Representation of Loss and Dislocated Identity in Intizar Husain's An Unwritten Epic

Abstract

Intizar Husain has gained recognized reputation as the chronicler of the after-effects of the Partition in Urdu literature in South Asia. Born in undivided India in 1925 and migrated to Pakistan in 1947, he has watched and undergone the complicated question of an unsettled homeland. Immersed in the memories of the pre-partition era, a deep sensation of loss and homesickness resonates in his fiction.  His short fiction deals with the theme of Partition and its various issues directly or indirectly. One of the most hard-hitting stories, 'An Unwritten Epic, 'expresses the multiple problems of the Partition. Portraying the inter-village conflict, communal violence, and the associated euphoria for the creation of Pakistan as the story's backdrop, Intizar Husain presents the extraordinary life and the tragic fate of a village wrestler, Pichwa, in the fictional village named Qadirpur situated somewhere in a remote district of the United Province in pre-Partition India. Pichwa is a bully renowned for his fighting skills with the club (lathi). He never leaves an opportunity to show his dominating muscle power to his opponents. The story's narrator is so captivated by Pichwa's heroic charisma that he becomes obsessed with composing an epic in prose using the creation and freedom of Pakistan as its background.  This obsession with Pichwa's heroism and the idea of an epic reflects the narrator's idealism and his desire to find meaning in the chaos of the Partition. 'An Unwritten Epic' captures the profound loss and identity crisis associated with dislocation. Uprooted from his stable and established surroundings, Pichwa is wholly lost once he reaches an unnamed town in Pakistan. His sense of identity and belongingness undergoes a tremendous change. Pichwa, who could become an epic hero, is rendered just as a symbol of victimhood and loss, with tragic ironies that follow. He is the powerful symbol of dislocation that embodies the loss of home, identity, and belongingness. He is destitute, where his old identity cannot fit in, and the new one remains elusive. The paper aims to analyze how 'An Unwritten Epic' explores the subjectivity of loss and dislocated identity as a profound consequence of the migration to Pakistan. It examines how the story covers the intricacies of social, cultural, and personal turmoil during the migration. It also scrutinizes how Intizar Husain highlights the political upheavals that uproot individuals from their native land and leave them adrift in a fragmented world.