• Dr V.V.B. Rama Rao

  Author

Basti by Intizar Husain, originally published in Urdu in 1979, is one of the powerful novels about Partition
and its aftermath. It is only after its English translation by Frances Pritchett published by Oxford
University Press, Delhi in 2007, it acquired wider acclaim and bouquets from the reading public both in
our country and abroad. Considered a simply structured, multi-layered narrative, the novel about the
post independence partition of India and Pakistan and is the emergence of East Pakistan as Bangladesh.
Partition is the traumatic experience of all. Those living in the North and West Bengal are the worst hit.
Basti is set in a number of places real and imaginary: Lahore and Delhi, Rupnagar and Vyaspur. Son of
the Maulana Abba Jan of Rupnagar, Zakir (significantly meaning the one who remembers) is the chief
protagonist. The Maulana is deeply religious, a Shiite, who stoutly opposed all innovations. Khvajah who
has two sons Salamat and Karamat is Abba Jan’s close friend who reveres him most. Bi Amma is Zakir’s
paternal grand mother. Ammi Jan’s sister Khalah Jan has two daughters Tahirah and Sabirah all of
whom come to Rupnagar. Zakir has five close friends, Afzal, Surender, Ajmal, Irfan and Salamat.
This novel has references to the rebellion of 1857, the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the wars between
India and Pakistan in 1969, the division of Pakistan and Bangladesh and the India/East Pakistan and
Pakistan in 1971. The political disturbances are the backdrop for the tribulations of the characters in the
novel where folk stories, epics and political turmoil people suffered in the past are dealt with in detail..
The protagonists have no religious enmity between them as we see in Surender’s concern and affection
for all his fiends who are Muslims.
Zakir’s early childhood is spent in harmony with all in Rupnagar. Hindu Bhagat-ji’s tales of Hindu epics,
the events and heroes in them influenced him. His father a devout Shiite recites verses from the Quran
and his friends revere and adore him. Even the Bible stories like the Cain- Abel story and the killing in it
influence Zakir. When he asks his grandmother Bi Amma why Cain murdered Abel, he is told that it is a
curse on his blood- it is thinner than water. When his friends ask Abba Jan questions, his replies
convince them. Bhagat-ji recalls what ‘whens’ and ‘whens’ are illumined in Abba Jan’s imagination. Here
is one example:
“Maulana, when will Doomsday come?
‘When the mosquito dies, and the cow is free of fear.’

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