Imperialism and Exile

Nazir Ahmed’s “ibn ul-Vaqt” is embedded in the inextricable tie between exile and imperialism and the irreversibility of the condition of alienation and isolation that it creates. It highlights a state of exile not only produced by the colonizer but lends great importance to that which is rooted in one’s own transgressions, in this case the internal crisis being faced by ibn ul-Vaqt in clinging on to his roots whilst attempting to learn from the ‘foreigner’ and in doing so constituting to a sort of self proclaimed exile without even being fully aware of it. Ibn ul-Vaqt becomes the voice of the displaced Muslim in the subcontinent who must accept the loss of identity while seeking refuge in one rooted in the rigidity of religion.

 Conflicted between antagonism of foreign ways and adhering to the loss of self Ibn ul-Vaqt poses a satire on the conditions of India and the sea of souls that lingered on to mere factions of what it meant to have an identity and what that identity was. The fact remained that whether the Indians were adamant on expelling the British rulers or accepting their ways, the sense of estrangement they felt would only grow stronger and imperialism would change more than the geography of the subcontinent and be responsible for separations that never existed earlier. Just by establishing Ibn ul-Vaqt as a man who “adopted the English lifestyle when even to learn English was considered blasphemy”, Nazir Ahmed prepares the readers for a story of conflict extended beyond the physical realm and the journey of a young man amidst the fickleness of the idea of belonging.

It sheds light on the exilic experience as a result of nationalism created through imperialism, in this case the rise of a Hindu nationalism that led to the realization of homelessness in the physical and metaphysical sense on the part of the Muslims. Nazir Ahmed words mirror the view that the British attempt at enculturation would only lead to a de-culturation of the Indian people, only emphasizing the disparity that existed between them. It was the conditions of the colonized subcontinent that gave birth to “undocumented” or faceless people that Edward Said speaks of. And perhaps the very efforts to accept British values was what drove the Indians into a state of suspension between what was familiar to the them and what they must familiarize themselves with. Hence, Ibn ul-Vaqt is a testament to the fact that borders were created long before partition in 1947, and that the wounds of a war that the individual was fighting within oneself would be difficult to recover from.