Daily Times

After 1857, British imperialist colonialism asserted itself with full vigour in the Indo-Pak subcontinent and justified its rule and power by taking control of the social institutions. For example, English literature studies were introduced, representing of the people under occupation by the colonial master began. This representation was rewound after decolonisation in the 1940s and as Ashcroft pleads, the people of the Indo-Pak subcontinent started to represent themselves by writing back to the empire.

A small body of Anglophone poetry has created a third space for itself to exist. Pakistani Anglophone poetry always makes ripples in this space, sometimes by Alamgir Hashmi and sometimes by Toufiq Rafat. Daud Kamal, Zulifkar Ghose and Shadab Zeest have modernised and revolutionised Pakistani Anglophone poetry. Moniza Alvi is one of the shining stars among these big giants with her themes of rooting and re-routing Pakistan to look for her roots and connections with Pakistan, even when she spends her time mainly in Europe. Two of her representative poems speak volumes about her roots in Pakistan and become representatives of the feelings of every Pakistani living abroad. The first is “The Country at My Shoulder,” and the other is “Presents from My Aunts in Pakistan.” The former is an ideal blend of poet’s feelings and attachment with UK and Pakistan because she was born in Pakistan and in her childhood, she went to UK and is residing there. While being a part of Pakistani diaspora, she feels burdened with the love for culture and tradition and people pf Pakistan. Therefore, she ardently pursues her views and gives them vibrant expression in her poem. According to her many people migrate from Pakistan to England and make their best attempts to survive and succeed in UK. But while doing so they never forget what they are. For example, she misses her uncles and cousins. Some of these are working very hard to provide for their families, while others are simply wasting their time. She also vigorously talks about socio-political situation of Pakistan in which some men are executed without crimes and their loved ones are left weeping and crying. Similarly, women have very tough life and often found working very hard on the fields and roads to find bread for their families. According to her Pakistan is the combination of all this and almost every Pakistani who migrates from Pakistan to other parts of the globe, constantly feels burden of this cultural heritage and wishes to keep his or her identity intact. This aspect of the poem makes it an ideal combination of mixture of cultural and politics and mentions in detail the space of the migrants and hence is a piece of Pakistani postcolonial literature.

The latter poem is even more vibrant and colourful which is more akin to the women and womanly trends in Pakistan. For example, the gifts which are sent to her by her aunts from Pakistan mainly contain colourful bangles, embroidered clothes and shawls which the poet says she attempts to display to her friends and wear them as well on certain occasion. But she equally complains that in return to these gifts her Pakistani cousins and aunts demand for costly clothing and gifts for them to be sent to Pakistan for their use. But whatever the case may be, the writer mentions Pakistani culture and its traditions which keep on surviving in her diasporic condition as well because of the affinity and attachment which the poet has with Pakistan. Throughout the poem, we can see a complete world of women, their cultural rites and traditions, their clothing, their decorations and their complaints and demands. All this combined together makes the poem a colourful depiction of the women world of Pakistan. Although the poet makes a slight attempt of segregating herself from the mainstream women of Pakistan but then as the poem proceeds, she automatically becomes part and parcel of the flock. All this combined together makes a typical Pakistani postcolonial representation. Above all the language of both poems is truly postcolonial English of Pakistan characterized by the prolific seasoning of the Pakistani idiom deployed for the sake of appropriation and negation of English language in favour of the Pakistani people and their cultural representations. The style of English language used is less that of Britain and reflects more the style and the idiom the Pakistani people use.

It is therefore right to claim that the poems by the Moniza Alvi are the typical models of Pakistani postcolonial Anglophone poetry and bent upon portraying and showcasing Pakistan to the whole of the world because the audience is not simply Pakistani English-speaking people in English but the whole globe. These poems not only represent people of Pakistan in Pakistan but also in diaspora which lends a doubly advantageous position to the Pakistani postcolonial literature. These poems when seen through this angle are the master pieces of Pakistani postcolonial writings.

The writer is a professor of English at Government Emerson University, Multan. He can be reached at zeadogar@hotmail.com and Tweets at @Profzee