Bismillah - The most homeless.

Amidst the post-partition questions of resolving identity and national consolidation, there is Bismillah – a misplaced figure that appears to be belonging to the national discourse. However, she’s the most secular/homeless figure we've studied throughout the course.

Firstly, and quite simply, she’s homeless because she’s supposed to be in India, which is the actual home for all Hindus. As we've seen, for instance in Garam Hawa, the Sharif Muslim family feels deprived of the right social experience and constricted in terms of economic opportunity in India. Being a Hindu in Pakistan, Bismillah is under the same isolation because she was not able to successfully migrate to India and got left behind. And while she may not be expressing this dissatisfaction with life, one can notice it in her behavior.  Her “Udaas ankhien” and “khamoshi” throughout the story speak volumes of how lonely and displaced she feels.

Secondly, her homelessness is further complicated because on the surface she seems to be perfectly assimilated in the national discourse. That’s because her identity has been falsified for her. She’s made to be a Muslim (named Bismillah; how convenient), wifed by someone, and is even assigned an acting profession. But essentially she’s a Hindu prostitute stuck in Pakistan.

Said says that culture is “used to designate not merely something to which one belongs but something that one possesses.”

Clearly Bismillah does not belong in Pakistan. She’s a Hindu and does not have a true home or family here. But the important point is that she does “seem” to possess the features of being a Pakistani. This culture appropriation is forced upon her. She’s faking or putting up an act of perfectly belonging to an outside culture (something that a lot of us witness left and right, but). The only other character that comes close to this is Meena of Bol but her act of being a traditional courtesan seems more of a fascination to make up for certain insufficiency in her life. Bismillah is acting for survival.