Crowd, City, Flaneur

One of the introductory passages of Chapter 4 of ‘Basti’ describes Zakir’s feelings as he walks from Anarkali Bazaar to Mall Road. This passage successfully conveys a powerful image of the newly displaced protagonist walking through the city and attempting to familiarize himself with alien surroundings. There is a heavy sense of both loss and gain. More interesting, it is a profound reflection on the modernist idea of the ‘city’ and the urban condition. Modernism is deeply rooted in urban culture, and in this passage we can clearly discern the troubled relationship between the individual and his environment.

The very first identifiable element is the notion of the ‘crowd’. Hussain’s sentence – ‘’hajoom buhat, khareedaar ghayab’’ indicates the presence of an anonymous phenomenon devoid of any sort of personal identity. Though they occupy a considerable amount of space indicating an abundance of people, there are no real human relationships being forged as we can tell from the lack of business transactions. It is interesting to note how Zakir looks on with fascination – ‘’hairath’’ when he sees the man with the turban walking nearby. This is the only ‘individual’ that can be distinguished from the crowd but even this singular show of individuality is short-lived as several people dressed similarly walk behind him. This void of individuality is underscored by Zakir’s reflections that everyone looks new to him. He is unable to differentiate between them. This sense of newness is falsely identified by Zakir as a positive feeling – ‘’lazat mil rahi thi’’ -  though the reader may interpret him as feeling uncomfortable..a feeling that Zakir himself realises once his initial days in Pakistan come to an end.   

Another element is the idea of the ‘city’ itself – it provides the backdrop whereby genuine human relationships are limited, and to a certain extent, unattainable. Throughout his stroll, Zakir does not interact with another human being. Instead, the landscape is plagued with the products of factory-line industrialism: cars, buses, bicycles that simply pass by. Zakir himself comes across as a classic urban flaneur – he is a participant observer who occupies the curious position of both a curious insider and an anonymous outsider.