"بستی"ہندو مسلم مشترکہ تہذیب کا بیانیہ

"BASTI": A NARRATIVE OF A SHARED HINDU-MUSLIM CIVILIZATION

Abstract

Intizar Hussain’s “Basti” is a romance of the novelist in which he spent his childhood. Roopnagar, Byaspur, Lahore and Shiraz within Lahore. The novelist has divided this novel into eleven parts. Obviously, the scenes described in each part are different from each other. Despite this difference, there is a logical connection between them. Roopnagar is the paradise of the novelist.

The way time is seen from different angles in “Basti” makes this novel unique. One is the personal past, the other is the collective past and then the personal present. In the last half of the novel, the personal present and the collective past are mixed up. It turns out that the turmoil that the main character of the novel and his surroundings are facing is not new. These apocalypses are those whose roots are spread far back in history. What is tragic is that the turmoil is repetitive, meaning that one has to face it every time. But the personal past, which was full of freedom and various surprises achieved in childhood and boyhood, never returns. As age passes, the very old personal past seems brighter and more beloved, and the personal present seems meaningless, a tangle of events. Intezar Sahib has skillfully captured these conditions in the village. The narrative of a shared Hindu-Muslim civilization in the novel “Basti” is expressed in this paper.