Authors: Sashi Bhushan
Abstract: Intizar Husain is a Pakistani fiction writer of Indian origin who was shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize 2013 for Frances W. Pritchett’s English translation of his classic Urdu novel Basti. His fiction deals with the themes of Partition, its emotional and psychological scars, cultural identity and heritage, mythology and folklore, nostalgia and memory, religious tolerance and harmony, humanism and compassion, etc. He has authored five novels and seven collections of short stories. His trilogy of novels, The Chronicle, Basti, and The Sea Lies Ahead is the most significant among them. The Sea Lies Ahead is the English translation of Intizar Husain’s Urdu novel Aage Samandar Hai. This book is translated by Rakhshanda Jalil, a well-known writer, critic, and literary historian. Set against the backdrop of the Partition of the Subcontinent and its aftermath, it portrays the contemporary reality of Pakistan. The Sea Lies Ahead tells the trials and tribulations of Urdu-speaking Partition migrants in the violence-affected city of Karachi. The novel's protagonist is Jawad Hasan, a migrant who chooses to leave his Indian hometown, Vyaspur, and settle in Karachi, the city of Muhajirs. The novel explores the evolving life history of Jawad simultaneously with the historical events leading to discordant nationalism and ethnic violence in Pakistan. Jawad is portrayed as a “carder of memories” who passively witnesses the political and social decline of the city. This paper explores the representation of loss, memory and dislocated identity in The Sea Lies Ahead.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19284654
