Nationhood, or the lack thereof, in Postcolonial Fiction

by Ayesha Mirza

Q. In 2015, lobbyists from across the Pakistani diaspora invite you to write a manifesto on their behalf. What does it declare?

A. It declares nations are illusions constructed to perpetuate discrimination. Passports are the new apartheid. Let's open borders and open minds. Subtitle: Humans are Pakistanis.

Thus maintained Mohsin Hamid during an interview with The Daily Dawn. A contemporary Pakistani author, his views are way different from those of the first wave Postcolonial authors. The post World War II era is marked with a conglomeration of heterogeneous groups under a variety of banners throughout the colonized world. Thus Pan-Africanism fought against colonial suppressers in the name of nationhood of the entire Africa. On the other hand, Muslims of the Indian sub-continent coined a term ‘Muslim Nationhood’ which not only gave a new meaning to the word ‘nation’, but also created a new ‘nation state’ that claimed to provide refuge to a Muslim populace from British oppression, and prospective Indian aggression. The word ‘nation’ thus became rampant in the wake of anti-colonial sentiments. The idea of nationhood, thus, is deeply ingrained in the postcolonial writings, be it a vehement assertion of nationhood, a rejection of it, or its overpowering presence in the form of total absence. Hence, while Achebe and Ngugi wrote narratives based on resistance and nationalist movements, the texts of Khashwant Singh, Suleri, and Saadawi question the idea of nationhood, and Mohsin Hamid out rightly denounces it in favour of globalization. This essay seeks to explore the way issues of nationhood have been raised, criticized or evaded by various authors.

One of the strongest representations of nationhood can be located in Ngugi’s A Grain of Wheat. Located in the context of Uhuru celebration, this novel at once depicts the hopes as well as the fears of a newly born nation on the Independence Day. The symbolic character of Kihika represents the dreamer who imagines a nation. The character of Mugo stands for the person who becomes aware of the starkness of colonial project only after Thompson spits in his face. His becoming a cherished hero despite being a traitor symbolizes the myths that lie at the base of a nation. The power relationship between Lt. Koina and General R depicts the fact that despite their fighting free of the British rule, the Kenyan nation will continue to have a subaltern class who is dominated by a colonizer. But this time the colonizer would be the native bourgeoisie. Karanja is a mimic man who is “heavy with the sense of imminent betrayal” as the white man prepares for his departure from Kenya. His assault on the allegorical character of Mumbi and the resultant child signify that the new-born nation will encompass both; the freedom fighters as well as the collaborators in the colonial project. The child is ill at the Day of Independence. The new-born nation too is not free of ill. Yet the prospective reunion of Mumbi and Gikonyo, and Gikonyo conceiving of a woman “big with child” symbolizes hope and potential of Kenya. Ngugi, thus, is critical of the nationalist project. However, he doesn’t reject it. Instead, his narrative accepts the independence with all its goodness and evil. He deploys various techniques to assert this identity. For instance, his narrative is sketched in the setting of both, rural and urban Kenya. The emphasis on location and locality along with a depiction of local ways of life are ways to assert one’s national identity. Thus Ngugi is critical of the tall claims of its leaders while being acutely aware of the far from perfect future of postcolonial Kenya. In short, trauma, hope and pride contribute in the making of A Grain of Wheat.

Similarly, Chinua Achebe in his Things Fall Apart makes excessive use of local locations, traditions, names and nomenclature in an attempt to define his nation through rejection of colonial past by retrieving a pre-colonial past. The protagonist, Okonkwo, is essentially nostalgic of that past which was lost to the colonial masters. The resistance he offers at the colonizer’s efforts to colonize him is symbolic of the African resistance movements. However, the strong differences between the clans represent the idea that as long as people are divided into tribes a nation cannot be born.

Buchi Emecheta, on the other hand, writes from the standpoint of a domestic woman. Nnu Ego’s life is too engulfed in the worries of home and hearth that just like all the women of her class she is oblivious of their nation’s exploitation by its colonial masters. However, she laments the changes that the white man has brought about in the society. She first resents them, and then readily adapts to survive in the colonial setting. Unlike the male writers from Africa, Emecheta presents an Africa that cannot be a nation without its woman playing her part. Woman is at one and the same time the central figure in nation building, and an element that doesn’t allow the making of a nation into a unified whole. Thus, while Nnu Ego meticulously brings her children up with a hope that they live with her; her skirmishes with her neighbor symbolize the differences and fights between various tribes and clans of Africa that keep it from becoming a unified nation.               

While African authors on the whole accept nationhood with all its odds, writers from the subcontinent criticize the idea of nation vehemently. Whether it is the bloodshed at the time of partition of India that makes them critical of national life, or the post-partition corruption; their stance is clear. They find nationhood more of a process of subalternization of minorities by the ruling bourgeoisie, and less af a means to liberate the common man. Khushwant Singh in his Train to Pakistan creates an imaginary border village Manomajra to highlight the rupture and turmoil that the enactment of two-nation theory brought about within the society. In displaying the Hindu, Muslim and Sikh groups living in harmony in a single setting Singh projects the shallowness of the idea of nationhood itself. Just through one cartographical change on the pages of policymakers the communal unity was slaughtered and split in two. The common man is least enthusiastic, and yet the most affected by the dawn of nationhood. Hence, Juggat Singh surrenders his life while saving another refugee train from turning into a ghost train. Iqbal Singh, the social worker, lands in jail because of his suspicious name, and the Muslims of Manomajra risk their lives to seek abode in a new country.

Mohsin Hamid criticizes nationhood from the socialist standpoint. He conveys the wide class division that keeps Pakistan from becoming a nation through a stark incident. A child gets crushed by Aurangzeb’s four-wheeler. But Aurangzeb, a rich man’s son, doesn’t go to jail. Instead, the only witness of the accident, Daru- a middle-class jobless banker- bears the brunt of the situation, faces a trial, and gets capital punishment. Hamid thus highlights the impenetrable segregation of the society that makes the dreams of founding fathers to bind the Pakistanis into one ‘Muslim Nation’ crumble. He goes on to thrash the cartography that had gone awry. Mumtaz Kashmiri, as the name suggests, is not only a reenactment of the queen for whom the celebrated Taj Mahal was erected. It signifies the territory of Kashmir that is yet to decide whether she wants to be called a Pakistani or an Indian. The resultant feud between the two allegorical “brothers” tells us how bloodthirsty and indiscriminate in killing is the quest for nationhood. The quote in the beginning of this essay categorically states his preference for globalization as opposed to passport bearing people divided into various nationalities, discriminating as well as discriminated against.

Sara Suleri in her Meatless Days goes a step further by thrashing her father for his obsession with the ‘Muslim Nationhood’ and at the same time creating a subaltern class right inside his home. Pips; by colonizing a white wife in the effort to maintain his relationship with the white man intact, and later, not allowing his daughters to have their will; symbolizes the two-facedness of the middle-class bourgeoisie that replaced the colonizing masters.  A hybrid Indian and voracious consumer of British culture, he was thoroughly enthralled by the hybrid personality of the Quaid and yet he failed to allow his household to be a nation. Ironically, he was ‘the lone Pakistani correspondent in Britain- “Pakistani” before Pakistan’. Thus befell on him the duty of defending an imagination that became a reality in 1947. Suleri is quick to point out that the Fall of Decca was disheveling for Papa not because of bloodshed and displacements, he mourned the death of Two-Nation Theory. Suleri also maintains that he was an eater of history. Just like the colonizing Brits, he too ate up history of the people of Pakistan in order to bring to life the idea of ‘nation’.  However, Sara Suleri too doesn’t feel the need to retrieve the pre-colonial history in order to establish her national identity since that cannot fit into the post-colonial context. She simply questions the idea of nationhood, and the Independence Movement.

Concisely, the post- World War II era witnessed the birth of a number of big and small nations. The authors hailing from these countries display an assortment of feelings regarding this slicing of the world. Hope and fear, fulfillment and disappointment, acceptance and rejection; all go hand in hand in the post-colonial Discourse. Furthermore, various authors use various techniques in their efforts to assert, question or reject the idea of nationhood. Moreover, ‘Nationhood’ is essentially a human construct which various leaders and authors imagined and represented in accordance with their respective settings. The post-colonial theory unravels the variety of modes used to fit their ulterior purposes.

Citation: MLA: Mirza, Ayesha. "Nationhood, or the Lack Thereof, in Postcolonial Fiction". Literary Theory in Practice, October 21, 2011. Web. Date of Access. <http://ayesha-mirza.blogspot.com/2011/10/nationhood-or-lack-thereof-in.html>.
APA: Mirza, Ayesha. "Nationhood, or the Lack Thereof, in Postcolonial Fiction". http://ayesha-mirza.blogspot.com/. 21 Oct. 2011. Date of Access. <http://ayesha-mirza.blogspot.com/2011/10/nationhood-or-lack-thereof-in.html>