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Basti Notes Chapter 5-6: Militancy Which I Had Attached in The Previous Mail

The document summarizes chapters 5-6 of the novel Basti by Intizar Husain. It discusses the ideological rift between friends during the India-Pakistan war of 1965. It also examines the characters of Afzal and Salamat and their views on nationalism. Chapter 6 describes a letter from Surendar to Zakir about their homeland. It analyzes themes of Muslim graves, memories of history in India, and the symbolism of a key representing access to one's past. The summary punctuates the narrative of war with references to love and humor.

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Saloni Srivastava
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222 views2 pages

Basti Notes Chapter 5-6: Militancy Which I Had Attached in The Previous Mail

The document summarizes chapters 5-6 of the novel Basti by Intizar Husain. It discusses the ideological rift between friends during the India-Pakistan war of 1965. It also examines the characters of Afzal and Salamat and their views on nationalism. Chapter 6 describes a letter from Surendar to Zakir about their homeland. It analyzes themes of Muslim graves, memories of history in India, and the symbolism of a key representing access to one's past. The summary punctuates the narrative of war with references to love and humor.

Uploaded by

Saloni Srivastava
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Basti

Notes Chapter 5-6

Chapter 5
• Begins with the crisis of 1965 – The war between India and Pakistan Page 121 “Crush
India”. See Ravi Kalia’s Pakistan: From the rhetoric of democracy to the rise of
militancy which I had attached in the previous mail.

• Ideological rift between the friends – the character of Salamat is important in this context
as he is representative of the extremist ideology in the discourse of war: the self claimed
fanatic revolutionary “Salamat rolled up his sleeves . . . I will survive – I, the revolution!”
However, the narrative doesn’t provide any critical commentary on it; nor does it
disparages such motives. Husain’s treatment of such subjects is more rational as he
attempts to paint a panoramic picture of society in times of crisis. The sole concern of
Husain’s narratives is to probe deep into the psychology of his characters and etch out the
effects of the external world (with its wars and political strife) on the mind of the human
subject.

• Afzal as the architect of Pakistan: he is driven by his impulse to safeguard the lost
essence of Pakistan as a nation – See page 126 “Pakistan is a trust. You must become my
arms. I’ll safeguard the trust . . .” Also, see Chapter 8 page 204-205 “Yar, in Pakistan the
flowers have been growing fewer, that’s why people have been growing uglier . . . I
thought I ought to save those bastard’s faces from growing distorted . . .”

• Discursivising the self - a long interior monologue by Zakir on the problems of self
caught in an ever changing world. See page 132 “I never used to walk like this . . .”

Chapter 6

• Letter from Surendar to Zakir, from India – A similar trope of letter writing as a tool of
storytelling is used in Husain’s story ‘A letter from India’. Do read it. For, Surendar’s
letter here is an echo of some similar themes that Husain deals with in his short story.

• Islam and the importance of the grave. Page 139 “I realized what great poer the grave
has in Muslim’s culture.” See Leor Halevi’s Muhammad’s Grave: Death rites and the
making of Islamic Society. Also, refer to Abba Jan’s orthodox views against the use of
drums in processions and the Majlis in page 33 of Basti. See Halevi, Chapter 5
‘Against Pomp in Processions’ page 149

• Sabirah as the last memory of the history of Muslims in India. See page 141 “First your
conquerors came . . . and after them your Sabirah. She is the last thread that holds the
ties between the two religions together: her refusal to leave India is a comment on this.
Also, the reference to Iqbal’s ‘Shikwa’ (The Complaint) essentialises this point.

• Commentary on the politics of space – Page 142-144 “the same town becomes more
meaningful than before for one of its inhabitants . . .”

• The trope of the key and the storeroom: the idea of the storeroom which is a repository
of one’s history: memories. The key symbolizes the possibility of access to one’s past
from which one has been uprooted. See page 147-148 “When you asked about the key
to the storeroom . . . and your mother’s chest and the Quran-stand”

The symbol of the key will reappear later in the novel.

• The parallel events of war and love: Irfan’s exchange with Zakir is important to note
here – Husain punctures the narrative of a possible reunion between Zakir and Sabirah
by bringing the narrative back within the fold of reality: war and violence. See page
152 “Are they Indian Planes?/ Yes, from India, like the love letter you received
today.” Irfan’s flair for subtle humor in his conversations shed light on his character in
the novel - The rhetorician who navigates the world through words.

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