The Diaspora Zeroes in on the Borders

Abstract

This essay turns to the concerns of many Pakistani and Afghan writers, who live abroad but in their ‘writing’ of home, increasingly focus on the border zone between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The border zone is both an escape route and a concentration of fundamental forces; it is also a convenient entry point for foreign powers. It is one area which, with its history of violence, is also attractive to the young in search of adventure. Kamila Shamsie in Burnt Shadows, Khalid Hosseini in both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Nadeem Aslam in The Blind’s Man Garden and Fatima Bhutto in The Shadow of the Crescent Moon, all are concerned with the border area and its mixed environment of prayer and violence, along with all the uncertainties that violence creates. Why has the idea of home come to concentrate itself on the frontier? The diaspora’s concern reflects a distant view but, at times, is more perceptive than the stay-at-home writer, for it reflects the country’s vulnerability to outside interests. It is here that the presence of both the CIA and the Taliban is seen together. This essay looks at the generation split in their rejection or attraction towards this area defining it as an opportunity, an escape or a danger. There is a constant play of hope and fear. Even as it reflects political concern, it shrinks the land to its borders, despite the fact that multiple histories and several time scales are reflected.