cultural alienation

Zakir’s little stroll on mall road shows his alienation to the people already living in pakistan. Thinking about partition we often discard the cultural differences between different areas of united India at least I didn’t think about the problems of migrants related to cultural differences but Intezar Husain does not seem to miss anything. I hope the following lines from the novel will illustrate my point better this is when Zakir is on Mall road right after the partition.

“wo wahan se nikal ker barri sarrak per aya. Maal road taangay cyclain ki koi car waqfay waqfay se guzarti hui ika duka bus. Aik daraaz qaamat shakhs chorri chakli kaathi, sarr per tirray wali pagrri taangon men barri ghairr wali shalwarr lambay dagg bharta ess k baraber se guzerta. Ess ne hairat se esay dekha. Phirr kitnay he ess qadd kaath walay aisa libas pehnay esay apnay aas pas chaltay phirtay nazar aye” ch. 4 pg.89

What we can see from this passage is that change in place is not the only thing important in the issue of displacement. The migrants also had to face the challenge of settling among a whole new kind of people. Here zakir is only hairat zada to see the attire and physique of the men but we can think about an unending list of things that must have gained the attention of migrants for example language and food.  The idea of moving people from different cultural backgrounds to new place with another kind of culture and language looks ridiculous and religion does not seem to be of any help in this matter.