Some Novels on Pakistan's Dark society

Creative Art in any form has never been appreciated in Pakistan, it is considered to be a sin religiously as well as socially speaking. If you look deeper into the Pakistani society, you would find that artists suffer the most in this society, some reasons of not supporting creative art is that the society is intolerant, not vibrant, nor diversified, while Pakistanis too often get offended even on simple jokes, communities start reacting aggressively if the joke goes against them.

Writers and journalists have faced many trails and tribulations in Pakistani society, while art has always remained costly and low or no paying job in Pakistan, while the sword of censorship is always on the neck of the writer. But keeping all these things in view Pakistani writers have contributed fair amount of literature.

Pakistan is a multi-lingual and multi-cultural country, but there were rulers who tried hard to make Pakistan a uni-lingual (Urdu) and uni-cultural (religious) country, which never happened. There are six major languages that represent Pakistani literature including: English, Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi and Punjabi. While there are some other languages like Siraiki and others that have little contribution in Pakistani literature.

Here are some novels  according to me that have put light on Pakistan's Dark Society, many of the issues discussed in these novels are taboos, and people could be punished merely mentioning them in public.


1- Shame:

Salman Rushdie’s over all work has been banned in Pakistan, and he is known as a demon rather than a writer in Pakistani, his debut novel was Grimus, followed by his greatest hit Midnight’s Children. In 1983, Rushdie’s third novel ‘Shame’ came out in the market, the novel deals with socio-political crisis of an imaginary country that could be easily taken as Pakistan.

It is written with magical realism, a style Rushdie is well-known. The story primarily shows conflict between Iskander Harappa (Zulfiqar Bhutto, the Pakistani Prime Minister, who was hanged) and General Raza Hyder (General Zia ul Haq, who hanged Bhutto).

 The novel widely throws light on ‘shame’ and ‘shamelessness’ in a society that is hiding its face under the veil of religion. The story opens with certain Omar Khayyam, who is brought up by three sisters Chunni, Munny and Bunny, they pretended to be pregnant at the same time and gave birth to him, later on they are blessed with another son Babar.

The story is set in a town called Q, where Omar is born, but his mothers don’t allow him to go outside, yet as he grows older his urge to go out in the world and as a birthday present he asks his mothers to let him go out in the world, he finally is allowed to go out of Q, and becomes a doctor, he comes in contact with Sufiya Zinobie, the mentally distorted daughter of General Raza Hyder and Bilquis Hyder. Though the story depicts many aspects of Pakistani life, but it mainly focuses on how the society is being radicalized over false nourms.   


2- A Case of Exploding Mangoes:

This is the debut novel of acclaimed Pakistani author Mohammad Hanif that was published in 2008, and became an award winning novel, written in comic style, the story of the novel revolves around the death of General Zia ul Haq in a plane crash and an investigation into this matter.

The story is developed around a junior officer named Ali Shigri, who thinks that there was hand of General Zia in his father’s death that seems to be a suicide and wants to avenge it. The novel puts light on messy torture cells and conspiracy theories roaming around after the plane crash incident.

3- Blasphemy:

Tehmina Durrani is known as one of the boldest voices of Pakistan, she started her writing debut with her controversial autobiography ‘My Feudal Lord’ in 1991, and shattered the male dominated Pakistani society, she boldly expressed how she was treated by her former husband Mustafa Khar, the former governor of Punjab province in Pakistan.

 Her novel ‘Blasphemy’ was yet another attempt to show mirror to the society that is caught up with many illness. The novel points finger towards religious fundamentalism and blind beliefs of the people, the spiritual leaders known as Pirs locally dominate on every aspect of their followers lives, going against Pir’s instructions is considered as blasphemy.

 Ms. Durrani has highlighted this issue remarkably, this a story of a young and beautiful girl Heer, who is brutalized and corrupted by a spiritual leader (Pir), at the age of fifteen she is married to him and brought to his haveli, where Heer loses her dignity, her freedom, even her humanity, till a terrible resolution gives her back to herself. Still it is considered blasphemy to raise voice against such suppression.   


4- Heera Mandi:

Heera Mandi, is the famous red light area of Lahore, where there is no night, a French writer Claudine Le Tourneur d’Ison pens down about the remarkable lives of courtesans of Heera Mandi, and how a society that is dominated by religious and cultural norms looks at these women.

This is the fictionalized biography of an artist named Iqbal Hussain (known as Balla among his friends), who happens to be son of a courtesan at Hira Mandi, the novel came out in 2006, the artist started to paint lives and struggle of courtesans of Hira Mandi, but he is not allowed to exhibit such paintings in any gallery due to strict government rules and he is hated by the society as he happens to son of a courtesan and doesn’t belong to any respectable family. The artist is forced to exhibit his work on roadside. In Karachi Literature Festival (KLF), the writer spoke about how she came to write this book, she explained that:

"The book has been inspired by Iqbal Hussain, son of a Hira Mandi prostitute, whom I had met in 1988. Iqbal is an artist - perhaps the only one of his kind - and a restaurateur. He owns an eatery, Cuckoo's Den, in Hira Mandi where he serves traditional Lahori food," Claudine told IANS here.
Iqbal is a misfit of an artist in Pakistan, where "even talking about prostitutes is a taboo", the writer said.

"Iqbal is not very comfortable among people though he has been drawing Lahore and the world to Hira Mandi with his food," Claudine said. Cuckoo's Den is a mandatory stopover for tourists in Lahore.

Iqbal uses the dancing girls of Hira Mandi as models for his impressionistic paintings "of figures and landscapes without expressions of sex", the writer said.

"In his leisure, Iqbal spends his time helping the dancing girls. He is very human... Iqbal says, 'I am a man before a Muslim,'" Claudine recalled.

Iqbal in Claudine's novel is the hero Shanwaz Nadeem, who narrates his life story in first person.
Shanwaz's earliest memories of Hira Mandi are of his beautiful 20-year-old mother Naseem, who lives in her Mughal-style "haveli" with her aunts, cousins and her five-year-old son in the narrow crowded bylanes in the old walled city of Lahore.

Naseem's quarters are partitioned and Shanwaz wakes up every night to the "cries, moans and sighs of his mother in the bedroom on the other side".

Shanwaz's life charts Pakistan's turbulent history from partition to the Bhutto years, Zia-ul Haq's repressive regime, fundamentalist violence and the years of "The Satanic Verses".

Hira Mandi gradually disintegrates around Shanwaz, leaving him with memories of its once-forbidden grandeur - and unrequited desires - amid aging courtesans and confused novices.
"The residents of Hira Mandi had hoped that the 'Bhuttos' would bring in democracy and free them of repression and blind police atrocities...But Benazir Bhutto had failed to do much for women. I suppose they were disappointed in the end..." the writer said.