Basti

by Intizar Husain

  Some Pakistanis have criticized my choice of this novel, on the grounds that it offers a “negative impression” of their culture, a mood of “nostalgia.” Certainly Basti has been controversial; and certainly it is nothing like a definitive, complete picture of modern Pakistan. But surely no intelligent reader will expect it to be. Self-critical literature is one mark of an open and confident society; sophisticated literature is one mark of a rich and healthy language. Basti is not a perfect novel, but it is a fine one, and thought provoking, and unforgettably evocative at its best. I hope it will become part of a growing repertoire of good Urdu novels translated into English; there are a number of promising modern works that would well repay the translator’s efforts.

  I am grateful to Professor M.U. Memon, of the University of Wisconsin, who proposed this project. For insight into the Urdu text I thank Professor Razi Wasti, former Qaid-e Azam Visiting Professor at Columbia University, who answered many questions; Janab Qamar Jalil of the Berkeley Urdu Language Program in Pakistan, who had previously compiled a useful serial glossary; and my students at Columbia, who read parts of the novel with me and shared their thoughts and feelings about it. My special thanks go to the author, Intizar Husain, for his kindness and patience with my many questions during my visit to Lahore in 1988. For valuable comments on the translation as a work of English prose, I am indebted to my teacher and friend C.M. Naim of the University of Chicago, to my friends David Rubin and Jennifer Crewe, and especially to my mother, a superb grammarian and detector of small errors. The chapter-divider designs were generously provided by my friend Adil Mansuri. Chapter One of the novel appeared first in Edebiyat, and is reprinted (with minor changes) by the editors’ kind consent.

  Above all, I am deeply grateful for the help of my best friend and collaborator, the distinguished critic and writer Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, who listened to me read my whole draft aloud while he compared it with the original, and whose comments not only saved me from numerous mistakes, but immeasurably increased the subtlety and depth of the translation. I have had the best possible help in this task, and any errors that remain are mine alone.

  —Frances W. Pritchett

  NOTES

  CHAPTER ONE

  * Ammi . . . overturned the pan and stood up: By custom, food is not cooked in a newly bereaved household.

  * istikharah: A way of ascertaining the prospects for the future by counting prayer-beads and reciting prayers according to a formula.

  * rubbed with a mango-stone: For its cooling and astringent effect on the shaved skin.

  CHAPTER TWO

  * taking his misfortunes onto herself: A traditional symbolic gesture that usually involves running the palms of the hands down the beloved person’s cheeks, then bringing the hands to one’s own cheeks, making fists, and cracking the knuckles.

  * “Open this heavy door . . .”: A line from a famous poem, “Voice in the Wilderness,” by MUNIR NIYAZI.

  CHAPTER THREE

  * “The Mulla goes only . . .”: A well-known proverb, applied to someone who is a creature of habit and has a limited, predictable range of activity. It also suggests a measure of helplessness.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  * “the sleeper’s female calf turns male”: A proverbial warning against inattention: the heedless cow-owner finds that his newborn female calf has been stealthily replaced by a (much less valuable) male calf.

  * “the bald man has gotten fingernails”: This common proverb suggests that someone has obtained what is not suited to him.

  * “Where is my friend’s voice . . .”: A line of Persian verse from the Masnavi of Rumi (1207–1273).

  CHAPTER FIVE

  * “Shah Dulah’s mice”: These were retarded children born with heads too small for their bodies, who were often dedicated to the popular saint Shah Dulah to protect them from an early death.

  * “Houses and inns and places . . .”: Part of a line from a poem by Munir Niyazi.

  CHAPTER SIX

  * “First the sword and spear . . .”: An echo from a poem by IQBAL.

  * filbert branches: Water to wash a dead body is customarily heated with filbert leaves in it.

  * war has broken out: On December 3, 1971, war broke out with India; India had been vigorously supporting the disaffected party in East Pakistan.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  * “London is victorious . . .”: A line from a cynical World War II poem by Zafar Ali Khan (1873–1956).

  * pseudo-Taj Mahal: The reference is to WAPDA House, headquarters of the Water and Power Development Authority, a prominent Lahore landmark.

  * “What was I good for . . .”: A line from a ghazal by Firaq Gorakhpuri (1896–1982).

  * “Guess from my garden . . .”: A famous line of Persian verse, used like a proverb.

  * Every day . . . Glorious King’s serpents: An echo of the story of Zahhak from the SHAH NAMAH.

  * “a new flower blooming”: This Persian proverb implies skepticism or contempt.

  * “The cannons cannot . . . India is done for!”: It is also said that this sarcastic verse was composed by someone else, and that when BAHADUR SHAH “ZAFAR” heard it he replied with another verse expressing undaunted fighting spirit.

  * DECEMBER 16: December 16, 1971, was the day the Indian Army entered Dhaka, and the birth of an independent Bangladesh was assured.

  * Today is September 14 . . . : September 14, 1857, was the day the British succeeded in retaking Delhi from the rebels.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  * “these fighters for the faith . . .”: The first line of a famous poem by Iqbal, “Tariq’s Prayer.”

  * “Surely God is with the patient”: Quran 2:153.

  * “Then where does this smoke . . .”: A line from a ghazal by MIR.

  * “It’s as if my heart . . .”: Based on a line from a ghazal by Mir. The line establishes a punning relationship between “heart” (dil) and “Delhi” (dilli).

  * “And when we had obtained . . . from the land”: Quran 2:84–85

  * “You murdered . . .”: Based on a passage from the Nahj ul-balaghah, attributed to Hhazrat Ali.

  * “The remnant who survived . . . destroyed by fire.”: Based on Nehemiah 1:1–3.

  * A river of blood is flowing . . .”: A passage from one of GHALIB’s letters, describing the disasters he lived through in 1857. The passage ends with the first line of a verse from one of his ghazals. The second line, which completes the thought, is: “Just wait and see what happens to me next.”

  * “Lanes that were like leaves . . .”: Based on a line from a ghazal by Mir.

  CHAPTER NINE

  * read the omens: One common method is to open the works of the great Persian poet Hafiz (1320–1390), read a line at random, and draw conclusions from it.

  CHAPTER TEN

  * “Suddenly I was afraid . . .”: In Quran 46:24–25, a hurricane sent by God sweeps down and devastates the sinful tribe of Ad. In Quran 79:13–14, a single loud cry announces the onset of Judgment Day.

  * “The way they’d flee . . . during an earthquake.”: A line from an elegy on KARBALA by Mir Anis (1802–1874).

  * The town . . . now looked like a bubble in the churning ocean waves: Based on a folk account of the death of KRISHAN, who spent much of his adult life in Dwarka, a town on the west coast of Gujarat.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  * until their shapes changed entirely: In South Asian Muslim folk tradition, the faces of sinners grow deformed, and they are raised from the dead in animal shapes.

  * “What a building sorrow . . .”:A line from a ghazal by Mir.

  * “The city has already burned . . .”: Based on a folk version of an episode from the Ramayan, in which the mighty monkey Hanuman and his companions spread flames through Lanka with their burning tails. When they reach Sita, RAMCHANDAR-JI’s captive wife, she counsels them on how to quench the fire.

  * letter-writers: Some residents of the city of Kufa, in Iraq, wrote letters inviting HUSAIN to come to Kufa and assume po
wer; this led to his betrayal and death. Husain first sent his cousin Muslim bin Aqil to Kufa as an envoy.

  * he was alone: It had been decreed that whoever prayed behind Husain’s envoy Muslim, and thus showed respect for him, would die.

  * the leafy tree: In Persian and Urdu story tradition, the hero Hatim Tai encounters a similar tree.

  * “Oh Lord, save us from the fire of Hell” Quran 2:201; 3:191.

  * The sun had come down: A Muslim folk tradition about the torments of Doomsday.

  * “I swear by Time, man is surely in loss”: Quran 103:1–2.

  * “It’s evening . . .”: A line from a ghazal by the minor poet Agha Hajju Sharaf (fl. 1850s).

  * Burnt-out fires here . . . : A line from a poem by Iqbal.

  * lifted on the points of spears: The heads of Husain and his companions met this fate.

  * “who are alive are unfortunate”: Based on Ecclesiastes 1:1, 1:15, 4:2.

  * “your time for dismounting has not yet come”: A story traditionally told about one of Husain’s cousin Muslim’s prominent supporters in Kufa.

  * “a desolate wasteland”: From one of Ghalib’s letters describing the disasters of 1857.

  * “Now Jahanabad lies in ruins—”:A line from a ghazal by Mir. The second line, which completes the thought, is “Otherwise, at every step a house was here.”

  * the pitcher is smashed at the well . . . : Based on Ecclesiastes 12:1-8.

  GLOSSARY

  NOTE: All names and terms are described only as they are used in the novel itself. They are generally spelled the way the novel spells them, based on Urdu script.

  Abba Jan: Zakir’s name for his father. “Abba” is something like “Dad.” “Jan” is a title appended to kinship terms to show intimacy and affection.

  Abul Hasan: A rich merchant’s son who was betrayed by his friends, and who therefore vowed to seek out and entertain only strangers.

  ai: An emphatic exclamation, used vocatively to command attention or express surprise or consternation.

  ai hai: An exclamation of rueful regret, characteristically used by older women.

  Ali: The Prophet’s son-in-law, husband of Fatimah, father of Hasan and Husain. He is deeply venerated, and is often referred to by epithets like “the Chosen One” and “the Lion of God.”

  Aligarh: A small city southeast of Delhi, site of the famous Aligarh Muslim University.

  Ambala: A city north of Delhi, in modern Haryana, close to the Punjab border.

  Ammi: Zakir’s name for his mother. “Ammi” is something like “Mom.”

  Amritsar: The Indian city located right across the border from Lahore, home to jallianwala bagh.

  Anarkali: Lahore’s most famous old market, filled with a maze of tiny lanes where almost anything can be bought.

  Appearance: The emergence of the Hidden Imam from concealment, an apocalyptic event awaited by many Shiites.

  are: An exclamation of surprise.

  Ayub dictatorship: The military government headed by General Ayub Khan, which seized power from the civilian government in 1958 and ruled until Ayub was deposed by General Yahya Khan in 1969.

  Baba Farid: An affectionate way of referring to Shaikh Farid ud-Din Ganj-e Shakar, the great twelfth-century saint and mystic of North India.

  Baghbanpura: A neighborhood in the northeast part of Lahore.

  Bahadur Shah: The last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah (1775–1862) used the pen-name “Zafar” in his poetry, and was forced to live as a British pensioner. During the rebellion of 1857 he was made titular head of the rebels; court politics then led to the replacement of Bakht Khan, the most effective general, by Mirza Mughal and Mirza Ghaus, two of the emperor’s useless sons.

  Bakht Khan: See Bahadur Shah.

  Basic Democracy: A multi-layered system instituted by the Ayub regime in 1959, in which only the bottom layer, consisting of thousands of representatives called Basic Democrats, was directly elected; the system was presented as a nonpolitical one for achieving rural education and uplift.

  Batul: KHALAH JAN’s real name.

  Bhisham: See Mahabharat.

  Bi Amma: Zakir’s name for his paternal grandmother. “Bi” is a short form of “Bibi.” “Amma” means “mother.”

  Bibi: A polite form of address for a woman.

  binot: An indigenous Indic form of martial art, which relies on dexterity and swift movement rather than on elaborate weapons.

  birbani: In Indic folk tradition, a woman who has been killed by witchcraft, and whose spirit is used by the witch for magical purposes.

  Brahma-ji: In Hindu mythology, the World-creator.

  Brindaban: See KRISHAN.

  Bulandshahr: A city east of Delhi, on the road to Aligarh.

  Chacha Jan: Zakir’s uncle, his father’s younger brother.

  Danpur: A town in Bulandshahr district, in Uttar Pradesh; the home of Zakir’s great-uncle.

  Data Ganj Bakhsh: A famous eleventh-century saint and mystic, buried in Lahore and considered to be a patron of the city.

  Dulhan Bi: Sharifan’s name for Ammi Jan, referring to her as the “bride” she was when she came to the house long ago.

  dupattah: A very long, wide, lightweight scarf worn by women. It was draped over the shoulders and bosom, and sometimes over the head as well, with the two ends often hanging down in back.

  Emigration: The 1947 Partition of British-controlled India into two states, India and Pakistan, caused many Muslim families like Zakir’s to leave their old homes on the Indian side of the line and cross the border into the new Muslim nation of Pakistan. For this experience they use the religiously meaningful word “hijrat,” which evokes memories of the Prophet’s journey from Mecca to Medina.

  faqir: A Muslim ascetic, usually a solitary wanderer living on the voluntary gifts of the pious.

  Fatihah: The opening chapter of the Quran; it is traditionally recited over the graves of the dead.

  Fatimah: The Prophet’s daughter, wife of Ali and mother of Hasan and Husain.

  ’57: 1857, the year of the famous, desperate rebellion in North India against British power.

  Frontier Mail: A famous train that runs between Bombay and Amritsar.

  Gamal Abdel Nasser: The Egyptian President who took responsibility for his country’s 1967 defeat by Israel, and resigned from the Presidency.

  Ghalib: Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797–1869) was one of the two greatest classical Urdu poets; he lived through the siege of Delhi in 1857 and saw its terrible aftermath.

  Gwalior: A city south of Agra, in northern Madhya Pradesh.

  hai hai: An exclamation of sorrow and mourning, frequently used by women when a death occurs.

  Hakim: A respectful title for a practitioner of traditional Islamic (i.e., Greek) medicine.

  Hakim Nabina: A famous early-twentieth-century HAKIM of Delhi. He was blind; “nabina” means blind.

  Hare-bhare Shah: A popular saint whose tomb is in Delhi near the Jama Masjid.

  Hasan: The older brother of HUSAIN; he had already died before the battle of Karbala took place.

  Hazrat: A title expressing veneration, generally used for religious personages.

  Hazrat Sajjad: A respectful title for Zain ul-Abidin, a son (or nephew, according to other accounts) of HUSAIN.

  Howrah Express: A famous train that crosses North India from Calcutta to Delhi.

  Humayun’s Tomb: An elaborate monument in Delhi where the second Mughal emperor, Humayun (d.1556), is buried.

  huqqah: A form of pipe with a large stationary bowl in which tobacco is burned, a curved tube to pass the smoke through water to cool it, and a mouthpiece on a long flexible hose that can be passed easily from hand to hand.

  Hur: A general sent out against HUSAIN by his Umayyid enemies; but he fought on Husain’s side instead, and was one of the first to be martyred at Karbala.

  Husain: The son of Fatimah and Ali, thus the Prophet’s grandson. He was martyred on the field of KARBALA by political opponents who refused
to recognize his right to succeed to the Caliphate.

  Id: The greatest Muslim religious festival; following a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting, on this feast day families visit with their neighbors. “Id” is pronounced to rhyme with “heed.”

  Imam: A reverent title given to HUSAIN, and to certain of his successors venerated by Shiites. The title is also used for certain prominent religious personalities, and for someone who leads the prayer in a mosque.

  Imambarah: A religious building used as the destination of processions during MUHARRAM, and as the site of MAJLIS gatherings.

  Imperial: A large Western-style hotel in Lahore, well-known during the colonial era but no longer in existence.

  “innovation”: A theological term for an illegitimate change made in the SHARIAT.

  Iqbal: Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), the greatest Urdu and Indo-Persian poet of the twentieth century, was also a philosopher and statesman. He began as a secular nationalist, but later called for the formation of Pakistan.

  Iqlima: This daughter of Adam and Eve is not mentioned in the Quran, and occurs only in certain Muslim folk traditions.

  Jabir bin Abdullah Ansari: One of the Prophet’s companions during his stay in Medina.

  Jahanabad: A name for that part of the old city of Delhi which was built by Shah Jahan (r. 1627–1658).

  jalebi: A kind of curly sweet shaped like a pretzel; made of batter, it is first deep-fried, then soaked in sugar water.

  Jallianwala Bagh: A park in Amrisar, site of an episode in 1919 in which a crowd of nonviolent nationalist demonstrators trapped in a walled garden were repeatedly fired upon by soldiers under a British general, leaving hundreds dead.

  Jama Masjid: The magnificent Delhi mosque, also occasionally used for important public assemblies; it was built by Shah Jahan (r. 1627–1658).

  Janamashtami: A popular Hindu festival that celebrates the eighth day after KRISHAN’s birth.