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Sleepwalkers
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240 pages, Paperback
Published August 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 15, 2020
Conflicts in the Post-Migration Period
While reading the novel, I was fascinated by the character of Ishq Mirza. It seemed he was based on the writer himself. After finishing the book, I searched for more information about Joginder Paul, but couldn't find much other than this excerpt from the PhD dissertation of Amrita Ghosh,
https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Ghosh's lucid but scholarly work explains how the characters of this novel subverts the linear narrative of the nation-state, by using Foucauldian concept of "Heterotopia", among other theories on hyperreality.
The novel revolves around the conflict of identity, space and language between the migrants and the local communities. This conflict is present not only on the physical level but also on the psychological level. To further complicate the matter, this conflict is also present between the successive generations of the migrants.
In the novel, Joginder Paul has presented three generations of the migrants. Molvi Dewana represents the first generation. Regardless of physically migrating to Karachi, mentally he is still present in Lucknow. So, he and his compatriots have invented a Lucknow within Karachi. They are living in the third space, outside the boundaries of the nation-state.
The second generation gets its representation from the character of Ishaq Mirza, the second son of Dewana Molvi. He is a link between the old guard and the new generation. He has accepted the partition but wants to move forward while having good relations with the neighbouring countries especially India. He is not living on the margins but wants to play a positive role by becoming a part of the development taking place around him.
The third generation is represented by Dewana Molvi's granddaughter, Shahzadi. She doesn't think she has anything to do with India. She even doesn't want to visit Delhi with her husband. She shows how the feelings of closeness are gone just after a generation. Dewana Molvi isn't ready to move out of Lucknow, even after migration but his granddaughter doesn't want to visit the same place.
This article of Rakhshanda Jalil gives a brief introduction to the life and works of Joginder Paul,
https://scroll.in/article/807440/jogi...
While reading the novel, I was fascinated by the character of Ishq Mirza. It seemed he was based on the writer himself. After finishing the book, I searched for more information about Joginder Paul, but couldn't find much other than this excerpt from the PhD dissertation of Amrita Ghosh,
https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Ghosh's lucid but scholarly work explains how the characters of this novel subverts the linear narrative of the nation-state, by using Foucauldian concept of "Heterotopia", among other theories on hyperreality.
The novel revolves around the conflict of identity, space and language between the migrants and the local communities. This conflict is present not only on the physical level but also on the psychological level. To further complicate the matter, this conflict is also present between the successive generations of the migrants.
In the novel, Joginder Paul has presented three generations of the migrants. Molvi Dewana represents the first generation. Regardless of physically migrating to Karachi, mentally he is still present in Lucknow. So, he and his compatriots have invented a Lucknow within Karachi. They are living in the third space, outside the boundaries of the nation-state.
The second generation gets its representation from the character of Ishaq Mirza, the second son of Dewana Molvi. He is a link between the old guard and the new generation. He has accepted the partition but wants to move forward while having good relations with the neighbouring countries especially India. He is not living on the margins but wants to play a positive role by becoming a part of the development taking place around him.
The third generation is represented by Dewana Molvi's granddaughter, Shahzadi. She doesn't think she has anything to do with India. She even doesn't want to visit Delhi with her husband. She shows how the feelings of closeness are gone just after a generation. Dewana Molvi isn't ready to move out of Lucknow, even after migration but his granddaughter doesn't want to visit the same place.
This article of Rakhshanda Jalil gives a brief introduction to the life and works of Joginder Paul,
https://scroll.in/article/807440/jogi...
April 27, 2021
Sleepwalkers, Joginder Paul
There is something poetic in the way individuals hold onto their past as if the acts of remembrance can be put in quotation marks, suspended in a space that is different from the present. Here, the clockwork of regular days attains no meaning; life, in this case, dictates the flow of time that hangs like apparitions in the face of changing nights. Is it a blessing to live life in this manner? Ask Joginder Paul’s Deewane Maulvi Sahab, whose past in Lucknow is in the present of Karachi - two cities interspersing in the imaginative longing for home. But where is this home? Is it in Lucknow that the Mohajirs/migrants left behind? Or is it in Karachi, Pakistan, where they have migrated to? Home is where Deewane Maulvi Sahab resides, and he resides in his Lucknow, a city transplanted from India to Pakistan with all its sight, smell and sound.
Joginder Paul’s ‘Sleepwalkers’ is a tale of two cities and shifting locales, of migration and cultural difference. It is the story of the precarious lives that Mohajirs in Pakistan live who refuse to disrobe the Lukhnavi culture, and yet they look to build a home in the city of Karachi. However, their idea of home is different from that of the original inhabitants, resulting in a distinction between them. No wonder Nawab Mirza’s wife is afraid that her husband must pass through ‘a Pakistan corridor’ every day on his way to and from work. ‘Sleepwalkers’ is also the story of Deewane Maulvi Sahab, whose madness keeps him rooted to Lucknow though he, at present, lives in Karachi. There is a method in Maulvi Sahab’s madness. He is a Deewane - a crazy fellow - and, at the same time, he is a romantic at heart. His unconditional romanticism for Lucknow is in sharp contrast to his youngest son’s association with Karachi. Unlike his father, Deewane Maulvi Sahab, and his elder brother, Nawab Sabah, Ishaq Mirza refuses to mourn for a past that is irrevocably lost. He puts forward the question, ‘For how long shall we remain Mohajirs?’, believing that to breathe freely, one has to embrace the culture of the ‘natives.’
It is easy to create differences but equally difficult to bridge them. Deewane Maulvi Sahab knows it all too well as he loses his Achhi Begum, Nawab Beta, Chand Bahu and granddaughter Suraiya in a politically motivated attack on his home. Is it enough to stop his romanticism for Lucknow? No. Deewane Maulvi Sahab refashions his madness, and, in all probability, Manwa Chowkidar keeps seeing the Muhajirs, re-creating Lucknow’s Ameenabad in Karachi every night. After all, Lucknow is in Karachi.
There is something poetic in the way individuals hold onto their past as if the acts of remembrance can be put in quotation marks, suspended in a space that is different from the present. Here, the clockwork of regular days attains no meaning; life, in this case, dictates the flow of time that hangs like apparitions in the face of changing nights. Is it a blessing to live life in this manner? Ask Joginder Paul’s Deewane Maulvi Sahab, whose past in Lucknow is in the present of Karachi - two cities interspersing in the imaginative longing for home. But where is this home? Is it in Lucknow that the Mohajirs/migrants left behind? Or is it in Karachi, Pakistan, where they have migrated to? Home is where Deewane Maulvi Sahab resides, and he resides in his Lucknow, a city transplanted from India to Pakistan with all its sight, smell and sound.
Joginder Paul’s ‘Sleepwalkers’ is a tale of two cities and shifting locales, of migration and cultural difference. It is the story of the precarious lives that Mohajirs in Pakistan live who refuse to disrobe the Lukhnavi culture, and yet they look to build a home in the city of Karachi. However, their idea of home is different from that of the original inhabitants, resulting in a distinction between them. No wonder Nawab Mirza’s wife is afraid that her husband must pass through ‘a Pakistan corridor’ every day on his way to and from work. ‘Sleepwalkers’ is also the story of Deewane Maulvi Sahab, whose madness keeps him rooted to Lucknow though he, at present, lives in Karachi. There is a method in Maulvi Sahab’s madness. He is a Deewane - a crazy fellow - and, at the same time, he is a romantic at heart. His unconditional romanticism for Lucknow is in sharp contrast to his youngest son’s association with Karachi. Unlike his father, Deewane Maulvi Sahab, and his elder brother, Nawab Sabah, Ishaq Mirza refuses to mourn for a past that is irrevocably lost. He puts forward the question, ‘For how long shall we remain Mohajirs?’, believing that to breathe freely, one has to embrace the culture of the ‘natives.’
It is easy to create differences but equally difficult to bridge them. Deewane Maulvi Sahab knows it all too well as he loses his Achhi Begum, Nawab Beta, Chand Bahu and granddaughter Suraiya in a politically motivated attack on his home. Is it enough to stop his romanticism for Lucknow? No. Deewane Maulvi Sahab refashions his madness, and, in all probability, Manwa Chowkidar keeps seeing the Muhajirs, re-creating Lucknow’s Ameenabad in Karachi every night. After all, Lucknow is in Karachi.
December 19, 2014
This book gives details of the how the Muslims of Lucknow who migrated to Karachi replicated a Lucknow there and lived a life of illusion. The book revolves around one family where the patriarch lives believing that he is still in Lucknow. He continues to try and locate the places he used to visit when he was in Lucknow. His wife lets him be that way as she is afraid that if he is cured of his illusion he will really lose his sanity. This way the rest of his life is happening without any incident.
The book highlights how these immigrants were disliked by the locals, both the Sindhis and the Punjabis and how there were clashes, involving bombs too, between the two groups.
The book gives a brief insight of how in politically triggered migrations the families suffer.
The book highlights how these immigrants were disliked by the locals, both the Sindhis and the Punjabis and how there were clashes, involving bombs too, between the two groups.
The book gives a brief insight of how in politically triggered migrations the families suffer.
to-read-actual
October 21, 2024Pub 2001
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews