The politics of memory in Intizar Husain's Basti

Abstract

Intizar Husain's novel Basti is about the protagonist Zakir's memory of his past which leads him to trauma. Those memories of his past come under the shadow of politics. The very politics of this memory of past is to regain the harmonious and communal childhood of pre-partition time. Those memories appear to him in fragmented way. He falls under the traumatic situation due to those frequent memories that come to him time and again. In such traumatic situation, the protagonist fails to maintain his physical, emotion and psychological sense. Husain, in this novel, uses trauma as a complex form of memory that come in fragmented way. Zakir is a survivor of the partition violence. Now he lives in Vyaspur, Pakistan with his father and mother in Khan Bahadur Uncle's home leaving his childhood sweetheart Sabirah, who lives in Rupnagar, India. His daily activities are disturbed due to those memories that come to him.