Basti
Notes on Chapter 7 and 8
Chapter 7
• This chapter is written in the form of a diary entry - documenting the events of the days leading
to the liberation of East Pakistan, and the birth of Bangladesh as a nation.
• It is a quintessential example of Husain’s method of storytelling technique: It narrates it by
introducing many cross-current of stories from different epochs in History, which Zakir finds
himself witnessing first-hand in his memories.
• This chapter brings together the idea of the “cyclical nature of history” in the novel. It
foregrounds Zakir’s character as the site of memories of both his, as well as the entire history of
the Muslims.
• Further comment on the character of Afzal as the protector of Pakistan. See page 160 “Today I
have arranged things with data Ganj . . .”
• Partition and the task of writing history – See page 164 “I’ll be writing my wartime
autobiography . . . I ought to preserve the record of my lies and my cowardice.” Although the act
of writing here begins with the need to keep a “document” of the events of events outside the
self; the act of writing becomes conducive in Zakir’s search for his personal self in this chapter.
Husain’s treatment of the subject of writing and language is well evidenced in his story “An
Unwritten Epic”. (I have already mailed you the story) For a brief discussion on the story vis-à-vis
the problem of language see Sukeshi kamra’s ‘A messy history and its many “messy” texts”
(specially the last two pages of the essay.)
• A moment of realization – the entry of December 8 – See page 167 “I want to remember my
sorrows. If a city is destroyed, the sufferings of those who lived there are forgotten at the same
time . . . I can do nothing else for this city, but I can pray, and I do pray . . . Rupnagar and this city
have merged together inside me and become one town.” Zakir’s quest for his own self has
brought about a realization of his own helplessness in the face of forces that are beyond his ken.
The whole of Rupnagar and “this place” (i.e. Pakistan) becoming one implies that both are lost
to him forever as a space, to which he “belongs”. He is an eternal migrant who is in search of a
home.
• War and its threat to nature – See page 169 “Now a lot of guavas have ripened on our tree.
Every day Ammi picks them and makes guava salad. Now no guava is ever marked by a beak.
Those guests of our house, those sharers in our food, have gone.”
• The figure of the bhikshu in Husain – See Page 170-171 “In the twilight, the shutters of the shops
were all hastily banging closed . . . I am heading, with long strides, towards my cave.” The
traditional role of the hermit and his cave is important to Husain. The”cave” is not important for
its topographical coordinates rather than for its imagined use: a space for meditation for one to
know oneself. The bhikshu is a recurring figure in most of Husain’s Jataka stories. For a
discussion on it see Nishat Zaidi’s ‘Partition, Migration and the Quest for Meaning’.
• The narrative shifts to the times of Dastans and times of war (revolt of 1857) – The overlapping
of history and stories (fables and tales) give a surreal outline to the structure of this chapter. It
uses post-modernist technique of non-linearity of time and intertextuality to problematize the
boundaries between fiction and reality. See Tarun Saint and Linda Wentink (I have sent her
essay earlier) on this.
Chapter 8
• It acts more like an interlude in the novel – the devastation that the country (Pakistan) witnesses
after the defeat has been narrated in this chapter.
• Further comments on Zakir – His borderline apathy with the events – he is divorced from the
immediate real world of defeat. See page 202 “Then he lay down and closed his eyes. But
despite all his efforts, the only emotion he could summon upon was a kind of listlessness.”
• Afzal’s grandmother and the flood – could be understood as a layered retelling of the great
flood from the Bible – Forever stranded away from home. She becomes important here in the
sense that she is unable to come to terms with her new “displaced” life. Her being in the dark
about the reality ironically highlights a promise of return back “home”. See page 203 “When we
left it was the rainy season . . .”
• Shift to the Delhi of 1857 – of the time of Mir and Ghalib – Husain draws the similarity between
the fall of Delhi and the fall of Pakistan to further accentuate the idea of historical repetition of
events. See Page 207-208. You can read Ghalib’s couplet on the website that I have shared a
link to.