Postcolonial theory has been deeply influential across the social sciences for at least four decades. It has served as an epistemological project and a critique. A postcolonial lens is one that is meant to correct/ resist the epistemic violence inflicted through Western knowledge production (Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, 2003). In doing so it posits the issue of “intercultural relativism and incommensurability as a matter of fundamental significance” (Chatterjee, 1986). Postcolonial studies are now a space to challenge modern concepts, be that the individual, nation-state, democracy, class, or, very broadly, science as universalizable or as reference points in relation to which the colonized self gets positioned (Said, 1978; Bhabha, 1994; Chatterjee, 1986; Spivak, 2008; Chakrabarty, 2008; Gupta, 1998; Bhambra, 2007; Kapur, 2013; Mahmood and Asad, 2009). Postcolonial theory has come under criticism for a variety of reasons. An important one has been the basis from which it mounts its critique, namely, the link it draws between colonialism and modernism (Williams, 1993; Pieterse, 2000; Nanda, 2001). Critics argued that this link has led to a worrying rejection of Enlightenment ideals which is often harmful for the subaltern subject and has led to the endorsement of the same cultural essentialism that postcolonial theory supposedly seeks to challenge (Nanda, 2001; Bhambra, 2007; Chibber, 2014), an act which even postcolonial theorists recognize and embrace as a “strategic” choice (Spivak, 1988; Dabashi, 2013). Even though skeptics have raised important issues, both analytical and normative, with post-colonial theory, this body of work remains a dominant framework across the social sciences, and particularly in area studies. Those studying the “Third World” simply have to engage with postcolonial theory and ideas. Taking into account the valuable criticisms addressed to the postcolonial framework, I problematize its dominance in the field. I pose the questions: How does postcolonial theory critique modernism and conceptions of modernity? How does postcolonial theory’s critique of modernism theory pose a danger to Subaltern resistance? I tackle these questions by addressing the relationship of postcolonial theory to reactionary political movements, particularly in the Arab region and by referring to the (im)possibilities of separating the analytical value of postcolonial theory from its role as a normative project.