vapour Bath , published in 182 2 which was further republished in 1826 and 1838 with expansions. Thus, he brought the face of India on an international level through his notion of ‘shampooing’. His unique concept of shampooing also finds special mention in his Letter XXV of The Travels. This is a strategy of redefining the idea of East and placing the East outside the Orientalist canvas. He further challenges that the British sought to imitate his exercise. Dean Mahomed echoes Bhabha’s notion of ‘mimicry’ here, whereby the coloniser assimilates the colonised’s ways. This evokes a new sense of freedom by which the binary oppositions between the Occident and the Orient erase. Dean Mahomed ’s travelogue demonstrates his encounter with varied cultures, landscapes, people, but it may be noted that his narrative never ascribes a fixed identity to himself. The self/other position is problemati sed and it can be discerned that he endeavours to construct a native cultural identity by showing his affiliation to Indian rituals and arousing a national consciousness, yet he also identifies himself with the British army . Thus, it may be reiterated that Dean ’s identity is a hybridized one. It showcases what Bhabha has referred to as “the ambivalence and antagonism of the desire of the other …. [from which] we can avoid the increasingly facile adoption of the Dean Mahomed: Challenging the West with the Best of Indian Culture  Page 133 notion of a homogeni sed other ……[that underpins] oppositional politics of the margins and minorities (101). This ambivalent position in which Dean Mahome